Tokyo Weekender - January 2016

Speaking
in Tongues
by Alec Jordan
You may have thought it to yourself each time you were confronted with a menu that you couldn’t make sense
of, or every time you tried to read an ad on the subway, or tried to figure out what all of the buttons on your
washing machine meant: It’s finally time to improve your Japanese. But where to start? We’ve put together a
few ideas to get you started on your quest. Ganbatte kudasai!
READ WHAT YOU LIKE
One fellow who hit upon a solid approach
to learning Japanese from an early age is
translator, media personality, and tourism
ambassador for Nakano Ward, Benjamin
Boas. Giving the otaku cred of the ward he
represents, it should come as no surprise
that he started off learning Japanese through
manga and video games. We asked him for a
few language-learning pointers.
Do you have any particular tips or tricks
that proved particularly useful to you as a
student of Japanese? To speak, you have to
put yourself in situations where you’re forced
to use Japanese. Group activities can be very
helpful in doing this. Getting drunk with
strangers even more so. Even one drink can
help you relax and make mistakes. Making
mistakes and being corrected is the only way
to learn. For reading, read what you like. You’ll
need to read things over and over to fully
understand them so you might as well go with
stuff you won’t mind repeatedly poring your
eyes over.
What approach would you recommend for
people who are interested in improving
their Japanese?
Figure out what you want to do with your Japanese
once it gets good. Then try to do that,
even though you know you can’t.
What do you think are some of the biggest
barriers that most people have when
trying to learn Japanese?
Kanji is a big one that everyone has to get
through. It’s a slog. Start early and chip away
every day. There’s no shortcut.
THE OLD-FASHIONED WAY
Finally, there might be those of you out there
who might not want that completely open-ended
approach. A classroom environment, or the motivation
of a test, could be just the trick. If you’d like
to get started in an informal class setting, many of
Tokyo’s ward offices and smaller city organizations
offer classes taught by volunteer teachers, which
are a quick (English language!) Google search away.
They’re usually quite affordable, but more advanced
students may want to find something more challenging
before long. And speaking of challenges, there’s
the Japanese Language Proficiency Test. Offered
twice a year, this five-level exam (1 is the highest
level and 5 is the lowest) has sections on kanji and
vocabulary, grammar, reading, and listening. It
may not be the truest indicator of your functional
Japanese, but in preparing for the JLPT, you’ll pick up
more than you expected. Added bonus: going to the
exam offers an experience in diversity rivaled only by
dropping by the Immigration Office. (www.jlpt.jp)
CLASSROOM IN THE CLOUD
So we’ll start with the good news. There are more ways to learn Japanese
online than you could possibly imagine. JapanesePod101.com has been
providing Japanese podcast and vocabulary lessons for years, and they’re
still going strong. While there’s plenty of advanced material for grammar
and reading on the site, it’s also a great place for beginners: and naturally,
there’s a lot of audio. When it comes to knuckling down and making your
way through written Japanese, you could go with the flash card systems at
WaniKani or ReadtheKanji.com. The principle behind these apps is called
spaced repetition—basically, the better you remember a given electronic
“flashcard,” the less often it will be called up. These services are designed
specifically for Japanese, but if you are willing to spend some time on similar
products of a more general bent—but with plenty of learning options—
you can try out Memrise or Anki. So, what’s the bad news? With so many
choices, it can be tough to stick with just one method.
JANUARY 2016 www.tokyoweekender.com