In our study of languages, we all experience difficulties in our path to fluency - whatever fluency may mean to you. Everyone has their own learning methods and develops their own studying habits along the way. As you know, I’m a big advocate of immersion learning. Immersion learning is gaining traction lately, but I realized I was using this method unconsciously during my early days of studying Japanese. For what it’s worth, I’ll share what worked for me below. Hopefully this will give you some ideas for your own study routine.
Formal classes and textbooks
Let me start off by saying that, if you’re a complete beginner, it pays to use one of the standard textbooks like Minna no Nihongo or Genki, and to take formal classes with a teacher who corrects your beginner mistakes.This will help you to grasp basic grammatical patterns and to get familiar with common vocabulary. But also realize that exposing you to basic vocabulary and grammar is all these methods do. They do not exist to help you gain actual fluency, and often do not reflect how Japanese is used in reality.
How to immerse yourself
After you’ve spent some time with these standardized methods, you might want to consider moving on to the next stage and immerse yourself in the language. Here is what I did (and still do as often as I can).
Create the right environment.
In order to prepare your brain for immersion, you need to create a distraction-free environment. The world around us constantly demands our attention. We need to come up with ways to cut these distractions out of our lives for extended periods of time. During my first two years at university, I lived in an apartment without tv, internet connection, radio, newspaper, etc. (this was 2005, before the birth of smartphones). I’m not sure if I would recommend this level of seclusion, but the takeaway here is that it helps to free yourself from distractions, get away from your screen by using pen and paper to make notes, and create an environment conducive to deep focus.
Read a lot.
For me, written language was a big part of my initial draw to the Japanese language. So after finishing a standard textbook, I immersed myself by reading novels. I use the term ‘reading’ loosely here; it was more like solving a puzzle. I had to look up every word and grammar structure and forced my way through my first novel (it was Murakami’s 国境の南、太陽の西). I spent five hours a day for two months reading that book. In the end, I only got to page 150. And yet, I noticed an immense jump in my reading ability after this experience.
Don’t panic when you don’t understand everything.
This point builds on the last, but because the experience of looking up all of the vocabulary and grammar structures and still not understanding what a sentence means can feel so incredibly frustrating, it’s sometimes difficult to keep motivated. But don’t get discouraged and keep going. I’m not saying you should skim over the parts that you don’t understand; instead, spend some time with the sentence, read it out loud a few times, take in the rhythm of the words, and move on. As you progress, these issues tend to work themselves out over time.
Watch Japanese series, movies, and comedy shows without subtitles.
I don’t know about you, but if there are any subtitles in any language that I understand, I automatically HAVE to read them. My eyes are just drawn to them, even though I perfectly understand what is being said. If you recognize this, consider turning off the subtitles, and instead focus on the original audio and engage with it in some way. You can transcribe what you’ve heard. You can pause in the middle of a scene and reply to what someone has said as if you were reacting to the actor on the screen. Or you can simply mimic and repeat the phrases you hear. These phrases often shouldn’t be used in real life, but it’ll allow you to get familiar with the sounds, accents and rhythm of the language.
Immediately use what you’ve learned.
Once I had learned new words or phrases, but was unsure how to use them in specific situations, I would just try them out in conversations with native speakers and gauge their reaction. Often, people won’t tell you outright that you’re making a mistake, but in some cases you can feel something is off when you’ve used a new word of phrase incorrectly. In any case, turn your input into output as you progress. You can also do this by writing short essays or diary entries.
Make Japanese friends.
This is kind of an obvious tip, but I’ll add that it’s important to make friends who have interests similar to yours, so that you can actually engage in activities together and interact in Japanese in a more ‘organic’ way, for lack of a better term. This way you can avoid the awkardness of a mechanical ‘language exchange’ with someone who doesn’t share your interests.
Create a healthy rivalry.
This was a major factor in my development. I was lucky to have someone in my year who was just as motivated as I was. We became best friends and still are today. We would challenge each other in various ways every single day. I remember many ‘I-bet-you-can’t-read-this-kanji’ moments back in the day. Forging a healthy rivalry with a friend who shares your interest and drive can really create momentum for your studies.
