Kid’s songs are a wonderful resource to help you learn Japanese better. They are often overlooked because… well, they are a bit silly, but I think they are worth a second look. I’m going to cover a bit of theory here (I promise not too much), and then look at 6 kid’s songs you might use in your studies.

The How

Now I can see you scratching your heads. How can stupid kid’s songs help me learn Japanese? Right? Hold that thought. Let me ask you a question: Can you remember any of the children’s songs you learned when you were a kid? I’m guessing yes.

The basic problems with learning Japanese are pretty well known at this point. If you are a regular Tofugu reader, you probably know many of them. Two of the biggest ones, I think, are that we make our study too hard and we don’t have fun. These are actually two parts of the same problem.

The effects of these two problems are so common they almost go without saying: 1) loss of motivation and 2) burn-out. Kid’s songs help combat this by adding a bit of fun back into your study routine, and also by secretly working on your listening, recognition and (if you are brave and sing out loud with them) your pronunciation and speaking.

How’s that work, huh? Have you heard of a fella by the name of Alexander Arguelles. He’s a professor of languages, a polyglot who can speak some 30+ languages to varying levels of mastery (including some Japanese) . His primary method for learning is the shadow method. I’m sure you all have heard of this, right? This is where someone says something and we attempt to repeat it back at nearly the same moment, maybe only a second or two behind. Now the shadow method is common enough in language learning these days, but he recommends starting with a very strict version of it where all you do is shadow. No looking at text (reading), no looking at the translation to figure out what you are saying, just shadowing.

Crazy you say? How will I know what I’m saying/learning? That’s the point. By only shadowing you are narrowing your learning focus to just a couple things: listening, that is focusing on the actual sounds, and speaking. Interestingly, these are often the hardest areas for language learners to master. You can memorize as many words/sentences, as much grammar as you want, but if you have trouble understanding when someone talks to you or if you have trouble finding the right words when you speak, all that knowledge is for waste.

(If you want to know more about Prof Arguelles and his theories, start with this video on youtube, where he discusses his shadowing approach)

Still awake? Apologizes for all that boring theory. I think it’s useful to consider this stuff. At any rate, on to the list of songs. Most or all of these are very well known by the Japanese, so you will be sure to pleasantly surprise people if you manage to memorize any.

6 great Japanese kid’s songs

First, Mary had a little lamb.

This is about as easy as you are going to get. Unfortunately, the video has English in it. Remember, at this point we really aren’t concerned with what the Japanese actually means. Concentrate on the sounds, both hearing them and reproducing them as best you can.

The acorn song!

This is a fun song. Can you clearly understand the kids’ singing? Listen a few times before you try to shadow it.

Pushing the difficulty up a little, here is The Dog Policeman.

This one is one of those everyone loves. I hear kids singing it all the time in the stores. The video is funny, too. The kana is on the video, but remember, we are working our listening not reading. Try to use your ears to figure out what sounds they are making.

Both the songs from My Neighbor Totoro are fun and easy to learn. Here’s a video with both of them.

As an added bonus, the kids in this video are adorable.

Ah, the Taikaki Song. This song is long and a little challenging, but he sings slowly and you should be able to follow along after a few trys. Unfortunately the one I want to embed here has embedding disabled. Go watch that version at youtube for some animation that will help you understand the song. Here’s another version with the guy who sings it. Awesome hair!

Do you know what Taiyaki is? It’s kind of a hotcake with anko inside in the shape of a fish. This is quite an old song, but mention it or hum a few bars and you’ll bring a smile to the face of anyone over 30 .

Finally, the Japanese dub of one we probably all know. Challenge yourself and learn this version.

Want more?

Follow any of these videos to youtube and you should find a great many video links to other kid’s songs. Find some you like and learn them. You’ll enjoy yourself and it really will help your Japanese.

This post was written by Dave of JapanDave.com who Tweets and has a great newsletter full of amazing pictures of Japan.

If you’re learning Japanese, consider using eduFire to get live online lessons!

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I get all kinds of weird questions in my e-mail inbox. Sometimes they’re creepy, sometimes they’re hilarious, sometimes they’re interesting, and sometimes they’re a part of a pattern. This is one of those patterns. A few times a month I’ll get the following question:

What is the best Japanese Language electronic dictionary?

Once I get the same question too many times, there’s a good likelihood that I’ll just write the answer via a post here, which is exactly what’ I’m doing. So, what is the best Japanese Language electronic dictionary out there? Let’s find out.

