Japanese classes are like a sushi platter – you never know what you are going to get and you’ll always be unsure of the quality of the fish. I have had my fair share of Japanese classes, both group and private. In Japan I took volunteer lessons at the local ward office, then several years later I studied at a Japanese language college for several months full time. I took private lesson from several teachers in preparation for the Japanese language proficiency test at great expense. I also did a certificate course in Japanese back home in Australia. I have done more than enough study, but I could certainly learn more.

Looking back at my Japanese language education I would have to say the majority of my classes weren’t very beneficial considering the amount of money I invested. I say this because all but a few of my teachers rarely taught Japanese to suit my needs and goals. Most of them just taught what they thought I should know or what they had to teach.

Finding a teacher who can understand your needs and deliver a lesson that will actually teach you something worthwhile is something few students consider. As a complete beginner you will most likely walk away from any lesson having learned something regardless of the quality of the teaching. You will probably find the going slow a develop a mindset that Japanese is difficult to learn and just accept the teacher you have. The problem comes to light once you have the fundamentals of the language under your belt and are ready for the next level. Few teachers will ever really ask you what you want to learn and customize lessons to met your needs. you need to be pro-active in finding a good tecaher or school.

Before taking lessons, especially paid lessons, you should think about what you want you want to learn. For example, do you want to learn Japanese grammar? Spoken Japanese? How to read and write Kanji? Are cultural activities important to you? You should also set goals and share them with your teacher. Do you want to study Japanese to get into a Japanese university? Are you wanting you communicate with your Japanese in-laws? Are you interested in taking JLPT? Don’t ever pay for lessons until you know what you want and are sure you will receive lessons that will help and not hinder your progress.

My paid Japanese lessons at a school in Japan were a disaster. My level assessment and induction to the college went very well. However, after a few lessons I found myself in a very frustrating situation. I enrolled to the school with the hope an intention of taking a course to improving my spoken and written Japanese. I soon realized that I had been enrolled to classes for students wanting to take JLPT levels 1 or 2. Most of my students were studying Japanese with the intention of enrolling to a Japanese university.
On my first day I was quite shocked to find out that I was one of only four English speaking students in the whole school. The rest were Korean and Chinese students. Although I made some great friends, I found myself stuck in a class with students far beyond my level who could read and write Japanese. I had only knew a few hundred Kanji and certainly couldn’t read. Most of the classes were reading focused and very difficult. I spent the majority of my classes trying to work out just the readings of Kanji. I would work out their stroke order and then search for the kanji in an electronic dictionary. Just to work out the reading and then the meaning of a single kanji would take me up to 3 or 4 minutes. I rarely finished any of the in class work in time and found the homework far beyond my abilities.
I spoke to teachers and explained my situation. I was unable to change classes and just told to hang in there (Ganbatte kudasi) and keep at it. Eventually I become so frustrated and I started skipping classes. Some mornings I just couldn’t get myself up knowing I would be spending 5 hours frustrated and completely lost with a growing list of kanji and grammar I couldn’t understand. I kind of felt like the classroom pet. And I mean the animal kind because I couldn’t understand a bloody thing and everyone kept patting me on the back offering words of encouragement. No matter how motivated I tried to get myself in the morning the day would always end with me close to losing my sanity. So you have been warned – learning Japanese isn’t always fun. Find yourself a good school or teacher.

Japanese tourists have a tenancy to say “I am sorry” during almost any verbal encounter with strangers while overseas. They are renowned for saying  sorry in the most unlikely situations. This is because Japanese have been culturally and socially conditioned to “apologize” to strangers or people they don’t know well. However, it doesn’t quite work well in English and with the western mindset. The problem also lies with the Japanese interpretation of “I’m sorry” -  Introducing SU-MI-MA-SEN.
 
SU-MI-MA-SEN is a great power word. This one word has three meanings. It can be used to say;
“Excuse me”, to get someone’s attention
“I’m sorry”, to apologize
“Thank you”, to express appreciation

Most Japanese take “sorry” to mean SU-MI-MA-SEN. This is the reason why Japanese will often say “I’m sorry” instead of “Excuse me” or  “Thank you”. I consider SU-MI-MA-SEN a power word because of  its versatility, social and cultural importance and colloquial nature. You will be scoring big points with your Japanese friends if you can use SU-MI-MA-SEN to express the three meaning I explained earlier.

Japanese can communicate a lot with few words. I strongly believe in learning vocabulary from Japanese rather than textbooks. Text books generally go into the grammar to much. It is somewhat typical and and very “Japanese” that many Japanese authors teach how the the Japanese language should be spoken rather than how it actually is spoken. Text books generally avoid colloquial Japanese and go for polite “textbook” language and grammar. Japanese Grammar is very confusing and difficult to learn for the beginner. So if possible make some Japanese friends and get them to teach you heaps of vocabulary.

The Japanese language has some single word expressions will that translate to phrases in English. These words are amazing as they can express the speaker’s feelings, thoughts and intentions without being direct. This is the real spoken language. Japanese teachers and authors will generally teach phrases with the subject and polite verb forms. This is not how Japanese genrally speak when relaxed with friends. Japanese teachers feel compelled to teach “correct Japanese” with a strong emphasis on grammar. Here are some one word phrases you would learn from your regular Japanese guy or girl.

