Genki Japan Blog はじめまして。

Note: Last Monday was Halloween, and I meant to do a horror film review, but didn't get it done in time, so I might still post that up. Japanese is an extremely interesting language, as anyone learning it can tell you, but it can also be very frustrating at times, especially when it comes to verbs and particles. Now, when it comes to the former, I'm afraid I don't have any neat tips or tricks (at least not yet), but there's an amazing reference book out there that makes learning particles amazingly easy! I already mentioned it in my post about reading in Japanese , and I keep this book by my side as I read, so when I get stumped, I can just look up the particles in question. So, allow me to introduce, All About Particles . This is a great book that covers every single particle, , adn every last way to use them. For each particle, a description is given for each of its various usages, followed by several example sentences for each usage. It's very brief, but very cle...

When starting off on your language-learning journey, and even long after it's ended, it's easy to get caught up in methods and what methods work the best. Now, on this site I endorse every method, whether you're a university student or a self-learner; whether you eat, drink, and sleep textbooks, immerse yourself into the language, or speak your way to fluency. I don't care because I know that everyone learns differently. That's why I hate it when people out there try and make it sound like there's only one good way to learn. I've come across people who look at input methods and say, "Whatever happened to hard work! Is this some new age cult of language learning!" and I've come across people who bash on the output method saying, "You know you're still not good at it!" These people are ignorant, and I don't use that word often or take it lightly. You see, there's a lot of ways to learn a language, and I myself use different ...

Yesterday and this morning, I found myself helplessly struggling to watch a really odd Japanese movie called パコダテ人, when I got distracted by the Japanese video sharing website, Nico Nico Douga (ニコニコ動画) and typed in "My Little Pony" in English. Why did I do such an odd thing? Someone on the Reviewing the Kanji forums (review coming soon) said that the Japanese were fansubbing the show, which has now become an internet phenomenon. I got myself acquainted with the show and the memes associated with it (be careful, as it's suprisingly addicting) and decided to check it out next time I was bored. All I can say is that if you're at least an intermediate learner, you should be using Nico Nico Douga, and if you're a brony , this is a great way to indulge your love of the ponies while learning Japanese at the same time. Learning is supposed to be fun, and if it's fun for you, then excellent! So, how do you learn Japanese from fansubs of My Little Pony ? First of all, ...

In my last post , I reviewed Anki, a flashcard srs (spaced repition system) program that is almost essential for language learning. Now, I'm going to talk about the most common ways to use this flashcard program, as people have come up with ingenious ways to use this program to help them learn that I for one wouldn't have thought of by myself, but I'm a bit slow I think. The most obvious way to use flashcards is to memorize facts. When I was in second grade, our teacher was obsessed with using flashcards to teach us math. We would have contests and competitions over these flashcards and who could get the most right or recall the answer fast enough. To share a little secret with you, math and I still don't get along, despite the flashcards. When learning a language and being told to make flashcards, most people try to make flashcards in the same way that they use them for mathematics or science, or any other subject. You write out the Japanese word on one side and the En...

When most people think of success, they tend to think of the past and present tense; what they have accomplished and what benefits are they reaping right now. For me, success isn't something tangible, nor is an accomplishment I've already made or a reward I'm enjoying at this very moment. For me, success is a mindset, and it's taken a lot of hard failures for me to realize this. Success in a language, or in anything for that matter, starts with your mind. You can't get anything accomplished if you don't put your all into it, and you won't put your all into it if you don't think it'll be worth it. It's more important than your method you use (as you can see, on this site I advocate them all, so long as they work for you), and it's more important than what book you use, what blog you read, or what website you're engrossed in. Growing up, the people around me and my own experiences taught me the greatest false lesson ever: never get your hop...

I'll be doing my Friday review at some point, since I was too busy last Friday talking about the poopcycle . Anyway, today I wanted to make a brief point about language-learning software, specifically, products like Rocket Japanese that have affiliate marketers clinging to them and putting up false "reviews". I'd been considering trying this software and reviewing it myself, but I decided to Google "Rocket Japanese review" first, as I like to get a gist of what the software does before delving in, and the company's website, while looking promising, yet overpriced and hyped up, isn't exactly unbiased. Unfortunately, every single review I clicked on was basically the same thing! Here's my problem with language-learning software: it's so easy to get scammed. Most of the good reviews that come from an independent website are made by people who either didn't use the software themselves or who are relatively unknowledgable about language learni...