The Best Japanese Language Electronic Dictionary Is… Not a Japanese Language Electronic Dictionary…

Guh-what? You’d think that if you were in the market to buy an electronic dictionary you’d buy an electronic dictionary… at least in the “traditional” sense. You can see pictures of them above. Now, for sure, they do the things they’re supposed to do, but that’s about it. If you buy one, you probably won’t be disappointed on this front. You’ll be able to look up words, see sentences, and in some hear audio. Not too shabby.

For me, though, I don’t feel like that’s enough, at least not in this day and age. Even though these do exactly what you want them to do, I don’t think they’re the best tool for the job. Here’s why:

• They’re big (though the big screen could be considered a plus)
• They’re bulky, try putting one of the regular sized ones in your pocket
• They aren’t versatile
• They’re expensive (approximately $200-$400+)

By now, I bet you’ve already guessed the “electronic dictionary” that I’d recommend.

Get An iPod Touch / iPhone Instead Of a Japanese Electronic Dictionary

Instead of a Japanese language electronic dictionary, I highly recommend you get an iPhone or iPod Touch. I think it’s an easy decision, but that’s also because I’m an Apple fanboy. Still, I think anyone will see the logic here.

• An iPod Touch comes in at $179 (if you buy it at Costco) or $199 from the Apple store. This is the same price as the lower end models of the Japanese electronic dictionaries, but you get so much more.
• You can download a dictionary application to your iPhone or iPod Touch. My favorite is “Japanese” because everything is stored locally (i.e. no need for an internet connection to look things up). This app is $16, which is pretty expensive for an iPhone app, but well worth it if you were planning on putting down $200-$400+ on an electronic dictionary. Update: A lot of people seem to like “Kotoba” as well. I haven’t tried it, but it seems to be highly recommended (and free!)
• There are tons of other Japanese language learning related applications in the iTunes store as well. There are so many different things you can get (and who knows what will come out in the future), making it an awesome (mobile) platform for practicing your Japanese.
• You can download Japanese Podcasts to your iPod / iPhone, and listen to them for continued practice while you’re driving, sitting around, at work, at school, etc.
• You can do other things with it, so you aren’t just pinned down to using it to study Japanese (you know, all the things an iPod Touch / iPhone are supposed to do, right?).

So, basically it’s better, more mobile, has apps, and costs less. What is there not to like? Granted, regular Japanese electronic dictionaries have their perks, too, I’m sure, but I personally don’t see the purpose of getting one when you could do this instead.

If that didn’t convince you, watch this video, which just says the same things you just read all over again.

Anyone else doing the same thing? Any angry Japanese electronic dictionary users out there? Let me know in the comments what you think.

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I’m working on an article about studying Japanese using Japanese blogs, but need your help! I’m going through and categorizing Japanese blogs to figure out what blogs are good for what kind of study. I’m also looking for video blogs, if you know of any.

What I’m looking for is your suggestions / your favorite Japanese blogs (in Japanese) that people could potentially use for intermediate / advanced study. It doesn’t really matter what the subject is, how big / small the blog is… really the most important thing, I think, is that the content could be considered interesting (thus making studying it interesting as well).

So, whether it’s cat eater Shoko Nakagawa or Gigazine, let me know what you like. Video bloggers, as mentioned earlier, totally work as well (in fact, that would be awesome, because I don’t know as much about that area of things).

Then, thanks to your help, I’ll go through and figure out the best ones for use in studying Japanese, and it should be pretty awesome.

Tell me your faves in the comments section below!

Yee, haw.

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The other day I got an e-mail from Skritter. They’re a pretty rag-tag bunch, but I like that. Skritter lets you practice writing kanji using various flash card sets (either Skritter made, community made, or you-made). Sure, you could do all this with your hands, but here’s what makes Skritter interesting.

Writing / Drawing Your Kanji Into Skritter

Let’s start with both the best and worst part about Skritter. You can draw kanji into the kanji area (it’ll ask you to write a kanji, and you write it) which is totally awesome… if you have a tablet. Now, Skritter seems to know this and they recommend some fairly affordable tablets that you can purchase to use with their service, but in my opinion you’re only getting around 25% of the potential benefit if you use your mouse to write stuff in. Take a look at how things are done:

I was using my mouse (you can tell by how sloppy it is), though I imagine that if I pulled out my tablet It would be a much better experience. Using a mouse wasn’t bad per se, but it could have been better. Using a tablet will allow you to write faster, practice writing kanji the way you’d actually write kanji, and probably learn a lot more effectively. There’s just something weird about using a mouse, though it still works.

