When I first attempted to learn Japanese I started by studying the Kana. I would try to memorise each one individually and then translate books containing furigana. I soon found myself easily forgetting things. I felt like it was too difficult and I soon gave up.
When I recently decided to try again I began looking for new methods of learning. I found a few forum posts that mentioned using Japanese childrens books and that’s when it suddenly hit me. I was trying to learn the language as an adult, studying the way an adult would study a technical subject. I realised this was all wrong.
So I looked at learning languages from the perspective of a child. When we learn the English alphabet we don’t just study the letters, we associate them with words such as ‘A is for apple, B is for boat..’. So I began to associate the kana with friends names and words from my audio lessons. I also decided that on my previous attempt I was getting ahead of myself. I should first aim to remember words and simple sentences rather than translating my way through a whole book.
I began making paper flashcards containing these words. This soon became a lot of work and the pile was getting unmanageable. So I went looking for a computer based solution and found two posts about Spaced Repetition Systems. I gave Anki a try and that’s when things really took off.
In my next article I will review Anki and explain how I currently get the most out of it.
I’m now looking for somewhere that sells Japanese childrens books to the UK at a reasonable price. So if you know anywhere please let me know.
February 19th, 2008 at 10:22 pm
Thanks for the link! I look forward to reading about your progress. I’ve subscribed to your blog. Good luck with the Japanese study!
February 20th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
Thanks Thomas
February 22nd, 2008 at 2:31 am
Hey Chris -
So, have you nailed down the kana yet? If so, awesome. If not, I cannot stress this enough, learn it and never use romanized Japanese again. Ever.
Learning Japanese using Japanese is the way to go. And yeah, you’ll be frustrated when you hit things like ヲ, which is so infrequently used, it should be retired in my opinion. Ha ha. It’s part of the deal.
I think learning the kana, then building vocabulary, then starting kanji is the way to go. Not necessarily in a linear fashion, but yeah. I wish I’d pounded more vocabulary into my head when I was starting out. Now I’m hating kanji. But that’s also part of the deal. Anyway, good luck! (And sorry if this was useless to you. I dunno where you are at present in your studies. Wasn’t trying to condescend.)
February 22nd, 2008 at 10:23 am
Hi Deas. Thanks for the advice
I’m still learning the Kana and also a few words. I’m finding that knowing a few words helps to remember the kana and vice versa. I’ve made a few Japanese penpals and although I can’t write to them in Japanese yet just trying to remember the kana for their names helps.
I read elswhere about how romanized japanese is bad, bad, bad. So I’ve been avoiding it. I’m trying to do as much in Japanese as possible. I’ve been writing some notes on language immersion and I’ll probably put this into an article soon.
February 23rd, 2008 at 11:03 pm
I see you found Khatzu’s blog already. Maybe I remind you how he’s been hammering on to do the Kanji first? I quite agree with him: do the difficult part first, so you can always look forward to better and easier times ;).
April 16th, 2008 at 10:53 pm
I think Deas nailed it on the head. I went to a Japanese conversational class last Saturday and they were teaching Japanese using Kana and Kanji and I felt lost. From a beginners standpoint I feel that Kana is the cornerstone to learning Japanese. Brandon left me a really useful comment - he suggested the book “Kana Pict-o-Graphix” by Michael Rowley. I bought it, I’ve been studying, and my progression is through the roof. I highly suggest the book. (by the way it’s really tiny so it might be hard to see on the shelf). There’s a pict-o-graphix book for Kanji as well which is huge.