Thanks to the continual improvement in the delivery of high quality audio of video learning Japanese online is becoming the first choice of beginner students of the Japanese language. In fact the web is now the best source of information for just about anything, not only languages. I certainly wish the internet had been around when I started learning Japanese .
Online Japanese lessons are pretty much the norm now. A growing number of companies are offering online Japanese lessons for a fee. I have never tried learning a language using a web-cam with a live teacher so I can’t offer an opinion. I imagine it would be as good as having private lessons with a teacher, but it certainly is a cheaper and more convenient alternative. However, there is plenty of free quality content that you access everyday.
Learning Japanese Online Resources
If you are wanting to learn how to speak Japanese, learn to read Japanese or just want to learn a few Japanese words it can all be done online. Some of the best resources are from Japanese websites which I will introduce to you.
Youtube is a great resource to learn how to speak Japanese. There are hundreds of teachers and students offering short video lessons. Most of them are pretty good. We have posted lots of video lesson showing you how to read hiragana and katakana. Please take a look at our videos. You can become a subscriber and be informed every time we upload a video. http://www.youtube.com/user/sodapencil
Japanese Audio Lessons
For Japanese audio lessons podcasts are your best option. There are a large number of Japanese language podcasts. Many focus on Japanese culture as we as spoken Japanese. It may take you a while to find one that suits your level. Be warned that some of the podcast hosts do waffle on.
A great resource for Japanese conversation practice is the NHK site. They have free short conversation lessons that come with the dialogue in romaji and Japanese script. These lesson are actually very good practice for the listening section of the Japanese language proficiency test.
Take a look at them at http://www.nhk.or.jp/lesson/english/learn/story/index.html
Japanese Language Software
Japanese language software is also an other option. I personally don’t like using software to study Japanese . However, there is some free flash video showing you the stroke order of the hiragana, katakana and kanji available on the net. In fact, I have found an excellent Japanese web site that will show you the stroke order of pretty much any Japanese kanji. You need to be able to type the kanji in kanji script (not romaji or hiragana,) you are looking for in the search field. After the search flash video will start showing you the stroke order of the kanji you searched. It is an excellent resource to help you write kanji correctly. http://kakijun.main.jp/page/1364200.html
Japanese Language Courses
Finally, there are number of products that offer Japanese courses. Time for a bit of self promotion. We have a number of Japanese learning products that can help you with your Japanese study. If you are wanting to learn how to read Japanese – actually read hiragana, katakana and kanji in context then we have the product for you – Read Japanese.
JLPT
Will you be taking the JLPT this year? If you are with have the ultimate study course featuring practice test with onscreen video tutorials taking you through hundreds of test practice questions. The product is called Japanese Proficiency Power. If you are taking levels 3 or 4 this year then our course can help you pass the JLPT.
In Japan every time you walk into a restaurant, shop, department store – basically any place of service you will you will be verbally attacked with a “welcome” greeting. This will happen without fail. The greeting is “Irasshaimase” – いらっしゃいませ. Like many Japanese expressions this one is deep and goes way back. More on that later. I do have to say that I loved the word when I first came to Japan. I really liked walking to restaurants to be greeted with a chorus of “Irashiamase”. I made me feel…..well, very welcome. I remember thinking it was a little un-Japanese for Japanese to be yelling at their customers.
Now, after living in Japan for ten years I can say I am pretty sick of this word. I do find it irritating when I am shopping at a clothing store or just browsing at book store to been constantly disturbed by shouts and chorus of Irasshaimase. Some staff will really scream it out. I have walked out of the odd store or two because of the constant cries from a tone deaf Japanese.
Japanese Set Expressions – Irasshaimase
The deeper meaning of the word goes way back and not surprisingly has to do with etiquette. Centuries ago Japanese behavior was formalized to the extend that there was a prescribed way for doing virtually everything. Direct interaction with other people, weather greetings, requests and speeches was the most important and carefully enforced. This lead to one of the most interesting and early developed etiquette customs – the calling out of “irasshai” or “iarashaimase” when someone entered the vestibule home of a home or place of business.
“Irasshai” means “walk in” as well as “welcome” and is an informal, friendly expression used by tradespeople in traditional restaurants and shops and department stores. This greeting kind of takes the weight of formality off the customers’ shoulders. It lets them know that they are at a place where they can relax and have fun. This could explain why Japanese are quite happy to eat with total strangers with restaurant owners often asking customers to share tables when business is busy. I have done it myself and it a bit unusual and very uncomfortable. A contradiction to Japanese culture in general, but then again eating habits are very different indeed and an area of Japanese culture that lacks etiquette and decorum. Japanese can eat like pigs; making nosies as they eat, speaking while eating, and even using communal chopsticks as tooth picks.
“Irasshaimase” is a much more polite and formal Japanese expression used only in the sense of “welcome” and “thanks for coming”. This is one word you want to remember and use. It represents an important part of the overall etiquette of Japan and one of the things that foreign visitors and businessmen can easily assimilate, and benefit from, in their interactions with Japanese.
I have finally managed to work out how to blog in both Japanese and English so I thought I would post a kanji symbol lesson. In this lesson we will focus on just one kanji symbol and see how it can be used in a number of Japanese kanji compound words. Did you know that a kanji character can have several readings.