Practicing Stroke Order

If you watch the video above, you’ll see that I mess up the stroke order on 月 (whoops!). It took me a while to realize this, but Skritter actually keeps track of your stroke order accuracy as well. Here I thought I was pretty good at stroke order, but it turns out I’m kind of so-so, especially with more complicated kanji. Skritter’s a great tool for learning and practicing stroke order.

This is probably my favorite feature of Skritter right here – it’s something you can’t really get immediate feedback on when you’re writing with a pencil and paper.

For those of you who are beginners of kanji, you can also see the outline of the kanji as well (if you want). This is great for people just learning a kanji who need a little help, though it gives you as much (or as little) help as you need, when you need it. I’d recommend turning everything off, it’ll help you build your brain power up.

Vocab Learning

Skritter’s more about learning the vocab surrounding various kanji / words, which I think is great. That’s the more useful part, anyways, depending on what your goals are, and Skritter has a lot to learn from, including lists that come from various Japanese textbooks (Though TextFugu subscribers will have to wait – no TextFugu list yet).

On top of that, there are some user generated lists, Skritter lists, and lists you can make yourself. This isn’t a bad way to practice vocabulary at all. Where Smart.fm is great for being able to read vocab and kanji, Skritter is great for being able to write those same words. Although similar, I’d say they compliment each other very nicely.

All in all, Skritter’s a neat little tool. I’d definitely recommend you get a tablet if you’re going to use Skritter, though, otherwise you’re missing out. They have a two week free trial, though it’s going to cost you $9.95 a month after that. Not a bad price at all, if you ask me. That’s like going out to lunch, once a month, except you get to eat kanji instead. nom nom nom.

I probably wouldn’t recommend Skritter as your catch-all solution to Japanese learning, though I would recommend it to those of you who want to practice writing their kanji. It does a great job doing what it does, so if you treat it like that, you’ll have a wonderful experience.

Sign up for the trial and tell me what you think. What are your impressions of it?

[Skritter.com]

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Sometimes, I think, it’s important to think different. Sometimes, when everyone is doing one thing, you should try the exact opposite.  It doesn’t mean it will work, but it’s almost always worth the try. Perhaps you’ll run into something nobody has ever thought of.

This idea is one of those things. I think it works pretty well… sometimes, and it probably won’t work for everyone. The idea is simple: When studying Japanese (or doing anything else), you should stop when you least want to (i.e. when you want to keep studying). Sounds counter intuitive, right? Here’s why it works.

Where It Came From

I learned this idea from Haruki Murakami’s non-fiction book “What I Talk About When I Talk About Running,” which is the only book of his that I’ve read. I liked it. It was inspiring and fun to peer into his mind a bit (and even got me to consider running… hasn’t really worked that well though, I’m more into sitting). In his book, he said that he stops writing when he most wants to continue writing. What!? That’s crazy. Shouldn’t you take advantage of that motivation to keep going and keep writing? Murakami didn’t think so, and I think he’s on to something.

I’m paraphrasing, but he said that the reason he stops writing when he’s most motivated to continue writing is because that means he knows he’s going to be excited to write some more the next day. Since he stopped when he didn’t want to stop, he’s going to look forward to starting up again the next day and won’t waste any time doing so.

That’s genius.

For the last week, I’ve been trying that with work. When I feel like I want to keep going, I stop. Because I want to keep going, I wake up earlier the next day than I normally would, and am able to jump right back into work, whereas normally it might take some time to get settled in and figure out what I want to do. That right there is wasted time, and this solves it.

Why It Works

The reason this works is because of the way our brains deal with motivation. When it comes down to it, we don’t want to do the things we’re supposed to and we want to do the things we’re not supposed to. By using this “stop when you’re motivated” method, you can flip this on its head. By telling yourself and making yourself not do something, it becomes more desirable, and you’ll want to do it even more.

On top of this, we’re also canceling out the most difficult part of doing any type of work or study (Japanese, of course)… Getting started. How many times have you said “I have to study my Japanese,” and then you just sat there putting it off or doing something else. Once you get started, though, it’s easy to get in the zone and zero in your concentration. The hard part, as you all know, is getting to that point. There’s something about “getting started” that’s daunting, but by stopping right in the middle of something, you know exactly where to start, and you’re even excited to start.

It’s kind of like when your parents used to read you books. They’d stop somewhere exciting, and the next night, you’d know exactly where to start up again (and you looked forward to it all day long).

Applying This To Your Japanese Studies

I’m going to talk about applying this to your Japanese studies, but of course you can apply this almost anywhere else in your life as well. Give it a try for at least a little while, and if it doesn’t work then it doesn’t work.

