Mikoto And Friends' Adventures in Japanese

Effective Timeboxing: The Power of Randomization

Delenir — Fri, 25 May 2012 18:09:54 +0000

Learning Japanese has taught me about many other things on the side, and one of those things is timeboxing. Really all it means is giving yourself a certain time limit for a certain task. The idea behind it is that is gives you focus and a push to get into action by containing it in a certain timeframe. In other words…

You know the beginning and end of the time spent on this task.
You know it won’t take too long or end up going nowhere because you’ve limited yourself on how much time you can spend on it.

Quite literal…

This technique works in a few different directions. Your timer might end when you’re really at the height of whatever you’re doing (playing a game, reviews, etc.) Great, stop now because you’ll be that much more excited to keep at it next time. Other times your timer ends when you’ve really been getting nowhere with a task. Great, stop now because you’ve used enough time on it already. It’s also good for when you have trouble starting on a task because you don’t know where to even begin. No matter, just hit start on that timer and sink your mind into it. You could be surprised that just by taking that leap, you’ll end up making progress.

I usually follow the TV episode theory when setting the duration of a timebox. Most programs are aired anywhere from 30-60 minutes, actual showtime being 22-42 minutes roughly. You can really keep up some variety in your Japanese activities with timeboxing. Just think as the next box as changing the channel when the next program is up. You could go from doing a few Anki reps, then to a TV show, then to some kanji review, then to a video game. Seeing Japanese in different contexts is very useful, so timeboxing makes it even easier to go back and forth.

But what do you do when you can’t decide? This is often why I would end junking out on the computer doing nothing in particular, which made me feel like I wasted my time. There is solution here too. You can leave it to chance. What better tool to randomize your choices than the almighty dice. Just about everyone is familiar with the D6–the cubical, 6-sided wonder common in board games. But there are actually many other dice such as D4s, D8s, D12s, and the D20s, which are all practically synonymous with traditional role playing games.

Rrrrrrrrrroooooollllllllllll the dice, rollllll it now!

So how can you use a dice roll to decide what to do next? Simply have a look at your favorite Japanese activities, figure out how many there are, and choose and appropriate dice. I happen to have a small collection (as well as fascination with) different types of dice, but I actually just use an Android app called D20 by Ambergleam to generate rolls. Despite the name it actually has a variety of dice options.

Here is an example with a D6 (regular six-sided dice) with some activities that I personally do.

Watch a drama or anime
Do SRS reps in Anki or level up in Reading The Kanji
Read a snippet from a website with the help of LWT
Play a video game
Read a manga
Allow myself some “About Japanese” time (ex: blogs, grammar guide) This one is especially important to limit, unless you’re reading this blog, then you can just go wild!

So looking at this this example f I rolled a 4, I’ll be playing video games for an hour or so!

Setting time limits really is a means of focus. By saying “I’ll limit myself to one hour for playing a video game in Japanese, what you’re really saying is “For one hour, I’ll only be playing video games in Japanese and not getting distracted by other things that I can look at later.” To use your time effectively it’s important to know/define exactly what you’re doing before hitting start on your timebox. Again, the computer can especially be a time sucking vampire if you just press go on your timer and don’t really know what you’re going on there for. Personally, learning Japanese has truly become a life goal for me, so I feel all the more fulfilled when I know I’ve made good use of my free time to progress towards this dream.

Media Recommendation of the Week: JapanFM

JapanFM is a streaming radio station from the French network Hotmix Radio. All you have to do is watch an ad once every couple of days, and non-stop Japanese music streaming from your browser is yours! They have a lot of variety from pop to rock, even songs you’ll recognize from your favorite dramas or animes. I’ve actually found a lot of new bands this way. Sometimes music can be less distracting than videos when you’re trying to multitask, and it often gets me pumped in the morning, Japanese-style! Happy listening!

What to do after neglecting your studies! Panda’s step back into Japanese

PandaChan — Mon, 21 May 2012 14:58:49 +0000

Quick little insert about why it’s good to learn a foreign language, apparently (if you’re a native English speaker and you’re flexible with causality.)

“The Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer
heart attacks than the British or Americans.

The French eat a lot of fat and also suffer fewer
heart attacks than the British or Americans.

The Japanese drink very little red wine and suffer fewer
heart attacks than the British or Americans.

