My favourite way to learn Japanese years ago was with Japanese audio lessons. I would sit on the train going from Nerima to Shibuya with my “discman” and listen to a Japanese audio course I had borrowed from a private Japanese school. I can’t remember the name of the course. The course was from a Canadian university and focused on polite conversational Japanese. At the time it was the only Japanese audio program I could get my hands on.
For someone starting to learn Japanese in this century, there is an abundance of Japanese learning programs giving students of the language a choice to study what they want. Back in the 90′s there was very little in the way of quality Japanese audio courses. Most of them were still on tape and cost several hundred dollars. Now you can learn Japanese for free with the many Japanese language podcasts on iTunes and hundreds of Japanese lessons on Youtube. The problem is no longer a lack of choice, but an over abundance of resources.
The Best Japanese Audio Lessons
The old expression “you get what you pay for” holds true with most online content for learning languages. While there are some great free audio lessons and podcasts out on there web, most fall short of providing what students really need – quality audio lessons that build upon each other in sucession. For example, you’ll find most Japanese youtube lessons are just random monologues of people sharing what they know of the Japanese language. I haven’t found a Youtube channel that provides concise lessons that build on each other.
There are a number of paid programs which I have tried including:
- Rocket Japanese
- Pimsleur Japanese
- Rosetta Stone
- Japanese Podcast 101
Rocket Japanese Audio Lessons
Rocket Japanese, in my opinion, still remains as the best paid Japanese audio program on the web. The lesson build on each other and reinforce past learnings. If you like talking your lessons on the go then you will be very happy with Rocket Japanese.
The product is unpdated often and has a great support forum where your questions about the Japanese language will be answered within 24 hours by the moderators.
There are also games and quizes with the program and a very helpful progress tracker.You also learn about Japanese culture and how it relates to everyday lagnuage and conversation.
Here is how Rocket Japanese compares with other competitors.
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Free Japanese Lessons
If you are wanting some quality free Japanese lessons then check out NHK World’s Yasashi Nihongo Lessons. You can download the audio and text of each lesson free. No sign is up required. They update their site with a ten minute lesson every week. The lessons are top notch and well worth your time. Like with most things in life, we tend to undervalue what we can get for free.
Why You Should Check Out NHK World
- The lessons are free and you can learn Japanese whenever you want.
- The lessons are concise and easy to understand so even kids can learn without getting bored.
- You learn Japanese from native speakers – it’s important to listen to the pronunciation of native speakers and practice by imitating the way they speak
- MP3 Downloads – You can download lessons onto your MP3 player and listen to them on your way to work or school.
- PDF textbook – you can read the contents of all the lessons at once.
If you are a beginner and are not want to spend any money on online lessons then you’ll find more than enough resources at NHK World.
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 apologise or “Thank you”, to express appreciation.
How to say sorry in Japanese
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.
More Common Japanese Words
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.
Wanna learn how to speak Japanese? Well, first of all, it is not easy unless you have a great teacher who is honest enough to teach you how Japanese do speak instead of text book nonsense. Learning how to speak Japanese is basically learning how to become Japanese. If you want to speak like a native you need to learn how Japanese behave. You ‘ll need to adopt many Japanese customs and mimic Japanese behaviour as well.
Most students learn Japanese the wrong way for several months or even years. Text book lessons at school and university can only give you a basic understanding of the Japanese language – grammar structure, vocabulary, the kana syllabaries and maybe a few hundred kanji. Learning how to speak Japanese involves a lot of cultural understanding and social conformity.
Japanese use very few words to express their thoughts and feelings. You’ll hear Japanese say the same things all the time. More often than not Japanese express interest, surprise, happiness and other emotions with only a few quirky phrases and sometimes with wordless cries and grunts. If you watch a game show you’ll audiences scream out the same wordless expression in unison when something shocking is presented to them. Very bizarre.
You’ll discover that for the most of their time Japanese don’t speak politely at all. For example, Japanese has no equivalent for “Pardon”. Instead when something is misunderstood in a conversation the confused listener will just blurt out “Ha!”. Sometimes my wife speaks to me and I have to control myself from feeling a little abused or offended. She’ll “rudely” blurt out one word and expect me to understand whatever it is she is trying to tell me. I used to get home from work and the first thing she would say to me as I walked in the door would be an aggressive “Gohan ha?”. This basically means something like “Do you want dinner?” or “Have you had dinner?”. However, if you translated the expression it would be just “Dinner!!?” . It would often give me the impression that my wife wasn’t happy to see me return home and that getting dinner was something she wanted to get quickly out of the way.
