Ai Love Nihongo

Japanese and Dyslexia

2006-01-16T15:49:00.000-05:00

An interesting thread over at sci.lang.japan:

Is it possible to be a dyslexic when reading or writing in japanese? Is that affected by the share of kanji in the text? If so - in what way?

An answer that has relevance to us foreign learners comes from declan_mur:

Interestingly we have had two foreigners with dyslexia enrol at Yamasa and make it through the program without major dramas. 1 repeated a term, but both made it past JLPT2 level and would probably pass JLPT1 if they continue their studies. If dyslexia doesn't prevent foreign students from learning how to read and write Japanese, it shouldn't be more of a problem for native speakers, at least in terms of learning process.

Japanese Podcast 101

2006-01-13T08:47:00.000-05:00

I'm downloading as we speak.

A little about the Japanese Podcast 101:

Our goal is to make Japanese, easy and fun, while incorporating culture and current issues into our lessons. We believe the more you speak the quicker you learn, so we have designed our program to get you speaking right away. Situational Japanese is heavily stressed, and our 4-member team role play various situations to demonstrate what form of Japanese to use when speaking with friends, customers, executives, etc. Knowing which form to use, separates good speakers from great speakers.

I admit, the dialogues are a little slow, but it's great listening practice and they break down vocabulary wonderfully. Also, you can' t beat having a native speaker.

GET YOUR PODCAST HERE: http://www.japanesepod101.com/

10 + 1 Tips for Faster Fluency

2006-01-11T00:03:00.000-05:00

10 + 1 Tips for Faster Fluency:

Have you just decided to learn a foreign language? Do you feel like you're too old to start? Too young? Not smart enough? Are you enrolled in a class and going nowhere? Is grammar killing you? Do strange words and weird letters make you break out into a cold sweat of confusion?

Fear not.

Learning a foreign language is a daunting task for anyone. Here's ten tips (plus one extra) that will help anyone learning a foreign language to reach their goal faster while having fun and making friends along the way.

1. FALL IN LOVE…

…with something about your target language. Whether it's movies, music, animation, craftwork, martial arts, dance, authentic painting, architecture, food, it doesn't matter. Make sure to find something about the language and culture that you unequivocally love.

Think about it. We're constantly fascinated with what we love. Love holds a certain shimmer. It takes something that would ordinarily seem like hard work, and turns it into a joy.

The fact is, learning a foreign language is hard work. It's rewarding, worthy, and if done correctly a ton of fun, but none of that comes without the labor. So make sure you have a good reason to want to get involved. All you need is love.

2. UNDERSTAND THE MUSIC OF YOUR TARGET LANGUAGE

Every language has it's own sound. Words and sentences in French could not be mistaken for Russian, or Chinese. Whatever language you are trying to learn, it is best to get your ear attuned to the sound of the language. A wonderful way to do this is through listening to music and watching movies in your chosen language.

If possible, pick up the first ten to fifteen lessons of any Pimsluer audio series for your chosen language. Your average Barnes and Noble or Borders will sell the first ten or 18 lessons of practically any language that Pimsleur carries. If not, you can easily purchase Pimsleur online.

The magic of the Pimsleur method is how it gets your subconscious tuned to the rhythm and feel of the language. Language is speaking and listening. Pimsleur forces you to do both in the very beginning stages, with the help of native speakers you can replay again and again until you get yourself sounding right. After only five days of Mandarin Chinese with Pimsleur, I tried out my words on an acquaintance who teaches Mandarin. She immediately asked where I had learned and how long I had been studying. When I revealed to her I used Pimsleur, she wanted to know where she could get the CD's to improve her students use of tones.

Whether or not you stick with Pimsleur, your accent and feel for the sound of the language will definitely benefit from even a short course with the program.

3. GET INTIMATE

Don't just go to class and read your textbook. Classroom time is good (if you can afford it), but nothing beats real time interaction with your target language. This includes finding a conversation partner or group, reading magazines, watching TV, and listening to the music of the language you want to learn. Make friends with a native speaker. Even if you are in a country very far away from where your target language hails from, there's still the possibility of finding a native or near native speaker near you. Also, in this modern age, the internet offers tons of chances at real language interaction, from internet news, to music video downloads and the like. The more real connection you form to the language you are trying to learn, the better.

4. GET FRUSTRATED AND GET EVEN

As soon as you stray from the whitewashed world of your textbook, class, or audio-series, you'll find plenty of frustration as you try to understand and communicate. This is good. Once you find something you don't understand, make it your mission to find out why you don't understand it. Nothing reinforces a point like trying to figure it out yourself. Instead of just memorizing (and soon forgetting) endless grammar rules, you will find yourself the detective solving a grand mystery.

For example, I will never forget what the infinitive form of a verb is in Japanese. This is because I spent a solid week trying to figure out what it was, scouring websites and standing up skimming language books in the Barnes and Noble. It turns out that the infinitive and the dictionary form are the same thing in Japanese, and further, the infinitive in Japanese really doesn't have much to do with the infinitive in English or Spanish. That revelation completely changed my way of looking at the Japanese language. It made it clear in my gut that Japanese operated by it's own, (and often unrelated to English) set of rules.

Simply reading in a book that Japanese had a radically different structure from English would never have TAUGHT me that lesson.

5. CONNECT THE DOTS

The best way to learn new vocabulary is to relate it to something you already know. If a word you're learning sounds like a word you know, USE IT. For example:

My coworker speaks a southern dialect of Chinese. When I started learning Mandarin, we ended up exchanging Chinese vocabulary to see how the dialects differed. It turns out that the word for butt (posterior) in her dialect sounds like PEE GOO.

Immediately, I imagined a giant butt PEEING GOO. Eww. I've never forgotten the word. Nor did I forget YAO - to want (which sounds a lot like YOW! I WANT YOU TO STOP HURTING ME). I made my whole Japanese class crack up with ARAU - to wash: Imagine washing your cat. The sound is A huge RAUW! Even if the sound thing doesn't quite work out, the sound, feel or meaning of the word should relate to something in your mind. The funnier, weirder, or more disgusting, the better.

Further, if you learn the word in an interesting way, remember the story associated to the word. For example, I find it is much easier to remember vocabulary I've learned from watching raws of Japanese dramas. In part, this is because of Rule 4 (I get frustrated, find out what it means, then it sticks). It's also because of how the brain works. The more links your brain has to a certain piece of information, the faster that piece of information will be recalled.

6. ATTACK FROM ALL ANGLES

While I feel the textbook I'm using for my class "GENKI" is one of the best on the market, I still have a shelf full of other books and tapes. I'm always adding to the Learning Japanese section of my favorites. That's because no matter how good one source is, it can't do everything. No one person knows everything. Sometimes, simply a different explanation of the same point will open your eyes to something you really didn't understand before. The fact is, the more angles from which you attack a problem, the faster it will become dust beneath your feet.

