I dove back into Heisig’s remembering the Kanji today. Armed with a notebook for practising writing I went through some Kanji that I had left queued up for weeks ( months even )

I was surprised that some of them actually seemed really familiar, although some were completely baffling. I didn’t spend long practising, I’m just hoping to do little and often from now on.

Finished on this one. More to come tomorrow.

I’m pretty lazy and inconsistent when it comes to updating this blog.

*tumbleweed*

But I do have a big motivator because I’m going to Japan for a holiday at the start of March.

I’ve been really impressed with Chris Gaunt’s efforts recently as he’s been posting every day about his Japanese study. I know I probably couldn’t keep that up indefinitely  but I’m going to post something everyday about Japanese study until I leave for my holiday.

I’m not going to spend too much time on any one thing – I’m going to use AJATT’s resources and some of the books and manga that I’ve got lying around and I’ll season well with some Kanji study via Anki.

If I don’t make a post here I’ll tweet about it.

I’ve only been to Japan once before and loved it.

In March of this year I’m going for a short holiday again and I’m really looking forward to it.

I’m only going for 11 days in total so I won’t have enough time to see everything but I’m looking forward to simple things like restaurants, going to see Mt. Fuji and hopefully meeting up with some friends.

Because I’m such a newbie in Japan I’m finding it quite difficult to plan what I’m going to do there. My Waifu and I are going to an onsen and we’ll be spending some time with my in-laws who are within commuting distance of Tokyo in Kasukabe.

Since I’ll be staying with my in-laws I would like to able to speak and understand a bit more Japanese so I’ll be making an effort over the next few weeks. AJATT,  Anki and Anime.

Spending income on input

I’m thinking of buying a new laptop while I’m there – the conversion rate will be in my favour and it’d be nice to have kana on my keyboard.  I might even try a macbook pro – the trackpad allows you to write kanji with your finger and the software will recognise your scratchings. This seems like a great way to get some kanji practise while I’m in front of my laptop all day.

The other things I’m hoping to buy are manga and DVD’s. Last time in Japan I bought a copy of The Matrix and I think I’ve almost worn a groove in it by having it on in the background listening to Morpheus’ dulcet tones ( in Japanese of course )

Anyone know where I could pick up some cheap Manga? Ideally I’d be looking for someplace that has some of the most popular older stories like Nausicaa, Ghost in the Shell, Planetes or Death Note.

What would you recommend?

What things would you recommend in the Tokyo area?

Anyone know anything worth checking out in Kasukabe itself?

Anything unusual? Anything free?

Sights, Sounds, Tastes? Let me know in the comments.

I had the great pleasure of taking the Japanese Language Proficiency Test this year for the first time.

It was actually the first time ever in Dublin, until now people wanting to take the test have had to go to another country, typically travelling to London. I think interest in Japanese has been steadily growing over the last few years and across all the levels there were over 100 people taking the exam in DCU ( Dublin City University )

I went for 3 kyu – Levels start at 4kyu and go all the way up to 1kyu and given the amount of study I had done ( almost none ) it was probably a bit ambitious.

I’m not a big fan of learning a language in order to be able to pass an exam, conversation and your ability to comunicate are a much better and useful indication of how good you are, but the JLPT can be a useful thing to have on your CV if you’re applying for jobs in Japan.

I’ll get my results in February and I’m not expecting much. The vocab and grammar sections I found really difficult but I thought the audio section was understandable and I think I did pretty well. The JLPT is notorious for having options in the answers thare are close to being correct but aren’t, trying to lead you astray.

The best thing to come from this was meeting some of my old classmates that I studied with and realising that I need to put insome consistent effort in order to improve. Hopefully I’ll get a bit better at sticking with the SRS and Kanji.

One of the people I was talking to at the exam mentioned that they spent a long time learning all of the Kanji “from a book” even though they were only going for 4 kyu which tests you on about 100 kanji.

Heisig?

Yes!

Did you use anki?

Yep, you must have spent some time on AJATT then.

We exchange knowing nods of agreement

Khatz at AJATT isn’t the only person recommending Heisig and an SRS but he’s had some great success with the method and his site is well worth checking out. It’s cool to see that some others are finding that it works for them too.

I’ve already posted about my reasons for never forgetting the word “Irassaimase“. I was basically sorrounded by the word and bludgeoned with it.

As strange as that experience was, it did show me that the best way to learn a language is by immersion and really experiencing it in daily life.

One of the great experiences that everyone has when learning a language is figuring out what something means just from context.

The first time my Waifu and I went on holidays together we went to Paris ( ahhh the romance ) I have only a little French and we were trying to figure out what all the options on the menu were.

