Learning to write Japanese. Reading enough to be fluent

Japanese people are generally quite encouraging when you try and speak a little bit of Japanese. Get your please and thank you’s right and you’ll be told that you are jyouzu (fluent).

It might seem a little patronising to be told you are fluent when all you can see is a few phrases but there’s actually a grain of truth in what they say. If you can complete a few sentences in well pronounced Japanese you are more fluent than billions of other people worldwide.

Billions.

Alright there are over a 100 million natives that are better then you but you’ve already made great progress.

I decided recently that I would try and actually see how far I had come rather than worry about how far I have yet to go, so I recorded my self speaking Japanese.

I didn’t do any preparation for this “interview”,  I wanted to see how much I could remember off the top of my head.

Answer: Not much.

On a positive note I had almost no problems understanding the questions but I was completely stumped when it came to actually speaking an answer. I found myself trying to remember a particular word and failing.

But now at least I have a starting point.

Every month from now on I’m going to record myself and hopefully I’ll be able to see improvement every time.

I intended to upload the video here so you could see and hear how bad / good my Japanese is but it’s full of lengthy pauses and embarassing looks of confusion so I’m trying to do some crap-ectomy surgery before anyone sees it.

Big pauses before a one word answer of　 はい　makes Declan look like a dull boy.

Here are the questions that were prepared for me. My interviewer said that these are the kind of questions that are given to Irish Leaving Cert students in their oral exams. ( at the end of 2 years high school study )

1. お名前は何ですか。
2. どこで生まれましたか。
3. 今どこに住んでいますか。
4. ダブリンには何年くらい住んでいますか。
5. ティッペラリーにはご家族が住んでいますか。ご家族は何人ですか。
6. ティッペラリーにごよく帰りますか。
7. ティッペラリーに帰ったら何をしますか。
8. ティッペラリーとダブリンはどちらが好きですか。どうしてですか。
   
9. デクランさんは何をしていますか。／仕事は何ですか。
10. その仕事について教えてください。
11. いつからその仕事をしていますか。
12. その仕事は難しいですか。
13. 将来、どんな仕事がしたいですか。
14. 休みの日には何をしますか。／趣味は何ですか。
15. 最近、旅行に行きましたか。どこに行きましたか。
16. 次はどこに行きたいですか。
17. デクランさんはいつから日本語を勉強していますか。
18. どうして日本語を勉強しているのですか。
19. 日本に行ったことはありますか。
20. いつ行きましたか。誰と行きましたか。
21. 日本で何をしましたか。
22. 何が一番面白かったですか。
23. 次はいつ日本に行くつもりですか。何をしたいですか。

I didn’t have any problem understanding these questions verbally ( except 23 ) but I do find reading them quite a struggle, especially the kanji.

The Next Step

I want to catch up on what I should know already while continuing to study the kanji.

What’s your Japanese like? Are you happy with your progress or have you forgotten some of the things you have studied?

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After spending some time today studying Kanji with Reviewing the Kanji I realised something.

For months, even years I’ve been dreaming about finding the “best” method for learning Japanese. The most efficient, enjoyable system that will bring me to fluency in the shortest amount of time.

I’m not going to know for certain what works best until I’m fluent.

Once I know all the Kanji off by heart I’ll be able to see the most natural way for my mind to group them and understand them.

Once I can understand the discovery channel ( or its equivalent ) in Japanese I’ll realise that if I’d watched a particular program over and over that it would have been the ideal way to pick up vocabulary.

As soon as I understand every word on the back of some Japanese food packaging I’ll realise that cooking shows will stick to certain forms of the same verbs as they give instructions about how to make a dish.

I can try and use someone else’s method and while it may not suit me perfectly it will mean that I’ll find out the best way for me to learn.

Eventually

Given that the main point of Khatzumoto’s method is to have fun along the way, I don’t think I can go wrong.

