Follow Japanese Profiles On Social Media

#Japanese

Usually social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook are the sworn enemies of productive study time, gently beckoning you from your browser’s corner tab, but using this trick you can turn their addictiveness to your advantage: Follow a few Japanese celebrities or news outlets so that Japanese writing appears on websites that you visit often.

The extent you take this is totally up to you, add one or two profiles for an unintrusive sprinkling of kanji, or go crazy and make half of your entire newsfeed Japanese. Just make sure each one is something you’re actually interested in, and don’t add so many that using your account is no longer fun/useful. If you do you’ll end up irritatedly scrolling through and only reading your native language.

Here’s a few suggestions to get you started: @asahi (the Asahi Shimbun), @matomenaver (news aggregator Naver Matome), @pamyurin (the weird and wonderful Kyary Pamyu Pamyu) and @55_Kumamon (Japan’s mascot king, Kumamon).

Take it further: If you don’t need to trick yourself into studying, you can set up a separate account specifically for this purpose.

Listen to Japanese Music

There’s more to Japanese music than this, I promise

Japanese music is available anywhere in the world, and even things like Spotify, Last.fm, and iTunes Radio will let you listen to it for free, so there’s no excuses not to try this one.

Studies have shown that listening to music performed in your target language can help facilitate learning by subconsciously training you to recognise patterns of speech and boundaries between words. In basic terms, this means music teaches your mind to break down chunks of syllables and learn where separate words begin and end. This happens to some extent when listening to regular speech, but if words are attached to notes our brains can compartmentalise them more effectively.

Of course, the more engaged you are, the more you’ll learn from listening to Japanese music, but even having it on in the background as you do something else is beneficial. Notch it up to Hardcore Mode by listening to Japanese radio while practicing writing kanji.

Take it further: Expand on this approach by repeating segments of songs and trying to note down the lyrics (the sounds alone if you’re a beginner, the actual kanji and meaning for more advanced levels), then performing an online search afterwards to check your accuracy. If you’re confident enough you could even break out a microphone and give it a shot at karaoke. Or, quietly, into a shampoo bottle, alone in the shower.

Set Your Phone to Japanese

I take no responsibility for phones flung at walls in kanji-induced frustration

Urgh. I know, this one’s tough. There’ll be moments when you’re so frustrated you’ll want to set your phone ablaze in a sacrificial ceremony to the almighty gods of Kanji. But it does pay off.

When I lived in China I used this method to learn the different characters associated with actions on my phone. This resulted in situations where I embarrassed myself by repeatedly failing to put a new contact’s details in my phone, as well as mornings when my alarm would go off and I was unable to differentiate between “snooze” and “off,” forcing me to get out of bed in a fit of snoozeless rage (the most furious of all types of rage). After a while, though, I began to recognise those characters not only on my phone, but elsewhere. I’d use my office computer and understand commands that I’d never noticed before; I didn’t know how to pronounce them at this point, but I’d already done the (arguably) most difficult part of learning the characters.

This is an incredibly frustrating thing to try but if you persevere the spaced repetition involved in regularly seeing the same characters really helps you to retain the information.

Take it further: If you’re a real masochist, you can also go about setting your other devices and software in Japanese. Just remember to write down where the language settings section is…

Label Items With Kanji Sticky Notes

If you’re struggling with vocabulary get yourself some sticky notes and begin labeling things in your home like a family-friendly version of the movie Memento. Either include the kanji and furigana to help you memorize both, or just the kanji in order to test yourself on the pronunciation each time.

Color-coding can be a useful way of organising the information, either by categorising types of words (e.g. on the shower you could have the noun “shower”, シャワー, in one colour and the verb “wash”, 洗う, in another) or the stage of your learning (e.g. green for words you usually remember, orange for words you can sometimes recall and red for those ones that just won’t stick).

Take it further: You could take the Memento comparison more literally and have those “code red” stickers tattooed all over your silly, forgetful face… But I’d suggest just air-writing the kanji with your finger each time you see them instead.

Think In Japanese

Next time you find yourself with nothing to do, be it in a car, a doctor’s waiting room or while attempting to look busy at the office, think to yourself in Japanese. Not having your textbook is no longer a valid excuse for not studying!

An “in-head” review of the last thing you learned is probably the most efficient use of this method but anything from simple sentences about the location of things in the room to complex monologues about current events will do.

Take it further: Memorize dialogues from your textbook, then later try to go through them word-for-word in your head.