Don’t compare yourself to others.
This might seem to contradict my last point, but what I mean to say is that it’s important to avoid comparing yourself with others in unhealthy ways. When you compare yourself to your favorite language guru on YouTube, or perhaps even to someone in your class who is only slightly ahead of you, you feel like you’re ‘behind’. On the other hand, if you always compare yourself with people who aren’t as far in their language learning journey as you, you might get smug or arrogant. Both ways of comparison are sure-fire ways to hamper your progress. In the end, you can only strive to become better than you were yesterday, because there will always be someone who is better (or worse) than you.
Get outside of your comfort zone.
Make sure you’re always punching above your weight. If you keep to a level that you know you can already do, you’re likely to make next to no progress. Getting out of that comfort zone can be painful, but that just means you’re making progress. If you get stuck, you can always turn here and ask your question to the Bunsuke community.
Avoid complacency.
Once you reach a certain level, it’s easy to feel satisfied with the progress you’ve made. Of course, it’s important to celebrate your achievements. But in my experience, lingering in this feeling of accomplishment leads to regression. Once you close yourself off from learning new things, your brain simply won’t register or store additional information. Maintaining your motivation and hunger to keep learning is the key to staying on course and improving your abilities.
Immersion learning is a slow process. It’s is a long-term project that takes effort and patience. But to me, it never actually felt like work. Even now, I simply enjoy the process and avoid fixating on results. After all these years of studying, I still have good and bad days, but I never beat myself up over the bad days, and try not to get carried away on the good ones. Just enjoy doing the work, and the results will follow.
Which methods do you use to increase your fluency? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Hi Bunsuke! Thanks for the tips and I noticed that you wrote that you read 5 hours a day. For me this is very impressive because although I do have the time to read, I just don't have the mental energy of that caliber ( The max I can do is 1 hour a day). Any tips on how to do that? do you check every word that you don't know the meaning at the dictionary? Or am I doing it wrong?
Hi Harry, thanks for the generous comment! Those 5 hours refer only to that one summer where I was determined to read and finish my first book. One hour is perfect, especially if you can keep doing it every day consistently over a longer period of time. I now read about 3 hours a day, but that's because it's part of my full time job. An hour per day, or even 30 minutes a day, is already great! As long as you keep the consistency you should notice the returns over time. If you have, say, a month off over the summer, you might want to consider doing a week of intensive reading multiple hours per day to give yourself a boost, but this is probably not sustainable over longer periods of time (at least not for me). So don't worry, you're doing fine! Keep up the great work!
Thanks for the reply! I am currently in the middle of my holidays so I am planning to do just that. And by intensive reading, what is your method of doing that? Do you just read non-stop for a certain amount of time? Or do you write down words/phrases that are unfamiliar to you on paper? I don't really know how to approach this the best way, so any help is appreciated.
I did do a lot of writing and note making, but never to review later on. The simple act of writing down words and phrases helped me remember them. Great that you have some time now. I remember I felt like I was drowning in reading. It also feels like you're not making any progress while you're in the process, but you'll notice the benefits later on. Also make sure you take some serious time off after your week of intensive reading. What are you planning on reading?
Well, I am planning on reading a novel. Or maybe a visual novel that has audio/voice lines as I feel like it's easier for me to understand it that way. Are there perhaps any recommendations on what to read?
Perhaps you can start with a collection of short stories. The bulk of Japanese literature consists of short stories, so you'd have a lot of choice. Perhaps you can start with Murakami Haruki. The language is quite accessible, but as his writing is a bit surreal at times it might be a bit confusing at times. Still, a good place to start, I'd say. If you tell me what you're going to read, and I happen to own a copy as well, we can share your 7 day adventure here if you'd like. We can think about what that would look like, but it might be helpful for other people here to participate in the process. What do you think?