When you’re studying Japanese, get yourself a timer and have it go off every five minutes. At each five minute interval, write down on a piece of paper how much you want to continue. You can even come up with some kind of ranking scale (three out of six batwings?) to help you gauge things. As you go through, keep track of your excitement / motivation levels. Once your ranking scale gets up to somewhere between 80-100%, immediately stop what you’re doing, whether it’s in the middle of a kanji deck or in the middle of writing a sentence. All that’s important is that you’re honest with yourself in terms of how motivated you are to continue, and that you stop when you’re supposed to stop.

It won’t feel good to stop, sure, but that’s the point. You’re giving yourself something to really look forward to, which ends up leading to much more consistent Japanese studies, which is way way better in the long run.

So, give it a shot! Tell me how it works for you in the comments (or why you think this is totally bogus).

I’m continuing to experiment with this even as

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FlutterScape seems a little complicated at first, but really it’s quite simple. There are people in Japan going around to various stores taking pictures of things they want to sell. They don’t buy these things from the store until you buy them. Once you buy the item, they go to the store, get the item, and send it to FluttersScape HQ in Japan. Once FlutterScape gets it they forward the money along (or will send it back to you if the person never gets the item for you) and will send the item to you. Seems complicated, but all you really need to know is that you can safely buy something without much worry about getting screwed over very very easily.

What Can I Buy?

Between the time that FlutterScape just started (I was poking around back then too) and now, FlutterScape has really stepped things up in terms of items available. You’re still not going to be able to go to the site and find anything and everything you want (that’s what the request feature is for, keep reading), but you’ll definitely find a lot of interesting and wonky items to keep you interested for a while. Personally, I’m really into the weird crazy stuff (even though I’ve tried to go a bit more minimalist), and always feel tempted every time I visit the site, which is more and more recently. I’m not much of a shopper but it’s hard to help myself.

There are a bunch of categories you can search through, as well as an actual search function, so if they have what you want then you should be able to find it… but what if they don’t??

Requesting An Item From Japan

Over the last few months, whenever somebody asked me where they could be “Item A” or “Item B,” I’d forward them along to the FlutterScape CEO who would help find the item. I’m guessing he got tired of this and decided to create a request feature (genius!) so that no matter what it is you want from Japan, you can find it.

The part that stands out to me isn’t the text areas, it’s everything else. Let’s go through the request features – I get a little giddy just looking at them.

Is This An Auction? This is if you wanted to buy something off, say, Yahoo Auctions Japan. Ho-Lee-Crapola. You can put your max bid, the URL to the auction, etc, and someone will bid for you based off your criteria. Then, if they win it they’ll send it to you like a regular FlutterScape item. Wow.

Pictures: Perhaps you don’t know what the item is called, and only have a picture. Fear not, you can upload a bunch of photos and someone will try to find it for you. It’s more likely that someone in Japan knows what the Japanese product is, so pictures are the perfect way to go.

YouTube Video URL: There’s a good chance that a lot of cool Japanese items are discovered via YouTube, so if that’s how you did it, then you can share a video of it as well.

Wow, every base I can think of is covered, here. It’s nice and simple, but they did a really good job with the request feature.

Does FlutterScape Work?

A couple of months ago I was introduced to FlutterScape, and decided that I needed to get some Rummy (chocolate with rum raisin inside). I got 20 packs of the stuff, ordered it, and approximately a week later I had a box of Rummy in my mailbox. Mmm, and they were (and are) tasty too. I can’t say what experience other people have had, but things worked out well for me and I imagine it’ll work out well for you too. Try things out on something small, and see how you like it. I think I’ll be using FlutterScape to buy many fun Christmas Presents this year (no Rummy for the younger cousins, though).

Win One Of Three Cupmen!

I have three Cupmen to give away. If you’re the cup noodle eating type, you’ll know that you have to put something on top of your Cup Noodle to keep the lid down while you wait for the hot water to cook and soften the noodles. I usually use my wallet. Now, though, you can use these little “Cupmen” who hang over the top.

Here’s the product description:

“After pouring hot water over your instant noodles, get a helping hand from the hardworking Cupmen. Watch as it turns different colors while desperately trying to prevent the lid from flicking back up. Enjoy a few minutes of fun with Cupmen until your noodles are ready to eat.”

Aww, if that doesn’t win your heart over, I don’t know what will. Here’s more information on Cupmen.

Winning one of these three Cupmen is very simple. You don’t even have to leave the page! In the comments, tell me why you need this product oh-so-bad. Feel free to go into a (fictional or non-fictional) account on how painful it is to make ramen using your shoes, or something like that. I’m going to pick my 6 favorites, and then three will randomly be picked from there. So, although there is some luck involved, quality comments are going to be key to get into that top 6! You have (approximately) a week to get your comment in!