The Italians drink excessive amounts of red wine and also suffer fewer
heart attacks than the British or Americans.

The Germans drink a lot of beer and eat lots of sausages and fats
and suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans.

CONCLUSION:
Eat and drink what you like. Speaking English is apparently what kills you.”

Had to share that nugget of wit before starting on topic!

Mikoto’s gently nudging me to get back into my studying by making me write this for our audience. . I started in Japanese a very long time ago and I go into sprints and then quit for a short while. This is how I tend to be with ALL things, however. I don’t get a toe wet, I get my entire house wet and then some when jumping into new and exciting things. After so long, I get a little burnt out and quit. I do this with games, cleaning hardcore, excerising and so on. If you’re like me and like to sprint, or am getting burnt out on Japanese learning, please follow along for some tips.

Say you’re completely stopped at your Japanese. You’re not even passively immersing!

1)Start slowly and try to put Japanese back into your life. Even if for the first month back into your studies, you do nothing but passively immerse (listening to things in the background without really shadowing or trying to understand it. Sometimes I call watching shows with subtitles passive. I know a lot of learners out there would have my head for suggesting such a thing but hey.. That’s still more japanese in your life than you had the day before.)

2) If you’re on the Kanji stage-

Get caught back up to where you were when you quit. What I mean is, for example in Anki, it’ll tell you how many you have due. I’m not saying review all 500 you have, just review what’s due. Anki will take care of the other 400~ (depending on how long you quit and what number you’re on of course)
Get caught up by doing 3 minute sections every day. You can do more, but you want to at least do kanji once a day. I’m saying go slow to prevent you from being burnt out. If you’re like me, and love sprinting through review, Sprint away. Just make sure you’re taking breaks, at least an hour, between sessions.

Run, Kanji, Run!あああああああああ

Once you’ve gotten caught back up, THEN add more. Go however you did in the past, 0-15 cards a day.
Be sure to do something fun with the kanji you know. We have kanji games on site, but there’s a ton of things you can do. I like to add pictures to my anki using google! It’s sometimes really fun to see what can visually represent kanji.

3) If you’re in the Kana stage

This really depends on how well you knew your kana before. If you were like me and quit after you got to __ it probably wouldn’t hurt to just act like you didn’t learn anything at all (which my retention was practically null, so that worked well for me). I started over with my hiragana and used a mix of Real Kana and Read the Kanji to review.　Plus a　little forced reading with Japanese Baby 1 and mikoto.
I had to personally drill the kana into my head. The trick is to do it in short bursts. We’re not a long distance runner, we’re Japanese Sprinter Babies! Sprinting means we get to do fun stuff like watch Japanese movies, animes, Iron chef (which the original is a GREAT FUN way to learn some crazy Japanese dishes)
As a fellow Japanese baby suggested, the trick is once you get a good grasp kana, put it into practice! Read children books, convert websites into kana, listen/read lyrics. You want this to be FUN!!!! This will keep you coming back for more.

4) Shadowing- We all know that I don’t really like shadowing. If you didn’t know that, you know now! I say this because I feel I sound utterly stupid. So, what I try to do to make light of the situation is to mimic the tones and gender of those speaking. It may just make my gibberish sound more feminine or masculine, but it’s fun. Also, if you want to make yourself feel better, record yourself shadowing your native language and listen to it. You’ll notice you stumble over a lot of it and some of it, your mind guesses and may be close. This is because our brain is hardwired in this language and can think faster than your mouth moves. For example:

“Oh thank _______”
Your brain will most likely put one of three words in there, God (if you have a habit of saying that), You, (if you’re polite), My stars! (If you’re just.. unique)

I do this all the time singing. Especially if I don’t know the words, our brain makes a conscious decision to try to ‘fix’ and finish the sentence. You may have a rhyming word, a word that could finish the sentence, or the correct word.You’re probably saying, ok Panda, who cares. My point is: Once you reach a certain point of Japanese, your brain will switch into Japanese and try to be 3 steps ahead of the speaker. So, keep with it young one!

5) After a ～month of getting your feet wet back into Japanese, try to get back into a routine that matches how much free time you have. If you can only devote 5 minutes a day, well damn, that’s 5 minutes more than a non learner is learning! I’d like to quote my Professor from my freshmen year (note, this applies to more then just engineering of course).