A single symbol will almost aways have an on-reading and a kun-reading. The on-reading of a kanji character (音読み・おんよみ) is the Chinese based reading. Kanji originated in China, and Japan started to adopt and adapt the writing system in the 4th century. On-reading kanji often have the same or very similar pronunciation to the Chinese version of the kanji. The kun-reading （訓読み・くんよみ） is the Japanese reading of the kanji.
Watch the video kanji lesson below.
Let’s revise!
車 has two readings; くるま and しゃ. Which one is the Chinese reading?
Here are the questions and vocabulary from the video;
車をもってますか － Do you own a car?
車をもってません － I don’t own a car
車はたかいですね － Cars are expensive
車 － くるま － kuruma – car
車椅子 － くるまいす － kurumaisu - wheelchair
自動車 － じどうしゃ － jidousha - motor vehicle
自転車 － じてんしゃ － jitensha - bicycle
書庫 － しゃこ － shako - garage
駐車所 － ちゅうしゃじょ － chuushajyo - car park
車輪 － しゃりん － sharin - wheel
What did you think?
Here is a sample from our learning package Read JapaneseFast. When learning to read Japanese students often make the mistake of focusing too much on memorizing kanji symbols. Students focus on learning the readings of several hundred kanji without really practicing reading. The best way to learn how to read Japanese is to read kanji in context. Also, more often than not learning compound kanji words is more effective than single kanji characters.
The Read Japanese FastMethod
1. Go to the vocabulary section and read the words.
2. Play the audio and follow the text (email) as Kaoru Sensei reads. Do this several times.
3. Try reading the email by yourself
4. Refer back to the vocabulary to check words you don’t understand
5. Read the text yourself aloud.
Reading Practice Vocabulary -読み練習の単語を覚えましょう
No. Kanji Reading Meaning
1 - 元気 - げんき - Well
2 - 私 - わたし - I
3 - 今 - いま - Now
4 - 人 - ひと - People
5 - 日本 - にほん - Japan
6 - 今日 - きょう - Today
7 - 十二時 - じゅうにじ - 12 o’clock
8 - 四十三 - よんじゅうさん - Fourty three
9 - 来月 - らいげつ - Next month
10 - 七日 - なのか – 7th
11 土曜日 - どようび - Saturday
Reading Practice – emails From New York 1
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おにいちゃんへ
元気ですか。 私は今インターネットカフェにいます。おいしいコーヒーをのんでいます。
ニュウヨークはすごいまちですよ。人がおおくて、とてもにぎやかです。日本とぜんぜんちがいます。
今日は、まちのバスツアーをします。 たのしみですけど、ちょっとたかいです。
四十三ドルもする。そのあとは、ともだちのアパートにいきます。来月の七日までとまります。
土曜日にうちにでんわをしますね。 みんなによろしくね。
Note: にぎやか -Lively, bustling
The Kanji learning Package comes with video tutorials that coach you how to kanji in context.
Grammar explainantions are also provided for each lesson. To learn more visit Read Japanese Fast
In this post you will learn some basic Japanese words. As you probably know many Japanese phrases and common expressions are quite difficult for the beginner. For example, the common greeting phrases はじめまして (hajimemashite) and よろしく おねがいします (yoroshiku onegaishimasu) are pretty difficult words to get your tounge around. However, these difficult and quite formal expressions are usually the first words a student is taught. We are going to have some and just learn some basic Japanese words.
Basic Japanese Words – Adjectives
We will focus on some common adjectives. There are two kinds of adjectives in Japanese い-ending adjectives and な-ending adjectives. Will we focus on い-ending adjectives as they are usually more common and expressive. い-ending adjectives, especially adjectives that end with しい express human emotions and feelings. Examples are below;
さびしい － sabishii – loney (as in missing someone)
かなしい － kanashii – sad
うれしい － ureshii – happy
These adjectives all end in しい(shii). Notice how they express powerful emotions.
Time to learn some basic words – watch the video and repeat after Kaoru Sensei. We won’t worry about kanji characters for the moment. Hopefully you can read hiragana.
Note: ふとい describes objects that are thick or wide. ふとい is not used to describe people who are large or fat. The common term to describe fat people is でぶ(debu). でぶ is a な-adjective. If we place でぶ before the noun person/people ひと(hito) we would have でぶなひと. The な of a な-adjective is only placed before a noun. If you say a な-adjective on its own or without the noun, you drop the な. For example, あのこは でぶですね. That child is fat. There is no noun after でぶ. So there is no な. More on this in another post.
Alright now that you have watched the video here are a few revision questions.
What are two ways to say good in Japanese?
What is the opposite of ながい?
How do you say big in Japanese?
What does わるい mean?
What is the opposite of かるい?
How do you say old and new in Japanese?
What does ちいさい mean?
I hope you enjoyed this lesson on basic Japanese words. One of the best ways to learn Japanese is to give learning grammar and kanji a break, and just learn lots of Japanese words. However, you should keep in mind being able to read Japanese characters can dramatically increase your abiltiy to learn new words. Mix up your Japanese study and try to keep learning fun and stimulating.