Oh, and if you tweet about the contest, you won’t have higher chance of winning, but you will get some brownie points, you brown-noser you.

Great, so there you go! Win yourself a Cupmen so you can have the full Cup Noodle experience. Speaking of which, I bet FlutterScape has some noodles to go along with it in their Japanese Snacks section.

Oh, and if you have a lot of extra time, you should check out the short film “Mr. Cupmen” by fake French Video artist Jacques Koichi.

P.S. If you eat ramen, you should subscribe to the Tofugu Newsletter.

P.P.S. If you like Japanese “things” you should follow Tofugu and FlutterScape on Twitter.

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It’s the debate of the century! (That, and people keep asking me on e-mail, so I thought I should just write a post about it). If given a choice, should you learn Japanese from a native Japanese speaker, or from a “foreigner” (aka non-native Japanese speaker). For a lot of people, I think the decision is already made to do everything they can to get a native Japanese speaker, though that isn’t necessarily always right. Both native and non-native Japanese language teachers have their pros and cons. Let’s figure out what they are.

[offtopic: Did you know that Tofugu has its own Japanese Textbook, specifically written for self-learners of Japanese? If you've always wanted an excuse to start learning Japanese, now's your chance]

The Native Japanese Language Teacher

I think a lot of people automatically assume that native Japanese language teachers are the best. Sometimes it’s true, sometimes it’s not. Really, it depends on the individual (duh). Let’s go over the pros and cons of a native Japanese language teacher.

PRO: They speak Japanese really really well
This one’s a given. They’ve grown up speaking Jpaanese, which means they’re really good at it. They know a lot of kanji, they know the obscure words, and they know how to read and write. No matter what question you have about Japanese, chances are they know it and already use it.

PRO: Their pronunciation is perfect
Of course their pronunciation is perfect (unless they have a speech impediment, or something). Native Japanese teachers are great because you can try to mimic how they speak. They can also more effectively figure out when your pronunciation sucks and needs work.

PRO: Conversation practice is great
Why wouldn’t it be?

PRO: They don’t make that many mistakes
Native English speakers make mistakes when they speak English, and Japanese native speakers make mistakes when they speak Japanese. Even if they do make mistakes, though, they tend to be small and fairly limited to unimportant things.

PRO: Better for advanced learners of Japanese
If you are an advanced student of Japanese, native speakers tend to be better, hands down. There comes a point where (for the most part), native speakers are going to be the only ones who can consistently answer your advanced Japanese questions.

NEUTRAL: Learn more about culture
One thing I’ve noticed is that native Japanese speakers tend to focus a lot more on cultural aspects of Japanese. Sometimes this is important for learning “Japanese-only” words / grammar, and sometimes it’s just interesting (definitely important to learn culture + language!). I’m putting this as neutral because it seems to be pretty random whether a teachers does culture lessons or not, so it’s hard to generalize.

CON: They don’t really know what it’s like to learn Japanese
Because they grew up with learning Japanese, they have no idea what it’s like to learn it. Native speakers will teach you Japanese the way they learned it (or make things up along the way). That’s not to say that all native Japanese teacher are like this, but for the most part native speakers don’t know how to teach non-native Japanese learners how to learn Japanese. They just didn’t have the same experiences as you, which means it’s really hard for them to make things simple.

CON: Can be overwhelming for beginners
It depends on the teacher, but sometimes native Japanese teachers can be a bit overwhelming when they don’t know what a student is going through. Also, there seems to be a tendency for native teachers to teach things that don’t actually build on each other.

The Non-Native Japanese Language Teacher

The non-native Japanese language teacher is becoming more popular, I think. I see a lot more Japanese teachers who aren’t native Japanese speakers (but they’re good, they spent some time in Japan or studied Japanese in school). Like native Japanese speakers, there are pros and cons to non-native Japanese language teachers as well.

PRO: They know what it’s like to learn Japanese
When you’ve done something before, and you had to do it yourself, you’ll figure out what works and what doesn’t. One of the biggest problems with the Japanese language learning industry today is that they haven’t really made any improvements in the last 50 years. Most of the time, you end up learning Japanese sort of like Japanese school children learn Japanese. You drill, you bang your head on a curb, then you drill some more. This is because native Japanese speakers have set everything up. When it comes to simplifying the learning process, and eliminating a lot of the usual hurdles a Japanese learner faces, non-native speakers know how to do it. They have a fresher (though not always, it depends on the person) perspective that lets them make changes that will ultimately help you learn more effectively.

