the style of the Japanese differs strongly between authors. Some are easy to read, others are difficult to read. Pick one that is easy to read at first.
the style of Japanese differs strongly depending on when a novel was written. Pick a recent novel, and not - for example - Yasunari Kawabata's "Snow Country", written in 1935 and onward. I am speaking from experience again.
if you want to read a classic English novel in Japanese, keep in mind that the translation in Japanese might be difficult to read depending on who made the translation, and when the original was written. I have tried some works by Charles Dickens translated in Japanese, but all were hard to read.
if you pick a Japanese novel situated in for example the Edo period, you can be sure that the dialogs in the novel will be written in a way trying to immitate the way people spoke during that era. This will make the novel hard to read for you. There will also be references to old customs you don't know, etc. So I recommend not to read these kinds of novels at first.
if you pick a novel that you have read before in another language, or a novel for which you already know the content to some extend, you are less likely to get completely stuck. It decreases that change of you having to go back and reread several pages because you have no idea what is going on.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
How to study Kanji - part 6
Sunday, February 28, 2010
How to study Kanji - part 5
- study Kanji at a pace of 5 new Kanji per day
- take "days off" whenever you feel you can't keep up with the pace
- aim for about 80 new Kanji per month
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Friday, February 19, 2010
How to study Kanji - part 4
- repeated exposure: expose your brian to the Kanji multiple times
- active exposure: don't just passively read or watch the Kanji, but actively write it yourself
- diverse exposure: don't limit yourself to 1 way of exposure: watch/read the Kanji, read out loud its pronunciations, focus on the radicals and components of the Kanji, make a story for the Kanji, and use flash cards.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Today's Japanese expression: 首が回らない
Sunday, February 14, 2010
How to study Kanji - part 3
The point I want to stress out in this part is: buy a text book on Kanji. If your goal is to master just a few hundred Kanji (maybe JLPT3 level) then I think you might manage without a good book. But if you are aiming for a higher level you really should get yourself a text book solely for studying Kanji.
I know that a text book costs money, while there are some useful websites which are for free. I will try to explain why I prefer a text book over web sites. There are basically 2 reasons: 1) you need a plan, a structure to master over 2000 Kanji, and 2) you need useful information about each Kanji. On both points I think that most web sites fail, while many text books succeed (at least to some degree).
First of all, as I wrote above, in order to be able to master over 2000 Kanji, you need a strategy, a plan, a structure. My experience with websites is that they contain just the Kanji, a huge amount of data without much thought behind how they are presented. Many of them also do not contain information on stroke orders, example vocabulary using the main readings, and small tests to check whether yourself. Texts books, on the other hand, ofto do contain such features.
The books I used were 漢字マスター 3 2級漢字1000 for JLPT2 Kanji, and later on the book from the same series for JLPT1 (which I could not find on Amazon, it can be found on ther ARC website here). Kanji in these books are more or less grouped according to meaning (for example, Kanji for emotions are together in one chapter). For each Kanji the stroke order is shown, allong with its readings, and example vocabulary.
Below are some books that might be helpful for your study of Kanji. Notice how I did NOT include the books using the Heisig method. I will explain later why I didn't...
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Friday, February 12, 2010
How to study Kanji - part 2
Finally, a thing that is often forgotten: components of Kanji can not only give you a hint about their meaning, but also about their pronunciation. An example: 高 has kun-yomi "taka(i)", and on-yomi "kou". Likewise, the on-yomi of 稿 (which contains 高) is "kou". 兆 "chou", and 挑 (which contains 兆) is also pronounced "chou". 義 "gi", and 議 儀 (which both contain 義) are both also pronounced "gi". This is not a coincidence: some Kanji contain components indicating their pronunciation.
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Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Today's Japanese expression: 口が堅い
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Monday, February 8, 2010
Today's Japanese expression: 歯に衣着せない
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Saturday, February 6, 2010
How to study Kanji - part 1
The first hurdle when studying Japanese is of course the characters used in written Japanese: Chinese characters (Kanji, 漢字), and Hiragana (ひらがな, 平仮名) and Katakana (カタカナ, 片仮名).
