(Japanese) Language Study

[Wandering_Fox]

Many people have shown interest in studying Japanese and are taking various levels of the JLPT, and I thought it might be a good idea to pool resources together and share online sites and references you can use to improve your Japanese language skills. To start with, I have 3 very good resources that I use fairly often.

1) NHK Radio News

I like this one a lot because it is current and has actual news broadcasts that you can listen to in 3 speeds: Normal, slow and fast. It has multiple different broadcasts to listen to and each one has adjustable speeds. This is real news and sometimes contains difficult words, so this may be for more advanced learners, but I think it's a great resource for getting your listening skills up to speed.

2) Lang-8

I think that Lang-8 is a fairly revolutionary approach to learning to write in a foreign language. The way it works is, you create an account and write entries in any language you are studying. (This site is not limited to Japanese.) Native speakers of that language will read your entry and correct it for you using a fairly sophisticated text editing interface. This site is all about native speakers helping others, so in order for people to help you, you should also assist others. You will be expected to read other entries written in your native language and make corrections. This site keeps track and lets people know how many times you have corrected someone else's work. It's easy to do and doesn't take much effort. You can also make friends on this site with people you help/people who help you.

3) Conversation Exchange

I firmly believe the best way to improve your language skills is to talk to people in other languages. This site allows you to post a small profile of yourself and information about which language you are studying. People can search for you by area/language and you can do the same, allowing you to meet up in person. You can also use this site to hunt for penpals, Skype partners, IM friends, etc... I have used this site for about 5 years and I have made a lot of great friends. It's very useful for finding conversation partners! You should always be careful about meeting people online, but I personally have never had any problems with this site~

Any other helpful online resources?

 

[Koji]

I'm taking JLPT N2 test next summer but I guess living in Japan makes it a lot easier!

[ok this post wasn't really helpful at all I know... xDDD]

 

[flowersofnight]

The "Asahi Kanji" app for Android is the best kanji learning app. I recommend it.
I made a rip-off of it for vocabulary words, "Caprice's App" I have the only copy in existence, it's not for sale XD

For the N4/N5 I used this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Japanese-Language ... 200&sr=8-9
Which is pretty good. Comes with a CD to practice the audio part, and a fairly thorough amount of quizzes and practice exams.

 

[Wandering_Fox]

For studying Kanji, I highly recommend Kakitori-kun for the DS. It teaches you the proper way to write kanji, though it's not as good at teaching you to read kanji or teaching you the meaning. It's for kids in Japan learning kanji, so unless you can already understand Japanese, it might be a little challenging.

As for books, I recommend the 2 Shadowing books, シャドーイング 日本語を話そう and and シャドーイング日本語を話そう　中~上級編. Shadowing is AMAZING for teaching you how to speak properly and really helps your listening comprehension. There are also 3 awesome grammar dictionaries (Yellow, blue and red) that will teach you everthing there is to know about Japanese grammar, but they're kind of on the pricy side... >_<

Thanks for the info about the Asahi Kanji app, I'll try out the free version and see how it is!!

I used to use www.Smart.fm before they started charging to use their service and made their program worse... I might give it a trial run in the future, but it was the best for memorizing vocabulary and I'm very disappointed with them...

 

[Koji]

Oh talking about apps, any useful one for Apple devices?

 

[flowersofnight]

For studying Kanji, I highly recommend Kakitori-kun for the DS.

Oh hey, I SUCK at writing, so maybe I'll check this out. I wonder if Book-Off has a cheap copy

 

[Wandering_Fox]

Oh hey, I SUCK at writing, so maybe I'll check this out. I wonder if Book-Off has a cheap copy

Kakitori-kun is great because of how strict it is, but it can be pretty frustrating... It scores you on a point system out of 100 points, but you get an automatic 0 if your stroke order is incorrect. It will show you the proper stroke order as many times as you need it and also give you lines to trace over (repeatition is key) but it has very high standards. It requires Japanese comprehension as all the instructions are in Japanese, but it's pretty easy to get the hang of if you just fumble through it

(Your professor also makes you feel bad if you skip practice... He tells you to practice every day and he gets disappointed when you skip even one day...)