7. LEARN TO READ AND WRITE

Some alphabets are easier than others. If you're an American learning Spanish, you don't have a lot of work to do. If you are Chinese person learning Japanese, you've gotten most of the grunt work out of the way already. If your lucky enough to have an alphabet even close in concept to your own, why wait to learn it? And if it's something completely different and daunting, what's the point in putting it off? Fate favors the intrepid. Further the hard stuff might surprise you. I've personally found Kanji (since adopting the methods outlined in Heisig's Remembering the Kanji) to be fun and actually helpful in my study of Japanese conversation.

Learning a new alphabet is fun and exciting once you get the hang of it. Also, the more difficult the writing system, the more you can impress your friends at parties and tattoo parlors. Why let this opportunity pass you by?

8. FLASHCARDS ARE YOUR FRIENDS

Think about how much time you waste in a day. You stand in line for lunch, chill in the waiting room at the doctor's office, waiting for the buss or train, and even waste your brainpower listening to commercials on TV. Why not make that time work for you. For the price of 100 index cards, you can turn those idle moments into power learning sessions. Take a stack of 25-50 flashcards with key vocabulary or grammar with you wherever you go. On one side, write the meaning in English. On the other, the word or phrase you are trying to memorize. Soon you'll find yourself more quickly retaining vocabulary, simply through these self quizzes. This technique works very well for Kanji also.

A quick tip: It's better to review the words from the English meaning to the word in the language you are trying to learn. This forces your brain to really recall the word, as opposed to just recognizing it when you see it. After all, when you speak, isn't your goal to say what you mean?

9. TALK TO YOURSELF AND TO YOUR PETS

…in the language you are trying to learn. I work at a veterinarian's office. At this point, my coworkers have gotten used to me trying out Chinese, Japanese and even a little Arabic on our patients. At home, if I'm doing something, I often ask myself, "how would I say this in Japanese?" If I'm alone, I'll talk to myself out loud. Maybe what I'm saying is correct. Maybe I'm thoroughly incomprehensible. It doesn't matter. The point is I'm painlessly getting used to manipulating my new vocabulary and melding it to my needs. The more you train yourself to think and speak in your target language, the more natural and relaxed your speech will become.

10. LABEL EVERYTHING IN YOUR HOUSE

Your home is a treasure trove of useful, everyday words. Why not learn how to say them in your target language? While ordinary words like 'bread', 'fork', or 'table' may not seem exciting at first, they will definitely make traveling abroad easier. If you take the time to label the items and landscape of your house, you will quickly get used to seeing and hearing those words.

Currently, my focus is on learning Japanese. As such, my house is labeled in Japanese. To do this, I started by looking around the room I was in and writing down what I saw. I then took those words, looked them up in a Japanese/English dictionary, and put them on a small piece of paper. I taped each piece of paper to it's matching object. Later, I did the same thing for the bathroom, the kitchen, and the living room. Now, when I open the refrigerator, I know it's a 'reizouko'. Maybe tonight I'll sit down on the 'isu', turn off the 'akarui' and watch and watch an 'eiga' on the 'terebe'.

10 + 1: YOU GOTTA SPEAK BAD TO GET GOOD

That's the long and the short of it. No matter how hard you work to speak perfectly, you will always make mistakes. Even native speakers make mistakes. Accept this and strive for communication. The faster you work through your inability to speak, the faster you will gain an ability to speak. So let no speaking opportunity go without taking it.

Just jump in. The water is fine, the sun is warm, and the world waits just beyond the horizon.

Get your verbs naked (Japanese Verb Myths Part 2)

2006-01-07T18:03:00.000-05:00

Quick question:

Is tabemasu a verb?

If you said yes: congratulations - you're about to defeat your second myth of learning Japanese Verbs.

I bet, if you're anything like me, you probably started out learning all kinds of Japanese 'verbs' like the above tabemasu. One of the first sentances I learned in Japanese was:

Nani o tabemasu ka?
What will you eat?

At the time, I figured (logically) that tabemasu was the verb in the sentence. Worse, to an extent, it is the verb of that sentence. It does everything a verb should. It creates action in the sentence. It shows 'what' someone or something is doing.

So why does believing that tabemasu is a verb make your life difficult?

Imagine you are an alien who lands on Earth and beams into a Halloween Party to ask for directions. The person who opens the door is wearing a black cloak, bone white face makeup, platform shoes, red contact lenses and Dracula teeth. Behind him/her is a host of other people dressed like the living dead. You’ll form some pretty quick (and possibly gruesome) impressions of the people on this planet.

Why shouldn’t you?

How are you supposed to know (without turning on your super space-aged scanning equipment) that the natives are in costume?

It’s the same with Tabemasu. Tabemasu is a verb in costume.

And as with people, it is a bad idea to form your real impression of a verb based on it’s costume.

The first step to really knowing your verb is to take off the costume it is wearing.

Tabemasu is wearing a very common costume generally called the masu form.

This costume is very easy to put on, and relatively easy to take once you know how it is put on.

So let’s get dressed:

First, start with the real/naked verb. The best way to find naked verbs is to look them up in the dictionary. The naked verb is just the dictionary form of the verb. It is also called the plain form, or the infinitive.

The naked form of Tabemasu is:

Taberu to eat.

This is an ichidan verb. You can easily recognize ichidan verbs because they always end in iru or eru. If your naked verb ends in either iru or eru, 98% of the time it is an ichidan verb.

Other fun ichiban verbs include:

Iru to exist (animate objects)
Dekiru to be able to do
Uragiru to betray
Eru to gain/get
Tsutomeru to work for

The other type of verbs are called godan verbs. If you see a plain verb and it doesn’t end in eru or iru, it is a godan verb (with the exception of Kuru (to come) and Suru (to do), the only two really irregular verbs)

Godan verbs come in nine flavors:

RU eg: Odoru to dance (note this ends with oru NOT eru or iru, hence a godan verb)
SU eg: Hanasu to speak
KU eg: Iku to go
GU eg: Oyogu to swim
MU - eg: Yasumu to take a break/vacation
BU eg: Yobu to call (out to someone)
NU shinu to die (often Romanized Sinu)
Vowel + U Eg: Warau to laugh

Occasionally, a godan verb will look exactly like an ichidan verb. The three most common examples of these are:

Hashiru to run
Kaeru only when it means to return home/to your place of origin
Hairu to enter

Highly Irregular: (You have to memorize these)

Suru (to do) and Kuru (to come)

When learning verbs, is vitally important to learn the naked/plain form of the verb and form all of your conjugations from there. The plain form is the center of your wheel of conjugation. The masu form of the verb is one of many, many spokes that come from this plain form of the verb. It is one of many costumes.

Here is how you dress your naked verb up in the masu form:

For Ichidan verbs:

Take your base verb.
Drop the RU.
Add masu.

That’s it!

EG:

Taberu
Tabe
Tabemasu

For Godan Verbs:

Take the last U of your verb
Turn it into an I
Add masu

That’s it!