I mean I'm down with your recommendation! I am honestly still in the middle of searching for stories to read so if you can lend me the pdf too that could really be helpful for me :D
I would like to know how to get my hands on japanese e-books. Specially s/t like short stories collections. I gather Murakami Haruki is learner friendly.
I can't get them from amazon jp (bc rights? or maybe Im too dumb?), and in western amazons I can only find big blockbuster books like harry potter.
I don't own a Kindle, so I'm not sure, but I believe changing the language and location settings to Japan/Japanese allows you to download books from the Japanese Kindle store.
Yeah give it a try, I recall that it worked for someone I knew, but that was a while ago so perhaps the policy has changed. Still worth a shot.
And no I never read ebooks, only paper. It's a bit of a hassle as they take up a lot of space but I still prefer the feeling of a real book to yet another screen. For me, reading is a time where I can get away from computers, and that's the way I want to keep it.
Have you checked out Aozora Bunko? They have a collection of out-of-copyright stories and books that you can access for free, found here: https://www.aozora.gr.jp
We've read a few short stories from there in the USJETAA Japanese Reading Group (open to everyone and others might have good advice on where to find ebooks). Ogawa Mimei (sometimes called the Japanese Hans Christian Anderson) was fairly learner-friendly, and on Amazon there's a "Classic Japanese Fairy Tales" ebook series with many of his tales in both the Japanese and in translation, in case you want to be able to check your understanding. (I'm sure it's better to struggle, but sometimes it's nice to have a crutch)
It's a great group with very supportive fellow learners :) Daniel Morales is the organizer- I'll send him a note about your newsletter in case he hasn't found it already. He also has a blog over at http://howtojaponese.com
Great tip, Sarah! Ogawa Mimei is such a great writer and very accessible. Miyazawa Kenji is also a great place to start. Thanks again for your comment :)
Hi Bunsuke! I gotta say, I pretty much feel the exact same way about #1 #2 and #3.
#2 and #3 remind me of the time I would go to Japanese websites where Japanese people post their novels and I'd try to read them on a daily basis. Just like you said, it's been hard and I often just skipped lines because I couldn't understand it anyhow (didn't drag me down though, just kept on going). In the end it's been very benefitial for my jp comprehension generally, reading can't be bad right haha
Also the #1 part about distractions and using pen and paper, yeah definitely this! I still sit in front of a laptop with chill music playing silently, but being able to focus and write with your hand truly is great.
Hi Kuba, glad you recognized some of these points! It seems focus is definitely one of the issues most people struggle with. I'm happy to see you found something that works for you and allows you to concentrate.
Thanks for your content Bunsuke! I recently (last week!) took the N5 exam because I wanted to have a clear goal to keep my motivation going, but I was already studying beyond the exam content (specially kanji and more natural japanese). My plan is to keep studying by myself, moving into Minna No Nihongo 4 and Tango N4 books, while trying to read real japanese content.
I'm currently reading "よつばと！", and learning a lot from it. Would you recommend trying to read a book for someone at my level, or is it still too early?
A series recommendation I could watch without subtitles would be great too! I'm trying to watch some of them, but I'd like to know if there's any you could recommend.
Hi Bunsuke! Thank you very very much for the techniques you mentioned! These arrived exactly when I was feeling kinda saturated and didn't know how to go ahead! I'll always be grateful for this one article :) Kore kara mo yoroshiku onegaishimasu!
PS : Looking forward to new stories from you everyday :) :)
Hi Aishwarya, thank you for your thoughtful compliment. I'm really glad these tips helped. If you ever need help, just send me an email and ask me anything. I'm happy to help out.
Hi thank you for this! Curious how you balanced #2 and #3 especially when you were first being able to read novels and books? I hear it referred to in another resource as reading deeply vs reading broadly? Looking up words and grammar can sometimes get very tedious, but I’m never sure how much I’m actually learning, or if I’m missing important points if I just skim along. Did you just feel it come together over time?
