Journey to Japanese

As I’ve explained in the About Page of this blog, it is, perhaps, the Japanese language that first got me to be interested in languages.  Two years ago, I decided to study Japanese more seriously.  For the first time, I’ll be studying a language out of sheer interest and not out of some necessity (although studying languages has always been amusing for me). I think I will have to write another post about my great discoveries in Japanese, but for this post, I will just focus on the tools that I have found useful for studying the language. 

Disclaimer: Nope, I haven’t passed (nor attempted) any JLPT exam, and, no, I don’t speak Japanese fluently, much less read or write it with ease.  If you share these with me, welcome to this post, co-language-enthusiast! If you have passed a JLPT exam or could already speak, read or write Japanese, you may recognize some tools here in your own journey to Japanese.

Apps

Human Japanese

Shortly after deciding to take on Japanese with a bit of seriousness, I looked for some apps that could help me on my journey. I’ve installed several apps, but there are two that really helped a lot.

Splash screen of the app

The first is Human Japanese.  The app's name claims that it’s Japanese for humans. Many think that Japanese is just too difficult that it must be a language impossible for humans to learn. But in reality, Japanese has a simpler grammar and structure than several language that you and I may be familiar with (English and Tagalog, in my case). It also has fewer exceptions in terms of verb transformations (called conjugation) and noun transformations (known as declension). What could be most daunting about this language is its writing system. Japanese uses 3 scripts: two syllabaries called Hiragana and Katakana, plus Kanji, a set of characters derived from Chinese. As if mastering these three scripts were not difficult enough, Japanese offers yet another challenge: A Kanji character has an amusing (or should I say annoying?) characteristic of having 2 possible readings- a Chinese reading and a Japanese reading. This means that the same character could be read in two ways, depending on the characters around it and the meaning intended. Mastering written Japanese is indeed tough and could take a long time. However, the language, its grammar, and its structure are, I repeat, pretty straightforward. The strength of Human Japanese is its approach to learning Japanese from an English-speaking person’s point of view. It makes many comparisons between Japanese and English, providing reasons for Japanese constructs from our own understanding of the English language.  This makes understanding the new language much easier.

Human Japanese has released an intermediate version.  I installed the free version (which has some 10 free chapters or so) upon seeing it in Google Play Store.  In 2 weeks I devoured its content.  The discussion is so smooth and the treatment of lessons so well-thought-of, that reading through it was easy and, actually, entertaining.  But what really convinced me that it is a good app, was when it taught me, in the easiest yet comprehensive way possible, how to handle informal Japanese verb forms.  I have studied these forms in other resources, mostly in YouTube channels, but never have I found a discussion so clear and yet so complete, than in this app. At that moment, I was convinced that this is indeed a great app and so I bought it. Below are some screenshots of the app.

Lessons are immediately applied through some sample sentences and dialogs,
the audio of which can be heard upon clicking on the sentence.

The "ingredients" or elements that make up the sentence are properly broken down for immediate reference
(e.g. the proper kanji reading, also the conjugation of the verb that was used).

Kanji characters are introduced little by little through several chapters.

The kanji characters' readings and sample uses are also provided.

JED Japanese-English Dictionary

This is the second app that helped me, and continues to help me a lot.  JED is a free Japanese dictionary. You can search for words by typing in romaji (rendering of Japanese words in Roman characters). It gives the Kanji elements, their Japanese and Chinese readings (yes, as mentioned above, Kanji characters can be read in more than one way), and also the radicals (or elements) that make up the Kanji. For verbs, it could give you the different conjugations.  You can tag your favorite words for easy lookup. Below are some screenshots from the app.

Romaji lookup.

Word meaning and probable writing.

Verb conjugations.

More details on the kanji- it's Chinese/on-reading and Japanese/kun-reading.
The radicals or elements of the kanji are also given.

YouTube Channels

Nihongonomori

This one is a recent (and great) discovery.  I ignored this channel before because I found it too advanced, but when I got a bit more knowledge about the Japanese grammar, it proved to be a very important and enjoyable resource. I suggest the Ekubo Basic Japanese playlist. The lessons are completely in Japanese, but there are English subtitles, so you know what’s going on. I suggest that you use this resource after mastering the Hiragana and Katakana syllabaries and have some elementary knowledge of the Japanese language. It brings your Japanese learning experience to its first full circle- from just reading, to actually hearing the language in simple conversations.

The setting is in a classroom, with a Japanese sensei (teacher) teaching a Chinese or Korean student.  There are several Japanese sentences that the sensei would read slowly,  repeat, and sometimes act out. Just from the mere repetition and action of the sensei, one would get the meaning of the sentence.  There are also funny exchanges between the sensei and her student.

Nihongonomori has lots and lots of Japanese videos. And they continue to make more. They recently launched a series of Japanese lessons for English speakers.

JapanSocietyNYC

The US Japan Society has a Wakuwaku Japanese playlist that gives short and light Japanese lessons-  more of set-phrases and vocabulary lessons presented in a lively and amusing manner.  Then they also have a Japanese Language series which focuses more on grammar. 

JapanesePod101

JapanesePod contains lots of playlists on different aspects of the Japanese language. It is in this channel that I learned the Hiragana and Katakana syllabaries. They also have grammar lessons which give you follow through “audio and visual cues”.  These are also helpful.

This is all for now. I’m sure that there are many more excellent resources out there.  Feel free to leave a comment about your experience with some resources you know. 

If you’re wondering where I am now in Human Japanese Intermediate, I’m already more than halfway, and so far, the most difficult thing for me are the Kanji readings. I’m beginning to call the characters Kant-ji, since I can’t seem to master them. Anyway, I’m not in a hurry. Learning Japanese for me is  an experience, and, somehow, I don’t want it to end soon.