EG:

Hanasu
Hanashi (remember, there’s no SI in the Japanese Alphabet, so SI is pronounced SHI)
Hanashimasu

How about this one:

Warau
Warai
Waraimasu

Easy isn’t it?

Lastly, the two Irregulars: (there is no rhyme or reason to these, just be glad there’s really only two of them)

Suru (to do) = Shimasu (this looks exactly like what would if you just put SU ending of a Godan verb into this masu form. Scroll up and take a look. That is the best way to remember how Suru conjugates in this form)
Kuru (to come) = Kimasu (Other than the fact it sounds like Shimasu a little you just have to memorize this)

What’s even better is that you can attach more than just masu to the step two of this conjugation.

For example, what if you want to say, I start to speak:

Start with Hanasu (to speak)
Take it to Step 2 of the Masu shift = hanashi
Add hajimeru = hanashihajimeru

Congratulations you’ve just made your first compound verb.

If you want to continue doing something, try tsuzukeru.

I continue to speak = hanashitsuzukeru.

You can combine tons of verbs using the base just before where you usually put the masu.

That’s because, in reality, the familiar masu form is just one of many endings you can attach to the STEP 2 base conjugation of your naked verb.

So, make sure to get your verbs naked before you have fun dressing them up.

Part 3: How to Conjugate Verbs without Sweating Blood.

Let your PDA do the nihongo

2006-01-06T14:46:00.000-05:00

NEC testing on-the-fly two-way speech translator

The language barrier which exists between massive groups of the world population went one step closer to elimination when NEC Corporation and NEC Personal Products announced the development of an automatic speech-to-speech Travel Interpreter (Japanese-English/English-Japanese) recently. The Travel Interpreter incorporates several NEC technologies - speech recognition, conversation-based speech translation and speech synthesis technology and achieves high-speed speech translation of approximately one second per Japanese sentence spoken. In essence, this means that a traveller speaking only English can converse with someone who speaks only Japanese via NEC's PDA-based translator.

Whats more, the translator's development programme is being run in conjunction with Narita Airport Authority, and the Travel Interpreter will be available for some international travellers at New Tokyo International (Narita) Airport over coming months.

Previous evaluation trials of NEC's own speech translation software held at Narita Airport led to efforts to improve speed and accuracy, and have contributed to significant improvements and the realization of a smoother conversation support system.

The offering of NEC's translation software is part of the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport's 'e-Airport' project which incorporates offering the most advanced IT available in offering new services for the comfort and convenience of airport users. NEC's automatic speech-to-speech translation software is also being used in the 'e-Navi' service which is also a part of 'e-Airport'.

The e-Navi program is a monitoring program that entails loaning of PDAs containing travel aid functions to overseas visitors during their stay in Japan.

Japanese for the Western Brain

2006-01-05T00:17:00.000-05:00

Check out this site: Japanese for the Western Brain

The explanations are very detailed and interesting. I feel my knowledge of Japanese Language growing in leaps and bounds as I partake of his clear, concise explanations of Japanese vocabulary and grammar, and how to understand these points as a native English speaker.

Don't forget that link: http://kimallen.sheepdogdesign.net/Japanese/index.html

Learning Japanese Abroad the Hard Way

2006-01-02T20:28:00.000-05:00

CHONG Mooi, 52, is a co-ordinator for a multinational wheel and tyre trader in Hungary. Prior to that, she held various positions with the Hungarian State Travel Agency, the Ministry of Health, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council and a Malaysian-owned bank.

“I am neither a professor, nor a world famous artist,” she said, implying a degree of surprise that anyone would want to hear her story. But who wouldn’t want to know more about this rare Malaysian who speaks both Japanese and Hungarian?

The unlikely combination resulted from 33 years spent in two starkly different cities. The first was bustling Tokyo, Japan. The second was Budapest, Hungary, before the then-Socialist country opened its Austrian border, ushered in democracy, and became the tourist hotspot we know today.

The Land of the Rising Sun piqued Chong’s interest when she was in school, courtesy of a brother who regularly corresponded with Japanese pen pals. At the age of 19, she was awarded a Japanese Government (Mombusho) Scholarship through the Japanese Embassy. In 1972, she left for Japan.

“I suddenly found myself studying and living with fellow students from all over the world. I didn’t know a word of Japanese and had only one year to learn and prepare for the university entrance examination,” explained Chong in an e-mail interview.

“It was not easy for me to adjust in the beginning because it was too big a leap. I was born and grew up in a kampung in Baling. My parents were farmers. I was the youngest of nine children, and my family was not well to do. I had never been on an elevator or escalator before this, and I remembered how much I disliked big cities like Penang or Kuala Lumpur. So, leaving for one of the world’s biggest cities was a cultural shock,” she added.

Japanese Verb Myths: Part 1

2006-01-02T00:01:00.000-05:00

The road to understanding Japanese in littered with lies. These lies aren't intended to harm. The fact is, in the beginning the lies seem natural and helpful. They help make the language 'feel' closer to our native language (English, most likely). Unfortunately, the more knowledge you try to pile on the top of these lies, the more your house of learning resembles a home built on a foundation of sponges. Instead of helping, these myths only make life harder.

At points, they can make you wonder:

"Why can't I understand Japanese?"
"What's wrong with me?"
"I must just be stupid."

When I started taking a formal Japanese class a few months ago, I realized how harmful those 'friendly lies' can be. I noticed that a class full of people who had completed almost three quarters of a textbook still couldn't conjugate verbs in a negative plain form. I realized that it was difficult for my classmates to naturally conjugate an adjective. It was more than simple memory slips - my classmates genuinely didn't understand how verbs worked. Though they had the benefit of a native Japanese teacher, and classroom conversation time, still, the basic verb seemed to evade them.

I realised, as the class progressed, that my classmates were victims of a number of myths that I had also faced. These myths seem inherent in most of the learning materials for students. Unless you are the kind of person who looks at an inconstancy, and really searches to find out why that inconsistancy is there, it's easy to drink in these lies, until they grow so big they claw their way out of your brain, and go skittering into the night. .

So over the course of the next week, I'm going to post up all of the myths I've learned about Japanese verbs, and how you can defeat them. Hopefully you'll find them helpful.

Know Your Verb! (Some myths about Japanese Verbs as seen from a student of Japanese)

Desu = Is

If you think 'desu' = is, congratulations, you are about to defeat your first big myth about Japanese.

Let me make this clear:

DESU DOES NOT MEAN IS!
Not today, not tomorrow, not ever. Desu is a word that has no equivilant in English. In short, it makes what you are saying more polite. This is exactly, word for word, what a Japanese friend told me.