To be Japanese you got to do what everyone else does. I am often amazed at how easily Japanese can be assimilated and culturally conditioned. The peace sign is a classical example of this. Every time a Japanese has a photo taken of themselves they will do the peace sign. I found this to be extremely frustrating when having photos taken with Japanese. I went to great lengths to prevent my 4 year old son from being peace sign brain washed while he attend kindergarten in Japan.
How To Speak Japanese Like a Native
To speak Japanese like a native you’ll need to have a split personality. You can be yourself for most of the time, but when you meet acquaintances or work colleagues you will have to put on a bit of an act and meet certain social criteria – being polite or ass kissing.
And finally speaking Japanese will mean you won’t be able to say what you feel or believe for part of the time. The worst thing you can do is cause any kind of conflict or trouble for anyone. So you have to learn to hold back your real thoughts and bite your tongue. So the challenge for speaking Japanese is learning who Japanese are and how they behave. Accepting the culture and learning not to be always yourself is what it takes to be a good speaker of the Japanese language.
Japanese conversations are very different to Western conversations. In this post we are going to look at a short Japanese conversation. Imgaine you are on the train on your way to Shibuya in Tokyo. A man sitting next to you asks you questions about where you are from and what you do.
Japanese Conversation Example
A: あの、アメリカじんですか
B： はい。そうです。
A: しゅっしん は どこですか
B: ニュウヨーク です
A: りゅうがくせいですか
B: はい。
A: にほんはどうですか
B: だいすきです。
The first question is something I am asked all the time in Japan despite the fact that I am not American. Japanese are generally ignorant of the other countries. They assume most white foreigners in Japan are American.
アメリカじんですか – Are you American? じん means person or people. Adding じん to a country name gives you the nationality.
The reply はい。 そうです means “Yes. I am.”
The next question is asking where your place of birth or hometown is. しゅっしん means hometown. どこですか is the question phrase “Where is..? You reply dropping the subject and just stating New York with です。
The third question りゅうがくせいですか is asking if you are an overseas student. がくせい means student. Adding りゅう can mean exchange, overseas or international student.
Finally the last question is asking your opinion of Japan. どうでか basically means “What do you think of……? So にほんはどうですか translates to “What do you think of Japan?”
You love Japan so your answer is だいすきです. Notice again how you don’t need to state the subject which in this case is Japan.
Also notice how each line of this conversation ends with either です or ですか
Here is the conversation in English
A: あの、アメリカじんですか
B： はい。そうです。
A: しゅっしん は どこですか
B: ニュウヨーク です
A: りゅうがくせいですか
B: はい。
A: にほんはどうですか
B: だいすきです。
A: Um…… Are you American?
B: Yes. I am.
A: Where is your hometown?
B: New York
A: What do you think of Japan
B: I love (Japan)
Time to learn some basic Japanese phrases and Japanese words relating to things you like doing – your hobbies. “Hobby” has a slightly different meaning in Japan. Japanese consider things like shopping, eating favorite foods and even sleepping as hobbies. The word for hobby in Japanese is しゅみ (shumi). The Japanese symbol or kanji for this word is 趣味.
Japanese Phrases Lesson
In this lesson you will learn how to ask and answer questions relating to hobbies. We have upload many videos to youtube. Video language lessons are a great way to learn Japanese. We hope you like this one. This is a basic Japanese lesson, but hopefully you will learn something.
Structure
私のしゅみは……………です。
Watashi no shumi wa……desu.
My hobby is………………
My hobbies are………….
Vocabulary
| ひらがな | Romaji | English |
| らくがき | Rakugaki | Drawing, graffitti |
| うんどう | Undou | Exercise |
| かるい | Karui | Light |
| たべる | Taberu | Eat |
| ひく | Hiku | Play (a musical instrument) |
Grammar Note
verb + こと
Adding “koto” will nominalize the verb; change it into a noun.
たべる － Eat ; たべること － Eating
After watching the video try to read the sentences and questions below.
（あなたの）しゅみは何ですか。
わたしのしゅみは、すしをたべることです。
私の趣味はらくがきをすることです。
私の趣味はかるく、うんどうすることです。
私の趣味はギターをひくことです。
私の趣味はピアノをひくことです。
趣味はないですよ。
趣味のじかんがない。
趣味とまではいかないけど、どくしょがすきです。
ねることがわたしのしゅみです。
