Japanese language overview: Final advice

Peter's Five Tips for Learning Japanese

Here are the best tips I can give you for successful study of Japanese. Remember the disclaimer at the beginning of this article -- that I am naturally biased towards thinking that what I did to learn Japanese was best because "it worked for me" (remember, the Higurashi Effect). I learned Japanese partially by being really on fire to master Japanese for four years, and I created many mechanisms in my life to help me reach that goal. These comments are from the heart, so I hope they're useful for you...

 

1. Find a Structured Course and Stick With It

Whenever I get email from someone who is trying to learn Japanese by himself, through some sort of cassette, software or textbook system, I think back to the months before my first semester of college began. It was summer of 1987, and I was working a temp job at an airline doing data entry.

I was so excited about the coming adventure of college, yet I knew Japanese had to be hard, otherwise more people would speak it, if only to watch all that anime. (This was the veritable Wild West of anime fandom, when we all watched anime in Japanese, and didn't understand dick of what was going on.) So I got a nice book, entitled something like Beginning Japanese, and started self-study.

I probably did better then many, but somewhere around chapter 7, the first truly difficult part rose up and slapped me in the face -- I think it was memorizing the informal verbs -- and I eventually ground to a halt.

The same might not be true for you, but I believe it's all but impossible to study something as hard as Japanese without a) a teacher to answer questions and provide feedback; b) a structured class, to keep you coming in at the predetermined time; and c) other students, to bounce Japanese off of and share experiences with.

I learned Japanese at an American university that had an excellent course, with great teachers and TA's, so I recommend university study. If you have the opportunity to come to Japan, and either attend a dedicated school for the study of Japanese (there are many), or merely a weekly Japanese class at a teacher's house, these are also great methods. (But please remember my comments about learning with a textbook that uses romaji instead of forcing you into hiragana right away, when choosing any course.)

One possible exception to my advice about finding a structured course is using the annual Nihongo Noryoku Shiken as a guide to studying. Held every December at sites in Japan and a few cities around the world, this government-sponsored program is a four-tiered test of Japanese ability. Level four tests basic kana and 100 kanji; levels 3, 2 and 1 get progressively harder, until you're ready to attend a Japanese university (if that's your goal). I still think having a regular class with a teacher is the way to go; but making the Japanese test the "backbone" of your study might be worthwhile.

Someone once told me that, even if Japanese is really hard for you, if you go to all the classes and do the homework, your Japanese ability will increase every semester and you'll constantly be happy with your progress. Even if you're not totally understanding the current material, doing regular assignments will guarantee that you'll constantly move forward in your comprehension.

 

2. Find what Floats your Boat

By the time I started studying Japanese at SDSU back in 1987, I had already predisposed myself towards succeeding by embracing Japanese pop culture. I believe one of the best ways you can succeed in learning Japanese is being in love with aspects of Japan. Virtually anything that gets your juices flowing will be fine: anime, manga, dojinshi, Japanese pop music, martial arts, Japanese film, calligraphy, archery, origami, sushi preparation -- heck, Japanese adult videos are even a fun and interesting way to get into the language.

I did many things to make it easy and fun to learn Japanese:

• I had learned to love such anime classics as Macross, Megazone 23, and Vampire Hunter D, and I yearned to understand what I was watching. I watched the show Kimagure Orange Road, which was not available subtitled in those days, and had to struggle with the Japanese I was hearing in order to understand the show.
• I listened to Japanese pop music that friends made for me, and stepped into a whole new world of great music that was both fun to listen to, satisfied my need to be different and rebellious (how many people drive around blasting Matsuda Seiko and TM Network in their car?), and provided me with a great opportunity to expand by Japanese vocabulary since I was constantly hearing new words.
• I took up karaoke, and learned that writing out Japanese songs I wanted to learn not only made them easy to sing on stage, but also was a great way to memorize words. And being the only foreigner in the room who can stand up and belt out a song in Japan was great fun -- the "do whatever gets you attention from pretty Japanese girls" factor is not to be underestimated in language study.
• I would go up to Little Tokyo in Los Angeles and buy manga to read: Orange Road, Dragonball, Touch, and so on. (Note: this was 1987, reading Dragonball was extremely "edge," unlike today.) Being involved in an interesting and engrossing story that just happens to be written in Japanese is a great way to learn a language. I overdid it a little, though, and had to un-learn some of the Japanese I picked up from Fist of the North Star.
• On several occasions I rented Japanese dramas from the local Asian rental store (most towns have them, if you look around), and was able to enjoy some great Japanese TV, see wacky and fun Japanese commercials, and hear the sounds of Japan (I love the way those train crossings sound).