Hi Jeff, yes this balance is difficult. It was mostly that, when I read my very first book, I had to look up absolutely everything, and even then I didn't understand many of the sentences. My point here was that in those moments, it's ok if you don't understand everything. I remember I did my best to understand everything, sometimes spending an hour on one sentence. But after that I would just move on. I think most people simply give up because they draw the conclusion that the book is too difficult for them. But I don't agree with this approach. Give it your best effort and move on once you've done everything to understand what it says. After that first book and a short break from reading (about two weeks), I noticed that my reading speed and comprehension had increased when I opened another book. I had to look up less, saw some of the words and patterns I had struggled with in the first book in a different context, which cleared up some of my initial confusion. By repeating this process I got better over time.
And absolutely, looking up things can become tedious. Once you get to a level where you don't have to look up absolutely everything, you might want to consider splitting your days up into "reading days" where you force yourself to keep reading no matter what, and "dictionary days" where you can look up whatever you don't understand.
Thank you so much Bunsuke for your advice. And I will keep your advice in mind, especially about comparing. There is always someone with less time studying Japanese that is better than me and then as you put it I feel 'behind'. The past few days I have been a bit stuck with my Japanese studies. Genki is good, but having come to the last chapters I still feel I can’t speak. It’s all about grammar and vocabulary. All my spare time I’m studying, but without real improvement. As you mentioned I would also want it not to feel like work. I’m getting tried. The “rote memorization” of vocabulary, grammar and kanji, makes me forget more than not. So I’m trying a different approach. I now trying to learn Japanese through stories and found a excellent link on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sBPNXTwpek&list=PLJov1NnDE_N_92MtmRyQknjavXa1oLSuM&index=11 (N5 level)
I’m reading a lot and I order my Japanese books at this bookstore: https://verasia.eu/
They are located in Spain and it’s a paradise for Japanese learners of all levels. As some mentioned I also dislike digital books and I still prefer the paper books.
It's lovely that we can now have a forum to share this information.
Hi Koppa, thank you very much for sharing these resources! Are you happy with the services of the online bookstore? I still mostly use Japanese Amazon. When I order in bulk, the shipping cost isn't too bad.
Practicing your speaking can be a challenge, especially in these times of isolation. Perhaps I can start thinking about a solution for this. Let me get back to you ;)
Your welcome. Yes, I'm very happy with Verasia. They also have the latest published books. They delivery very fast and shipping rate for Belgium is only 4 euro. So that's not too bad.
Hi MoodyPond, yes finding native speaker is sometimes challenging. When I just started out, the Japanese exchange students of other departments always found their way to the Japanese language department, as they also wanted to make local friends and build somewhat of a social life.
But I realize not everyone has this option. At least here in Holland, there is a large Japanese community that tends to stick together. They have a cultural center that is open to everyone. If you go to places like this, the chances you'll find someone to talk to are quite good. It might take some time to find someone who you really want to make friends with, but it might be a start. Otherwise, online language exchange forums might be a place to start en build some networks. Perhaps these are some places to start from?
There are so very few Japanese students at my university, much less people that get involved in the Japanese department. But thank you! Are you aware of any specific online language exchange forums?
What I literally did, was look on Facebook and saw that a friend of a friend of mine were Japanese. Then I just sent them an chatmail, explaining how I'm learning Japanese and so on. We later had the change to meet them in real life in Japan for the first time. (before Corona) and now we write and we are friends. Sometimes (before corona) when I see or think that there are Japanese people I speak to them in Japanese, and maybe they can become friends, you never know and if not, you did speak Japanese to a native. It is a bit daring, and I would normally never do something like that, but in other cultures it is more common to speak to strangers on the streets or in the train and start a conversation, and why not? The Japanese people I spoke in Brussels really reacted well and found it wonderful and fun that I spoke or tried to speak in Japanese.
