Nihongo Sou Matome

I really like the Nihongo Sou Matome books, at least for the Kanji book, which is all I have looked at so far.

The book is designed to take 6 weeks if you study every day.  Here’s a sample page:

You get a drawing with some text to read, then you get the kanji for the day.  I like the fact that you get related words using the same kanji, since you can see the connection between various words.  (One of the cool things about kanji is that you can often guess the meaning of a brand new word even if you don’t know how to pronounce it.)

The next page is a quiz on the material you just studied.  All of of the words for each week are joined by a common theme.

For example, week 1 is でかける (to go out) and each day is something related to that.  Day 1, as you can see above, is about parking lots.  The rest of the days for the first week are pedestrian crossing, signs, a train platform, an express train, and a bus.

On day seven of each week is a longer quiz that covers the material for the whole week.

I already know a lot of the kanji in this book but (and here we go…) not all of them, so studying it is certainly worthwhile.  Because I do already know some of the kanji, I am throwing in some words from the vocabulary book (just 5-10 a day) as I go along.  That when, when I finish the kanji book and am ready to start the vocabulary book, I’ll have a leg up.

Just recently, I met someone who is in college and eventually wants to be a translator of Asian languages, but she hasn’t starting studying Japanese yet (or Chinese) because she is, in her own words, “scared of Kanji”.

Lots of people are scared of kanji.  There are so many of them!  So, what’s the secret to learning kanji?

Here it is.  I am going to reveal the secret to you.  Are you ready?

Just do it.

There you go.  If learning kanji seems daunting to you, just start with five or ten today and learn them.  Tomorrow, learn give or ten more.  Every day, be able to say “I know more kanji today than I did yesterday” and you’ll get there in the end.  But you have to actually start.  That’s the problem with a lot of people.  They find kanji scary, so they don’t even start.

Which kanji should you start with?  How about the daily use kanji?  You can find a list of them online easily enough.  Or get a book like Nihongo Sou Matome for the N5 or N4 and start with those.  Just stop putting it off and get started!

Anyway, after I finish the kanji and vocabulary books, I will move on to grammar and reading.  Maybe I’ll stick with this series or maybe I’ll move on to the Kanzen Master books.  They aren’t as friendly as the Sou Matome books, but they are more thorough.

That being the case, why did I start with Sou Matome?  Well, to be honest, because someone gave me a ただ (free) copy, and plenty of people have studied for the JLPT using the Sou Matome books and passed.

Which is what I plan to do.

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P.S.

Nobody asked me how I study the each day’s words, so I’m going to tell you.

Memrise, of course.

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It’s Grammar Time!

I am not starting to make my way through the grammar drill book.  Here’s a sample of what it looks like:

(Yeah, I know it’s a little crooked.  Sorry about that.)

Parts 1 and 2 consist of:

うちに、間、てからでないと、ところだ、とおりだ、によって、たびに、ばーほど and ついでに.

This is followed by a test in which you have a sentence with a blank in it and you have to fill in the right word.  This is 27 multiple choice questions.  Then we move on to parts 3 and 4.

My job is to go over 3 or 4 four grammar points a day and write practice sentences with each form which, by the way, is harder than I thought it would be.  It isn’t so much the writing the sentences as it is thinking them up in the first place!  Quick, think up a sentence using あいだに!  Got it?  Good.  Now think up three more!

It is a good book, though.  I like the fact that, after a few grammar points (okay, 8-10) you get a test on those grammar points.  That’s really what I was looking for.  In fact, I wish there were more of them.  Still, it’s a start.

So the everyday schedule now looks something like this:

*Review vocabulary from Minna No Nihongo 1&2, Chuukyuu he ikou & N3 core 2400 using Memrise.

*Learn new N3 vocabulary

*Study 3-4 grammar points and write sample sentences using each one

*Then, if time permits, get in some reading practice using Satori Reader and/or NHK News Web Easy or by reading Spirited Away.  The advantage of Satori Reader and News Web Easy is that you can also listen to the material.  I prefer to do that after reading it.

So, I’m a little busy, what with having a job and family and life and all, so my Japanese study has to wedged in around all of the other things.

I don’t actually use the News Web Easy site, by the way, I use an app which has some advantages, but that’s another post.

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Nihongonomori – JLPT N3 Grammar Videos

nahcirn sent me a link to these videos which are too good not to share, though they do require a certain level of Japanese proficiency before they will be of use.