You’re doing Engineering. Do you realize how hard that is? Do you realize you’re actually doing it! It may take you 2 years to finish this degree, it may take you 14. You may be fresh out of high school, you may be 80. It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter how long or how old. You’re doing it, and once you finish, no one can take it from you.

Another professor during my sophomore year

(Panda), despite your disability, you can do this. It doesn’t matter the road you take, as long as you work hard and you’re honest with yourself. You are doing this, remember that.

My Advisor during my junior year

I have a lot of 40 year old’s who come in and say that the road is tough and long but no one can take it way from them. It’s pride that you knocked something out of the park. It may have taken you 50 swings to finally get it over that fence, but it’s now way beyond the boundaries.

Hopefully you have someone spouting off wonderful, delicious support to you! If not, you need new friends (jk!!!) You have to remember, every day is more than the day before. Build on it and succeed.

KEEPING on track

ok, So, we’re back into Japanese Happy Land, yey. Let’s celebrate with fun games and knowledge! Ok! We can only party straight for 12 hours for so long!　Be sure to balance your life with Japanese fun. Don’t go too hardcore unless you’re living in Japan of course, haha (you can handle hardcore all the time!). Listen all the time, however, because passive learning takes no effort and can help sink sounds into your brain.
For things that need active learning, (shadowing, kana/kanji reps) set reasonable time constraints. You work, go to school, have babies? Devote a % to nothing but Japanese. You can do this all at once for the day, or break it up into small portions through the day. Just be sure to say, for the next __minutes, I WILL do nothing but Japanese! You can timebox for the entire day, if you know the exact times you’re taking care of classes and work, or when the baby naps. Make Japanese be your b**** to your schedule, not the other way around. You decide! You Conquer! You learn Japanese! Find that balance that your schedule will allow, that you want, and without getting burnt out.
Force Japanese to be in your life. Have your phone/browser/computer/whatever be in Japanese. Anything you can turn into Japanese, keep it in Japanese. This will force you to ALWAYS be touching Japanese in some form. Only have Japanese music on your mp3 player.
Set real and concise goals. Don’t say I want to improve my immersion. Say I want to listen to a minimum of 1 hour a day of Japanese!
Write a blog or connect to other learns. Share what you find that works for you and what works for others. Share the wealth of knowledge.
Celebrate the little things! You just learned your kana? Treat yourself to a Japanese children book and Sushi. At least, that’s how I like to treat myself. Food goes a lot way for me. I’m like Pavlov’s Dog, books and food make my mouth water!
Keep it fun!

The Importance of Having Things All Over The Place

Delenir — Fri, 18 May 2012 12:22:37 +0000

Most people that use the self-immersion method out there have likely heard about just spreading that language all over the place in your environment. It only makes sense–see it everywhere and you’re likely to catch on. But there’s another, perhaps even better reason to practice this… practice of having things all over the place.

Don’t let things get this bad!

There have been a few days where I was all set to make some real progress in Japanese. I had some free time and I was going to use it to its fullest potential. But something just didn’t pan out and I ended up feeling like time was wasted. Then I realized–9 times out of 10 it was due to some failing technology. I’m sure you’ve run into at least a few of these problems when trying to make the most of your immersion time:

System crashing or won’t boot
Data loss
A site being down or streaming is choppy
A podcast you just downloaded is really bad quality (this is a big issue for me oddly enough)
Dead batteries
A tool not working the way you want it to
A file conversion of some kind won’t work properly
You forgot your device at home
You forgot your device at work
(Both of those have happened to me believe it or not.)
You picked a certain piece of media, but found it’s not so great/too difficult/not what you expected
You get stuck in a video game

Thankfully, there is a solution. It’s all about backups, not just of data, but of methods. This actually plays into the idea of timeboxing (a topic I’ll be talking about in detail in a future post). Having a variety of immersions tools and methods means when one piece of technology pisses you off goes out of commission temporarily, you have something to fall back on.

Oh, you were looking for Japanese media? I think I found some.