Thank you for the post, it's very inspiring! I'll come back and reread it once I am free from my exams ^_^
The tip about the "no-distractions study place" reminded me of the times dictionaries were only on paper... Now you'll need at least one screen for a digital dictionary ^^"
(I was about to ask about kindle and its Japanese dictionaries too, but it's okay. If I have a chance to try out if it's comfortable reading in Japanese on kindle, I'll write about it here, in case anyone is interested.)
Thank you! It seems that in my university they now have a Japanese class (it wasn't the case when I was a student), so I plan to enrol in university one more time. I hope it goes well ><
Hi Victoria, good luck with your exams! Any of them in or about Japanese?
Yes, all of my dictionaries are (very heavy!) print editions. I really like going through these and find words that I wasn't looking for...I tend to lose track of time like this often.
Sorry, I have no experience with Kindle dictionaries, so if you get a chance, please let us know your thoughts! :D
Excellent list! I used to record NHK news on the radio and try to transcribe it. This helped my listening as well as reading, writing, and grammar skills! Finding something one enjoys that is sustainable is key. A thing I do now is watching Japanese Netflix shows with the Japanese subtitles on. It can really aid in understanding when one can't catch all that is said. Watching in a third language with Japanese subtitles instead of English is also good practice. I'll watch Korean or Chinese shows with Japanese subtitles.
Hi Madeleine, thanks so much for your generous comment. It sounds like you're already doing quite a few things from this list. Have you had the chance to go to Japan and test your skills?
I've actually been living in Japan for the past 40 years, but learning never stops, and I often find something in your daily mailings that I didn't know. I've never read much literature in Japanese although I can read newspapers etc..(I've passed JLPTN1), so your mailings are helping me to get up the courage to try reading a novel.
Haha so you've had plently of chances to practice! I'm glad the newsletter is encouraging you to read more literature. When you read novels, you notice how much there is still to learn. It's a never ending process. Let me know which novel you end up picking!
Hi Bunsuke! Thanks for the tips and I noticed that you wrote that you read 5 hours a day. For me this is very impressive because although I do have the time to read, I just don't have the mental energy of that caliber ( The max I can do is 1 hour a day). Any tips on how to do that? do you check every word that you don't know the meaning at the dictionary? Or am I doing it wrong?
Thanks!
Hi Harry, thanks for the generous comment! Those 5 hours refer only to that one summer where I was determined to read and finish my first book. One hour is perfect, especially if you can keep doing it every day consistently over a longer period of time. I now read about 3 hours a day, but that's because it's part of my full time job. An hour per day, or even 30 minutes a day, is already great! As long as you keep the consistency you should notice the returns over time. If you have, say, a month off over the summer, you might want to consider doing a week of intensive reading multiple hours per day to give yourself a boost, but this is probably not sustainable over longer periods of time (at least not for me). So don't worry, you're doing fine! Keep up the great work!
Thanks for the reply! I am currently in the middle of my holidays so I am planning to do just that. And by intensive reading, what is your method of doing that? Do you just read non-stop for a certain amount of time? Or do you write down words/phrases that are unfamiliar to you on paper? I don't really know how to approach this the best way, so any help is appreciated.
Thanks!
I did do a lot of writing and note making, but never to review later on. The simple act of writing down words and phrases helped me remember them. Great that you have some time now. I remember I felt like I was drowning in reading. It also feels like you're not making any progress while you're in the process, but you'll notice the benefits later on. Also make sure you take some serious time off after your week of intensive reading. What are you planning on reading?
Well, I am planning on reading a novel. Or maybe a visual novel that has audio/voice lines as I feel like it's easier for me to understand it that way. Are there perhaps any recommendations on what to read?
Perhaps you can start with a collection of short stories. The bulk of Japanese literature consists of short stories, so you'd have a lot of choice. Perhaps you can start with Murakami Haruki. The language is quite accessible, but as his writing is a bit surreal at times it might be a bit confusing at times. Still, a good place to start, I'd say. If you tell me what you're going to read, and I happen to own a copy as well, we can share your 7 day adventure here if you'd like. We can think about what that would look like, but it might be helpful for other people here to participate in the process. What do you think?