These things were fine for me, but different aspects of Japan will almost certainly appeal to you. I had a friend who loved kendo, and began studying Japanese as a side-activity to his kendo training. Another friend came here from Australia on a farming exchange, and found he enjoyed Japanese archery (kyudo). He kept at it until he finally took the top spot in the prefecture for his level. Other friends have gotten into Japan and Japanese life through obscure Japanese films, through hentai games (adult anime RPGs), and not the least, through imbibing large amounts of alcohol with good Japanese friends. If you're going to give learning Japanese a try, you should prepare to find some cool Japan-related hobbies.

 

3. Be "8X"

Consider the CD ROM drive in your computer right now. A long time ago, they were "2x" meaning they could read twice the speed of the first generation of CD ROMs. I look at many Japanese students of English who perform at 1 or 2 "x", meaning that they attend a weekly class, maybe, and do some English-related homework. This is, they think, "enough."

When I was studying Japanese, it was not enough to be "2x" -- to attend my regular Japanese class and do my assigned homework. No, I was adding Japanese-related activities that increased the total input of Japanese I got in my daily life. I'd go to college at 8:00 am, and finish up my daily Japanese homework assignment. I'd finish a couple chapters of the Jump manga I had with me, then I'd study some other lessons, while listening to my latest Chage & Aska or Psy-s CD. While working in the library shelving microfiche, listening to my Gundam Singles History CD, then translate some JPOP songs for friends.

The shotgun "clustering" of Japanese-related activities I found myself doing was one of the ways that I succeeded in studying the Japanese language. It's something you should try to do to.

 

4. Make Friends

College in America was great fun, especially when I realized that there were dozens of Japanese people on campus who were interested in being friends with Americans. I was part of the SDSU "Japanese-American Friendship Club" and took part in many fun activities. When I needed to find a place to live, I was happy to find out that there were houses with all Japanese students living in them, that I could rent a room in.

Even if you're not in college, there are ways to meet fun Japanese people who can teach you about Japan at the same time. The great dream of many Japanese people is to learn English, and they go overseas in great numbers to study. Making friends with them is a great idea.

I'll also mention that Japanese women are really wonderful (I married one). Finding a great girl can be an impetus to study and can add an important third dimension to the country and the language. It should be noted that for international couples, only one (you or her) will be able to excel at their partner's language. If you really, really want to learn Japanese, don't go out with a girl who really, really wants to learn English, or you'll just be butting heads.

Finally, consider coming here to study or work. For anyone interested in the prospect of teaching English in Japan, see my related article elsewhere in this page.

 

5. Never Give Up

This one is a no-brainer, but you should think for a bit about the size of the mountain you're considering climbing when you begin study of Japanese. Studying Japanese is not something you just end, not if you're going to do it right.

Any way you slice it, if you're going to begin studying Japanese seriously, you should follow through and be aware of your goals, so that you'll be satisfied.

 

That's it

Well, these are my comments. I hope they were helpful!

 

Comments from Readers:

 

From: wataru <wataru@mailandnews.com>
Subject: "So, you wanna learn Japanese?"

 

Hi.

I read your article "So, you wanna learn Japanese?" I enjoyed it very much. Forgive me for skipping the sections about hiragana and katakana (I'm in 6th-year Japanese in my high school).

I just thought you might be interested, potentially for your "whatever floats your boat" section, in my method of keeping immersed in Japanese despite living in the vast cultureless wasteland that is the American midwest. My method is: video games. I've completed Final Fantasy 8, Seiken Densetsu 3, Legend of Mana, Tales of Phantasia, and many others--all in Japanese.

Video games are a big draw for my age group and are excellent for testing one's reading and comprehension. However, because I play so many games, my vocabulary is most definitely not the norm for students of Japanese. (Here are some examples of the words I picked up from Tales of Phantasia: mahou, bougyo, maryoku, taosu, shinobu, etc. Many don't occur so much in everyday conversations.) The only thing they don't help with is speech, but does one really want to read aloud all the text in a game? I got some very strange looks from my family members when I did that.

And another nice thing is that the games retain much replay value--the second time through FF8 I understood a lot more than before.

 

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