Use the Japanese Menu at Japanese Restaurants

You have to earn this

I have to admit that when I used to eat out in Japan I would rely on other people to do the ordering, or simply go off the pictures provided. Even when I’d selected something I wouldn’t bother to read the name most of the time, not when a quick point and “Kore okudasai” (this please) would suffice.

This is a huge missed opportunity though, as food words are amongst the most important vocabulary you can learn. And the brilliant thing about studying by reading menus is that it works for all levels of Japanese, beginners can practice reading hiragana and katakana, while even the most fluent Japanese speaker is bound to get tripped up by dish names every once in a while (I’m occasionally baffled by dish names in English).

Take it further: Ask for a copy of the menu (or take a picture) and take it away with you. Translate the dishes at home then test yourself next time you’re eating there. Who knows, maybe you’ll even discover a new favourite dish.

BONUS TIPS FOR READERS LIVING IN JAPAN

I’ve also included two extra tips to help people living in Japan take advantage of their surroundings and sponge up all that Japanese overflowing everywhere.

Eavesdrop On Conversations

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to listen in on the Japanese conversations around you. If you’re in Japan, you’re literally surrounded by listening exercises far more authentic than in any textbook. Whether in a coffee shop, on public transport or even in the office, stop tuning out other people’s conversations as background noise and start trying to decipher them.

Listening to other people’s conversations even has a few advantages over holding your own. For example, people often talk slower with more simple language when talking to non-native speakers, but by listening to others you get to feel the rhythm of a more natural conversation. And that doesn’t necessarily make it more difficult: negating a need for a response means you can focus solely on listening rather than simultaneously piecing together a reply.

As well as improving your listening ability you’ll pick up new vocabulary and, perhaps most importantly, there’s a good chance you’ll hear things you’ve been saying wrong but people have been too polite to correct you on.

By listening to various age groups and types of people you’ll also put yourself out of your Japanese comfort zone and hear how different people talk. If you work with kids for your day job or the majority of your conversations are with the opposite gender it’s important to do this in order to avoid sounding like them. Because, if nobody else has told you this yet, you almost certainly do. Sorry.

I’m not saying that you should be breaking out a newspaper with eyeholes and making everybody around you feel uncomfortable, though. Be discreet about it. Take a note from Japanese culture and “observe without watching,” or in this case “listen without gaping.” Also, if somebody is talking loudly enough to be heard by the general public it’s unlikely to concern anything they’d be troubled by a stranger hearing.

Plus, your heart is true and your motives pure. Go forth and eavesdrop.

Take it further: You probably shouldn’t take this one further, even if your motives are pure.

Translate Advertisements On The Train

Log out of Facebook, switch off Candy Crush, Farmville or whatever this month’s trashy yet surprisingly addictive game is, and start using your time on the train productively. If you can’t get a seat you may not be able to take out your textbook and study the way you’d like to, but you can get some real-world reading practice in.

Step one: Look up and select an advert. If you’re a beginner make sure it doesn’t have a huge block of text and, whatever level you are, choose one that looks at least remotely interesting.

Step two: Read. When you come across a phrase or kanji you don’t understand, use your dictionary to translate. And don’t say you don’t have one, because you were just playing Candy Crush a minute ago and if you’ve paid for that but not a dictionary we’ll have to have a serious talk.

If something comes up that your translation tools can’t make sense of, don’t give up or spend an inordinate amount of time on it, make a note and move on. You can ask a friend later.

Like setting your phone to Japanese and the sticky note method, this is especially effective because of spaced repetition. Whether you’re intending to study or not, each time you get on the train and see the same adverts you’ll be reminded of the kanji and vocabulary you learnt when you translated them.

Take it further: Before you get off at your stop, snap a picture of the advertisement. This will allow you finish translating at home or, if you’d already done, check your work and review it.

Did I miss anything? No doubt many of you have picked up a few small tricks of your own to improve your Japanese outside of the classroom.

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Bonus Wallpapers!

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1. Talk to Japanese People

Now is your chance!  Do it now!  Speak to strangers in Japanese without getting one word answers in return!  As some of us have experienced, it can be very hard to have a real conversation with Japanese strangers in public because of their inhibitions about talking to foreigners, and especially the chance that they might have to use English.  Thanks to the power of alcohol and the loss of power of societal expectations, if you talk to a Japanese person in a drinking establishment you will likely get a longer answer.  Occasionally, they will even come talk to you! Granted, not all of these encounters will be fun:

「外人（がいじん）だ！ここから出（で）て行（い）けこのやろ！」”It’s a foreigner!  Get out of here jerk!”

or:

「すげーこの外人（がいじん）のお尻（しり）がマジででけー！」”Wow, this foreigner’s butt is huuuge!”