Okay, but what about:
Kore wa penu desu
This is a pen.
(This is possibly the most inane sentence ever)
Doesn't desu mean is in that sentence?
Now we get to the real secret of desu. Desu will sometimes pretend to mean is, if it is the last word in the sentence, and if there isn't a more active verb at the end of your sentence. It's exactly the same thing as using the masu form of a verb to make a verb more polite (The Masu Myth we will defeat next).
So why does believing that desu = is give me problems?
Because, a whole bunch of the time, desu doesn't mean is at all. Further, if you try to think 'desu' means 'is' it will only confuse you to what's really going on in a sentance.
EG:
Kore wa penu ja nai.
This, a pen, is not.
(casual)

Kore wa penu ja nai desu.
This, a pen, is not
(more polite - not normally heard, but gramatically correct and equivilant to penu ja arimasen)

Kore wa penu ja nai 'n desu.
This, a pen, is not.
(I'm saying this to explain something - see previous post: no da/no desu. Polite. Seen often.)

If you believe (as I did) that ja nai means 'is not' and desu means 'is', the last two sentances are a complete mind-twist.

Lit: This, a pen is not, is ...WTF!

You may convince yourself: well, something like that is just an exception to the rule, and memorize it. But if you are forced to memorize everything that is an exception to the desu = is myth, eventually, you will quickly experiece desu burnout. You also really run into trouble when you meet the word has a meaning a lot closer to is: (what the Genki textbook calls the 'plain form' of desu, though calling it a plain for of desu is more of the 'desu' = 'is' crap)

Da
Is (in the sense of 'this is a pen')

I say a lot closer to is, because the word 'is' in English is a lot different than 'is' in Japanese. Japanese has a bunch of different kinds of words to express existence. The most common ones you will meet are:
da, aru (inanimate objects exist), iru (animate objects exist)
Also, because you tend to drop redundant parts of the sentence in Japanese, sometimes the word 'is' will be left off entirely. Finally, the word 'is' is wrapped up in every other verb, depending on how you conjugate it (which is why you don't need to use a 'to be' verb to say, I am going to the store - Mise ni itte iru) We will get into that more as more myths are busted.

I hope this helps clear up points of confusion with desu/da.

Future myths busted:

The Masu Form (it's not the real deal)

Adjectives and Verbs: One and the Same

How to conjugate verbs and adjectives without sweating blood

AKEMASHIE OMEDETO GOZAIMASU

2005-12-31T17:09:00.000-05:00

The most important and most celebrated part of the holiday season in Japan is New Year's day, known as O-Shogatsu. It's a very busy time between the 24th of December, when school gets out, and the first of January.

Before the New Year, Japanese people clean their houses from top to bottom. Then they put up New Year's decorations, especially Kadomatsu which are made from bamboo, pine branches and strips of white folded paper. When the house is clean and decorated, then everybody gets busy preparing New Year's food.

One of the most important New Year's foods is Mochi. In our neighborhood, we have a mochi-tsuki party every year and make our own mochi. We gather on a Sunday morning in an empty lot. In one corner of the lot, someone starts to cook rice on an open fire. When the rice is cooked, it is placed in a special wooden dish and is pounded with a big wooden hammer. All of the neighbors take turns pounding until the rice mixture becomes a big ball of dough. Then everyone gets involved rolling small mochi balls which are eaten with different kinds of sweet or salty sauces and toppings.

Fake Language Master Tamori

2005-12-30T10:18:00.000-05:00

This sounds pretty neat: (from alt.usage.english)

There is an entertainer in Japan who goes by the one-word name "Tamori", and one of his talents is speaking fake foreign languages ("inchiki gaikoku-go gei"). He has a routine in which he plays four people sitting around a table playing mah-jongg: a Chinese, an American, a German, and a Japanese.

I heard it once, and they do indeed sound like their respective languages, but speech is not the real languages, it only sound like them.

Here is an article about him from the Japanese Wikipedia, but unfortunately it is all in Japanese. I did not see an indication of any audio clip of his work.

http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%BF%E3%83%A2%E3%83%AA

Thanks Mark Spahn for posting this.

Technorati: japan fake languages comedy

What’s a linguanaut?

2005-12-29T19:31:00.000-05:00

Find out here: www.linguanaut.com

A Linguanaut is a surfer in the language sea, just like an Astronaut in the outer space. The word came from Latin: [lingua: language + nauticus: sailor].

Linguanaut.com is a website designed to help people surf, discover and learn new languages by familiarizing themselves first with basic phrases and sentences that might be very useful for a first time conversation & for easy yet important expressions.

Mastering a language is not necessary to be able to communicate with natives of that specific language, basic words sometimes may do it, so if:

You don't have enough time and patience to learn new languages especially if you're in a short vacation to a foreign county.

You want to impress one of your friends whose native language is not English.

You want to have a general idea about a language before learning it.

Then this website would be a good start for you!

This Website contains 101 Phrases/ Sentences in 20 languages:

American Sign Language

Arabic

Chinese (Mandarin)

Dutch

English

Esperanto

Farsi

French

Indonesian

German

Hebrew

Hindi

Italian

Japanese

Korean

Portuguese

Russian

Spanish

Turkish

Urdu

By memorizing these 101 survival phrases you will be able to express yourself more, speak without barriers, it includes phrases that you may need most (greetings, getting directions & help...). If you master these 101 phrases in all the 20 languages you will be able to communicate with 90% of the planet, plus the fun and the joy that learning a language provides. Surf in the sea of language! Be a Linguanaut!

languages

All about Manga (Manga Invasion)

2005-12-29T09:41:00.000-05:00

Celebrating an art form where girls can be super, the hero doesn't always win, and mah-jongg is blood-sport

Only when you have sat in an automobile overflowing with college students (and their various odors and idiosyncrasies) for five hours can you truly understand obsession. In the age of the Internet, satellite dishes, and free shipping, what could possibly consume anyone enough to submit to the travails of such bone-jarring interstate journeys?

Until recently, you could say the word "manga" (Japanese for comics) and count on blank stares. These days, manga paperbacks fill rows at bookstores. Book sale reports showInu-yasha and Naruto making runs at the crown long held by Calvin and Hobbes and Get Fuzzy. Manga popularity has even encouraged one pair of local entrepreneurs to open a dedicated store --- after making the aforementioned trek one too many times.

"[I]n Hiroshi Hirata's samurai comics, with their direct, serious art style, I find a nostalgia for the kami-shibai of old, and a sensibility in the manner of the violent warrior prints of the late Edo period." --- Yukio Mishima (Japanese traditionalist and writer, better known nowadays in the West for his ritual suicide in 1970)

Hiroshi Hirata, Osamu Tezuka, and their fellow mangaka are the inheritors of a long artistic history in Japan. A thousand years ago, Buddhist monks were producing cartoon-like drawings satirizing other clergy and the nobility. In the 17th and 18th century, woodblock printing techniques led to mass production of story-telling pictures on scrolls, arguably the original comic books. The most popular prints were ukiyo-e, the "Floating World" pictures recently on display at the MemorialArtGallery.

