I’ve made a list of little things that I was able to come up with to hopefully help you out. Now, for the most part, these are little things. If you want big things, be sure to check out our ebook, which goes over changes you can make to your learning over 30 days that will save you a butt-load of Japanese learning time.

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Japanese “R” Sound:

A lot of people have trouble with this. A lot of people also get lazy and skip over it after they don’t get it the first time. The longer you skip over this, the harder it will become to correct. Trust me, you want to spend the extra time (an hour? Maybe two?) trying to wrap your tongue around this one so that your R’s sound good later on. It’s one of the biggest pronunciation issues Japanese learners have, and it’d be nice if this wasn’t you, right?

Estimated Time: 2-4 Hours.
Effect: Sound more fluent / native
Get Better: “How To Pronounce The Japanese ‘R’ Sound”

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Foreign Loan Words:

Loan words are foreign words that get converted to Japanese. They sound kind of like the original words, but since the Japanese sounds are somewhat limited in terms of what they can do, they can be kind of weird. The thing is, you know a lot of these loan words. For example, スターバックス (sutaabakkusu) is the word for “Starbucks.” But, it doesn’t sound like Starbucks. When you use a loan word or learn a loan word, don’t get lazy on the pronunciation. It’s too easy to fall back on the original “Starbucks” pronunciation for you, but it’s actually really hard for a Japanese person to understand, meaning your Japanese is plain wrong even though your English is plain right.

Estimated Time: 1-5 minutes per word (decreases over time)
Effect: Japanese people will understand you
Get Better: Strange Katakana Words, Unusual Katakana Words, Katakana Dictionary

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Hiragana ね, れ, わ, ぬ, め, る, ろ, お, and あ:

These hiragana kind of look like each other. Beginner’s of Japanese stumble on these over and over again, which slows them down from getting better at other things. Most of the time, these nine kana will be the weak point of people who have just recently learned hiragana. Less commonly, people will even have trouble with these for months (like, 6-12 months). Really though, all you have to do is sit down and destroy these eight kana in one sitting. Force yourself to recall them. Force yourself to write them. Force yourself to tell them apart. Make flashcards for them. Do what you need to do to make these kana easier than all the other kana. Otherwise, you’re just letting them slow you down.

Estimated Time: 2-3 Hours
Effect: Fewer snags when learning hiragana
Get Better: RealKana

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Learn The Rules Of Kanji Stroke Order

Stroke order isn’t something you should learn for each individual kanji (if you even need to hand write kanji in the first place). Instead, you should learn the general rules of kanji stroke order, then apply them to kanji you’re learning. This way you don’t need to learn each stroke for each kanji. You just learn the kanji and automatically know how to write them correctly 99% of the time.

Estimated Time: 2 hours
Effect: A better ability to focus on kanji learning, the ability to write almost any kanji
Get Better: How To Guess A Kanji’s Stroke Order

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Learn How To Type In Japanese

Since people don’t really handwrite Japanese anymore, it’s a pretty good idea to learn how to type. First you’ll have to set up a Japanese IME on your computer (scroll down and find your operating system). After that, you have to learn how to type as well. There’s a lot of little tricks and subtleties, but to learn how to type the main stuff is actually quite easy. With a little bit of practice, you’ll be typing Japanese (including kanji) in no time!

Estimated Time: 1-2 hours
Effect: The ability to type in Japanese, which has countless side benefits
Get Better: How To Type In Japanese

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Dropping The “U”

A lot of sentence-enders in Japanese end with an “u-sound.” The most common are verbs (in both ます and dictionary form) as well as です. Although they end with an u-sound, most of the time you actually want to drop the “u” in these situations. When you get better at Japanese, you’ll find some times when you can keep it on, but for now learning to get rid of it will make your Japanese sound better overall. It’s one little thing you can change that will make a pretty big impact on how you sound!

Estimated Time: 1 minute
Effect: Sound better
Get Better: n/a

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Solidify Your Katakana

Most people learn hiragana pretty well because they use it a lot. Katakana then comes along and is treated like the unwanted step-child. You feel like you have to learn a whole other “alphabet,” not to mention one that isn’t used as much as hiragana or kanji. If this is you, and you’re at the point where you pretty much know katakana but it’s not natural, spend a few hours (or 10 minutes a day for a couple weeks) making your katakana better. You want to be able to read it just as easily as you read hiragana. Kanji’s already troublesome enough, and these 2-3 hours will make everything else easier going forward. It’s kind of like those “look-alike” hiragana kana I talked about earlier, except an entire “alphabet” worth.