The biggest way I handle this is by having various media on different devices from a variety of sources. Here are some examples of how I keep things flowing:

Streaming/automated services such as Crunchyroll or podcasts. These live on my laptop. Crunchyroll is often for either background immersion, or turned on with subs so my spouse (who also likes Japanese culture thankfully!) can enjoy it at the same time. You don’t have to think about it, just turn it on and fresh content is brought right to you.
Non-streamed videos such as anime, drama and movies–everywhere. These live on my old computer which is connected to my TV, on a network share to my laptop which is attached to a second display, and also converted to my phone. I tend to watch different things on different devices. At my laptop it’s mostly ‘for the background’ type of things, on the TV it’s moreso drama and/or shows with Japanese text and subs watched more attentively, and on my phone is almost entirely for when doing the dishes.
The home screen on my phone alone has 9 different icons related to Japanese. Everything from games to music to Anki.
Among many different resources, my computer has a few different games in Japanese. So if I get stuck in one, I can leave it be for a little bit and progress in something else. It also means there’s always a game I’m in the mood to play.
The Kindle (e-ink version) is a device I’ve talked about before. This is where I house things like texts from LWT or Japanese children’s stories (some with translations inline). Since I’m also the type of learner that finds it helpful to see the big picture, even materials like lists and charts are very useful to me on this device. The extremely long battery life and the fact that it looks great in the sun (whereas LCD screens tend to be hard to see) makes it a welcome addition to my repertoire.
And for when technology really fails, I have printed material. Manga is a huge part of this, as well as things like PDFs that cannot be reflowed on a Kindle.

So basically with a setup like this, if one device/source fails, there’s always another until I fix it. How about you, readers? How much does technology play into your immersion? What different activities do you have in your environment? Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments!

Recommendation of the Week: ゼルだの伝説－風のタクト (The Legend of Zelda – Wind Waker)

Sail the seas!

Forgive me for using Zelda so much, but aside from being my favorite video game series, this particular title boasts a lot of usefulness for Japanese. It’s a game I’ve played and enjoyed thoroughly in English when it first came out, so recently I thought I’d track it down in Japanese. It was a bit hard to find, but I got a copy. Aside from being a very colorful and adventurous game, the best part of all for Japanese is that it has furigana all the time. This of course makes reading a way more fluid experience, and if you know some kanji meanings it can help you understand that much more when you come across unknown words. If you’re new to the Zelda series, this is probably the console game I could recommend the most at this point (Minish Cap or Ocarina of Time 3D if you’re looking at handhelds.) Furigana seems to be somewhat of a rarity in video games, so if you know of any others that have it, please tell me in the comments!

Japanese Audio/subs on US Blue Ray Disks

mikotoneko — Wed, 16 May 2012 19:42:57 +0000

If you were like me, and completely unaware of it, it might upset you just a hair to know that beautifully done Japanese was within your fingertips for potentially some of your favorite movies, or at least movies you’re willing to watch. A handful of BD( Blue ray Disk) movies from America is set up with pesky ‘hidden’ audio tracks in a few more languages.

So First off, here is a list of some well known blue ray movies from America that have hidden Japanese audio(sub) tracks presented on a forum that I’ve pulled here.

