Tuesday, September 11, 2007 - Japanese Pronunciation |
Pronouncing Japanese words is generally straight forward. Even beginners in Japanese shouldn't have difficulty in making themselves understood. However,there are some tricky spots for native-English speakers, such as, double consonants.
To pronounce Japanese words, you break the word into syllables starting with a vowel or 1 or 2 consonants, and ending in a vowel. With the exception of "n", no consonants end a syllable.
Japanese has only 5 vowel sounds, A, I, U, E and O and all Japanese words end in vowels. These sounds are not very different from Italian or Spanish. The vowel sounds take a little practice, but once you master these 5 sounds, you will have no trouble pronouncing Japanese.
The vowels are:
a pronounced as "ah" as in father
e pronounced as "eh" as in met
i pronounced "ee" as in macaroni
o pronounced like "oh" as in solo
u pronounced as in Zulu
Japanese has no"l" (pronounced like "r"), and no "v" (pronounced like "b").
The Japanese "r" is different from the English "r". The sound is sort of between the English "r" and "l". To make "r" sound, start to say "l", but make your tongue stop short of the roof of your mouth, almost in the English "d" position. It is more like the Spanish "r".
The Japanese have trouble to pronounce and tell the difference between the English "r" and "l' because these sounds don't exist in Japanese.
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Friday, August 31, 2007 - My Foray into Japanese |
I prefer to learn through books. I am the geek who will read a computer manual from start to finish. So I started my foray into Japanese with a book.
Knowing what I know now, I think I got a good foundation in the grammar through self-learning via
a book. Especially because Japanese grammar is easier--to me--than the Spanish and French I studied for 6 years (no complicated gender agreement for articles and adjectives, verbs are simpler).
Written Japanese is much faster for me, even memorizing all those characters. Some of it is starting to click too. There is nothing like the sense of accomplishment when I see a word on a sign or a book and I say 'hey! that says sushi'!
But reading skills are not enough--I may want to talk to someone in Japanese. You have more time to stare at the written word and figure it out than if someone is in front of you talking. This is why I FORCED myself to take a class to get a chance to hear and speak more.
I found a class at a local community college. We had 2 classes a week for an 1 1/2. I found this SO much slower than reading. Lots of repetition, which I suppose is good. But I just thought I should know more. For instance, we started with hiragana. Our professor used flash cards which were slow to me, but my daughter thought they were really useful and she could remember words faster. We only managed to learn the hiragana table and some simple vocabulary and grammar for the entire semester.
My latest attempt at learning is using computer software, which I love. It is kind of the best of both worlds, reading about the rules, but lots of practice that is visual (again with the flash cards) and aural (practicing in a microphone). And I can pace it how I want. I am doing much better at hearing it--I am by no means an expert--but studying the grammar and vocabulary first seemed to help me.
The upshot is, play to your strengths when starting Japanese, and the rest will follow. What kind of learner are you? |
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Thursday, August 30, 2007 - The Language |
The largest character set in Japanese are actually characters derived or borrowed from Chinese characters. Known as "Kanji" these characters are mostly used to write down nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.
 
Don't get the wrong idea, Japanese is not "like" Chinese language. Kanji characters themselves were not enough to fully write out Japanese, so "Kana" was created to fill in the holes.
There are two versions of the Kana: Hiragana and Katakana.
Hiragana is used to write out word that are specific to Japan and there was no Kanji for.
 
The Katakana set of characters is used mostly for writing out foreign words using Japanese syllabary.
In either version of Kana, there is a character for every syllable in Japanese, as opposed to English where individual letters are joined to make the syllables.
In typical written Japanese texts, all 3 character sets are used together. But, it is possible to write Japanese without Kanji and just Kana. As you see, just by learning the Kana is a huge step to breaking down Japanese. |
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Thursday, August 30, 2007 - Talk to Me - Learning Japanese in different settings |
Brrinnng. Hear that bell? School's in again. Does that memory of starting school (more distant for some gentle readers than others) make your excited or make you cringe? Think about that when thinking about how you want to take on learning Japanese.
For some, studying with a group of other people motivates. Get to see and hear in person on how your teacher pronounces all of the words for the language. If you ever have any questions, then they can all be answered right inside the classroom. Another benefit about learning inside of a classroom is that you will get the chance to practice the language with other students.
Other people, prefer to be out of a classroom, as far away as you can get. You have other choices such as buying books and tapes or taking online courses at home.
Self-taught books and tapes are a great start. They cannot stand alone in the long run, you need conversation with Japanese, but you can get a real solid start at understanding the principles of Japanese without the pressure of others.
As long as you have a computer with Internet connection, you will still get to learn Japanese without any problems. You will have more flexibility and you can choose whatever hours you want to learn the language. In fact, many people around the world take classes online and it works out well for many people.
A you can see you can learn Japanese in several different ways. But it takes consistency--even if only 20 minutes a day, but every day--in order to learn it well. |
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Thursday, August 30, 2007 - How Do You Learn? |
Everyone has a way of learning that works best for them, but it is up to you to determine which way you think might work for you if you want to know how to learn Japanese. What's your learning style?
- Are you a Language-based learner? Prefer to read the manual or textbook before trying something out? You will do well with self teach books
 . You can practice online in different Internet forums with others who are new and experienced Japanese. However, people who favor this type of learning, somewhat neglect the speaking/listening part of learning a language. Make it a point to incorporate other methods to practice hearing and understanding Japanese.
- A Visual learner? This is a little different than language based. Associations work really well with this type of learner and a book or flash cards, that connect a picture to a sound or word, goes a long way. In fact, picture books like manga are great practice once you have the basics of Japanese. Get those with furigana (kana sound readings printed next to the kanji) so you can at least read everything even if you don't understand it all yet.
- More of an Auditory learner? You will do much better at conversation than reading, at least at first. Tapes or CDs are the way to go. Classes or conversation groups even better. TV or movies will be extremely difficult at first, you may want to wait or at least don't get discouraged. But put aside your fear of sounding dumb in another language! You wouldn't be cruel to someone learning English (that 's not what you mother taught you, is it?), others can be patient with your. Find some one who can listen to your mangled Japanese and help you like a local college conversation/study group, a community group, or the native Japanese speaker in the cubicle down the hall.
- Are you a kinesthetic learner, i.e., you need to put it in your hands and tinker with it to understand it? Kinesthetic learners can have a harder time with learning languages than others. The best approach is as much face to face conversation as you can find. Immersion into the language also helps the learner to not only be an active participant in the language, but also focus the speakers efforts into communication rather than distracted with things.
No matter what your style, regular practice is necessary to learn to speak Japanese well. That's why good Japanese software programs and other Japanese learning products can be so useful.
Learning Japanese has been described like sitting on a rock. It takes a little bit to get comfortable, but as soon as you get off that rock, it's like starting all over again. No matter how you learn Japanese, consistency is key.
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About Me
You could approach learning Japanese a dozen different ways. A big factor in how to learn Japanese depends on your learning preferences (reading instructions, listening to tapes, immersion, etc.) and what you want to know (phrases for travel, business conversation, reading shonen manga, and so on.). No matter what your style is, if you want to know how to learn Japanese, be aware of the different tools and what may work best for you.
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