Estimated Time: 2-3 hours
Effect: Ability to read katakana
Get Better: RealKana

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Learn How The Common Particles Work

Particles show up all the time. They’re in between everything. So, you should know how they work, at least in general terms. I’d recommend knowing and understanding the particles は, が, の, も, へ, を, で, に, か, と, や, よ, and ね. If you already have a moderate understanding of them, then that’s good. Make it better. Particles should be things that you don’t have to think about.

Estimated Time: 2 hours
Effect: Reading comprehension +1+1
Get Better: Japanese Particles Cheatsheet

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This is just one of many one-time things that you can do to make your Japanese better. They all take less than 4 hours, so there shouldn’t really be any excuse. Of course, this also depends on your overall level of Japanese. Some of these things will be fixed nearly instantaneously if you’re at a higher level while others will take a bit longer if you don’t have the prior knowledge necessary in the first place (if that’s the case, be sure to integrate these tips into your learning as you go!).

So do you have any tips to add (I bet you do!). Remember, I’m looking for one-time things that will make your Japanese learning experience better overall, not things you do every day to get better (like listening to the radio, studying your SRS, and so on). Let me know what you’d recommend in the comments below! I’m sure your fellow Japanese learners would love to know!

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?

I hope everyone had a fabulous Christmas (if that’s what you celebrate), full of Christmas Cake and KFC. Yum! Fa ra ra ra ra, ra ra ra raaaa!

One of the things that almost every Japanese learner has trouble with (if they’re a native English speaker), is the Japanese “R” sound. More specifically: Ra, ri, ru, re, & ro. Often times, it just ends up being a straight-up “R” sound, which is wrong, or some weird hybrid version of the sound that “L” makes when it’s on the toilet. It’s kind of sad, but very few people have “cracked” the Japanese “R” sound. A good 90% of people have trouble with this, and I’m going to flip that statistic on it’s head. After going through this lesson, 90% of you will be able to pronounce the Japanese R sound perfectly.

How To Do The Japanese “R”

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2wzUuGm7yw']

Until a linguist friend told me about these steps, I was able to do the “R” sound, but it was difficult to explain in a way that most people could understand and see results. How did you do? I’d love to hear from you in the comments. Better? The same? Worse (I hope not).

Fa-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra!

Why, it was just yesterday that I teamed up with Koichi to kick some Katakana butt on edufire. A rather special class, it was – none of your usual vocabulary fluff. We’re talking real, useful katakana and it’s guaranteed to knock the Christmas socks off any native Japanese speaker when they hear you, or Tofugu isn’t a wonky bean-curd fishman! So, let’s get stuck right in to this 2-part blog post – Gakuranman x Tofugu – Fluency through Katakana Special!

I went for a vintage look with the slides – what do you reckon? Is the ‘Fugu a classic fish yet or still wet around the gills?

So, there are four Japanese alphabets, but you already knew that, right? For those of you just starting out, let me explain:

Romaji – Simply Japanese written with the English alphabet. Steer well clear of this lest you want to end just floundering around in Japan. You’ll need to be able to read the signs, so at a bear minimum you should learn the hiragana and katakana alphabets.

Hiragana – The Sexy Alphabet. For Sexy People. Why? Because it’s curvaceous, dynamic and feminine. Well, not really feminine, but I like to think of it as so ;). So soft and curly.

Katakana – Hard, angular and rough. The natural masculine alphabet, right? You’ll notice that the strokes are generally straighter and the letters more rigid.

Kanji – And kanji, everyone’s favourite, originating from China. Be thankful that it’s Japanese you’re studying – the Chinese need to learn about 10,000 kanji in contrast to Japan’s 3000 basic kanji!

And here is above, just for your reference. The amazing katakana alphabet!

Now we’re getting to the meat of it! There are so many uses for katakana, you can’t even count them on one hand! You probably know that it’s generally used for writing foreign words, but what else? Perhaps you know it’s for emphasising words too? Good! But there are more uses, oh yes! It’s used to write onomatopoeia, those lovely buzz-words that sound just like they’re written, as well as scientific and medical terms that have kanji that are simply to difficult to waste time remembering. You’ll also find that katakana is used to write people’s names, joins two words together and generally compresses everything down into one tiny little word. The most popular type are the 4-syllable words!