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If you’re looking for challenging and interesting material in English or Japanese TED is the place to get it.

Talks from scientists, designers, architests, artists and people with amazing stories are now available with transcripts and Japanese translations.

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In Japanese class last night we were covering  ながら　which is used to show that something is being done simultaneously.

テレビを見ながらごはんを食べます。

I eat dinner while watching television.

But I wanted to know if this could be used for different situations. If there were 2 different people and you wanted to say personA does something while personB does something.

I raised my hand to ask the teacher and blurted an example off the top of my head.

Why don’t you wait here while I slip into something more comfortable…

Hilarity and much personal embarassment ensued.

and apparently no. You can’t use it like that.

Corrections welcome. If anyone would like to translate my cheesy words of seduction, please leave a comment

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I’ve heard a lot of people recommend getting a Japanese boyfriend / girlfriend as the best way to learn the language.

Since I’ve been married the most common comment I get is

Your wife is Japanese? You must be really fluent.

But I’m not.

My wife is actually a Japanese teacher so it might seem obvious to take advantage of her skills to get lots of free lessons. But as soon as we started going out she said she wouldn’t teach me. I thought she was being a bit mean but asking a few other mixed couples, they’ve all agreed that it’s not a good idea - most of them from experience.

If you want to take classes from your spouse I think you’d have to take it really seriously. Not doing your homework in a regular class might get a raised eyebrow but not doing something for your wife quickly goes from

You need to learn this in order to make progress.

to

Why don’t you love me? I’m going to stay with my mother!*

*Learning the grammar required to say this will actually be what you were supposed to do for homework.

The other problem with learning Japanese from a spouse is something that I really hate and that’s getting corrected in public.

In great detail.

For 15 minutes.

In front of her friends.

This isn’t to make you feel bad, it’s just that it’s difficult to switch from teacher mode to wife mode and that means when I try to sprinkle some Japanese into the conversation she’ll point out that I should have used the -te form instead of the -ta form and if I use that particle to end a sentence I sound a bit gay. Which honestly, is helpful advice, I shouldn’t complain.

I know that if couples have only a little of each other’s native language that they’ll end up learning a lot from each other just out of necessity.

My wife has really fluent English and so I can be quite lazy when it comes to making myself understood. There’s not really any situation that she can’t explain in English, so I get away with never having to speak Japanese.

But having a Japanese wife means meeting quite a few Japanese people and of course her family every now and then. So I’m still eager to improve in the language.

Have any of you had lessons every week and not driven each other crazy? What’s it like if your language skills are a bit better than your partner’s?

What has been your experience if you’re part of a couple?

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Welcome to KanaKanji.com

My name is Declan and I’m learning Japanese.

Why?

It seemed like a good idea at the time…

A few years ago, when I finished college I decided that I wanted to study something, continue my edumacation, so a friend and I started going to Japanese classes. We were both into technology, computer games and enjoyed the occasional anime. I had heard the writing system was complicated and difficult to learn but that was all part of the challenge.

I’m so far from fluent I can’t even see it from here.

In learning a language I think one of the most important things is immersion. The more of the language you hear and see, the more it becomes familiar and easier to remember. There aren’t a huge amount of Japanese people here in Dublin, Ireland so I’m hoping to try to read as much as I can and use written Japanese as the medium to soak up as much Nihongo as possible.

I’m studying at an evening class as Trinity College but I know I have to do a lot of work myself in order to really improve.

At the end of Summer 2009 I’ll be going to Japan for a holiday and that’s going to be my big test. Having a deadline and a definite goal is going to keep me motivated into next year. ( I hope )

This blog is going to document the books, movies, materials and tools I use to learn and hopefully you’ll actually be able to see some progress.

Let me know if you are doing anything similar.

頑張ります！

And if you see any mistakes ( even if it’s the only Japanese word on the page ) be sure to tell me where I went wrong.

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let’s try this out.　太陽

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