Learning Japanese - The Nihongo FAQ

I started out just like any aspiring Japanese language learner might--I was exposed to anime, manga and Japanese food by friends throughout my adolescent and teen years. I didn't actually start learning Japanese until I started university, however. I studied it for 4 years, and graduated with a minor in the Japanese language. I would have majored in it, but at the time my university's Japanese Language Department was nowhere near as large as it is now and they didn't offer a major in Japanese until recently. After graduating from university, I moved to Japan where I lived and worked for 3 years as an English instructor on the JET Programme.

I lived in a really small town out in the Japanese countryside, and it was not foreigner-friendly. I say that in the sense that it wasn't geared towards tourism and foreigners, so everything was in Japanese and there was no English to be found. The people were extremely friendly to me, but they spoke absolutely no English. All the restaurants in my town were little mom-and-pop businesses with handwritten menus in kanji and no pictures. My job required me to interact with coworkers in Japanese, talk on the phone in Japanese, read memos in Japanese, etc. I soon realized that if I didn't learn to read, and do it quickly, I wouldn't last in this little town. Sure, I had a minor in Japanese, but prior to graduating from university I had no intentions of ever living in Japan so I never took my studies as seriously as I should have. So I basically had to learn everything over again (and even unlearn a lot things since spoken Japanese is nothing like textbook Japanese).

The only English exposure I had in this kind of environment was when I went home and surfed the Internet. I listened to the radio in Japanese, I watched Japanese TV, and made Japanese friends. I also made friends with non-Japanese people from other countries (Taiwan, Italy, Brazil, etc.), and our only common language was Japanese. Needless to say, I learned Japanese very fast in this environment. I kind of had to--it was sink or swim. In fact, I learned more Japanese in my first 3 months in Japan than I did in 4 years of undergraduate study.

In addition to passively absorbing Japanese through immersion, in my first year I went through the JET Programme intermediate Japanese correspondence course. After completing the course, I took Level 3 (now called N4) of the JLPT. At the end of the academic school year when my students were on summer break and I had no classes to teach, my contracting organization sent me to an intense Japanese language course for six weeks at the Japan Foundation Japanese-Language Institute in Kansai. I wasn't allowed to speak English the entire time

Within a year I started translating correspondence for the board of education where I was employed, and within two years I was doing translation projects for the municipal city hall (local government translations). I also picked up Japanese calligraphy and started writing haiku in Japanese.

I still wouldn't call myself a "professional" translator per se, but I was involved in some professional translations. The only Japanese certification I have is that I've passed Level 1 (now called N1) of the JLPT.

Although I don't live in Japan anymore, I do a number of things to keep up my Japanese. I write a Japanese blog on mixi (sorry, it requires a Japanese cell phone to register). I keep in touch with Japanese friends via e-mail. I read manga only in the original Japanese. I read novels in Japanese as well, but I'll talk about that in a section of my guide below. I watch Japanese clips on YouTube and stream Japanese radio. I play a lot of Japanese games on the DS and on the PS3 (I created a Japanese PSN account to download Japanese demos). Currently I'm a medical student and I am a volunteer medical translator at the hospital. So lately (for the past year) I have been focusing my Japanese study efforts on learning clinical jargon.

That all said, I still have a hard time calling myself "fluent" in Japanese even though I can certainly get by, and even thrive in Japan with my language ability. I'm sure there are 'Tempers around here who are much more proficient than I am, but I hope this thread can bring the lurkers out of the woodworks to share their wisdom.

In total, I have been learning Japanese for 13 years, and I continue to study it. With this thread, I'll be sharing any tips, tricks and websites I picked up (and continue to pick up) along the way. I will also include tips shared by others in this topic. My hope is that this thread can attract some aspiring learners (as well as masters) of the language of ninjas, and generate more interest in the language.

Setting up your PC to view/type in Japanese characters

My favorite Nihongo bookmarks
alc.co.jp

How to study Japanese? Depends on what your ultimate goals are.

After you have some basic reading ability, go to Tae Kim's guide to learn some basic grammar:
http://www.guidetoja...g/learn/grammar

At the same time you should learn as much vocabulary as you can. Don't waste your time with words that you only find in manga/anime/games. Learn some real words that you can use in actual conversations without coming across as a weeaboo, for Christ's sake. "Dattebayo" isn't a real word.