I have officially found the solution to Pimsleur's price tag! It's called JapanesePod101.com , and it's full of audio files, .pdfs, and all kinds of stuff that makes Pimsleur look really outdated. Let's face it, the Internet never fails to amaze me, even after all this time. It makes it possible to do so much, and, combined with an iPod, CD Player, or some other portable audio device, it's possible to learn Japanese online and even while on-the-go, and not necessarily in your car, either. It's fun, interesting, and provides a lot more information with just the audio portions alone than anything else I've come across, etiher online or the old-fashioned CD player or cassett tape. Now, I've known about this site for quite a while now, and I actually signed up for it a couple months ago. It took me a while because I would see their ads over all these sites, and seeing ads makes me think, " Another Rosetta Stone ! Yikes!" However, I'm happy to ...

Regardless of how you choose to do the bulk of your learning, whether through speaking and using the language, Japanizing (my new word) your environment, or by memorizing textbooks, you're going to have to delve into some native literature. Why? Because it'll get you ready for how the Japanese actually speak and write, and it can be quite a bit different from your sanitized textbook. Granted, you'll have to watch actual Japanese shows, too, in order to familiarize yourself with how the Japanese speak, namely, with how fast they speak, but that's for the next post. No, this one concerns reading, which is easily the most difficult thing to do in Japanese. Now, I recommend you use Heisig for learning the kanji, so how do you learn the readings? Memorizing them from your textbook, dictionary, or any other reference tool just won't work. Been there, tried that, failed hard. You want to learn the kanji in context, and since the Kanji in Context book is boring for a lot of...

Today, I'll be looking at two video tapes designed to teach beginner's Japanese. I actually prefer to learn with books, select software, websites, and Pimsleur, leaving video lessons out of the picture, but I have to admit that there are some really good ones. There's also some really bad ones. What I'm doing today is looking at one of the best I've come across and one of the worst. The contestants: Yan-San and the Japanese People aka Let's Learn Japanese and NHK Japanese Lessons . Both of these videos are made by the NHK, but Yan-San and the Japanese People (pictured above) is the better of the two videos, and for obvious reasons. It's used in classrooms that teach Japanese and does a good job of explaining Japanese conversation. I think it's primary focus is for living in Japan, and it does a really good job of teaching basic spoken Japanese, unlike another video I'll be talking about. So, what's so great about Yan-san? First of all, the ski...

A song known to most of us as "Numa Numa" is quite popular on the internet right now. Originally in Romanian, it has been translated into various languages, including Japanese. I just had to post it when I found the video for it, because it's epic. First of all, it's almost nothing like the original song, so I'll just give you a heads up. Second, the lead singer/actor in this is a man dressed as a high school girl. He also plays the teacher said student falls for. Creepy? It gets better in that he actually looks better than most of the girls in this video. Perhaps this was done intentionally to help him "pass". He looks to me like a Japanese Jack Black, actually. Enjoy!

I've been waiting to do this one. Why? Because Pimsleur offers amazing audio tapes for a multitude of languages! What's more is that they do them well. As a repititious learner, these CDs did wonders for me. They also made me go broke, but the price is well worth it, and if you can get it used, it should only cost you little more than $100. Pimsleur's motto says that you don't have to read Japanese at all, the point of fluency being able to hold casual conversation. I don't agree with the Stroll Learning company on that one, so I do recommend that you learn Hiragana at least before tackling these. The pronunciation guide is very good, but if you start with, say, Power Japanese , you'll be able to master it faster and with much more accuracy. Now, one thing I do agree with Pimsleur on is this: the reason why no one remembers the languages they "learned" in high school is simply this: they don't teach you how to actually speak. They teach you a bunch...

There have been whisperings going on about how hackers can cause the next big war, because the Internet is like a weapon (watch out all you anti-weapon people!), and I guess that this article over at the Japan Times is a pretty good explanation as to why. And, what do you know? I can't copy the article over here because of all the stupid graphics, and it won't let me highlight just the text for some strange reason. Just click on the link above for the story. Personally, I find this very troubling, but given that banks aren't exaclty doing well, I think I fear our economy even more. Granted, Japan's yen is still stronger than the dollar, but they're suffering because we're not buying their exports. This means that, apparently, Japan was doing something right. Last I read, they are now trying to inflate their money (bad move, in my opinion), so the strong dollar may not last. I promise to put that article up if I can find it again.