Basically, Kento Sensei explains grammar points.  In the first video, for example, he goes over －だらけ, －おかげ and －せい, and there are 38 videos total in this series, so he covers a lot of ground.

The trick is that the video are entirely in Japanese.  (Well, not entirely.  There may have been as many as 5 or 6 English words in the first one.)  They are subtitled, also in Japanese, so that can help if you get really stuck.

I won’t lie to you – they are really useful, but they take some effort.  The first one at least was excellent – I have watched it all the way through once and started watching it a second time.  I’m learning/reviewing grammar and getting listening practice, and it’s hard to beat that.

I provided the link above, but here’s the first one:

Keep sharing the good stuff.  We’re all in this together!

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If You Can’t Say Something In Japanese…

And, we’re still talking about the video from Abroad in Japan.  One his points is this:  If you can’t say it in Japanese, don’t say it.  It is too easy to revert back to your native language to say something when you can’t find the right words or the right grammar to say it in Japanese.

I have been guilty of this one.  This morning, I had another excellent Cafetalk lesson, but, during conversation, I got completely stuck on what is probably a fairly simple sentence: This will be the first year that I go.  Thinking about it afterwards, with all the time in the world and no one looking at me, I would go for something like これは行く最初の年になります. At the moment, however, it just would not come into my head, and I started to say it in English instead.

But 日本語だけ。  Japanese only.

So, what do you do when you can’t say what you want to say in Japanese?  Well, you either string together words and hope it gets the point across, even if it makes you sound like a caveman, or you find some (possibly highly convoluted) way to more or less say what you want or (and this is the hardest of all) you abandon the idea of saying it and move on.

After all, what would you do if the person you were speaking to didn’t know any English at all?  Pretend that’s the case and do that.  If you want to learn Japanese, then, when you are having a conversation, force yourself to rely exclusively on Japanese.

You’ll hate it.  It’s very frustrating and makes you feel like an idiot sometimes.  That’s okay.  It also helps you learn the language better.

I haven’t mentioned the JLPT in while, but it will be time to sign up in a couple of months, and I am going to take the N3.  I have been packing in the vocabulary every day, and I am getting ready to start serious grammar drills ( because I am only now getting a grammar drill book).  I have been working on N3 grammar for awhile.

The pass rate tends to be less than 50%.  The tests are not meant to be easy.  For example, if they want you to select the right kanji for a word written in kana, the kanji that you get to choose from will all be very similar to each other.

So, who knows if I’ll pass, but I’m going to give it a good try.  And, after all, if I don’t pass this year, I’ll have a whole year to study, since it’s only offered in December in the U.S.

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JLPT

So the question is, is it worth it to take the Japanese Language Proficiency Test?

As it turns out, the nearest location where it is offered is about 6 and a half hours away, and I figured that simply wasn’t worth it in either time or money.  If I got a job benefit out of it, then, sure, but I’m really learning Japanese just for the fun of it.  (Don’t laugh.  It really is fun.)

Then my wife said that we could make a fun date weekend out of it, spend a couple of nights in a hotel, see the sights and so on.

The only advantage to me of taking the test would be to give me a solid sense of where I’m at in my language studies.

The advantages of having a nice date weekend with my wife in an interesting location speak for themselves.

So now I’m wondering if I should do it…

For anyone who doesn’t know:  The Japanese-Language Proficiency Test (日本語能力試験 Nihongo Nōryoku Shiken), or JLPT, is a standardized criterion-referenced test to evaluate and certify Japanese language proficiency for non-native speakers, covering language knowledge, reading ability, and listening ability. The test is held twice a year in Japan and selected countries (on the first Sunday of July and December), and once a year in other regions (on the first Sunday of December).  (I just lifted that from Wikipedia, in case you’re wondering.)

The lowest level is the N5. Which covers:

The ability to understand some basic Japanese.

• ・One is able to read and understand typical expressions and sentences written in hiragana, katakana, and basic kanji.

• ・One is able to listen and comprehend conversations about topics regularly encountered in daily life and classroom situations, and is able to pick up necessary information from short conversations spoken slowly.

(I lifted that from the official JLPT website.)

There is also a apparently grammar component, such as multiple choice select-the-right-particle questions.  To make it more interesting, as far as I can tell, there don’t seem to be official lists of the vocabulary, Kanji and grammar that are required, but there are plenty of websites out there that make reasonable guesses.

So, has anybody taken the JLPT or does anyone plan to take the JLPT?

Obviously, I don’t need it, but, hey, you never know, I suppose.  There might be some future date when being able to document Japanese proficiency might be helpful.

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