PRO: They can explain things more clearly, simply
For a lot of native Japanese language teachers, Japanese just works because it works. Go ahead and try to explain why a verb works in English, or why we do anything in English, really. It’s tough to explain something you grew up with. Non-native speakers of Japanese have had to break the language apart and put it back together in a way that they can understand it, and if they’re smart, they can pass that information along to you. So, instead of something just working because it works, it now works because of A, B, and C.

PRO: They usually have better methods for learning kanji
The way that Japanese kids learn kanji is dumb and doesn’t make any sense for everyone else. This, however, is the way that most people end up learning kanji. Repetition, repetitions, curb+head, repetition. A lot of non-native speakers still follow this method, but I’m starting to see a little more variety and flexibility coming from the non-native Japanese teacher side of things, which is great. They’re starting to solve some of the biggest mistakes kanji learners make.

PRO: More flexibility to try something new
A ton of “traditional” Japanese learning methods just don’t work (but people use them anyways because that’s the way it’s always been done). Non-native speakers tend to have a lot more flexibility when it comes to teaching Japanese than native speakers do, which often means more innovative (and effective) ways to learn Japanese for you.

CON: Pronunciation can be an issue (but not always)
There are a ton of non-native Japanese speakers who have great pronunciation. Still, though, pronunciation can be a concern with non-native Japanese teachers. It’s not like people won’t understand you if you have an accent (I understand people from Texas… sometimes), but if you’re striving to be perfect in every way, this is something to look out for.

CON: Non-scripted conversation practice can be wonky
This is especially true when you’re at higher levels. Non-native speakers just can’t think on their feet quite as well as a native speaker can, when it comes to non-scripted conversation practice. That’s not to say that a lot of non-native speakers can’t get pretty darn close (and definitely be more than adequate), but native speakers will always have the upper hand on this one, which is more and more true the higher the level of the student.

In The End…

Seriously, though, both are great, and both can contribute plenty of things that the other one (probably) can’t. And yes, this article is a huge generalization on native and non-native speakers, so make sure you take that into account as well. No two Japanese language teachers (native or non-native) are the same. In the end, I think it comes down to inspiration and teaching methods. If the students aren’t engaged, then nobody wins in the end.

On another topic, I do know that I’d never want to make anyone have to learn English from a Japanese native-speaker in Japan… English teachers in Japan tend to be… pretty bad.

P.S. Why don’t you tell me what you think of this article on Twitter?

P.P.S. Why not let me spam your inbox with the occasional e-mail by signing up for Tofugu’s newsletter?

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Not content to blindy folllow popular methods of language study a Jedi Knight searches the near and far galaxies for hitherto unknown tools and techniques with which to master Japanese. Hidden beneath the long sleeves of a hooded cloak is a tool for deciphering even the densest of Japanese literature, the Kanji Sono Mama Rakubiki Jiten on Nintendo DS.

Kanji Sono Mama is a dictionary, translated “Kanji just like that, easy to pull”, which puts any authentic Japanese text within the reach of a mere mortal. Sure there are other electronic dictionaries, but none I’ve found come close to the utility of this sleekly packaged touch generation device. I’m going to show you the method I use to expand my vocabulary with Kanji Sono Mama.

This method works with any dictionary which allows you to look up kanji compounds online or off. The Kanji Learners Dictionary is a good example of a dictionary that will allow you to look up compounds based on recognition of their radicals. If you’re reading kanji online then you could use a combination of QuickKanji and Jisho.org. For this post however I’m going to focus on using Kanji Sono Mama, because it’s mobile and it has a flash card function that combines well to make it an all-in-one vocabulary droid.

Your choice of reading material

I’m a big proponent of reading authentic Japanese while you’re learning. Textbooks simply don’t have the variety of language that literature does. Your choice of literature is up to you, I’m a big  fan of Manga as you might know. I welcome a debate about the merits of manga over classical Japanese literature any day, but ultimately the choice of reading material is yours.

I covered some techniques for reading authentic Japanese manga where I talked mostly about short sessions without a dictionary. This post picks up where that one left off, because ultimately you’ll want to know the meanings of words you’re reading.

Choosing what to study.

People often ask me how to select books that are the right reading level. I usually answer that what you find interesting is usually more important than what reading age it’s aimed at. Reading Chibi Mariko Chan or Sazae San is not just for kids, it’s important social commentary. Although, if it doesn’t interest you it’s not going to hold your attention for very long.