The examples on the intro slide are nice and basic:

ズボン – Trousers (or for you Americans who can seem to distinguish between underwear and trousers, I guess you’d call them pants).
ピンポン – Ping-Pong! The sound of a doorbell.
チョウ – Very/Super/Extra – an emphatic word.
ホモ・サピエンス – Homo Sapiens. Us, basically.
ワンピース – A one-piece dress. Two words combined.
パソコン – A PC (personal computer). Two words combined and shortened into a classic 4-syllable marvel.

So what’s first? Foreign Barbarians of course! All of the following words come from various countries. Bonus points and Tofugu-shaped cookies to those readers who can identify which word comes form which country in the comment below!

ピエロ – Clown. Like em or loath em?
アルバイト – Part time work. This word is used a lot in Japan.
クレーム – A claim or complaint about something.
サイン – A sign. No, no. Not that kind of sign… The signature, autograph kind!
ジョッキ – A beer-mug. Perplexing.
チャック – A zip. Ever forget to do yours up?
スナック – A…snack?? Nope, this is a Snack Bar in Japan. Usually a place where men go to drink and chat to the owners and often women who work there.
キャスター – A newscaster. Need good vocals for this job.
コンセント – You’ll never get my consent to marry my daughter! Not quite…this consent is a mains plug that you stick in the wall.
シール – Stickers! I must get some Gakuranman ones made…
ウイルス – A virus. Used a lot in the media recently with all the chatter of flu.
ドライバー – A screwdriver! Who would have thought…

Here’s some more. Just so many to choose from!

トランプ – Cards (Trump cards). Anyone ever played trumps?
バイキング – Oh-ho. Those dastardly Vikings. But no, this means an ‘all-you-can-eat’ restaurant.
マント – A cloak or a cape. Interesting, I could have sworn it was Tofugu’s arch nemesis, Manta-ray!
マンション – An upper-market apartment. Not a mansion.
アンケート – A questionnaire!
ホッチキス – A…hot kiss? Hah, you wouldn’t want to kiss this. It means a stapler.
ノルマ – A quota (business term, I think).
パンク – Not a punk rocker unfortunately, but a puncture.
フロント – The front of a hotel. A.k.a reception desk.
メイク – Koichi’s personal favourite. Makeup.
レンジ – A range of..? Nope, microwave I’m afraid.
レントゲン – An x-ray. Woo.

Okay, so let’s check out some hot little onomatopoeia. Ka-ching!

ペチャクチャ – A rabble of chattering grannies.
ピカピカ – Shiny and sparkly. Most likely where the yellow poke-rat got his name.
パンパン – A bloated full stomach. Go figure.
コグコグ – To drink in gulps and gulps.
ニコニコ – *Grin*
ペラペラ – (Italian Voice) I’m-a so pera-pera. Means fluent!
フワフワ – Floaty-light or airy. Also used to describe sickness when you feel faint or drunk.
プンプン – Ever seen those cute Japanese girls that fail trying to look angry by puffing their cheeks out? Yup, that’s pun-pun. Anger.
ブツブツ – Mumble-mumble-mumble. Sources say Koichi does this a lot.
ドンドン – Rapidly. We’ve gotta get going! Up the pace!
ゲロゲロ – Ribbit-ribbit. I love frogs. Anyone know if there are any frogs that are bioluminescent?
パクパク – Chomp-chomp. Munch-much.

Well, how are you doing back there? There are some pretty tricky words here, but don’t let them faze you if you are having trouble keeping up! When you’re ready for more, head on over to Gakuranman.com for the continuation and find out splendid words like ‘a flash of pants’, ‘handsome middle-aged man’, ‘close physical contact’ and the euphemism for being fired!

But that’s not all! The second part to this Katakana Special can be found here on Gakuranman.com: Unusual Katakana Words

Michael is the author of a fantastic blog called Gakuranman (schoolboy coat man), who writes about Japan, bioluminescence, and how to learn Japanese. Of course, when he isn’t looking at colorful sea creatures, you can even find him on hanging out with neon birds on Twitter. If you missed our fantastic live class, be sure to catch us next time by signing up at eduFire!