Once you master the kana, some grammar and vocab, you should go to a manga website that offers the raw scans as well as the translated scans. Look for anything by Shonen Jump (Naruto, Bleach, Death Note, etc.) because Shonen Jump comics have kana next to all the kanji so you know how to pronounce it and look it up in a dictionary if you need to. Download both the raw and "scanlated" versions so you can read the Japanese, try to figure out what it means on your own, then look at the English version after you've tried to guess. In general I've found the "scanlations" to be pretty accurate. Sorry I can't provide links to manga websites because it's copyrighted material, but they're a lot easier to find than ROM sites so you should have no problems.

You should immerse yourself in Japanese as much as possible. Check here for tips on how to do it:
http://www.alljapane...etime.com/blog/

If your goal is to be fluent at speaking (without learning to read), I would suggest going with Pimsleur's Japanese audio CDs. They're pricey (retails for ~$1000 for all 3 volumes), but they can be ninja'd.

For listening skills, you should listen to Japanese podcasts or watch Japanese clips on YouTube. Of course, this isn't for beginners. You should try all of the things I listed above, and once you've gained a basic understanding of Japanese, listening, reading and speaking will fall into place. After all, you can't pick up spoken words with your ears if you don't even know they exist. You have to have knowledge of a word before you can start to hear it in a conversation.

For textbooks I think the Genki volumes 1 and 2 are pretty good for beginners. Those can be ninja'd as well, including the Genki audio CDs.

Advanced: Use a dictionary meant for Japanese people. When you encounter a word you don't know, look up its definition--in Japanese.
http://www.sanseido.net/
http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/

Checking Japanese grammar and phrases using Google

Context:
Don't learn the meaning of a word without some context. Read some sample sentences using the word.
なくす vs. 負ける (both mean "to lose")
Lose (misplace, accidentally drop) an object
Lose (be defeated in) a match

lose a pen
ペンを負ける
ペンをなくす

Creating a Japanese PSN account

I can think of many good reasons to learn Japanese, but I'll focus on the reasons that pertain to the interests of this community.

• Manga: This requires little explanation, but there are a couple points to be noted here. Although scanlation groups are pretty fast and accurate about translating manga and making it available to the rest of the world, there are just some things that can't be translated. The Japanese are big on puns, kanji-play and pop culture references, and frequently use them in manga. Some scanlation groups are good about putting little translation notes in the margins, but most groups don't bother. The only way to catch all the little nuances that are lost in translation is to read the manga in its purest form, the way it was intended to be read in Japanese.
  
  
• Anime: Pretty much the same as manga, sans the kanji element. Another thing to note is that regardless of what anyone might tell you, you can't learn Japanese simply by watching subbed anime.
  
  
• Video Games:
  
  Q: What's more awesome than playing a game on its release date in the West?
  A: Playing it when it's released in Japan, that's what!
  Let's face it. If gaming is a big part of your life and you had to learn another language, then Japanese would be the language to learn, hands-down. Games are almost always released in Japan first, and unless you know Japanese, you have to wait for months or years for an English release, and sometimes the game will never be released outside of Japan. Then you're at the mercy of translation patches. Many are poorly done, and most never get finished, so you just end up disappointed. If you can read Japanese, this would be a non-issue. Knowing Japanese opens up an entire new library of games to you that others just wouldn't have access to. You can also check out gaming news before it's translated into English, watch Satoru Iwata's keynote speeches in real time without requiring subtitles, and as a result you'll have an edge over other 'Tempers if you enjoy being the first to post gaming news on GBAtemp. The possibilities are endless.
  
  
• Translating ROMs:
  
  Of course this is a long-term goal, but even the best translators have to start from zero. The problem with translating is that anyone can call themselves a "translator." But very few "translators" actually have the skill to back up their claim. Most "translators" are just using Google Translate or some other online machine translator, which yields sub-par translation patches. You should call yourself a "translator" only if you can [1] read Japanese on your own (such as an image), and [2] can come up with an equivalent English sentence (or other target language) that makes sense to your target audience. You can only do this by studying Japanese; there are no shortcuts to acquiring this skill.
  