Appleseed Exmachina : Audio
Batman Begins : Subtitles / Audio
Batman Gotham Knight : Subtitles / Audio
Beetlejuice : Subtitles / Audio
Blade Runner : Subtitles
Bourne Trilogy, the (UK) : Subtitles / Audio
Constantine : Subtitles / Audio (need to put player settings to Japanese)
Dark Knight, the (UK) : Subtitles / Audio
Death Race (UK) : Subtitles / Audio
Dragon Ball Z Broly double feature : Audio
Dragon Ball Z Dead Zone/World’s Strongest : Audio
Dragon Ball Z History of Trunks/Bardock Father of Goku : Audio
Dragon Ball Z Tree of Might/Lord Slug : Audio
Dragon Ball Z Cooler double feature- : Audio
Dragon Ball Z: Super Android 13 / Bojack Unbound : Audio
Dragon Ball Z: Broly Triple Feature : Audio
Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn / Wrath of the Dragon : Audio
Diebuster : Audio
Dirty Harry : Subtitles / Audio
Eraser : Subtitles / Audio
Every Which Way But Loose : Subtitles / Audio
Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Complete : Audio
First Knight : Subtitles / Audio
Freedom : Audio
Gauntlet, the : Subtitles / Audio
Gunbuster : Audio
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets : Subtitles / Audio
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire : Subtitles / Audio
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix : Subtitles / Audio
Harry Potter and the Philospher’s Stone : Subtitles / Audio
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban : Subtitles / Audio
Hellboy II (UK) : Subtitles / Audio
How the west was won : Subtitles
Hulk (2003) : Subtitles / Audio
Interview with the Vampire : Subtitles / Audio
Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade : Audio
Kill Bill Vol 1 : Subtitles
Kill Bill Vol 2 : Subtitles
Kingdom of Heaven : Subtitles
La Haine (EU) : Subtitles
Letters From Iwo Jima : Audio
Lost Boys; the : Subtitles
Matrix Ultimate collection, the : Subtitles / Audio (need to put player settings to Japanese)
Mummy Trilogy, the (UK) : Subtitles / Audio
Natural Born Killers : Subtitles / Audio
Ocean’s 11 : Subtitles / Audio
Ocean’s 12 : Subtitles / Audio
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest : Subtitles
One Piece Movie 8: The Desert Princess and the Pirates – Adventures in Alabasta : Audio
Outbreak : Subtitles / Audio
Paprika : Audio
Perfect Storm : Subtitles / Audio
Samurai 7 : Audio
Serenity (UK) : Subtitles / Audio
Shinobi Heart Under Blade : Audio
Signs : Subtitles / Audio
SOS! Tokyo Metro Explorers The Next : Audio
Speed Racer (UK) : Subtitles / Audio
Sweeney Todd (EU/HK) : Subtitles / Audio
Tekkon Kinkreet : Audio
V for vendetta : Subtitles / Audio
Van Helsing (UK) : Subtitles / Audio
Wings Of Honneamise, the : Subtitles / Audio
Wanted (UK) : Subtitles / Audio
Yukikaze : Audio
Zodiac – Director’s Cut (EU/AU) : Subtitles / Audio

You can also, simply search the Blue ray web site and use filters to find dvd’s from your country with Japanese audio and subs.

Out of these, I personally have bought V for Vendetta and Batman Begins, because that is the only ones in the store from the list. They were a lowly $10 a piece. That’s a nice price tag for Japanese language, movie I like, and quality of Blue Ray.

However, now I shall talk about the more saddening parts. When I came home super excited about watching Batman and V, I popped them in my play station 3 without any hesitation.

Where was the Japanese? I got really upset, I couldn’t find them, on either video. So I went online, and most people who could see it had either a Japanese region Blue ray player, or had set their PS3 to Japanese. Well, this is where I was getting sad, simply because I had my PS3 set to Japanese. I decided not to give up, as many people wouldn’t talk about it if it weren’t true, so I delved into my PS3 settings and realized there was a setting for default language of the actual Blue ray disks themselves. After popping that setting in Japanese, my disks then played in Japanese and had both audio and subs.

I wasn’t impressed with the subs for V for Vendetta because they weren’t exact subs. The audio was really good however, and didn’t distract me from the goodness of the movie. I really like the voice actor for V too. I haven’t watched Batman Begins just yet, but I’m looking forward to see who they have voicing Batman.

So if you have a BD player that isn’t from Japan, go ahead and check to see if there is a language, default setting, that can switch it to Japanese, and make sure to set the BD settings in your PS3 to Japanese as well.

In my area, a lot of these bds were between $10-20 a piece. That’s a pretty decent price, if you consider what it would take to get a Japanese BD from Japan sent over! I hope everyone enjoys this knowledge if it is new for you, as I certainty was super happy to find out myself! Interview with the Vampire up next! yay!

Kana Game of the Month: Pandachan’s Creation

PandaChan — Mon, 14 May 2012 05:01:48 +0000

Hey everyone, I was trying to find a game that my friend and I could play with our limited Kana knowledge (though she’s whooping me bad now and is far ahead of me! Good Job!).

I came up with a concept similar to hang man. However, because we can’t spell full Japanese words, we’re spelling English words with Kana. This may handicap us, but it’s really a game to improve not only recognizing kana, but writing them properly as well.

So, lets begin with the explanation of how you play.