Let’s imagine you have something you really want to read, it’s important to select vocabulary for further study with real intent. One of the biggest mistakes you can make is trying to read too much in one go. Other mistakes that will slow you down are selecting too many items for review or words that are too far out of reach.

Keep the passage you intend to study short, use the techniques I’ve covered elsewhere. Before you pull out your DS decide what vocabulary you’re going to study.

• Finish reading: Only after you have finished your reading session should you start to go back and find vocabulary you want to study. Keep these two sessions separate as much as possible, punctuate them with a short break if necessary. Make sure you have come to a point in your reading from which you will go no further.
• Choose things you understand: If you’ve seen something before but in a different context it is going to be useful for you to get a real fix on it through further study. You know these items are going to be useful because they just keep popping up. They may also be used different ways, so learn them well.
• Choose things you partially understand: In a new context things may look a little different, you may be able to infer meaning but you’ll need a bit more study to come to a full understanding. Choosing words you almost have a handle on is going to be much more fruitful than taking words completely out of context.
• Don’t choose more than you can commit to memory: Even for a Jedi Knight short term memory typically holds no more than seven items. For words you want to learn no more than five a day is a good rule of thumb, particularly if they are new and complex. You should spend as much time on these five items as you did in reading the passage of text you selected.

Practical example #1 – Guessing at the reading with hiragana

Good for: When you can guess from context what the kanji might be.
Method: Use your hiragana input to extract a dictionary entry.

The girl in the picture is on the phone, I could try keitai [けいたい] but that would be incorrect, next best guess is denwa [でんわ] Bingo! Now when I select the entry in the dictionary I get an English equivalent from the Ei-Wa jisho and some usage examples.

The guess work is important because it helps you make leaps at understanding, it doesn’t matter if you fall short a couple of times. Don’t dwell on it, just find the right answer and move on.

Practical Example #2 – Direct entry of the kanji

Good for: When you can’t guess the reading.
Method: Copy the strokes.

The big bold kanji in this cell is easy to copy. You may have seen it before but can’t remember the reading, 大丈夫, just use the touch pen.

I immediately get two readings as before, and some uses in fairly easy to understand sentences.

Practical Example #3 – Stab in the dark?

Good for: When you have to use the force.
Method: Use English input.

I use English input for the word ‘think’, there are two occurences of something that it might be. I get the entry from the Ei-Wa jisho. There are lots of examples, but not all of them contain the kanji I’m looking for.

Caution: Use sparingly!

Using the flash cards.

Now you have a word that you can add to your vocabulary list. This where I really like the DS Sono Mama Rakubiki Jiten, with a simple tap of the touch pen you can add the word to one of three flash card groups.

They have their advantages over hand made flash cards.You don’t have to write anything out carefully on tiny bits of paper. Each card links to a full dictionary entry if you want to see alternative uses and meanings. You can move the flashcards between groups, which is perfect if you are using a Leitner system.

The DS also has a one handed mode. You can collect vocabulary and then causally flip through you cards while sitting on the bus. Perfect for the incognito Jedi in you.

If you have technique for breaking down what you read into reusable chunks please share it in the comments. Do you use flash cards? How do you build your vocabulary?

Keep Reading! Take a look at the companion article: “Are You Still Lugging Dead Tree Bilingual Dictionaries?“

Brett Fyfield is the Chief Rainbow Maker at Rainbowhill Language Lab. He enjoys Aikido and is often mistaken for “suits homeless” because of his dishevelled appearance. If you want more tips on incorporating authentic Japanese literature into your study routine tweet him up on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook.

The Manga is Homunculus by Hideo Yamamoto. 2003.

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1. Question: How Should You Learn Kanji?
2. 12 Completely (Un)inspiring Images To Help You Learn Kanji
3. How To Learn Japanese Using Flickr

J-blogger buddy Thomas from Nihonhacks has recently told me about his latest venture, which is sure to excite Japanese (or any language) learners out there. Traditionally, if you wanted to get audio for something, either it would be there or it wouldn’t (and then you’d be out of luck unless you found someone to record something for you, which doesn’t sound like much fun to me). Enter stage right: RhinoSpike.

The idea behind RhinoSpike is pretty simple and unique (nobody that I’ve seen has ever done this before).

1. You submit text that you want to be read (theoretically by someone who knows what they’re doing with the particular language, like a native speaker).
2. Someone Records the audio for your text and uploads it to the site.
3. You can then listen to the audio, download it, and use it for practice.

Pretty neat idea, right?