No one really wants to hear these kind of comments, but hey, practice is practice right?  Good time to work on a clever comeback.  For the most part, however, I hope your conversations are better than that.  For example, since people at the bar have lowered inhibitions you might even get to move your conversational topics beyond the differences in seasonal weather between where ever you are from and Japan.

2. Order things

Okay okay, for this one to work you need to get beyond ビール一本（いっぽん）ください “One beer please.”  The food and beverage options at a lot of places are pretty extensive and vary greatly from place to place, so pick something on the menu you don’t recognize and ask someone what it is!  If you are lucky, it will be something exclusively Japanese and it will take quite a bit of talking with the waiter (or other willing Japanese person near by) to figure out exactly what it is you are ordering.  This type of “real world” practice is invaluable and will go a long way to building language fluency and understanding of the Japanese culture.  The other option is of course just to point at something and hope you don’t get something either nasty or expensive and just build vocabulary that way.

3.  Learn Drinking Songs

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZho0UbKTZ0&NR=1[/youtube]

Like drinking songs in English, a lot of Japanese 飲（の）み会（かい）コール “drinking party chants” are really bad!  If you can keep up with the slang and swear like a sailor, you’ll be further along the path to fluency than most though.

4.  Go to Karaoke

In Japan, all roads do not lead to Rome, they lead to Karaoke.

At some point during your evening (or afternoon, whatever) there is a highly strong chance you will end up at karaoke if you have already been visiting a drinking establishment in Japan.  DO NOT WASTE THIS CHANCE!  Join up with some of your newly found, slightly “friendlier,” Japanese friends and learn a few tunes in Japanese.  Yes, this in fact means that you have to get beyond just the chorus in “Linda, Linda” but with perseverance and maybe a little YouTube before you go out, you can literally blow the socks off of everyone in the room.  Guaranteed, no one expects a foreigner to pull of the songs “Yamato” or “Sen No Kaze” flawlessly in Japanese, and you will have friends for life (or at least the evening) if you do.

5.  Try to ナンパ

Attempting to get lucky with a guy or girl you do not know in Japan is called “nampa.”  To have decent game though, it helps to understand the language, and with luck on your side one will improve with the other!  Learning silly pickup lines probably wont help, but getting to the point where you can have a clever conversation with someone you are interested in might.  Or just be イケメン or 美人（びじん） “hot” and no one will care if your Japanese is awful.  For the purpose of language improvement however, using your Japanese with someone you are interested in adds extra incentive to practice!  Get out there and don’t be shy!

6.  Pay your bill

When the bill comes, there are sometimes complications for which you may need to use your Japanese.  Your group needs to decide who will pay, and depending on the type of establishment you are visiting you may have additional “service charges” (see Japan’s Fantasy Girls for additional clarification).  For the first step, it is often pretty easy to determine who will pay, either the highest ranking person in the group in the case of a company/school outing, or わりかん meaning splitting the bill into equal parts, in the case of a casual outing with your friends.  Paying for exactly what your ordered, called 別々（べつべつ）, happens a lot less often unless it is with a group of foreigners.

In the case of being treated to a night of drinking and eating by your boss (or professor etc.) you of course need to practice being grateful and saying thank you:

ごちそうさまでした。Thank you for treating me.

すみませんありがとうございます。Excuse me, thank you very much.

In the case of splitting the bill with your friends, to figure out what you need to pay you can use:

僕（ぼく）の分（ぶん）いくら払（はら）えばいいですか？How much should I pay for my part?

Or with really close friends you can just ask

いくら？How much?

It depends on who you are with and what situation you are in, but there are varying degrees of formality when paying, so be sure to look into what you should say before going out to avoid being rude!

7.  Make Friends with the Staff

This step is a lot easier to do at some places than others.  Smaller establishments are typically better because they are a little quieter, and the “master” of the shop or other staff have more time to spend with individual customers as compared to bigger bars, chain izakayas, or other places like that.  Initial conversations might be about the master’s drink special of the night, his/her おすすめ “recommendations” but if you are a good customer and hit it off with the master and staff then you will have great conversation partners as well as occasionally get awesome deals for being a regular.  The staff might also be a bridge between you and other Japanese customers if you have a good enough relationship.  Of course it all depends on the particular establishment you go to, but listening to the “master’s” stories can be priceless as well as good for your language!  If you are lucky you’ll get a drink named after you!