I came across a dish
“Les rongnons de boeuf”
which sounded delicious ( everything does in french ) and I decided to order it. The owner, who was taking our order, clearly understod that I didn’t have a clue what I was ordering and emphasised that it was

“Les Rognons, Rognons! de boeuf – D’accord?”

Of course it was d’accord. It was something of beef, it would be delicious.

Some of you will already be aware that Rongnons de Boeuf is beef kidneys. As it happens, they were absolutely delicious and I was delighted to eat them but it certainly wasn’t what I expected.

I’ve never forgotten that particular french word because of the way I got to learn it.

It’s even possible to learn from context through movies or audio if the content is memorable enough.
Kusanagi Tsuyoshi’s (草彅 剛) character in the drama Koi ni Ochitara won a competition for a holiday in Hawaii.

Every enjoyable sight he sees on his holiday is “sugoi”
There’s a montage where he runs from the beach to the hotel to the restaurant etc just shouting “Sugoi!” at everything he sees.

SUGOI!!

Early in our relationship my (now) Waifu and I were in bed together and I was .. giving her a foot massage.
She seemed to be enjoying this foot massage and I heard her mumble something in Japanese. Thinking that it might be useful to know what she was saying in massage related situations, I later asked her what she had said.

Me: What does [my interpretation of what she said] mean?

Waifu: It’s a kind of Korean pickled cabbage.

Me: WTF???? Why did you say that when we were, y’know …

The answer?

Kimochi ii means “That feels nice” / good feeling
Kimchi is the aforementioned cabbage dish.

Unforgettable.

( and I need to work on my pronounciation )

What phrase, for better or worse, has been seared into your brain by experience? Comments below

After being bounced around Europe for hours ( Thanks for going on strike AirFrance ) we finally arrived in Japan.

I was like a giddy child when I heard that there was a Typhoon. A typhoon! I’d never seen one of those before. Maybe it would be better to see it from inside a nice warm house and not from a plane trying to land in the middle of it. It turned out to be the tail end of one and we had a perfectly smooth landing in Narita airport.

Myself and my Waifu and my older brother made our way towards customs. Waifu and myself breezed through but a friendly Japanese official asked my brother to open up his suitcase and on finding that it was packed so tight with presents that it probably violated the laws of phyics, sent everything away to be x-rayed.

I walked back to my brother so I could make an inappropriate joke about smuggling and the official suddenly realised that we were all travelling together

Gomen Nasai he said, bowing apologetically for keeping us waiting.

Even when he suspects you of smuggling heroin into the country, he can still be polite.

We loaded our luggage into my father-in-law’s toyota and off we went into the Japanese evening.

One of things I love about travelling is the small things that are different. I was cetainly eager to see temples and taste tempura and all the other Japanese things that I had read about. But I was also delighted by the different colours of license plates that I saw and the incredibe variety of beers that were available in the combini we stopped in on our way home to Kasukabe. Traffic lights, trees and roadsigns were brilliantly different.

Strangely I also thought I had seen a Jewish shop in one of the small towns we passed through on the way, but it was probably just the tiredness and the fact that a few big pieces of the katakana shopsign had broken off.

Before we actually reached home we pulled up at a fami-restoran ( family restaurant ) called “Genki Sushi” which was a great idea, if I had come within sight of a bed I would’ve fallen asleep immediately. Better to get fed and then enjoy about 15 hours of slumber.

My Waifu knows basically how much Japanese I know, so she gave us a running commentary. If it was something I might know she’d say it in Japanese otherwise she’d let us know what it was in English.
I would then translate any of the Japanese words that I knew for my brother.

Maguro – That’s Tuna
Unagi – Eel
Sake – Salmon
Tamago – Egg
Ikura – Salmon Roe
Tako – Octopus
and Basashi
I wasn’t familiar with that word but my Waifu then offered “Uma?”
Uma sounded familiar
Horse?

My brother and I only paused for a second before giving it a go. When in Rome …
It was a bit stringy but fairly tasty and just one of the many plates that piled up on out table to be counted at the end. The waitress just adds up your bill based on the amount of empty plates on your table ( they’re colour coded for different prices )

Outside I commented that the Genki Sushi character seemed a bit angry or aggressive but my Waifu insists that he looks determined. Is that a cultural difference or do I just expect sushi bar mascots to be willing to defend their restaurants at all costs?

Bellies full, we made the short final journey to the family home. After bringing our bags inside and getting a brief tour we were all ready for some shuteye.

What the **** was that?

I started grinning.

I think it was an earthquake!

I had always wanted to experience a tremor or small earthquake, it seemed exciting and exotic and I went to sleep very happy with my first day in Japan.