I mean I'm down with your recommendation! I am honestly still in the middle of searching for stories to read so if you can lend me the pdf too that could really be helpful for me :D
Hi Bunsuke!
Good tips!
I would like to know how to get my hands on japanese e-books. Specially s/t like short stories collections. I gather Murakami Haruki is learner friendly.
I can't get them from amazon jp (bc rights? or maybe Im too dumb?), and in western amazons I can only find big blockbuster books like harry potter.
Got some good advice on this?
Much appreciated,
Jose.
Hi Jose,
I don't own a Kindle, so I'm not sure, but I believe changing the language and location settings to Japan/Japanese allows you to download books from the Japanese Kindle store.
Let me know if this works...
B.
I don't think thats it. It's more like how dvds, or games wont play in different regions. I'll give that a try anyway, it's been a while since.
You don't read ebooks then?
Yeah give it a try, I recall that it worked for someone I knew, but that was a while ago so perhaps the policy has changed. Still worth a shot.
And no I never read ebooks, only paper. It's a bit of a hassle as they take up a lot of space but I still prefer the feeling of a real book to yet another screen. For me, reading is a time where I can get away from computers, and that's the way I want to keep it.
Hi Jose,
Have you checked out Aozora Bunko? They have a collection of out-of-copyright stories and books that you can access for free, found here: https://www.aozora.gr.jp
We've read a few short stories from there in the USJETAA Japanese Reading Group (open to everyone and others might have good advice on where to find ebooks). Ogawa Mimei (sometimes called the Japanese Hans Christian Anderson) was fairly learner-friendly, and on Amazon there's a "Classic Japanese Fairy Tales" ebook series with many of his tales in both the Japanese and in translation, in case you want to be able to check your understanding. (I'm sure it's better to struggle, but sometimes it's nice to have a crutch)
PS, I had never heard of this reading group. This looks really great. Do you organize it online?
It's a great group with very supportive fellow learners :) Daniel Morales is the organizer- I'll send him a note about your newsletter in case he hasn't found it already. He also has a blog over at http://howtojaponese.com
Hi Sarah, thanks for this tip, I hadn't heard of this blog! Thank you for passing the newsletter on to Mr. Morales.
Great tip, Sarah! Ogawa Mimei is such a great writer and very accessible. Miyazawa Kenji is also a great place to start. Thanks again for your comment :)
Thank you for the recommendation! I'll be sure to check out his works next!
You're welcome, let me know what you think!
Thanks for the reply Sarah!
I finally managed to set up my own japanese account on bezos.co.jp
Reading Murazaki 労働しるんがやりがいんだよ
I'll write this down and take a look at your group too.
Cheers!
Hi Bunsuke! I gotta say, I pretty much feel the exact same way about #1 #2 and #3.
#2 and #3 remind me of the time I would go to Japanese websites where Japanese people post their novels and I'd try to read them on a daily basis. Just like you said, it's been hard and I often just skipped lines because I couldn't understand it anyhow (didn't drag me down though, just kept on going). In the end it's been very benefitial for my jp comprehension generally, reading can't be bad right haha
Also the #1 part about distractions and using pen and paper, yeah definitely this! I still sit in front of a laptop with chill music playing silently, but being able to focus and write with your hand truly is great.
Hi Kuba, glad you recognized some of these points! It seems focus is definitely one of the issues most people struggle with. I'm happy to see you found something that works for you and allows you to concentrate.
Thanks for your content Bunsuke! I recently (last week!) took the N5 exam because I wanted to have a clear goal to keep my motivation going, but I was already studying beyond the exam content (specially kanji and more natural japanese). My plan is to keep studying by myself, moving into Minna No Nihongo 4 and Tango N4 books, while trying to read real japanese content.
I'm currently reading "よつばと！", and learning a lot from it. Would you recommend trying to read a book for someone at my level, or is it still too early?
A series recommendation I could watch without subtitles would be great too! I'm trying to watch some of them, but I'd like to know if there's any you could recommend.