8.  Find a place to sleep

Missing the last train may mean you need to act like a Japanese salary man and find a cheap or free place to crash.

Since staying out late in Japan is a very common practice, and sleeping at a co-workers place is not, so there are a number of business that cater to those who miss the last train, the most famous being capsule hotels as pictured above.  What you see is what you get, but you can at least get a few hours of sleep out of the cold and maybe a shower.  A lot of capsule hotels cater only to men, so women might need to find other options if out past the last train.

To improve your Japanese in the process of finding late night lodging, you can use and build on the following phrases:

When you want to stay with a friend:

今日（きょう）泊（と）めてくれる？ “Will you let me stay at your place tonight?”

ありがとう！ここからどのぐらい？ “Thanks!  About how far away is it (your place) from here?”

At a hotel:

空き部屋（あきべや）はありますか？  “Do you have any rooms available?”

一泊（いっぱく）はいくらですか？ “How much is it to stay for the night?”

ここは女（おんな）の人（ひと）が泊まれますか？ “Is it possible for women to stay here?”

チェックアウトは何時（なんじ）ですか？ “What time is checkout?”

Depending on your situation, the procedures might be different, so you can get a lot of practice with Japanese just by checking in and out of various hotels.

9.  Learn etiquette of eating and drinking

Japanese culture is filled with complexity and subtlety.  Please do not take this video seriously, it is supposed to be a joke!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCpbBVthD7o[/youtube]

Actually learning how to eat and drink properly will really impress people and make it easier to strike a conversation.  Often, Japanese people are impressed just with a 外人（がいじん）”foreigner” being able to use chopsticks, but if you are actually able to pour sake the right way to the right people, pass food the right way, and show modesty people will be amazed and want to talk to you about how you learned your manners.  After they tell you how good you are, be sure to ask for more tips so you keep on learning the etiquette, practicing the language, and showing people your genuine interest in their culture!

10.  Be a connoisseur

Japan has arguably some of the best food and drink in the world, so ask and learn about what you are eating and drinking!

While in Japan, visitors can develop a taste for new and different types of food and drink whether it is sake, sushi, shochu, tako yaki, and the list goes on and on.  If you find your “calling” be it $400 platters of sashimi or $5 pints of Asahi Super Dry with gyoza, learn about what you’re eating and talk about it to other people.  Japanese people can have really strong opinions about what they eat, like preferences for Hiroshima style or Osaka style okonomiyaki, so you might find yourself in some heated arguments, but learning about the ingredients, the best places to eat or drink whatever it is you like, and the varieties in styles can provide ammunition for your argument and be a good learning tool for Japanese language and culture.

Disclaimer

While pubs, bars, izakaya, sushi restaurants, snack bars, etc are great places to make friends and learn Japanese it goes without saying to “don’t do anything stupid.”  Going there doesn’t mean you have to make all foreigners look bad by doing things like getting embarrassingly drunk, shamelessly hitting on Japanese people, or just being inappropriate in general.  Do your best to learn the language from the people who use it every day while not acting like a jerk.

This post was written by Nick W., who has traveled throughout many regions of Japan in search of unique cultural gems.  He is currently earning his MBA and has researched topics like folk music in WWII Japan and Ainu cultural revival through music.  His favorite Japanese musician is the late Nujabes.

This is a guest post by the awesome Japanese language teacher and blogger Rainbowhill. Be sure to subscribe to his newsletter (a personal favorite of mine!) and follow him on Twitter.

On Friday last week I spent most of the afternoon being verbally abused and physically threatened. It was all part of the training in conflict resolution offered by my employer and conducted by a wirey ex-cop that reminded me of an Aussie version of Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry. Our police trainer hired actors to play a client that had reached a level of aggravation beyond negotiation.

Our trainer told us that he wanted to scar our subconscious deeply enough so that when we were confronted with a potentially life threatening situation we would know how to respond instinctively. So with little knowledge of the conflict unfolding behind a closed door we were thrust into a room where we had to rescue a co-worker from a hostile situation.

The experience really struck home to me the importance of role play. All of the textbook theory in the world won’t prepare you for real life. The closest you’re ever going to get to it is in a role play. I felt the fear, the rush of adrenaline, and did what I was trained to do without a second thought.

It’s the same with language learning. The same sweaty palms, racing heartbeat and dry mouth you feel under the stress of having to speak in Japanese with someone you don’t know. Dealing with this stress in an uncertain situation you are forced to think on your feet to get a reasonable outcome.

If you can find a way to do this in a non-threatening environment and be given the chance to rewind and look over your performance then you can learn a lot about what works and what doesn’t.

