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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For beginners, though, finding Japanese things to read that are at or around your level is a pain. Either you study what’s in your textbook (limited and often times boring) or you don’t get to study reading it much at all. You essentially have to wait until you reach a higher level in order to have something for reading practice which will slow down your reading ability in the long run.

There’s good reason that beginners don’t have as much to study with, though. Basically, it comes down to not knowing enough kanji. If you don’t know the kanji, resources options are limited, though that doesn’t mean it isn’t helpful to read. Reading teaches you grammar and how to use it. It also will help you with your kana and basic kanji fluency (which normally takes too long in my opinion without enough early reading practice). You’ll also learn a lot of useful, common words, which of course is useful.

Since it’s normally pretty hard for beginners to find reading resources (and because I get this email like every day, it seems), I thought it would be good to put together a list of resources for beginners to study with. I’ll list them below and write a little bit about each including some suggestions on how to study with them. If you have any additional suggestions, please post them in the comments, below.

Have fun!

Japanese Children’s Newspapers

You probably know about newspapers for adults, but did you know about newspapers just for children? They tend to talk about slightly more cheerful things and are written in a much more simple fashion (easier kanji, easier words, easier everything), which is good for people who are still beginners of Japanese. There are some problems, though. Furigana is prevalent in a lot of them which kind of defeats the purpose in my opinion. I’ll be sure to note these ones down as well as tell you of a workaround to get rid of the furigana when it’s there.

Kodomo Asahi

Heralding from the adult Asahi Shinbun comes “Kodomo Asahi,” a version of their newspaper made for children. There aren’t a ton of articles here, but definitely plenty enough to keep any beginner busy on a fairly regular basis. There is a “elementary school” section and a “middle school” section.

Both are fairly basic, but of course the elementary school one is going to be a lot simpler. Between the two, there’s probably a new article every couple of days, especially when you consider the other additional sections available.

I think the level of kanji and vocab here is fairly good for a beginner. They also don’t do the furigana thing, which is nicer for your studies. In terms of the newspapers, this is a pretty darn good one. That being said, they don’t update every day, so you’ll want something else if you’re studying very regularly.

Visit: Kodomo Asahi

Kodomo Times

The Kodomo Times is made by Chuunichi Shinbun. It’s similar in a lot of ways to Kodomo Asahi in that it tends to have happier stories and is of course a lot simpler compared to a regular newspaper.

The thing that’s good (and kinda bad) about the Chuunichi Kodomo Times is that it will have the readings for words in parenthesis after the kanji that kids aren’t supposed to know. I’m not sure what the cutoff is, but it seems to be somewhere in elementary school. This means that it tells you the readings of slightly more difficult kanji while making you read the simple ones on your own. For people who are really, really beginner this will work pretty well. If you’re on the higher end of beginner it may feel a little like cheating.

Still, this is another good reading resources for beginners out there. You’ll just have to try it out to see if it’s good for you and your particular level.

Visit: Kodomo Times

NHK News Easy

Last but not least is News Web Easy by NHK. Not only do they provide news using simple kanji and vocab, but they also provide audio too, which means you can read along and do some language shadowing (or something along those lines).

While this is awesome, every single kanji has some furigana above it, which is kind of lame for your practice. There is a (difficult) way around this, though. If you download the browser add-on firebug (for Firefox or Chrome, maybe others as well), you can “inspect” the furigana on the page then add “display: none;” to the “rt” element. This will remove the furigana. Of course, this isn’t the best solution for ordinary folk out there, but it does work and does make this a much better resources, in my opinion. Alternatively, you can also print the pages out and just blot it out with a black marker. Either way, try not to study with the furigana there.

Update: Awesome! No more furigana. This makes Easy News an even better resource… probably the best out of these three, now.

There’s three or four “Easy” articles posted up every day, so you have plenty of opportunity to practice. If you’re feeling particularly good looking, as well, you can also see the original article. Just click “一般のニュース原稿はこちら” and you’ll be taken to the place from which your Easy article was painfully birthed out of.

Visit: NHK News Easy

Japanese Children’s Stories

Although Japanese children’s stories don’t come up with new content every day like the news does they are a nice way to get your beginner reading practice in. Since so many children’s stories are from a million years ago, you can find them for free on the internet as well. Of course, if you want physical copies you could go out and buy them / order them off of Kinokuniya or some other website, but I think the digital version will do just fine, not to mention you can print them out and take notes.