The arrival of American comic strips in bound collections a little less than a century ago led to the production of thick monthly Japanese magazines collecting whatever comics were available. Even so, pre-1945 most of the artwork bears little resemblance to the stylistic conventions now associated with manga.

That would all change with the artistic emergence of a medical student who preferred Walt Disney and Max Fleischer.

Paging through Buddha by Osamu Tezuka is revelatory, like hearing the Beatles for the first time or eating seafood fresh off the boat in a place where that means something. The art varies from exquisite landscapes to elongated caricatures. Like Citizen Kane, the artist took the opportunity to explore the possibilities of black and white. The 3000-page tale offers the same labyrinthine experience as the lengthiest Russian novel. Buddha is a manga masterpiece created by the originator of the medium. This could never be a comic book produced by the American entertainment machine.

"People talk about [Tezuka] as the 'father,' [and] he was in a lot of ways," says Joanne Bernardi, director of the Film and Media Studies Program and associate professor of Japanese at the University of Rochester. "He was the one who introduced this new style. It caught on. It fed into a whole lot of social and cultural ethos at the time. It completely meshed with the whole idea of technology outracing and outpacing and undermining humanity. The fact that there had been this atomic bomb and this traumatic experience in Japan that was due to technology. The bomb really seems to infect popular culture, at least. It definitely overshadows other aspects about the war."

Sitting on her parents' sofa in the early '60s, Prof. Bernardi was on the frontlines as the first Japanese animations entered American family rooms on Saturday mornings. "[Tezuka] really did make a big change with Astro Boy," she says. "Astro Boy was his flagship character. To our American consciousness, he was the only one exported."

"There was a young girl sitting beside me.... [F]or nearly the whole time since we had left Ueno Station she had been reading a thick comic book. The girl rose, put her comic down, and walked the length of the car to the toilet. A green TOILET OCCUPIED light went on, and while that light burned I read the comic. I was instructed and cautioned. The comic strips showed decapitations, cannibalism, people bristling with arrows like Saint Sebastian, people in flames, shrieking armies of marauders dismembering villagers, limbless people with dripping stumps, and, in general, mayhem. The drawings were not good, but they were clear. Between the bloody stories there were short comic ones and three of these depended for their effects on farting: a trapped man or woman bending over, exposing a great moon of buttock and emitting a jet of stink (gusts of soot drawn in wiggly lines and clouds) in the captors' faces. The green light went off and I dropped the comic. The girl returned to her seat and, so help me God, serenely returned to this distressing comic." --- Paul Theroux, The Great Railway Bazaar

Ignoring the fact that he seems to feel all right touching his fellow passenger's stuff, Theroux does accurately describe the contents of the common manga weekly, in many ways not too far removed from Mad Magazine or a Hollywood Western. On the other hand, "There's also this idea that the violence and sex in anime --- this is today --- that seems to be blown out of proportion," Bernardi reminds us. "That's been a much bigger impediment to [adults] appreciating anime. The kids don't bother with [worrying about] it."

Most Bizaare Crime Committed by a State

2005-12-29T00:50:00.000-05:00

The 12th Annual Slamdance Film Festival next month will be featuring a documentary film accounting what one newspaper in 2002 had described as one of the most bizarre crimes ever committed by a state.

“Abduction: The Megumi Yokota Story" will make its premiere showing in a shocking and still mysterious account of the disappearance of a young Japanese schoolgirl and the crime of the North Korean regime.

In 1977, 13-year-old Megumi Yokota vanished while returning home from badminton practice after school. Her untraceable disappearance left her parents in grief as decades passed without a clue of her whereabouts or of the incident itself.

It was later found the Megumi was one of 12 Japanese citizens who were abducted by North Korean spies.

Reports of sightings of Megumi began to surface sixteen years later, revealing that she had been seen in Pyongyang. A North Korean defector claimed that Megumi was living at a training institute for intelligence agents in North Korea along with other abducted Japanese to teach their spies the Japanese language and culture.

North Korea had denied the claims. More defector accounts, however, attesting to Megumi's abduction exploded in the media worldwide. Reports revealed that Megumi was carried off on a spy boat and arrived in Pyongyang covered in blood as she had tried to scratch at the hull.

In September 2002, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il met with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, to whom he acknowledged and apologized for the kidnapping of the Japanese citizens. Kim claimed they were captured to serve as language instructors for North Korean agents.

Life in Japan (JET and language info)

2005-12-28T21:28:00.000-05:00

Blogmaster’s Note: Since this is exactly what I’m hoping happens to me next year, I am super excited to read this article. For anyone who is planning on doing JET, applying to JET and the like, read on...

SONI-MURA, Japan - Oolitic's Aaron Rio is realizing a dream - living in Japan.

The 2000 graduate of Bedford North Lawrence High School has been teaching English to students in a wide age range for the past 18 months. His experience was facilitated through the Japanese Exchange and Teaching Programme, which worked to place nearly 6,000 foreign teachers in Japan this year.

He's home this week for a brief break before heading back overseas, where he will stay until August, and spoke to the Times-Mail about his experience thus far.

Why did you want to do something like this?

I guess I've always had a fascination with cultures other than our own, and when I started actively studying foreign culture in college, I very soon had the urge to study and/or live overseas.

What are your teaching responsibilities?

I teach all six grades of elementary school basic English conversation once a week and all three grades of junior high school English conversation, grammar, writing, reading and translation three times a week. I also teach two advanced courses at the junior high school, a weekly adult conversation class for local residents, and coach an English speech team at the junior high. There are about 120 students in the village.

I also am responsible for helping to create the English curriculum for all six elementary grades for the 2007-08 school year. The Ministry of Education is compiling all of the curriculums and teaching plans from model schools to create a nationwide standardized curriculum.

Describe a typical school day.

I usually arrive at school between 7 and 7:30 a.m., but my official work day starts with a staff meeting at 8:15. Classes begin at 8:40, and typically run until about 4 p.m. I teach anywhere from three to seven classes a day, and then help with club activities every day after school. My work day officially ends at 5.

Most people will be reading this around 6 p.m. Wednesday evening, Bedford time. What time is it over there?

It's 8 a.m. Thursday.

What are your living arrangements like?

Unlike most JETs, and almost all urban Japanese, I have a house that, although small to American standards, is seen as huge in Japan. It has a bedroom, kitchen/dining space, two traditional Japanese tatami rooms, a traditional Japanese entryway called a genkan, and then separate rooms for the toilet and shower/bathtub. Even my “yard,” which is about one meter around the perimeter of my house, is seen as somewhat exceptional in Japan.

What do people do for entertainment over there?

Drinking alcohol, especially Japanese sake, is a very important part of Japanese life. Although the Japanese try not to get too drunk and never talk about it the next day, many business meetings and most social events take place at a Japanese pub, or izakaiya, over drinks.

The Japanese also love karaoke - a Japanese creation - shopping, baseball, movies, and are also very active in sports, from soccer to karate to basketball.