Study radicals first. Most Kanji are build up from a number of smaller parts, referred to as radicals. These radicals have a meaning which can often help you remember the meaning of the Kanji they appear in. In addition to that, some radicals also form a hint for the pronunciation of the Kanji they appear in. In that sense I found it useful to study these radicals BEFORE starting to learn Kanji.
Buy a text book on Kanji. Do not rely on websites. Buy a text book, containing the Kanji, the way to write them, their pronunciations, their meaning, some examples of words containing the Kanji.
Use a combination of ways to remember Kanji. Read them out loud, write them (again and again), study words containing them. This makes it easier to remember them. Where necessary make story for the Kanji in order to help you remember it. Above all, make flash cards yourself (or buy them if it is too much work to make them yourself).
Keep a high pace, but not too high. As mentioned above, if you study only 1 Kanji a day, it will take you more than 5 years to study all Kanji for common use. This is too slow. On the other hand, I found that a too high pace results in not remembering anything. I recommend a pace of about 100 new Kanji per month.
Read as soon as you can, as much as you can. As soon as you feel it is possible to read Japanese without having to look up a Kanji every 2 sentences: start reading Japanese as often as possible. For me this meant mainly novels, for others it might be mainly Manga.
Friday, February 5, 2010
Book review: Preparatory Course for the Japanese Language Profiency Test
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Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Today's Japanese expression: 身を粉にして働く
It's a dialogue between two guys. One says he thinks that people nowadays don't seem to know what endeavour really is. He says everyone is doing nothing while complaining life is not fair. "I don't know", says the other guy, "僕の目で見れば皆がずいぶん身を粉にして働いているような印象を受けるけど」 ("At least to me it seems like everyone is working themselves to the bone").
Literally, 「身を粉にして働く」means "to work one's body to powder", on in proper English "to work oneself to the bone".
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Monday, February 1, 2010
Today's Japanese expression: ねじを巻く
「僕も僕自身のねじを巻きます!」(ぼくもぼくじしんのねじをまきます).
「ねじを巻く」 normally means "to wind up", with 「ねじ」 being "screw" and 「巻く」"to wind". For example, "to wind up a clock" is 「時計のねじを巻く」. However, in the case of the sentence in the novel, is means something like "to pay attention not to slack or be lazy".
Another example: 「夏休みは普段は特に何もしないで過ごしてしまうので、でも今度はねじを巻いてやろう!」"Normally I spend my summer vacation doing nothing, but this time I will be careful not to slack around!"
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Today's Japanese Expression: 目が節穴
「お前の目が節穴か」. Literally: "are your eyes knotholes?". Doesn't make much sense, right? 「節穴」 (ふしあな) means "knothole". The meaning of this expression is something like "you must be blind". I have to admit I don't know the origin of this expression, but if you don't know what a "knothole" is, just do a Google Image search for "節穴", it's not so easy to explain.
Another use is of course: 「私の目は節穴じゃないよ」, meaning "I am not blind, you know".
I love expressions like these. Use this in a conversation with any Japanese person and I can assure you they will be impressed. - - -
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Tourism: Ijinkan in Kobe
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Today's Japanese expression: 猫を被る
「猫を被る」(ねこをかぶる) literally means something like "to put on a cat"?? which doesn't really make any sense. 被る is usually used for example for "to put on a hat" (帽子を被る). A better interpretation I guess would be "to behave like a cat". The actual meaning of this expression is "to play the hypocrite", or "to pretend to be friendly", "to feign friendliness".
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Book review: 絵でわかる日本語使い分け辞典1000
I first knew about this book a couple of years ago when I was enrolled in a 6 months Japanese language course. One day one of our teachers used this book to introduce us to some expressions. I liked it pretty much so I bought it a couple of weeks later.