Right now I'm watching ゴーストライター, it's quite entertaining! Let me know when you get your N5 results, お疲れさま on taking the test. I'm sure it went well!
Hi Bunsuke! Thank you very very much for the techniques you mentioned! These arrived exactly when I was feeling kinda saturated and didn't know how to go ahead! I'll always be grateful for this one article :) Kore kara mo yoroshiku onegaishimasu!
PS : Looking forward to new stories from you everyday :) :)
Hi Aishwarya, thank you for your thoughtful compliment. I'm really glad these tips helped. If you ever need help, just send me an email and ask me anything. I'm happy to help out.
Hi thank you for this! Curious how you balanced #2 and #3 especially when you were first being able to read novels and books? I hear it referred to in another resource as reading deeply vs reading broadly? Looking up words and grammar can sometimes get very tedious, but I’m never sure how much I’m actually learning, or if I’m missing important points if I just skim along. Did you just feel it come together over time?
Hi Jeff, yes this balance is difficult. It was mostly that, when I read my very first book, I had to look up absolutely everything, and even then I didn't understand many of the sentences. My point here was that in those moments, it's ok if you don't understand everything. I remember I did my best to understand everything, sometimes spending an hour on one sentence. But after that I would just move on. I think most people simply give up because they draw the conclusion that the book is too difficult for them. But I don't agree with this approach. Give it your best effort and move on once you've done everything to understand what it says. After that first book and a short break from reading (about two weeks), I noticed that my reading speed and comprehension had increased when I opened another book. I had to look up less, saw some of the words and patterns I had struggled with in the first book in a different context, which cleared up some of my initial confusion. By repeating this process I got better over time.
And absolutely, looking up things can become tedious. Once you get to a level where you don't have to look up absolutely everything, you might want to consider splitting your days up into "reading days" where you force yourself to keep reading no matter what, and "dictionary days" where you can look up whatever you don't understand.
Thank you so much Bunsuke for your advice. And I will keep your advice in mind, especially about comparing. There is always someone with less time studying Japanese that is better than me and then as you put it I feel 'behind'. The past few days I have been a bit stuck with my Japanese studies. Genki is good, but having come to the last chapters I still feel I can’t speak. It’s all about grammar and vocabulary. All my spare time I’m studying, but without real improvement. As you mentioned I would also want it not to feel like work. I’m getting tried. The “rote memorization” of vocabulary, grammar and kanji, makes me forget more than not. So I’m trying a different approach. I now trying to learn Japanese through stories and found a excellent link on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sBPNXTwpek&list=PLJov1NnDE_N_92MtmRyQknjavXa1oLSuM&index=11 (N5 level)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbEN55Ti1k4&list=PLJov1NnDE_N_92MtmRyQknjavXa1oLSuM&index=66 (N2 level)
Some of you might find it childish, because it’s at N5 level, but they also have stories at N2 level. All the stories are read by a native speaker and the kanji contains furigana. No subtitles which is good, but the difficult words are explained in English. It’s a fun way to learn grammar, vocabulary and kanji. Additional to that I’m now learning the meaning of kanji with stories with this excellent book: https://www.amazon.com/Kanji-Months-Meaning-Kanjis-Japanese/dp/B094SZRXLM/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=Max+Chahua&qid=1625933131&s=books&sr=1-3
I’m reading a lot and I order my Japanese books at this bookstore: https://verasia.eu/
They are located in Spain and it’s a paradise for Japanese learners of all levels. As some mentioned I also dislike digital books and I still prefer the paper books.
It's lovely that we can now have a forum to share this information.
Hi Koppa, thank you very much for sharing these resources! Are you happy with the services of the online bookstore? I still mostly use Japanese Amazon. When I order in bulk, the shipping cost isn't too bad.
Practicing your speaking can be a challenge, especially in these times of isolation. Perhaps I can start thinking about a solution for this. Let me get back to you ;)
Thank you in advance
you're welcome!