Why you need more role play

Role play can give you a better sense of your Japanese progress than any paper test. Here are a few reasons you should use role play more often.

1. Through role play any situation imaginable becomes possible.
2. Role play encourages you to express yourself fully.
3. The use of non-verbal communication is highlighted.
4. It helps develop skills that you’d expect to face in life.
5. Role play is a chance to be someone else, if only for a moment.
6. It is fun when the objectives are clear and the environment is controlled.

How to find a person to role play with

If you’re going to lessons then you already have a group of people including your teacher to role play with. If they’re not using role play in their lessons then politely suggest that you’d like the chance to practice what you learn. If your teacher is reluctant to offer you the chance to role play you can always find a new one on TeachStreet or Craigslist.

If your classmates are cool with it you can always hang around a bit longer after class to practice.  I use Meetup in my city to find people to chat with in Japanese. Be safe online, stranger danger is real.

Don’t feel as though you’re limited by your physical location, online learning is cheap and accessible. If you want a live teacher you can find one on eduFire. It’s not only a great way to find the best teachers, but there is an excellent sense of community and you’ll find other people learning Japanese to practice with.

The Internet is all about social media, so you might want to try the social learning networks you’re on already. There are plenty of groups on Facebook that are set up to provide opportunities for language exchange. If you’re ready to tackle Mixi, you have access to the biggest social network in Japan. If you’re a member of Lang-8 then you’ll know how valuable it is to have someone correct your written output. Why not ask a friend on Twitter to help you correct your spoken output over Skype?

Before you rush off and find someone to be your Japanese language pal, read Koichi’s tips on how not to creep people out.

How to set up a role play

Once you’ve found someone to role play with, you’re going to have to know how to set one up. I spent years perfecting the set up in my days as an eikaiwa instructor, but today I’m only going to give you the crib notes. It may not work every time you try it, but dealing with the unexpected is all part of the fun. This method is called C.R.O.W.

Conflict

Situations with conflict work best because you’ve got something I want, and you’re not going to give it up easily. It doesn’t have to be as threatening as a hostage situation, a simple information gap can work. So rather than “Ask a stranger for the time” you could use “Interrupt a person reading to ask them the time”. Introducing a conflict adds creative tension.

Role

For it to work roles need to be clear. You can add variety to even a simple role play by giving more detailed roles. Rather than “You are reading a book, I’m going to ask you the time” you could use, “You are getting to a really exciting part of your book, and you don’t like being interrupted. I’m going to ask you the time”. Or, “You are hard-of-hearing and you’re reading a really interesting report. I’m going to ask you for the time”. You get the idea.

Objective

From reading the previous two parts of the set up, you might think that people just go around asking people the time for no reason at all. This rarely ever happens. Think about it. If everything is going to plan, do you ever ask complete strangers the time? If your goal is to catch the right train to board your flight in time it adds a sense of urgency to the conversation. Make sure there is a reason for what you are doing.

Where

With all of the other things done well, you might not think place would make much of a difference. Consider this, “You are getting to a really exciting part of your book, and you don’t like being interrupted. I’m going to ask you the time. You are sitting by yourself on an empty station platform”, versus “you are on a crowded and noisy express train about to reach your station”. Think about where you are when you need to do something.

What to do next.

You are a Japanese learner who is looking for a way to quickly put into practice all the things you’ve been learning online. You know there are people who can speak Japanese better than you and you’re intimidated. That fear of failure is holding you back, but you know what? It’s imaginary. Quit imagining and get real. Accept that you are going to fail often and get on with it.

You are getting to that really exciting part of language learning where you can actually make conversation. You need someone to talk to. You are going to find someone to talk to, right now. Review this post, explore your social networks. Put your Skype address in a comment on this post. I’m easy enough to find on Skype – Brett.Fyfield.

Set a time for you and your new partner to do some role play. Make it a recurring meeting and stick it in your diary with a reminder so you are forced to take action. You are going to make role play a regular part of your Japanese learning, today.

You are reading a post about role play on one of the most popular Japanese language and culture blogs in the universe. There is someone reading this that wants to speak Japanese with you. Find that person. Set a time to get together.

Go on, make my day! I’m listening.

Brett Fyfield is the Chief Rainbow Maker at Rainbowhill Language Lab. When he’s not taking hits from underpaid actors he enjoys perfecting his Parkour technique. Hit him up for a fifteen minute Skype session, follow him on Twitter, and sign up to Rainbowmail for insider tips on passing the JLPT.