{"id":44,"date":"2008-05-20T10:17:09","date_gmt":"2008-05-20T17:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/traveljapanblog.com\/wordpress\/?p=44"},"modified":"2009-07-21T21:07:05","modified_gmt":"2009-07-22T04:07:05","slug":"multifaceted-approach-to-learning-and-improving-japanese-language-abilities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/traveljapanblog.com\/wordpress\/2008\/05\/multifaceted-approach-to-learning-and-improving-japanese-language-abilities\/","title":{"rendered":"Multifaceted approach to learning and improving Japanese language abilities"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m a teacher by profession<\/a>, and one thing I try to get across to my students is that it is difficult to learn something merely by reading about it once or twice. Reading a textbook isn’t all that effective; nor is it enjoyable. To really learn something for the long term, one has to do more than read. Tackling your target from many angles, or in other words, doing, and doing in different ways, seems to be most effective for long-term comprehension and retention. So I\u00a0encourage my students to read, practice using one method (maybe practice quizzes), practice using another method (maybe doing problems and then checking answers), practice using another method (maybe flashcards), practice using another method (maybe tutoring someone else), etc.
\n\"ds<\/a>
\nSo why should I do any different in my quest to improve my Japanese language abilities? Unfortunately, I don’t have a Japanese tutor or even anyone that I can speak Japanese to and\/or hear Japanese from on a daily basis. I’ll have to save that method for when I’m in Japan next year. I do have a wide variety of ways that I’m studying Japanese though. I’ll list them here in no particular order. On a good day I’ll do at least 15 minutes of each.<\/p>\n

\"Nihongo<\/a><\/p>\n

1. Practice reading and writing kanji with Nazotte Oboeru Otona no Kanji Renshu<\/em> (\u306a\u305e\u3063\u3066\u304a\u307c\u3048\u308b\u5927\u4eba\u306e\u6f22\u5b57\u7df4\u7fd2) for the Nintendo DS<\/a>. I look up any unknown phrases or words as I go so I learn new vocabulary in addition to kanji.<\/p>\n

2. Read Nihongo Journal<\/em> \uff08\u65e5\u672c\u8a9e\u30b8\u30e3\u30fc\u30ca\u30eb\uff09including taking all practice JLPT tests included. I also listen to the tapes or CDs for the issues in which I own the accompanying audio. I have about 50 issues and that should keep me busy for the next year.<\/p>\n

3. Read <\/a>Mangajin<\/em> \uff08\u6f2b\u753b\u4eba\uff09. This is easier and more enjoyable than the above two. You can read Mangajin<\/em> online, but I’ve found the scan quality to be pretty poor so I’ve purchased about 50 issues and prefer to read them in hard copy format.
\n\"Mangajin\"<\/a>
\n4. Read other Japanese books in Japanese. I’m currently reading Harry Potter<\/em> in Japanese–\u30cf\u30ea\u30fc\u30fb\u30dd\u30c3\u30bf\u30fc\u3068\u79d8\u5bc6\u306e\u90e8\u5c4b to be more specific. While reading I look up any unknown words in my Canon Wordtank V90 electronic dictionary. The reading is actually pretty easy because furigana are placed next to most kanji.<\/p>\n

5. Subscribe to various email lists that send a different kanji, word, or grammar via email each day. These are available through the links in yesterday’s post<\/a>–specifically the kanji-a-day and yokooso sites.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m a teacher by profession, and one thing I try to get across to my students is that it is difficult to learn something merely by reading about it once or twice. Reading a textbook isn’t all that effective; nor is it enjoyable. To really learn something for the long term, one has to do […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[89,27,161,94],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveljapanblog.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveljapanblog.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveljapanblog.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveljapanblog.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveljapanblog.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/traveljapanblog.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2507,"href":"https:\/\/traveljapanblog.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44\/revisions\/2507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveljapanblog.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveljapanblog.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveljapanblog.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}