Your welcome. Yes, I'm very happy with Verasia. They also have the latest published books. They delivery very fast and shipping rate for Belgium is only 4 euro. So that's not too bad.
that's very cheap indeed! thanks for the tip!
Thank you for this! How does one go about finding Japanese friends while not being in Japan? Curious to hear your tips.
Hi MoodyPond, yes finding native speaker is sometimes challenging. When I just started out, the Japanese exchange students of other departments always found their way to the Japanese language department, as they also wanted to make local friends and build somewhat of a social life.
But I realize not everyone has this option. At least here in Holland, there is a large Japanese community that tends to stick together. They have a cultural center that is open to everyone. If you go to places like this, the chances you'll find someone to talk to are quite good. It might take some time to find someone who you really want to make friends with, but it might be a start. Otherwise, online language exchange forums might be a place to start en build some networks. Perhaps these are some places to start from?
There are so very few Japanese students at my university, much less people that get involved in the Japanese department. But thank you! Are you aware of any specific online language exchange forums?
Ah yeah that makes it more difficult. I don't know of any forums, but I'll have a look around and let you if I find anything.
Yeah and it's a pretty big college in the States so all the more perplexing... But that'd be great, thank you!
What I literally did, was look on Facebook and saw that a friend of a friend of mine were Japanese. Then I just sent them an chatmail, explaining how I'm learning Japanese and so on. We later had the change to meet them in real life in Japan for the first time. (before Corona) and now we write and we are friends. Sometimes (before corona) when I see or think that there are Japanese people I speak to them in Japanese, and maybe they can become friends, you never know and if not, you did speak Japanese to a native. It is a bit daring, and I would normally never do something like that, but in other cultures it is more common to speak to strangers on the streets or in the train and start a conversation, and why not? The Japanese people I spoke in Brussels really reacted well and found it wonderful and fun that I spoke or tried to speak in Japanese.
Thank you for the tips! Unfortunately I live in a small town (a university town, but yeah), but I'll try my chances!
Thank you for the post, it's very inspiring! I'll come back and reread it once I am free from my exams ^_^
The tip about the "no-distractions study place" reminded me of the times dictionaries were only on paper... Now you'll need at least one screen for a digital dictionary ^^"
(I was about to ask about kindle and its Japanese dictionaries too, but it's okay. If I have a chance to try out if it's comfortable reading in Japanese on kindle, I'll write about it here, in case anyone is interested.)
Good luck with your exams, are they Japanese related?
Thank you! It seems that in my university they now have a Japanese class (it wasn't the case when I was a student), so I plan to enrol in university one more time. I hope it goes well ><
You'll do great! And we're here if you need help.
頑張ります～
応援してます！
Hi Victoria, good luck with your exams! Any of them in or about Japanese?
Yes, all of my dictionaries are (very heavy!) print editions. I really like going through these and find words that I wasn't looking for...I tend to lose track of time like this often.
Sorry, I have no experience with Kindle dictionaries, so if you get a chance, please let us know your thoughts! :D
Excellent list! I used to record NHK news on the radio and try to transcribe it. This helped my listening as well as reading, writing, and grammar skills! Finding something one enjoys that is sustainable is key. A thing I do now is watching Japanese Netflix shows with the Japanese subtitles on. It can really aid in understanding when one can't catch all that is said. Watching in a third language with Japanese subtitles instead of English is also good practice. I'll watch Korean or Chinese shows with Japanese subtitles.
Hi Madeleine, thanks so much for your generous comment. It sounds like you're already doing quite a few things from this list. Have you had the chance to go to Japan and test your skills?
I've actually been living in Japan for the past 40 years, but learning never stops, and I often find something in your daily mailings that I didn't know. I've never read much literature in Japanese although I can read newspapers etc..(I've passed JLPTN1), so your mailings are helping me to get up the courage to try reading a novel.
Haha so you've had plently of chances to practice! I'm glad the newsletter is encouraging you to read more literature. When you read novels, you notice how much there is still to learn. It's a never ending process. Let me know which novel you end up picking!