It's understandable that when you first start learning Japanese, you're going to have to use Romaji, though you're going to want to leave that crutch right away. In fact, if I were teaching Japanese, I'd make my students learn all of the kana before even teaching them any vocabulary or grammar.

In order to see kana and kanji, you're going to have to set up Japanese input on your PC. I won't go into depth here because there are tons of guides online on how to do this, but here's one that I've found explains it pretty well. I believe that all current versions of Mac OS already support Japanese text without having to do anything special. If anyone encounters any problems, I'll expand this section based on feedback.

If you want to read manga or play games in Japanese, then the obvious first step would be to learn how to read kana. If you're truly motivated you can learn all of the kana in one weekend--it's really not that hard. It's the kanji that takes a long time. There's even a book that claims to be able to teach the kana in 6 hours (3 each for hiragana and katakana). I've never used it so I can't vouch for its effectiveness, but if it's possible to learn them in 6 hours, then it's certainly possible to learn them in a weekend. If you want to be conservative, give yourself a week to learn them all. It may seem like a lot to learn in such a small amount of time for the uninitiated, but you'd be surprised how fast you pick them up if you seriously give it a try.

Writing - Stroke Order
Any website that shows you the kana tables (both hiragana and katakana) would work, but ideally you want to see the stroke order (exactly how to write it--here's an example of the stroke order for the character あ) as well. Stroke order is important to the writing of Japanese, so you should learn how to write them correctly from the very beginning. If you don't know how to read a kanji but you know the stroke order, you'll be able to look it up in a dictionary. Click on each kana in this table and you'll be taken to a page that shows you an animation of the proper stroke order.

Pronunciation - Audio Files
Use this as a guide to pronouncing the characters. As far as I can tell they are pronounced by a native Japanese speaker, so practice until your pronunciation is exactly the same as the model.
How to pronounce hiragana
How to pronounce katakana

First and foremost, if you don't use Firefox, you need to install it. Now. The only reason I would ever shove a browser down someone's throat is because of Rikaichan, arguably the most awesome plugin ever created for reading/studying Japanese. When you enable this plugin, all you have to do is hover your mouse over a Japanese word and it will tell you how to pronounce it as well as its definition in English. You have to learn how to read kana before you can use it though. It only shows you the kanji pronunciations in kana; there is no Romaji mode.

Google Chrome has its own version as well, called Rikaikun. It's not as developed with features as Rikaichan, but it does allow you to read Japanese websites. Thanks to mrratburn for alerting me to the existence of Rikaikun.

I'm sure most, if not all of you have heard of My Japanese Coach. It starts off with Romaji and eventually gets around to covering kana. In my opinion it doesn't get into kana quickly enough, but if you're looking for a leisurely pace, this might be a fun way to ease yourself into reading kana.

Kanji in Context is a series of books that teaches the reading of kanji using a method of which I highly approve. Unfortunately, if you live outside of Japan, it may be difficult to get a hold of these titles (you can get them on Amazon, but for a marked-up price). I spent an entire summer making Stackz flashcards for the books, which I can share with you. These flashcards can be used to learn the readings of the kanji, but without the books, you won't really get much context, which is the main point of this textbook series.

More to come...

Once you have a strong command of kanji, you have access to an entire library of DS games that you can use to hone your reading skills. Here's a website that lists a few of them.

List of DS Titles that Help Improve Your Japanese: This is a list compiled by Seicomart.
Another List: This one is by Cyan.

Thanks to Seicomart and Cyan for their contributions!

Yoji jukugo (四字熟語) are idiomatic phrases made up of 4 kanji. Historically they have been derived from Chinese, but the Japanese may have invented many of their own.

Here's an example:
風林火山 (fuurinkazan) - literally "wind, forest, fire, mountain"

This was Takeda Shingen's favorite phrase during the Sengoku period of Japan. It means "move as swift as a wind, stay as silent as forest, attack as fierce as fire, undefeatable defense like a mountain."

There are somewhere in the several tens of thousands of these phrases. Here's a site where you can search for them. They even include English definitions for them.

Thanks mister_C for the suggestion!