How do you think Americans are received in the area that you are in?

I am living in a really small, really rural village in the mountains - Soni-mura, population of about 1,200, about 100 kilometers east of Osaka. It is not on a train line and only has a one-lane mountain road. The nearest town, train station or shopping center is 35 kilometers and several mountains away.

Because of its isolation, most residents of Soni may have only seen a non-Japanese in person one or two times in their lives, let alone spoken to one. For this reason, I am America to many residents of the village.

The standard American is blonde-haired, blue-eyed, tall, loud and eats steak for every meal. Most Japanese people are very anti-war and very commonly anti-Bush, and since I've been here, I haven't heard one person say they support the war in Iraq or think it was a good idea. However, the Japanese usually make no connection between American politics and Americans.

Linux multilingualization - Japanese and other Asian languages

2005-12-28T12:11:00.000-05:00

Check out these tutorials:

Linux multilingualization: preparing any Linux distribution for the Japanese language with canna and kinput
Linux multilingualization: preparing any Linux distribution for any Asian language using scim

You will find them here: http://www.schulenburg-edv.de/tutorials.html

Thank You: comp.os.linux.misc for this info.

Translators needed: Japanese to English

2005-12-28T11:20:00.000-05:00

Anime Fansub : Translators "Japanese to English":

Hell-Fansub is currently taking on 2-3 translators to join the team. Not much is required but dedication to the fansub is a must. Requirements for the position are listed below:

Requirements:

+ Decent Understanding of the Japanese Language
+ 8 Hours Free a week to logon IRC
+ Subtitle Skills (NOT REQUIRED but will help )

If you would like to apply for this position either visit their irc channel and message an operator or visit the website and apply online.

WebSite: www.hell-fansubs.org

Irc: irc.rizon.org

Channel: #hell-fansubs

(from sci.lang.translation)

English/Japanese Vocabulary Trainer

2005-12-28T03:29:00.000-05:00

This looks pretty neat. Basically, it asks you multiple choice questions and you answer them. In the end, it gives you an assessment of your skill level. If you’ve been through Heisig’s Remembering the Kanji, some of the stuff might be pretty easy to figure out even if you don’t know the Japansese words, but it’s fun anyway.

Try it Here: http://icecube.berkeley.edu/~dima/stuff/japanese/japanetr.html

Dialects, Dialects, Dialects

2005-12-28T00:41:00.000-05:00

Most of us students of Japanese are quickly familiarized with the concept of Kansai-ben, but as with most langauages, many dialects of Japanese abound. I stumbled across this one while attempting to translate the trailer for ‘Shinobi-Heart Under Blade’

The word that tripped me up:
Subareru.

Turns out, this is a synonym for a word we all probably know:

Samui - to be cold.

Another Miyagi-ben version of this is ‘shibareru’.

Want to learn more about Miyagi-ben?

Heisig Flashcard Free Download

2005-12-27T10:32:00.000-05:00

FREE sets of Flashcards for use in Heisig’s RTK1, RTK2 and RTK3 are available for free download at:

http://www.polarcloud.com/japanese

Thank You: Yahoo Groups - Remembering the Kanji fpr this information.

Still Think Kanji are Hard?

Download the first third of the book HERE

Finding a J.O.B. after Japan

2005-12-27T07:16:00.000-05:00

Thinking about going home, but stuck for what to do next? Melanie Burton talked to former expats about segueing back into the workforce, and asked recruiters for some tips.

Rachel spent 3 1/2 years in Tokyo working for one of the big five conversation schools, before returning to the U.S. and working for the same company as a recruiter up and down the West Coast of the U.S.

"I'm proud of myself for leaving Japan, because I think it gets to a certain point where it's a heck of a lot easier to stay than it is to go," she said.

McKinnon advised returnees to "go home with a plan."

"If you're sure you want to leave, then make it convenient . . . update your resume, apply for some things online before heading home. Teaching English is so common in Japan, we tend to forget how impressive it can be to employers back home. Don't sell yourself short."

That's not to say it will be easy.

Tom Griffin worked for Nova for two years near Fujisawa, also writing part-time. Although his first novel has just been published, he said returning to find work in his native Australia was extremely difficult.

"If you're serious about wanting to return and find a good job, do not stay in Japan teaching for too long," he said. "The longer you live in Japan teaching, the older the qualifications you have get and the harder it is to find work. Two years in Japan following University (is equal to a) 2-year-old degree that you have not used."

After three months looking for work, using up his savings and borrowing from his parents, Griffin finally found a job at an Internet retailer.

"As I was in the process of releasing my novel, I just wanted a job to pay the rent while I worked on my book. I tried all avenues from office work to travel consulting. I found no one really cares if you have taught in Japan or even if you can speak the language. I took the first job I was offered, which was at the Web site company," he said.

Griffin advised bringing some cash home with you to lubricate your looking. "If you don't or can't live with your folks make sure you've saved enough money to live and pay rent with."

In hindsight, he recommends starting to look for work two months before you return.

"If you have studied a university course from your own country while in Japan, nice work. You will find it much easier to get a job. This is one thing I wish I had done."

Di Pass is the director of recruitment agency, 360 Services, in Sydney. Pass said that "getting work for any graduate is just plain hard work. There is a lot of knocking on doors. They have to be proactive -- it doesn't just come to them. We would be trying to give them advice on how to make their international experience look good on a resume."

But the challenges of finding work can also yield opportunity. Michael Douglas worked for Nova in Ibaraki Prefecture in 2002 and 2003. He now runs his own art marketing business and works casually at a scuba diving shop in Perth, Australia.

"I think a stint teaching in Japan is looked upon positively by most employers, but it is hardly a rarity these days and I don't think it gives you a significant edge over other candidates," he said.

Douglas made it to "the finish line of lengthy interview processes" a few times, but missed out, "despite the fact that all my potential employers were interested in hearing a little about my time in Japan."

As for saving for his return to work, Douglas said, "Since I saved a good dose of cash in Japan, I guess it hindered my return to work because I had the money to avoid it for a while."

Words to live By

2005-12-27T00:05:00.000-05:00

One of the greatest scholars of Japanese literature, 83-year-old Donald Keene has spent the past 52 years in Japan, with the exception of his time spent teaching at Columbia University in New York, where, in 1986, The Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture was established in his honor. So far he has published about 40 books in English and 50 or so in Japanese, received countless awards and has been named a Person of Cultural Merit (Bunka Koro-sha) by the Japanese government.

I forget that I am not Japanese. I don't feel like a stranger here, but then someone asks me if I can eat sashimi and I feel as shocked as any Japanese would be. Of course, most Japanese don't know that Emperor Meiji never ate sashimi because he disliked it immensely.

I am a missionary of Japanese culture. I propagate it in the West to people who might never have heard of anything Japanese. I believe that it could be an important part of their life.