How To Use RhinoSpike To Learn Japanese

Although the service is brand new (at the time of writing this), there’s definitely a lot of potential for using it to practice your Japanese. I’m sure the service will grow and change over the next couple months, but there are a few things that probably won’t change for a long time.

1. RhinoSpike Will Be Great For Longer Texts: No doubt about it, RhinoSpike’s main talent will be longer texts, like blog posts, newspaper articles, paragraphs from novels, etc. There’s no point in asking people to read single vocabulary words (you can get single words read on Smart.fm or something like that), not to mention it would be a big waste of time. Go for the longer (but not too long) texts. Newspaper articles will be pretty popular, I imagine. You’ll get a lot more out of things like that, especially if you have to wait in line for someone to get to your text.
2. Use It With Lang-8: RhinoSpike is pretty much just the audio version of Lang-8 (one of my favorite Japanese learning resources). Put your text into Lang-8, get it corrected over there, and then add it to RhinoSpike to get it read out loud. That way, you’re getting the reading/writing practice and the speaking/listening on top of it. That’s a pretty whole picture right there.
3. Use It With Smart.fm or Anki: If you’re getting something recorded that’s full of words you don’t know, put those words into Smart.fm and study the words separately. Then, when you come back to the RhinoSpike recording, you’ll be able to get a lot more out of it.
4. Make Friends: Although the social aspect of RhinoSpike is pretty clunky right now, there’s a lot of potential to make friends and find language partners through the service (you can do the same thing over at Lang-8, too). Help a lot of people by recording English text for them, and I’m sure karma will be good to you.
5. Look Forward To Archived Content: This is going to be one of the most valuable aspects (and perhaps the most costly for RhinoSpike in the long run) of RhinoSpike. There’s going to be thousands upon thousands of archived recordings to study with. Why submit something new when you could study with a thousand other recordings that are already done? This is going to be the best part of RhinoSpike, though it will be a while before these build up. I also imagine that displaying these recordings in a simple, consumable way will be another challenge that RhinoSpike will run into, so enjoy things while they’re still small and organizable!

RhinoSpike is new, and has a long way to go, but the longer it takes for people to use it, the longer it will take to develop, I’m sure (so go give it a try!). I’ve tried the service out a bit, and it works well, getting the job done. I may even see if I can get some recordings for my Japanese Textbook TextFugu and see how that goes. As you use it, I’m sure the developers would love to get some feedback too (and I’m curious what you think!), so let me know in the comment section. What’s the good? What’s the bad? Why aren’t there more pictures of baby rhinos on the site? etc. Looking forward to seeing what your opinions are! [rhinospike]

P.S. If you think baby Rhinos are the cutest thing in the world, you should follow Tofugu on Twitter

P.P.S. If you think they’re kind of ugly, you should subscribe to the Tofugu Newsletter

Related posts:

1. The 5 Biggest Mistakes People Make When Learning Kanji
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3. How To Use Evernote To Study Japanese (Or Any Other Language)

I think it’s funny when I see advertisements like this. “Learn Japanese in 10 Days” it says, without telling you how much Japanese you’ll learn in those ten days. How to say “hello?” How to say “I was ripped off?” No, probably not even that much. Here are the ads I’m talking about (don’t try clicking on them, because they won’t actually go anywhere… and won’t teach you Japanese in 10 days). durr.

It’s advertisements and companies like this that trick people into buying products by toying with their emotions. The promise of instant gratification is a powerful thing.

Unfortunately, ads like this are only worth a laugh or two. Learning a language is a long-term venture. You get a ton out of it if you stick with it, opening doors to new friends, new jobs, and new experiences, but more likely than not the type of person who buys the “Learn Japanese in 10 Days” products will never get there, even if there’s an upsell after the first ten days to buy another section, and another section, and another section. They’re just selling bits at a time until your “learning-something-new” high runs out.

Maybe instead of focusing on people’s need to be (too) fast, they should do more realistic ads. “Learn Japanese is 12-24 months,” or “Learn 2,000 kanji in four years” (Ha! Yeah right!) Once you start focusing on the long term, then and only then can you pinpoint the issues that make it so hard to study Japanese after that initial excitement is over. It’s so easy to study Japanese for 10 days, and so hard to study it for 20. Your initial adrenaline rush dies down, and 90% of people end up quitting at that point. Be real with yourself (and be a pal, Pimsleur), and focus on getting past the first 10 days and into the future.

Anyhoo, this is just a quick reminder to everyone to think long term, stick with it, and be consistent, whether it be 100, 1000, 0r 10,000 days of Japanese study… Here’s to making it past day 10.

Related posts:

1. How To Use Evernote To Study Japanese (Or Any Other Language)