Like Nerdy Goodness: Trials, Tribulations, and Musings of a Nerd before it, Genki will be adding a 'categories' page to it. Again, I'm too lazy to go adding a bunch of code, so I'm just going to put up links to my old posts here. Gadgets Wii U? Japanese Invent Spider Man Robot Sauce-Dispensing Chopsticks Culture Valentine's Day in Japan The Secret to Living as Long as the Japanese News Easiest Way to Help Quake Victims Ever! Stupid People on the Internet and Disaster .PDF Massive 8.9 Earthquake in Japan More News About North Korea N. Korean Missle Launch and the Big Brother of Japan British Man Attempts to Defraud a Japanese Bank Obama Masks Invoke Huge Sales in Japan J-Pop Makes a New Year's Resolution? Language Learning Tools The Best Flashcard Program Ever: Anki Gakuu JapanesePod101.com Reading in Japanese All Japanese All the Time TextFugu: A Second Look LingQ Textfugu Japanese-Online Japanese Video Tapes Genki vs. Pimsleur Pimsleur Japanese Japanese the Ma...

It's a holiday, and I'm taking a break from an article I've been working on for my other blogs in order to have some fun. It's Valentine's Day, and I thought I'd let everyone know how it works in Japan, because it's not like it is here in America. Firstly, only women give chocolates in Japan. Traditionally speaking, women were supposed to be shy and all around not very good at communicating their feelings, thus Valentine's Day was a perfect way to help them out. Women give out chocolates on Valentine's Day not only to their friends and lover, but also to pretty much any man they know. When the giving of chocolate is obligatory, as is the case when a woman gives chocolates to her boss, coworker, etc., it is called giri-choko (ぎりーちょこ). This means that if you're visiting Japan and a girl you may kind of sort of know gives you some chocolate, don't think it means your advances have worked! She might just feel obligated to do so. The Japanese feel...

So, you think you can just go and learn basic Japanese without all those boring textbooks? You think you can just use manga? While I wouldn't recommend this book as your sole text book, I do endorse it as being a great book to familiarize yourself with casual, spoken Japanese. I'm sure another textbook comes to your mind: Japanese in Mangaland . The big difference between this book and that book is that this one uses real manga. It takes the actual manga, and then uses it to build lessons regarding reading, grammar, and other basic skills. I've heard that the manga featured in the other book is actually made up. I also found a few small errors in the Mangaland book. It slowly builds up on complex sentence structures, covering things most formal texts leave out, and it's fairly easy to remember what you've read. My biggest disappointment with this book is that it only covers basic skills. It should really come out with more volumes, like Japanese in Mangaland does,...

I had several ideas for this post, but in the spirit of lazyness, I'll start off with this one. It's no secret that the Japanese live a lot longer than we do. By "we" I mean anyone who isn't Japanese (save for this little place in Pakistan). Their secret? The Japanese diet, of course! I love Youtube's Psychetruth channel ! It fuels my hatred for the medical system, particularly my anti-psychiatry stance, but more on that in my other blogs, and just for the record, I'm also anti-Scientology. Anyway, get ready to learn why the Japanese live a long time!

I figured for my next study tool review, I'd do a positively free one, Tae Kim's Guide to Japanese . This is an amazing website, and it's as close as you'll get to a free online book. It has its flaws, but it is one of the best tools to help you learn. First of all, it has lessons and even practice exercises in the kana. Although Power Japanese worked best for me in this regard, Tae Kim does a great job of reinforcing your knowledge as well. It also has basic grammar, which you will need to know soon, and advanced topics, although it doesn't flow quite as well as a textbook. He also has a forum, a wiki, and a blog, all of which will help you as you go along. I should also mention that it's been translated into 9 or 10 languages, so your non-English friends can also check it out. Now, I wouldn't recommend using this website as your sole source for studying. It's great for reinforcing knowledge, and you might learn a thing or two here and there, but ...

This is one of the best "serious" beginner's books in Japanese. It is supposed to be able to teach college students, high school students, and adults learning on their own, although I think it was definately meant for the former. If you are going to self-teach with this book, although if you're already doing things via the input method (reading, watching tv and movies, and listening to a lot of Japanese) then you can skip the workbooks and CDs. You can practice for free via Lang-8 and get the pronunciation correct through lots of listening. It uses everyday examples, which is a whole lot better than using business-type settings. Basically, you follow Mary, an American foreign exchange student, as she goes through University life, making friends, watching movies, ect. This structure gives the book a good flow, and it helps introduce Kanji gradually. By the end of these two volumes, the JLPT 4 or even 3 should be no sweat. Building a person's vocabulary is one thing...