The sooner you begin learning languages, the better. Growing up with two or three languages must be very good. Unfortunately, my family was too poor to hire a private tutor so I only began studying French in junior high school, and followed it with Spanish, classical Greek, Latin, German, Mandarin and Japanese.

Aristotle was wrong and Chikamatsu right: tragedy and great love affairs could happen to anyone. Aristotle said in the "Poetics" that the hero of a tragedy must be a person of higher social status than ourselves, otherwise we think this is a poor, hopeless individual. But Chikamatsu recognized that even people with low social status have strong emotions and those are just as pure and important as a prince's feelings.

People sometimes take the easy way out. They might say that the reason they don't know Japanese literature is because it is so strange, so foreign, so unlike their own. That is such a disgraceful thing to say because if you are a cultured human being, you should be aware of other cultures, not only your own.

Some Americans love seeing their own country abroad. They travel and feel so happy to see a KFC in Beijing or Moscow because for them it is evidence that American culture is widespread. Going abroad for this is such an unworthy purpose.

Memoirs - Sugoi yo!

2005-12-25T11:57:00.000-05:00

I thoroughly and completely recommend Memoirs of a Geisha for anyone who wants to see an amazing movie this holiday season. I knew I wanted to see it. The book grabbed me from page one, and even managed to keep me distracted completely from my fear of airline crash long for an entire 2 hour flight. The book was awesome, and the movie did it justice.

What I loved:

The way small things from the book were incorporated into the movie, even if they weren’t explained explicitely.

The set. The sheer beauty of everything.

The way small sections of the movie were almost entirely in Japanese in a way that conveyed the feel and music of the culture, but in no way detracted from the enjoyment of the film for those who speak no Japanese (I know, because my best friend was with me, and if someone is going to be distracted by something like that, it is her. She loved the film - though she hadn’t read the book, and honestly, was only dragged along because it was my birthday)

The acting. There’s a lot of controversy about the fact that most of the Geisha cast is the female cast of Crouching Tiger: Hidden Dragon. I admit, I had wondered about that too before I went to see the film. Why not hire Japanese actresses to play something so iconically Japanese? However, after seeing the film, I understand the casting choices. The way geisha move requires the actress have a true discipline of motion (and lots of training in this aspect as well as traditional acting). I believe that could only have been mastered quickly by a martial artist, or an actual geisha. Hong Hong cinema has a long tradition of combining martial arts and acting. It goes hand in glove in a way that I believe isn’t found anywhere else in the world. Further, all of the actors and actresses did such an amazing job in this film, I could care less where they came from.

Overall, this film is well worth the money. You’d do yourself a diservice not to see it on the big screen.

OT: Holiday Hana Yori Dango Wallpaper

2005-12-24T01:27:00.000-05:00

New Hana Yori Dango - Live Action Wallpaper!
by Haengbok

Download @ Sci-Fi Buzz

Fish out of Water

2005-12-19T21:44:00.000-05:00

Jojima only has to keep his eye on the ball
12/19/2005 from asahi.com

More than one U.S. newspaper has made a point of commenting on Kenji Jojima's lack of English proficiency as next season he will become the first Japanese-born catcher to play in the major leagues. The papers have questioned whether he can perform as a catcher, claiming his inability to converse freely in English during games could be a drawback.

Pitcher Shigetoshi Hasegawa, whose fluency in English is widely acknowledged, reportedly had a hard time dealing with the language barrier when he first arrived in the United States. Whenever he got fed up with having to speak English, he would escape to a bathroom and devour Japanese books. But now, he handles interviews without an interpreter, and has even published a book on how to master English.

Ping-pong player Ai Fukuhara, who has joined the Chinese table tennis league, speaks good Chinese. Her popularity in China has shot up since her recent appearances on local TV programs. Pro golfer Ai Miyazato speaks English with ease.

How do foreign athletes fare in Japan? The sumo world is known for its rigidity where the language issue is concerned. Mongolian-born Asashoryu certainly didn't have it easy when he joined the stable. One day, noticing a senior sekitori was looking off-color, he wanted to comfort him, but he got the words mixed up: Instead of saying kaoiro ga warui (you don't look well), he said kao ga warui, which means "you look ugly." He was severely reprimanded for his unintended impertinence.

Make Memorizing Japanese Vocab. A Cinch

2005-12-17T17:32:00.000-05:00

Article by Tae Kim:

Memorizing Japanese vocabulary is much more difficult than many other languages not only because they usually bear no resemblance to English but also because you have to memorize the Kanji, the reading, and the definition. Multiply that by the tens of thousands of words in the language, and you’ve got a hefty job on your hands. While you need to spend a lot of time on grammar in the first 1-2 years, after that, it’s all about memorizing one word after another after another. In fact, I’d say over 80% of the total study time required for fluency would probably be for vocabulary.

So to give you a helping hand in such a monumental task, here are my tips for effectively transferring vocab from the dictionary into your long-term memory bank.

Memorizing for tests is not productive:

Because we are so used to studying for tests, we often fall into the trap into thinking that memorizing for tests is an effective way to learn vocabulary. It is not. It is a convenient method for teachers to gauge mastery, but that does not mean it’s a good method to learn vocabulary.

The most common method of memorizing vocabulary is to take a set number of words and memorize them commonly in forms of lists and index cards. This is a great method to prepare for a test, not for learning vocabulary in general.

Remember, doing well on tests is a means to an end, and a poor one at that. If you don’t restrict yourself to a set number of words, there is a much faster method for learning a great deal of vocabulary with a lot less headaches.

Language is trained not reasoned

Now, I’m no expert in psychology, but one thing I’m sure about is that learning a language is not a cognitive process. Rather, mastering a language requires training much in the same way as learning how to ride a bike. Just think about how you use words in your native language when you read, write, listen, or speak. The words you have memorized come to mind almost instinctually as you need them. That is the level you want to ultimately attain.

It’s, like, like 【なんか】(nanka)

2005-12-15T20:46:00.000-05:00

Like, if there’s any equivalent to like, the word “like” in Japanese, it has to be like 「なんか」. 「なんか」 is a contraction of 「なにか」（何か）, which means “something". However, 「なんか」 can be used to mean something very similar to the English “like". Take a look at the example below:

ゲームなんか興味ないよ。- Not interested in something game.

First, you’ll notice the total lack of particles. You’ll see that a lot in casual speech. Another thing to notice here is that 「なんか」 essentially means “things like” in this example. This usage is distinct for 「なんか」 and you won’t see 「なにか」 used in the same way.

7 Quick Tips to Maximize Winter Study Abroad

2005-12-15T10:56:00.000-05:00

(PR Web) Winter break and the holidays are coming up and some of us are taking advantage of the time off by participating in a language immersion program abroad. The reasons range from career development, learning vacation, pleasure, to personal growth. Students often do it for extra language credits.