Remembering the Kanji, by James W. Heisig, is a somewhat controversial way to memorize kanji. I placed it in the "Miscellaneous" category because you can actually start using this method at any point during your studies. Khatzumoto recommends doing it at the very beginning of your Nihongo journey before even learning hiragana and katakana, but I started this method after I had already passed N1 of the JLPT.

The controversy behind Heisig's method is the bold claim that it's possible to learn how to write 2042 kanji within a year, and even in a few months if you're dedicated. The drawback (also part of the controversy) is that it only teaches you how to write and understand the meanings of the kanji, but not how to read them. In other words, when you encounter a Japanese word that you've never seen before, you will be able to figure out the meaning of the word, but you won't be able to pronounce it. Many people can't justify spending so much effort on learning the kanji and not being able to read a single one; however, there is a second volume that teaches you how to read the kanji. I had heard about this method a long time ago when I was still beginning my Japanese studies, but never checked it out until I reached a plateau in my traditional approach to studying. By the time I started using this method, I already knew how to pronounce most of them so I never used the second volume.

When I finished the book, I was able to write more kanji than all of my Japanese friends. They would test me with kanji that they could never remember and I would always get it right (including the stroke order, which the Japanese people are really anal about). I had accomplished in 6 months what took them 12+ years. They were even asking me to show them the correct stroke order for certain kanji. Needless to say, they were impressed. The problem with this is that once you learn them all, you really need to upkeep it by drilling every day. If you don't write the kanji in your everyday life, you will forget it all quickly. I started this method near the end of my stay in Japan, and finished it after I had already moved back to the US. Since I had no reason to write in Japanese once I moved back home, I lost a lot of what I had memorized and now can only write about half of the kanji, if even that anymore. And a lot of the kanji that I can remember are ones that aren't even commonly used. If I had to change the way I did this method, I would have started it in the beginning of my stay in Japan so I would have had more of an opportunity to practice writing in Japanese while I lived in Japan.

I would not recommend using this book while taking a traditional Japanese course, because it wasn't designed for classroom use. You learn the kanji in a different order from how they're presented in traditional Japanese courses, and trying to study Japanese while using this book at the same time would be detrimental to your learning. In fact, the goal of this method is not to teach Japanese; it's to teach you how to write kanji. After you've spent several months learning from this book, you will still not know ANY Japanese. However, if you decide you want to go with this route first, you should dedicate all of your energies to it and not learn to read until you've mastered all of the kanji.

It's not for everyone, but if you have the discipline to get through this, you will have mastered the most difficult part of kanji. Learning to read it is nowhere near as difficult as being able to recall and write every kanji in use by the Japanese today.

Links:

• Review on Remembering the Kanji: This is an objective review of the book.
  
• Another Review: Many will disagree with the Heisig method, so to be fair I included a link to a review by someone who hated the method.
  
• Remembering the Kanji - Sample: This is a direct PDF download of the first several chapters of the book, available for free through their official Nanzan University publications website. If Heisig's method interests you, you should read the "Introduction" if anything. The introduction explains the method in detail and Heisig's rationale for learning the kanji this way. He also tells the story about how he developed the method as a beginning student while studying Japanese in Kamakura in "The Story Behind this Book."
  
• Reviewing the Kanji: A website dedicated to helping users with drilling and reviewing the kanji they have learned using the Heisig method.
  
• Remembering the Kanji Flashcards: These flashcards are designed to be used with Heisig's method, and they're made available by none other than the developer of Rikaichan.
  

• The Japanese Page: This is a forum dedicated to anything and everything Japanese, with a strict focus on the language. It has a great community, the members on that forum take their learning seriously and are very helpful. I've been a member there since 2005, though I use my real name on that forum. Please don't register there if you're a weeaboo. Serious learners only, please.
  
• Gaijinass: Japan-related articles written by a guy who lives there. Good reading for anyone who wants a unique perspective on the culture and society.
  
• Human Japanese Mini-Review: By Phoenix Goddess
  
• Awesome Video: Somewhere in my Japan archives is a video I took of a 6-year-old blonde-haired, blue-eyed Caucasian girl from Canada freely switching back and forth between speaking fluent Japanese and English (I'll post it when I find it and have time to upload it to YouTube)...
  
• More to Come...
  
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