 

[Madmoiselle_Silk]

I've tried Rossetta Stone but don't find that very helpfull... I mean it's the same sentencepattern over and over X'D What I have learned is some words though...like tobikonde (I will forever see the image of 2 boys jumping into a pool when hearing that verb -.-) Otherwise the only thing I've used is school. For me, the preassure school gives you helped X'D Don't want to fail the exams O_-

 

[Kyuketsuki]

Shadowing is AMAZING for teaching you how to speak properly and really helps your listening comprehension.

You're probably the first person I've ever heard to actually advocate shadowing.



For kanji, I'm old-school, and recommend getting this series of books:
Basic Kanji Book Vol. 1
Basic Kanji Book Vol. 2
Intermediate Kanji Book Vol. 1
Intermediate Kanji Book Vol. 2

These links are JUST for cover and author. Don't buy them from amazon. Cover price is around ¥3,000 if memory serves. I'm sure everyone knows where to get cheap textbooks by now.

Those alone should cover maybe around 4,000 kanji or so, and cover on/kun-yomi as well as possible verb usage and most common compounds, along with stroke-by-stroke how to write each one even down to which direction you should write. It's pretty comprehensive, and they have little quizzes at the end of each lesson and larger 'tests' at the end of a few of them. And I do believe they're still writing them (apparently it takes forever?)- there's a diagram in the books about how they plan to finish publishing them, and the next wave will be technical kanji for specific fields and so forth. They're really good books, I have all but the last one. While I think smartphone apps and computer stuff can be useful, physical writing practice also helps grind it into your brain as you grind them into the paper. The books also give you the ever useful balance grid. The first two books I particularly like because they give you some etymology background on several kanji (and not just 'this is a tree!' ones, haha).

I also own and really like this particle dictionary: >click<

And for those who are not hardcore into the JLPT and would like to dabble in the basics, I highly, highly, highly recommend the Genki textbooks. They have corresponding workbooks as well. They've recently put out a new edition and honestly nothing is new about it other than they've taken out silly stuff like "cassette player" and replaced it with "dvd player". Pretty sure all changes in the 'new' edition are down to technology vocabulary, so might as well just buy the original and save cash!

For me, the preassure school gives you helped X'D Don't want to fail the exams O_-

I had a friend in college who had a recurring nightmare about the, ah, distinguished older lady who piloted our Japanese department turning into some sort of demon and coming after her for being extremely late to the final exam. Best part was that very same semester she did indeed show up late, completely by accident and due to a mix up of exam schedule, for the final, but only got stared down with an awkward smile before being allowed to take her seat.

 

[Madmoiselle_Silk]

For me, the preassure school gives you helped X'D Don't want to fail the exams O_-

I had a friend in college who had a recurring nightmare about the, ah, distinguished older lady who piloted our Japanese department turning into some sort of demon and coming after her for being extremely late to the final exam. Best part was that very same semester she did indeed show up late, completely by accident and due to a mix up of exam schedule, for the final, but only got stared down with an awkward smile before being allowed to take her seat.

Sometimes not even creepy teachers help. I had an AWFUL teacher in conversation, she seriously scared me even though she was about the same hight as me when I sat down ._. well, I learned you don't piss old, tiny, japanese women off Some people in my class used to joke about how she was like darth vader and how the class turned black and the air disappeared when she entered, says alot X'D

 

[flowersofnight]

Basic Kanji Books

I have a couple of them but I'm not a fan. Most of it is just "Here's the kanji, the on'yomi, and the kun'yomi, now write it 100 times and let's never speak of it again". For someone learning on his own without a class, it doesn't provide enough repetition and reinforcement. I like apps better for that stuff because you can keep going over it automatically as much as you feel like.

I also own and really like this particle dictionary: >click<

Yeah, all those "little books about Japanese that are all the same size" like that are pretty good XD I have a few of them.

 

[Kyuketsuki]

Basic Kanji Books

I have a couple of them but I'm not a fan. Most of it is just "Here's the kanji, the on'yomi, and the kun'yomi, now write it 100 times and let's never speak of it again". For someone learning on his own without a class, it doesn't provide enough repetition and reinforcement. I like apps better for that stuff because you can keep going over it automatically as much as you feel like.