The black is filled in by the person who created the word. The orange is what is guessed by the partner. You can start of using just the vowels, as this example uses, or you can use the more advanced groupings. The creator needs to check that 1) it’s the correct kana, and 2) it’s drawn correctly. If they draw it incorrectly or used the wrong kana, the hangman’s head is drawn, and so forth. When in doubt, (as the creator) look up the correct stroke order.

Take turns being the creator and the one guessing!

Let me know how you enjoy it and any suggestions to improve the game!

My Adventure Pack

Delenir — Fri, 11 May 2012 14:38:05 +0000

Hello again everyone! This is my first post as an official co-writer of the blog! Today I’ll be writing about my Adventure Pack. What in the HFIL could that be? I’ll show you… with photos!!

So basically it’s my manbag, full of Japanese immersion materials. I have actually tried various receptacles of all shapes and sizes and found this one, a 10 inch netbook case, to be ideal at the moment! The purpose of such a collection is that whenever going out of the house, I can grab this with confidence that part of my immersion environment can come with me. The best part is, it’s self-sustained. There is a handy spot to put the charges for all devices, so no matter what I know I always have access.

The power that’s inside

So here’s what’s usually inside:

Android phone (Anki, some LWT access, converted videos, mix of music and audio rips, access to Japanese sites, twitter, Aedict dictionary)
Kindle (Japanese materials that have gone through LWT, most blogs about language learning that I read are synced to this via Calibre too. The battery life in insane on this thing, lasting for a few weeks easily.)
Nintendo DS (Games in Japanese can be hard to find on Android, especially with the production value that you can find on a console. The DS fills in this gap in abundance–one of the greatest platforms to exist!)
Manga (Typically I take a browsing style approach to reading manga rather than focusing on each and every page/word. An example of extensive vs. intensive reading.)
Printed materials (LWT printouts can be easier to go through in print because of the size of an 8×11 page, and the colour which would be lacking on the Kindle. Here is an opposite of intensive vs. extensive reading!)
Chargers and cables (The icing on the cake, this means I will never run out of power for my equipment.)

Media recommendation: あいのり/Ainori (Reality Show)

All aboard the love wagon!

Something else I’d like to start doing is including a media recommendation with each post. It could be a game, drama, anime, website, anything. And of course, an explanation of why it’s especially useful will be included! This week it’s a reality show called あいのり/Ainori. The premise of the show should be familiar to the western audience. They take a group of single men and women, and fly them out to another country (the one I watched was Cambodia). Through an interesting tourist experience, they explore the country together, getting to know one another. If someone gets to really like one of the other members, they can arrange to confess their feelings by offering a pair of tickets back to Japan. The next morning, that person responds by either declining and returning the tickets, or making things official with a kiss.

The funny thing is, I never really watched these shows in English. But the familiar concept makes it easier to get into. This show also has stylized text for EVERY line of dialogue, and then some, making it easier to understand if you have some vocabulary behind you, and/or know some kanji meanings. It’s also very interesting to see another country through the eyes of this group. It was these two factors that really sucked me in to the show, watching anxiously until the last episode.

What about you? How do you keep up your immersion environment on the go? Please leave your comments below! And if you end up watching any episodes of あいのり, please tell me what you thought of it! See you next week!

Karaoke AND musical shadowing (aka singing)

PandaChan — Mon, 07 May 2012 05:01:47 +0000

Karaoke is actually a word borrowed Japanese and according to dictionary.com, karaoke is formed from Kara 空, and Oke オーケストラ (Empty and Orchestra). For those who don’t know of this fun activity, amateurs sing along with songs without the vocals.

For more history on karaoke, please read Wiki’s article on it.

According to Asian room, Karaoke has been around for over 20 years in Japan alone, but has since then always been apart of their society’s entertainment. カラオケボックス or Karaoke boxes, are rooms where fans can sing to their hearts content and sometimes drinks and food with friends.

Want to sing along but can’t afford a trip to Japan? That’s ok, there’s a ton of online videos and sites for karaoke. A great way to find songs is to youtube it! You may get lucky and find an instrumental version of your favorite song.

I personally love to shadow music, AKA singing along. You want to make sure that you have the correct sounds. I do this by getting the lyrics in Kana and Romaji (as my kana skills are VERY limited). However, after I get a feel for the romaji, I stop using it and focus on listening and the kana. This helps me put sounds to Kana and improve my listening skills.