Let me tell you what I liked about this book. Normal text books contain mainly grammar and vocab, some texts, etc. but only little attention is paid to expressions. However, the Japanese language often uses expressions that you can't really understand from vocab alone (see some of my posts on Japanese expressions. It might not always be easy to guess the meaning of 鼻にかける without actually studying this phrase). This book on the other hand is filled with expressions and in that sense I think it is rather unique. A second point I liked is that for each expression there is also a small cartoon illustrating its meaning. A bit childish, you say? Might be, but it often helped me understand expressions without having to look them up in my electronic dictionary. Don't you sometimes notice people using 「びっくりする」 every time they are surprised by something? Read this book and you will learn alternatives like 「仰天する」,「息をのむ」, or 「目を疑う」. Even if you read just 1 page a day this book will make your Japanese so much richer. The book is loosely organized by time of the year. So, you are likely to find expressions used in the context of what is going on during each month of the year. For example, in the chapter for August some expressions are used in the context of the Obon vacation. At the back of the book there are some pages focusing on expressions concerning specific parts of the body, and animals. Recommended.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Today’s Japanese expression: 目に浮かぶ
Last night someone said this on television: 「彼女が家に帰って皆に嘘をついたのよ。そういうのありありと目に浮かぶのよ」("She went home and told lies to everyone. I can easily picture that in my head"). 「目に浮かぶ」(めにうかぶ) means "to picture something", "to come into one's mind". 浮かぶ in Japanese means "to float", "to come to the surface", so I guess that 「目に浮かぶ」 means literally "to come to one's eyes"...?
There are also the following Japanese expression:「心に浮かぶ」「頭に浮かぶ」「胸に浮かぶ」, which all have a somewhat similar meaning ("to come to mind", " to cross one's mind").
Monday, January 25, 2010
Today’s Japanese expression: 鼻にかける
A person is talking about her sister, who is really smart and talented. But, she says: 「つんつんしたり鼻にかけたりするような人ではなかった」. The meaning of 「鼻にかける」 is "to be boastful". So, although her sister is really smart, "she was not the kind of person to behave in an arrogant way".
Which made me think about another expression in the Japanese language: 「鼻が長い」(はながながい, literally: "having a long nose"), which has a similar meaning.
These are certainly not the only examples where Japanese culture makes a connection between noses and pride. See for example 天狗 (てんぐ, Tengu), which are mythological creatures characterized by arrogant and boastful behaviour. These creatures too, are often pictured as humans with an unnaturally long nose. 「天狗になる」 ("to turn into a Tengu") means "to become arrogant" or "to become boastful".
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Today’s Japanese expression: 息を殺す
One fun part of learning Japanese is the many interesting expressions this language has. Today I am going to introduce one that I came across recently while reading a novel.
The main character of this novel is walking through a dark forest late at night. He feels as if the animals in the forest are holding their breath as he walks by. The Japanese expression for “to hold one’s breath” is “息を殺す” (いきをころす), which literally means “to kill ones breath”.
Example:「私は息を殺して、様子を見守った」- I watched what was happening holding my breath.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Study Japanese!
To Study Japanese! Especially for Westerners it’s not an obvious thing to do. Japanese is regarded as one of the most difficult languages to master, with thousands of Chinese characters to memorize and subtle honorifics that need years of study to understand. It is not surprizing that even foreigners living in Japan often give up on mastering Japanese.
Yet, my personal experience is quite different. After about 2 years in Japan my conversations with my Japanese friends were 100% in Japanese. In 3 years time I was ready to start reading Japanese novels… in Japanese. I read close to 10 novels in Japanese last year.
Somewhere my way of studying Japanese must have been different (better?) than that of other people.
In this blog I want to introduce some ways of studying Japanese that I used, with attention on textbooks, dictionaries, other study material, and strategies in general. I would be happy if I could help a some people with their study, because after all I have found Japanese a beautiful and fascinating language to study.