Really?? I always found it as a good basis to work from, at least. There's so many flipping kanji out there, and if you don't know where to look you just end up drowning in them. I assume, too, that not everyone on the forum has tried to study Japanese in-depth, so if they're looking to start, it could be a good jumping point. I'm a sucker for having comprehensive and thorough lists for things, though, so that's another reason why I like those books. ::kisaki:: In comparison to things like the JLPT guides which just give you page after page after page of kanji with optional thorough compound/reading listings and somehow you're supposed to generate your own lessons from the blue with that. I have a couple of those books that were given to me, and every time I try to look at them my brain just goes NOPE. It's pretty awful on my part, probably, haha.

Besides, I think they're much better applied in conjunction with reading practice, too. Level-appropriate reading material, however, is probably the hardest thing to come across for learners, though. :/

 

[flowersofnight]

Really?? I always found it as a good basis to work from, at least. There's so many flipping kanji out there, and if you don't know where to look you just end up drowning in them.

The app I use lets you narrow it down to a selected range either by Joyo rank or JLPT level, so you can take it a bit at a time. They're both roughly in "grade" order. I usually try to learn new ones in chunks of 60.

 

[Wandering_Fox]

You're probably the first person I've ever heard to actually advocate shadowing.

Really? I've never heard anyone say anything bad about Shadowing, if you do it right it really works amazingly well! Pretty much every language teacher I've talked to is an advocate. I've tried it and I saw almost immediate results, but like all methods, it may not work for everyone~ The books I posted links to are the ones I use (at least the green one, I still need to get the blue one eventually) but I strongly encourage this series, especially for beginners who are just learning how to speak/pronounce/get the tempo down.

For Kanji practice, I've really been enjoying the Kanji in Contextbooks. They are very well organized and give you a lot of exposure to reading kanji in a logical way through a lot of examples. There are 3 books (the reference book and the two work books) but they are extreamly well done!

 

[flowersofnight]

For studying Kanji, I highly recommend Kakitori-kun for the DS.

Oh hey, I SUCK at writing, so maybe I'll check this out. I wonder if Book-Off has a cheap copy

Update on this: there is no cheap copy ::kisaki:: They had some other things like "Oni Training Does Kanji" and wtvr else. Is Kakitori really the best? I want to be sure before I spend 55 Washingtons on it XD

 

[Wandering_Fox]

Update on this: there is no cheap copy ::kisaki:: They had some other things like "Oni Training Does Kanji" and wtvr else. Is Kakitori really the best? I want to be sure before I spend 55 Washingtons on it XD

From what I've seen, Kakitori kun is the best when it comes to teaching you how to write properly, though I wouldn't really buy it for the reading tests. If you want to study onyomi and kunyomi, you're better off getting a kanji reading practice book or, you know, reading things online and testing yourself with rikaichan for Firefox users. Here's a decent look at Kakitori Kun on YouTube to kind of give you an overview.

When it comes to writing, I think Kakitori kun is the best because:

1) It gives you the proper model on the left (top) screen and will actually show you the proper stroke order however many times you need to see it.
2) You can turn on the outline on the right (bottom) screen and trace the kanji if you don't feel comfortable writing it without guidelines, but you can turn that off at any time.
3) It grades you and does not pass you if you do not write the kanji with the proper stroke order, forcing you to learn the kanji correctly.
4) Neatness counts, as in if you don't lift your stylus and feather the line correctly (or don't have a hard stop when necessary), you lose points. It's not enough to fail you, but Kakitori kun remembers.
5) You can change the display to show you your numerical scores, so if you did poorly writing a kanji, you can easily see which ones you need to go back and study. At any point you can go back and review kanji you have previously learned.
6) The game will test you and give you various questions with the hiragana and you must supply the kanji, or it will give you the kanji and you must supply the hiragana. It never explicitly teaches you the readings, but if you do it enough times, you get the hang of it. Unfortunately this is not randomized and the tests per kanji are the same every time. There is a large library of tests to take though, so it will take you some time before you complete them all.
7) This game is supplementary material and should be used in conjunction with Kanji study and doesn't really replace it. You should be studying the readings and meanings on the side, but this is great for practicing writing. Unfortunately, because of cell phones and computers, even Japanese people are forgetting how to write uncommon/difficult kanji, so it really depends on how much you intend to be writing kanji by hand.