Here is an example of how I set up my lyrics for my favorite songs:

Ah, there’s a mysterious y, no idea there!

So, the important thing when shadowing is to have fun and to listen! If you know the words, try to get better and better at them. Eventually look up the lyrics to make sure you’re singing them properly and just belt out the words at the top of your lungs!

Experiments With Reading

mikotoneko — Sat, 05 May 2012 01:13:20 +0000

Today’s post is going to be a short one… well maybe not. As I speak, my darling slave editor is typing this for me. I am currently on my way to the Grandparents’ house and really wanted to get this post up. If you’re new to the world of reading, despite your hesitations, you really should start. There are hundreds of sources out there that can explain why reading is so great for language learning but I am here specifically to report on the progress of two Japanese Babies.

The first Japanese Baby is someone who recently learned their Kana tables and currently knows roughly 300 kanji. Her journey in Japanese has only just begun recently. So I decided to experiment with her fragile Japanese Baby heart. One day, after much encouragement, I was able to get her to start reading some Japanese children books aloud. Just like many Japanese babies, she experienced an intense amount of anxiety. On her very first page, she stumbled on every single character. Despite her need for a few corrections, she kept at it. After her very first page, which only contained 4 sentences, she was ready for a break. I didn’t let her give up and after reading a few lines myself, I asked her if she’d like to read again. With a wavery “I guess so”statement she commenced reading again. There were moments we laughed and moments of serious discussion on pronunciation and grammar. Despite the struggle, she decided to read yet another book. To spare you the details of the roughly 4 hours to put in to read two books, not only her pronunciation improve, the speed she was able to read quickened and she was also filled with confidence.

As a self conscious Japanese Baby, it is hard to gain confidence but reading aloud was able to instill some speaking and reading confidence. After her third book, I did not even have to correct her Hiragana. Then she was able to encourage the second experimental Japanese Baby to read.

The second Japanese Baby, despite knowing 500 kanji and having a very basic grasp on her Kana, was put on the spot. Even though surrounded by supportive friends, this little Japanese Baby was full of lots of fear and frustrations! We decided to read the same book as the first Japanese Baby did. And despite her immersion being in Japanese being longer, her fear of making a mistake caused her to do terribly. I wouldn’t let her give up and I pushed her to read a little more and she experienced similar problems as the first Japanese Baby did. After finishing reading half of the sentence, she stumbled on four kana and began to break down in tears. Of course the first Japanese Baby and I were vexed–but the second Japanese Baby muted herself and ran off– so there wasn’t anything we could do. Eventually, the second Japanese baby came back with renewed determination to read. So a day had passed, I could tell she had gone kana rep crazy as her ability to recognize kana had greatly improved. This time, she allowed herself to feel less frustration by working harder to keep calm and by the end of the book had made significant progress in pronunciation, grammar, speed and flow of reading. And thus ended, so far, my experiences with Japanese Baby 1 and 2.

I’d like to point out that neither Japanese baby had ever read aloud before.When asked how they felt about their reading skills at the end, the first Japanese Baby didn’t see the huge improvement that she made. The second Japanese baby felt about the same, but calmer. I personally feel that for them this was overcoming a huge hurdle that most beginners experience. Learning to read Japanese aloud was able to give them more drive and confidence in other aspects of their studies. The first Japanese baby has found momentum and felt her previous efforts were paying off. The second Japanese baby began to make word to sound connections from words she had previously learned to say, but never knew how to read. She proceeded to spam my skype with how happy she was.

If you have never read aloud, I recommend you doing so. While it has always been a standard practice for me to read aloud whenever possible, this concept is rarely ever spoken about in the Japanese online community. I did not learn how to speak Japanese and then read aloud rather after one year of pure unadulterated Japanese on Japanese immersion that I decided to read aloud. Even when I participate in Tadoku, I read aloud. The best scenario is to read in front of a Japanese native but when you can’t, reading in front of a person much more advanced than you is the next best thing.

If nothing at all, reading aloud allowed these two Japanese Babies to gain courage, calmness and motivation. While I cannot tell you who the first Japanese baby is, the second Japanese baby is no other than our own PandaChan! She is so graciously serving as an example to all of you out there who doubt yourself, experience extreme fear and even humiliation, can over come that and can gain a peace to allows them to truly begin to excel in not only studying Japanese but becoming Japanese. I’m sure there are a good handful of prodigies who fell out of the proverbial womb being able to read Japanese well; however, we are the ordinary and proud of each hard earned step on our path to fluency.