Here are some Japanese Children’s Book resources that I thought were good.

Traditional Japanese Children’s Stories

This website was made by Tom Ray for his own studies in Japanese. He decided to make it available to the public to help others out as well, which is awesome.

He took a bunch of traditional Japanese children’s stories and typed them out in Japanese. Then, he added in the English translation, line-by-line. Afterwards, he provides vocabulary explanations as well. A lot of the work is done for you, which can be good or bad, though it’s definitely an educational way to go through Japanese stories while practicing reading. You’ll find the sentence-by-sentence format particularly helpful, I think.

The pages are particularly printable, as well, meaning you can study and take notes as needed.

Visit: Traditional Japanese Children’s Stories

Fuku Musume’s Fairy Tale Collection

This Japanese fairy tale website is organized into various categories, from “famous Japanese stories” to “Scary Japanese stories” to “stories from around the world.”

There’s a lot of fairy tales here, plenty to keep any beginner busy for quite a while (and enough to get you much better at reading). A fair number of the stories also have audio to go along with them, meaning you can use the audio to help you to read along (and get the pronunciation right). Although not every story has this, you should take advantage of the ones that do. Reading out loud and mimicking a native speaker is always a good thing to do when you can, especially when you’re first starting out.

There’s probably 400 or 500 stories here, so that’s enough to read one every day for a year plus. If you do that, you’ll surely get better at reading Japanese. Remember, it’s all about consistency if you want to get better!

Visit: Fuku Musume’s Fairy Tail Collection

Fantajikan

Although Fantajikan has a site with stories on it, they’re more about audio than anything else. That’s why the YouTube channel is what makes this website worth adding to this list. The YouTube channel doesn’t have all the stories from the site, but I do think it’s more useful for beginner’s practice.

Included in each video is images showing what’s going on, a narration of the story, and Japanese text showing what the narrator is saying (this is where the reading practice comes in). The nicest part about these is the images in the video, though. They show the context of what’s going on adding another element to your practice. You just get a little more feedback this way.

Visit: Fantajikan, Fantajikan YouTube

Children’s Manga

Manga is another way to get in reading practice. For beginners, of course, children’s manga is what’s going to be good… things like Doraemon, Dragonball Z, and so on. There are also some manga that aren’t necessarily for children but provide furigana for the tough stuff and none for the easy stuff (fine for beginner practice), though you’ll have to poke around to find the perfect level of this for you.

In general, though, I’d recommend only children’s manga for beginners. It will be simple enough to read yet difficult enough to make you struggle (and learn). You’ll also get images to help with context, which will help you to understand more how the words and grammar are working together to form Japanese.

As for finding manga? If you’re lucky, you’ll live near a Japanese bookstore (Kinokuniya, for example). If you’re not so lucky, you can always order off Amazon or some dropshipping service. If you live in Japan or visit Japan, though, children’s manga can be found for super cheap especially if you get something used. It’s not particularly heavy to carry, either. Just get it on the last day of your trip.

What Else Can Beginners Practice With?

While I started by talking about how reading practice is very limited for beginners, I hope you’ve come away with the feeling that there are options out there for you. That being said, there’s probably plenty more to add to this list.

There’s textbooks with a ton of reading practice in them, workbooks that go with the lessons, sites like JapanesePod101 that have text with their audio lessons, Japanese websites for children, Japanese blogs that use simple Japanese, and I’m sure much, much more. The more you look, the more you’ll end up finding. Hard part is actually looking, though, so hopefully I did some of that work for you just now.

Now, if you’re finding that you’re having trouble studying/reading with any of these, it probably comes down to your kana and kanji level. If this is the case, consider checking out Hiragana42 for your hiragana. If it’s kanji you’re having trouble reading, check out our very own WaniKani. It’s still in beta at the moment of writing this, but if you sign up for the invite list on the homepage you’ll get an invite soon.

So my question to you, is: What beginner’s Japanese reading resources do you use or recommend? Help the Japanese beginners who read this site and give out some of your recommendations in the comments below. If you’re a Japanese beginner you should read these. People often post much smarter things in the comments than I write in the actual article, har.  v(;´༎ຶД༎ຶ`)v

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.