Japanese culture – there are two cultures in Japan. The traditional culture that most people seem fascinated by and attracted to. Then there is the modern culture which is equally fascinating, but quite dark and depressing.

Traditional culture includes Japanese Tea Ceremony, flower arrangement, Haiku (Japanese poetry), calligraphy, martial arts such as Karate and sumo, Hanami (cherry blossom viewing) and origami to name a few. However, this culture is being replaced by a new emerging culture and it isn’t pretty . School bulling, suicide, group suicides, school girl prostitution, shopping addiction, loveless marriages and broken families , television and computer game addiction….the list could go on and on.

When first coming to Japan I was overwhelmed by the culture and the friendliness of the people. I am still amazed by the culture, the food, the history and people. However, after living in Japan for 10 years I can no longer turn a blind eye to certain aspects of the lifestyle and the new emerging culture. Usually I am fairly protective of Japan and try to defend Japanese opinion, but opinions and facts are indeed very different things.

The Dark Side of Japanese Culture

School bulling in Japan is reaching epidemic proportions..well not really…but it certainly seems that way with the number of news stories on the subject. It is growing problem with which Japanese society lacks the compassion and responsibility to do anything about. I think it also underscores the problems with lack of love and relationship in families. School bullying has led to an increase in childhood and teenage suicide.

More than 100 people take their live everyday in Japan. In the news group suicides are now monthly news stories. Internet suicide web sites have become one of Japan’s most morbid trends — total strangers making arrangements online to kill themselves together. Rather than searching for support services to to get help, Japanese are now looking at these suicide web sites as the answer to their unhappy lives. Suicide web sites are easy to find. Japanese people post their feelings and details of their troubled lives in the hope to find someone to suicide with. Some post include exchanges on methods of suicide and lists of materials necessary for self-asphyxiation. The group suicides usually take place inside sealed cars, where people burn charcoal so that they will die of carbon monoxide poisoning.

Japan has had a homeless problem since the economic bubble burst in the early 1990s and unemployment began to rise. I remember once offering a homeless man a pizza in Shinjuku because I was so shocked to see him eating rice out a garbage can. Unfortunately, it became all-to-familiar site and I made efforts to avoid homeless people when they approached me as I walked to my teaching job in the morning.
In most major cities you will see homeless people.

Currently in Osaka there are more than 10,000 homeless people living in the city. The majority of the homeless are single men aged in the late fifties. Most of them victims of of the construction industry, day laborers who toiled without fringe benefits to help Japan flourish in the postwar era. The recession hit contractors hard and they have been out of work for years.
Many of the homeless are desperate for a job. But there are no jobs and no hope for their future. There is also little in the way of support from the government, and no compassion from people, even family members. In fact most of the homeless are systematically eliminated from society. The average homeless man is e middle or older-aged and single. They have difficult finding jobs because companies believe married men will work more strenuously, since husbands in Japan are usually the sole breadwinners.

Japan’s homeless problem is attributed to the deeply rooted discrimination of old age- a unique aspect of the problem of homelessness in Japan. While homeless people suffer from low self-esteem and feelings of inadequacy, age discrimination reinforces their sense of alienation. This is coming from a culture that many westers percieve respects the older generation. Homless people are considered to be stubborn, inflexible, weak, and forgetful because of their age. Because they are alienated from society for a long time, they don’t expect to be spoken to.

Japanese study can be fun and an effective if you use a variety of learning methods. Japanese isn’t easy, but it isn’t that difficult to learn if you use different study methods and approach study with a positive attitude. There many great ways to study Japanese and make the learning process fun and effective.

I recommend you study Japanese everyday with short focused studies sessions. When I say study I don’t mean spending an hour locked in your room learning from a text book. This is not an effective study method. Make your study fun and active. The more active you are with your studies the faster you will learn. Watch videos on you tube and repeat aloud when learning new words, write words you understand when you do listening practice, and speak the language as often as you can even if you are by yourself.

Here a my top seven methods for making fast progress with the Japanese language;

Japanese Dramas: Watch Japanese dramas. Generally, Japanese dramas are pretty boring. The story lines are are often bizarre and the acting somewhat amateur . However, with most Japanese dramas you can learn lots of conversational Japanese and also discover how much Japanese culture influences spoken language.

Japanese Radio: Listen to Japanese radio. There are now heaps of Japanese Internet radio programs you can listen to. Next time you are online do a search for a Japanese online radio station and hit the play button. Even if you don’t understand 99% of what is being said just listen. Eventually you will start to pick up words and phrases. As you listen write words and phrases you can understand or catch. This is a very effective study technique. It won’t be too long before you can understanding most of what is being said.

Learn Hiragana: If you want to make sure you are pronouncing words correctly you must learn the Hiragana syllabary. You can easily learn hiragana in less than a month with all the free stuff on the web. Hiragana is the first important stepping stone in learning how read Japanese.