One thing we do have in common is that we want to get the most out of our program and limited time abroad. Whether you know zero vocabulary or are an advanced speaker in a foreign language, a little preparation can help you get the most out of your immersion language program. Here are 7 tips from study abroad veterans. If you plan to study Spanish, learn Italian, or even become fluent in Japanese, this is advice worth paying attention to.

1. Set Realistic Goals

Learning another language is not easy for most of us. It takes time, practice and many mistakes. Go into a program with the goal of increasing your communication skills. Do not assume that you are going to perfect the language in so many weeks or months, it is too much pressure.

2. Bolster Your Vocabulary

If you are an absolute beginner, get a phrase book, preferably with a tape to accompany it (you can download a basic, free 31-page Spanish phrase eBook here: http://www.amerispan.com/spdownload). Learn some basics: please, thank you, where is, how much, etc. These phrases and some hand gestures will get you by in a crunch. For intermediate or advanced speakers, we recommend learning as much vocabulary as possible before you go, including common idioms. The more vocabulary you have going into the program, the more ways you will get to apply the language.

Bring a comprehensive dictionary, not only a pocket dictionary. Consider a guidebook that has lists local colloquialisms. This ensures that you don't travel to Ecuador or try to study in Guatemala with knowledge only of the Spanish used in Madrid or Barcelona. Being prepared for local sayings can help you get the most out of your language classes or study abroad program.

3. Be Able To Conjugate Important Verbs

Learn to conjugate, COLD, those really important verbs like: to wish/want, to be able/can, to be and to go. These verbs conjugated in the present or past combined with infinitives instantly increase your ability to communicate. If you are an absolute beginner, focus on the I-form and you-form.

4. Think The Language

Do not try and translate everything word for word. It does not work. You will drive yourself crazy looking for a word that may not exist. Recognize the fact that grammar rules are different. Learn the differences along with the similarities, and your understanding of HOW the language works will increase ten fold. Even if you are fluent in Spanish and have spent years studying in Barcelona, if you are going to attend an international language program in Paris you will need to familiarize yourself with a new thought process for the French language.

5. When In Doubt, Literature-ize

This means try to use so-called larger words. For example in Spanish, need does not translate but necessity turns into necesidad. Requisite becomes requisito and exigency blossoms into exigencia. Since these words sound similar, you will be understood. There are similar examples in all languages.

6. Romance Languages Are Similar

If you know another romance language, you have a leg up if you learn Spanish or study Portuguese. You already know the concept of masculine and feminine words, accent marks, etc. Many words ending in Y like liberty will end with: -ad in Spanish, -e in French, -ade in Portuguese or -a in Italian. Similarly, words ending in -ion in English often sound alike, and mean the same thing in Spanish.

Learning Chinese or studying Japanese, Arabic, Hebrew, or Thai can present unique challenges, as the words are so different. More time may be necessary to learn these languages. Regardless of the difficulty level of a language, knowing two or more languages makes any international study program easier, and the benefits of learning an uncommon tongue can far outweigh the drawbacks.

7. Stay Open Minded

The best tool for learning a language is a good attitude. Understanding the culture helps with language acquisition. Do not be afraid to make mistakes, they are great to learn from and can be funny too! A sense of humor really helps.

Now go on, have a successful language immersion experience and learn as much as you can during your holiday or winter break.

---------------

For more information about international language programs, immersion, or study abroad, contact Dorioara Pinku or visit http://www.amerispan.com/

About AmeriSpan:

A US-based, International Education Company that provides a wide range of experiences in Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia, the Middle East. 25,000 people of all ages have participated with AmeriSpan. Language Immersion Programs; Volunteer & Internship placements; Teen options & International Summer Camps; Academic Study Abroad; Specialized programs combining language with dance, art, culture, cooking, sports, business, medicine, education, and social work.

Contact:
Dorioara Pinku
AmeriSpan
215-751-1100 ext 305
http://www.amerispan.com

�Decline� of Japanese Language a boon for students

2005-12-15T10:08:00.000-05:00

TV shows confront decline of Japanese language:

Beginning this fall, four of the major commercial television networks began broadcasting variety programs aimed at rehabilitating Japanese television viewers' inability to correctly utilize their native language.

Why the sudden flood of kokugo (national language) programs?

Some observers trace the decline of the Japanese language to recent government education reforms. In 2002, the Japanese government revamped the school system. Its pet name for the project? "Relaxed education." Ever since, many parents have been shocked to note that their offspring have difficulty in writing kanji at grade level. A number of these same moms and dads, increasingly reliant on Japanese word processing software, admit they are hard-pressed to handwrite the same kanji they expect their children to master.

Cries of alarm are also being raised about the state of the spoken language. Last February, an advisory panel to the Cultural Affairs Agency on kokugo reported that keigo (honorific, self-effacing, and polite language) is being widely misused by the Japanese populace. Sales of kokugo self-help books like Yasuo Kitahara's million-seller "Mondai na Nihongo (Problematic Japanese)" are booming, and it was only a matter of time before the networks jumped on the kokugo rehabilitation bandwagon.

I took a look at four of these new offerings to see what sort of educational and/or entertainment value they might have for Japanese learners and, indeed, native speakers.

TBS managed to sign kokugo guru Kitahara himself to appear as a regular on its "Quiz! Nihongo-O!" (Thursdays, 6:55 p.m.), hosted by popular comedy duo Uchan-Nanchan, in which 30 celebrities compete for the title of "King of Japanese."

Kitahara expounds on answers to questions dealing with kanji compound words, kanji stroke order, place-name kanji, vocabulary, the meanings of frequently misused phrases, and so on. Based on the wide range of difficulty in the questions this program dishes up, Japanese learners at all levels, but particularly from the intermediate level up, could find it useful.

Another program Japanese learners at all levels may want to check out is TV Tokyo's "O-Miyake-shiki (Miyake-style) Kokugo Drill" hosted by veteran emcee Yuji Miyake and his comic sidekick, Nigerian Bobby Orogon (Tuesdays, 8:00 p.m.). Most of the questions on this show deal with kanji, and the level (ranging from grade one of elementary school to kanji master) is provided for each. Five celebrity contestants play various games as they grapple with kanji compounds, pronunciations, homonyms, and kanji radicals.

"Anata Setsumei Dekimasu ka (Can You Explain It?)" on TBS (Wednesdays, 7:25 p.m.) asks hapless celebrity contestants to try to explain the difference between frequently confused words or phrases in Japanese. In one recent episode, for example, viewers learned the difference between sake (salmon, the fish itself) and shake (salmon after it has been prepared for human consumption). Long-term foreign residents may enjoy having those nagging questions about the differences in easily confused words answered by this show.

Everything Japanese

2005-12-14T22:18:00.000-05:00

Do you love Nihongo? Do you find every aspect of the language a maw of 'omoshiroi' that drags you further and futher into studying?

This is the blog of my journey into Nihongo. What I'm studying, resources I've found, sites I like, musings on the language...etc.

My goal is to speak fluent Japanese. Join me on this journey. With luck, we can all help each other.