The next morning when I met my Waifu at the breakfast table I asked her if she had felt the earth move the night before.
( Insert pun here )

Pfff, It was probably a truck going past, I didn’t feel anything

( Insert second pun here )

I was disappointed because I know 2 people who had lived in Japan for over a year and had never experienced or at least never noticed a tremor, I thought I had been really lucky.

When my sister in law arrived a few moments later she asked if we had noticed the earthquake last night. It turns out my Waifu had already been asleep when it happened. My checklist of things to do in Japan was getting shorter by the day.

Many department stores in Japan employ someone at the shop entrance to welcome customers as they come in.

They usually bow as the customer goes past and say

Irasshaimase ( Welcome )

The first time I go to see it was in a Robinsons Dept store in Kasukabe, I was with my Waifu, her Mum and sister and my older brother. My brother and I had never been in Japan before so almost everyday was a new experience.

My wife and the rest of my inlaws headed towards the womens’ clothes section and my self and my bro decided to check out some of the things for sale in the food section in the basement.

scottgunn

It only took about 5 seconds before the first employee noticed us and offered an Irasshaimase. Not being used to this it seemed really rude to just ignore him so we gave a little nod of the head and turned to look at some of the exotic veggies. A second employee had heard the first and seeing two Gaikokujin in his midst he offered his own Irasshaimase.

And from there it just took off in a strange Mexican wave ( in Japanese ) across the store.

Every member of staff who was in hearing distance of an Irasshaimase looked up and offered their own welcome. We tried moving towards a quiet corner but found ourselves the focus of a bowing, greeting circle.

It was just too weird – we turned and fled towards the escalator.

Ever since I decided to go the self study route I’ve been looking out for blogs of people doing something similar. Here’s some of the blogs I’ve been reading and are most similar to what I’d like to do on my own blog.

• AllJapaneseAllTheTime.com – Already mentioned above Khatz’s posts are almost always insightful and funny. Even though he’s now moved on to studying Cantonese through Japanese he talks about things that are relevant to almost any language learner. AJATT on twitter.

• NihongoNotes.com
  Chris Gaunt is a guy from the U.K. now living and working* in Japan. When he started his blog he was kind enough to add me to a list of Japan related people on twitter.  Also using the AJATT study method, he’s got some practical beginner’s lessons on his site. Chris on twitter.

• I first came across Tofugu.com when I saw a video of him dressed up in a ladylike wig and speaking like a girl. ( It’s not as good bad as it sounds ) His blog features posts on Japanese culture ( often Godzilla related ) and info from his experience as a tutor of Japanese over at edufire.com Tofugu gets help from some other writers at tofugu.com but he also blogs in Japanese at Koichiben.com and about education at eduPirate.com. Tofugu on twitter.

• Gakuranman.com recently teamed up with Tofugu to create some Japanese lessons which are available on his blog, along with others like Refusing people in Japanese. Gakuranman twitter

• FeedMeJapanese.com is the home page of a Japanese learning tool that’s in beta. The blog’s tagline
  

  Learning to Read Japanese by…Reading Japanese

  is a good indicator of his approach. FeedMeJapanese Forum.

I like Khalid’s focus on making study enjoyable and avoiding burnout and I’m looking forward to having a proper look a his online app – I’ve registered an account there already.
When I was spending more time thinking about studying instead of studying I really wanted a tool that worked like this so I’ll be following his progress to see how this works out.

• TimMaughanBooks.com has put together 2 fantastic lists. 10 anime series you should see before you die and a similar list for anime movies. There’s more good suggestions in the comments and Tim has some great recommendations for Japanese content. Tim’s twitter

• GoddessCarlie.com is an australian blogger who is learning Japanese and heading to Japan this year as part of the JET program. She’s posted regular progress updates and talks about the materials and methods she’s using to learn Japanese. Carlie’s twitter

• VictoryManual.com has some great posts on motivation and language learning based on his experience with both Japanese and Korean. VictoryManual on twitter

• JapanNewbie.com An American who lived and worked in Japan that has since moved to Africa – Harvey posts about life in Japan and his experience with Kansai-Ben. JapanNewbie’s twitter

I’ll post again soon with some more blogs about life in Japan and if you know of any blogs like the ones above drop me a comment below.

Everytime I practise my kanji I use the flashcard style SRS system over at kanji.koohi.com.

I get shown a keyword ( in English  ) and then try to write the Kanji on paper before I continue.

I’ve often seen the keyword and thought I knew the answer ( It’s the one with the squiggle, the line and the sun ) but having to write it will prove whether I really remember it well and have everything in the proper position, written in the correct stroke order.

Hopefully my handwriting will improve too. Even I can tell that my handwriting looks nothing like a native’s yet – Maybe a 4 year old native.

If I could speak like a 4 year old Japanese kid I’d be very happy with myself.

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?