Personally, I love this game and play it when I ride the bus, wait for the bus, ride in a car, have a couple of minutes here and there... I think it's great for casual practice learning how to write kanji, but again, it depends on how much writing you are planning on doing. For me, it was worth the 55 clams I spent on it It was no longer in print when I bought it in Japan, but my Japanese teacher was always telling me she was concerned about my lack of kanji skills (and refusal to improve ) so I felt I needed the extra boost. And the music/sound effects and actual professor make it kind of a motivating game, at least to me

 

[Kyuketsuki]

Rikai-chan is a really cool and nifty tool, but fair warning to everyone that it is a RAM-devouring blood-sucker. Best to turn it off when you're done using it and only turning it on when the need presents itself. Using this addon would help keep an eye on it, and it's a huge help in stemming firefox's infinite memory blackhole anyway. ::kisaki::

 

[flowersofnight]

When it comes to writing, I think Kakitori kun is the best

Well I ordered it last night... prepare to take responsibility XD

 

[PureElegance]

2) Lang-8

I think that Lang-8 is a fairly revolutionary approach to learning to write in a foreign language. The way it works is, you create an account and write entries in any language you are studying. (This site is not limited to Japanese.) Native speakers of that language will read your entry and correct it for you using a fairly sophisticated text editing interface. This site is all about native speakers helping others, so in order for people to help you, you should also assist others. You will be expected to read other entries written in your native language and make corrections. This site keeps track and lets people know how many times you have corrected someone else's work. It's easy to do and doesn't take much effort. You can also make friends on this site with people you help/people who help you.

I just want to put in a recommendation for this. I signed up last night and correct a French person's very, very short English entry, and that alone made me realize how much I've forgotten about the reasons we have our English grammar structures so it was a little challenging. You don't need to put explanations for your corrections, but I did and it helped both me and the person. It was extremely helpful in that way.

I also submitted an entry entirely in Spanish and the responses were really great! While they said there were only small errors and that I sounded natural, they provided great comments on the details such as different words to use, Spain vs. Central/South American word usage, when to omit unnecessary words and pronouns, etc.

Otra cosa, fijate que normalmente no es necesario usar la palabra "yo" al inicio de las oraciones: Yo viví en Miami - Viví en Miami. Suena mejor.

For example, I forgot that I could omit the "yo" so this was helpful. I also love that they speak to me in Spanish.

I'm already good in Spanish and this helped me a lot, so it can definitely help people who are just starting out in a language.

I just corrected another person's entry and the guy is actually from NYU!

Hello, everyone！I just got New York for about 4 weeks. I am studying in NYU, and my major is computer science. However my English is not very good. This thing makes me feel so sad. I don`t know how to make friends with natives, because I don`t know how to speak English more like a native. And also, I have no idea about what should I talk to them. Maybe what I am interesting in are not interested by them. Who can help me! Thanks a lot!

I corrected his and maybe we can become language partners (or... PEN PALS!) since he knows Mandarin! This is pretty cool

 

[Wandering_Fox]

Well I ordered it last night... prepare to take responsibility XD

I do stand behind this one, just because I can't tolerate not having a perfect score and I keep writing and rewriting the kanji over and over until I get that perfect score, which in turn makes it easier to write kanji in the real world thanks writing some of the more difficult ones countless times O_O Like anything you just have to stick with it, but I think if you really work at it you'll get very good results~

Let me know what you think of it! =D

I just want to put in a recommendation for this. I signed up last night and correct a French person's very, very short English entry, and that alone made me realize how much I've forgotten about the reasons we have our English grammar structures so it was a little challenging. You don't need to put explanations for your corrections, but I did and it helped both me and the person. It was extremely helpful in that way.

I'm trying to write at least one entry every weekday (every day if possible, but at least one every weekday) for practice~ I'm really glad you're having positive experiences! I think it's a great site and really helpful for fine-tuning your language skills! It's especially great when those correcting for you are strict with grammar and don't let you get away with any mistakes at all~ d(^___^)