Skip Romaji: Romaji is a big time waster and will slow your progress down. In fact, Romaji is not even Japanese. It was originally devised to help Japanese write the Japanese language in non-Japanese script for westerns. It was never intend as a means to help students learn Japanese. Romaji should never be taught to students at all save when the pronunciation for the kana is explained. Also keep in mind that Japanese written in romaji does not accurately reflect the way it is written in Japanese.

Learn Kanji: Once you have mastered hiragana you should start learning Kanji. Learning how to read and write Kanji is quite stimulating and enjoyable. It will help you to build vocabulary quickly and improve your understanding of Japanese grammar. Learn stroke order or how to read Kanji in context. Learning stroke order will help to read and understand new Kanji as you progress. Remember that reading Kanji in context should be your goal. Don’t waste hours and hours of study time memorizing all the readings of several hundred.

Make Japanese friends: If you want to learn real Japanese you have to hang out with Japanese people. There are hundreds of Japanese words and phrases that you can only learn from conversing with Japanese people. Go out and find some Japanese and become friends with learn. It is what I did when I first started learning Japanese. Only learn the common readings

Japanese Culture: Learn as much as you can about Japanese culture. This will help you with understanding the Japanese mindset and how Japanese communicate. This is an area so many students undervalue. The Japanese language is so unique due to Japanese culture.

An important part of Japanese is being able to use the right level of formality in the right situation. Using formal speech in an informal setting makes you sound strange, and using informal speech in a formal setting makes you sound rude. Japanese formality comes in two degrees.

Firstly, there’s the plain/polite form of speech called “teineigo” which is principally determined by the absence or use of desu and masu. This is the Japanese you generally learn in text books and at private colleges. Secondly, there’s the use of humble and honorific forms of speech, called kenjyougo and sonkeigo respectively, when dealing with vast social status differences between the speaker and listener or speaker and subject. These two ‘degrees’ are independent of each other, in that one can be plain humble or humble polite, as well as plain honorific and honorific polite, should one want to explore the full range of options.

How and when to talk plain or polite, and when to be humble or when to be honorific, depends very much on the concept of in and out group, as well as familiarity. In ones familiar in group, one can talk in a plain and informal manner, while talking to someone who is part of ones formal in group, or part of an out group, typically warrants polite speech. When one talks to someone in ones out group that is of clearly higher social status and you wish to acknowledge this fact, humble and honorific speech is typically used as well as polite form.

As a non-native speaker there will be no expectation of you to speak polite Japanese, by Japanese. However, when you first met Japanese they will most likely speak to you using polite Japanese. In particular, phone calls and talking to staff in any customer service role you will find particularly difficult. You will be lucky if you understand anything at all.

As a beginner you will only want to concern yourself with teineigo – the use of desu and masu. Unless you intend to go to Japan for business and are determined to speak Japanese while doing business then I wouldn’t worry about learning kenjyogo or sonkeigo for the time being.

You know what adverbs are, right? Adverbs modify verbs. In English, adverbs are words like “slowly” in “John slowly walked down the street.” or “creatilvey” in “My wife creatilvely folded the paper into a crane.”  Students of Japanese tend to learn one adjective, the adjective totemo and then move on Kanji or keigo or something else. I guess the reson for this Japanese adverbs are a little confusing. So let’s learn a few adjectives to put a little wasabi in your Japanese

In Japanese there are two kinds of adverbs. There are adverbs and then modfied adjectives that play the role of  adverbs.The first kind are words that have always been adverbs, and the second are adjectives that are placed in a particular inflection so as to act adverbially. You will understand. In fact you are probably already using these adjectival adverbs.

 General adverbs

The first type of adverbials are mostly quantifiers. Words such as sukoshi, meaning “a little bit”, zutto, meaning “very much”/”throughout” or tokidoki, meaning “sometimes”.

Here is a list of a few more;

Daibu – greatly
Totemo – very
Taihen -  very, awfully

Adjectival adverbs
The second type can be constructed out of either verbal adjectives, or noun adjectives. However, the way they are inflected to become adverbs is different for the two.
 
Verbal Adjectives
Change verbal adjectives to the ku form and  then it can be used as an adverb. For instance, the verbal adjective hayai, meaning “early” can be made an adverb by dropping the i and adding ku, resulting in hayaku. This can then be used with for instance the verb for “waking up”, okiru: hayaku okiru – to wake up early.

Here are a few more;
hidoku – appallingly
sugoku -  terribly, amazingly
yoku – well
tsuyoku – strongly

Noun adjjectives
Noun adjectives can be turned into adjectives by instead of adding na as suffix, adding ni as suffix. For instance, kirei is a noun adjective meaning “pretty”, kireini is an adverb meaning pretty. If we pair this with the verb for “to split”, wakeru we get niwakeru meaning “to cleanly split” (such as a piece of cake spilt among children)

nazen ni – completely
amari ni excessively
migoto ni – astonishingly
hijyou ni – extraordinarily
yakeni – horribly

I hope this helps. Now you should know a few more adjectives than just tetomo.