The one thing that was consistent with both Japanese Babies was how little faith they had in themselves in the beginning. Although they still don’t think they’re great, they now know that all it will take them is continuing to take those steps. So have a great weekend, get off your duff and read aloud to a Japanese person if you can!

Enter New Author

mikotoneko — Thu, 03 May 2012 14:59:04 +0000

It is official. We have finally sucked in another soul! I mean, added another author to our midst! You already know him because he’s been a guest from time to time, his name: Daniel!

Yah, so no longer a guest, now he is a co. He deserves his own post for his assimilation into our blog-sphere!

If you didn’t’ know, some basic stats:

Location: Nova Scotia, Canada

Languages: Advanced French, Fluent English, Intermediate Japanese

Sorry girls, he’s taken, and also has an adorable bundle of joy whom is already being indoctrinated in the ways of the technological world.

His salary from us: His current salary times 100… (yeah now current salary being 0 btw XD)

Anyhow, we haven’t figured out the new posting schedule yet, and how that will work with out new author, but I suppose we’ll end up with even more posts perhaps, or just keep the same schedule and just cycle. Who knows!

Amigurumi (編みぐるみ) tips, tricks, How-to’s!

PandaChan — Tue, 01 May 2012 13:47:53 +0000

Hello all! Today is a quick, cute little post. I asked my friends what I should write about and then it dawned on me, WHY NOT WRITE ABOUT WHAT I’M CURRENTLY DOING (and not studying!). By the title, it’s a little obvious that I’ve been either crocheting or knitting small, adorable little objects and so have my friends. So, Here’s some insight that I’ve gained while working on my projects! This will focus on crocheting although I am a knitter at heart.

Tools:

1) Crochet hoks. Be sure to choose a hook that allows you to maintain the proper gauge. Don’t know what gauge is? Read on!

2) Yarn needle. It’s a plastic needle that tends to be larger and thicker than a regular embroidery needle. It has a large eye to allow you to thread yarn. Yarn needles are used to sew arms, legs, and whatever else together to the body.

3) Polyfill- (or other stuffing) gotta keep that Amigurumi nice and fluffy!.

4)Yarn markers: Used to keep track of where your rounds begin.

5) Light source!

6) Yarn of course.

7) eyes (safety eyes or buttons)

Tips:

1) Start off with a middle color yarn, such as pastels, light colors, and tans. If you want to start off with black, be sure to crochet or knit with plenty of light. Light will help you see the stitches easier.

2) Practice your basic stitches (Single crochet SC, double crochet DC, chain, CH, increase ( 2 stitch in 1), decrease (2tog)) on basic amigurumi or other basic projects. You could go the scarf route but I know from experience that you get a little burnt out on it. Here’s some easy, fun projects!

Triple and Chain crochet project:

Single Crochet in the round, increase, decrease:

You may say, Wow panda, thanks for the lack of arms! Well, the ears on the bunny is to practice how to sew on some attachments. Arms and legs mean more crocheting! So, would start off with head and body shape only.

3) rest when your arms ache, and boy will they ache in the beginning!

4) Gauge is not always important as long as you have a consistent tension and use the same size hook for all parts.

5) I write or print out the pattern and mark off where I am.

Getting Patterns:

1) Make sure you’re getting it for your craft, Crochet or knit. It’s harder to find amigurumi in knit, but they are out there! Ways to find it is to use pinterest, google, etsy, lion heart brand. I tend to search Amigurumi, Crochet, (object that I want).

2) See if it’s been tested or not. This is when someone has crocheted it already and provided feedback. Some people crochet and then create a pattern and don’t always test the pattern out again. If you want to be the first, go ahead and try any and every project you come across. However, if you’re like me and have limited patience, be sure to use ones that have been tested. It helps if there’s a lot of comments and questions already answered if it’s a complicated project.

3) Be sure your project gives clear instructions of where parts go/contains a lot of pictures. I personally prefer a ton of pictures!

4)If you’re creating a character that is popular (say My little pony) be sure to look at real images of them to make comparisons.

Do you sew? If so, share some projects!