Just before coming to Japan, I had a week of intensive tuition with others about to depart for teaching posts here, but unfortunately (from my point of view), most of the instruction concentrated on the intricacies of hiragana and katakana; personally, I felt “infantilized”, as if I was back in primary school being made to learn my “ABC” but denied any access to the spoken language the squiggles were designed to represent. My feeling of inadequacy wasn’t helped by the consistently low marks I gained in daily “spelling” tests, nor by the spirit of rivalry these tests seemed to promote among classmates . . .

To make matters worse, soon after arriving in Japan I found that several of my former classmates were surging ahead in leaps and bounds where kanji were concerned (and letting us all know it!). At the same time, the Japanese teacher and textbook kindly provided by my new employers seemed to rather dogmatically take for granted that I’d be fascinated above all by the writing system, which I wasn’t. The pressure was mounting, then, and I took what I probably rationalized as an “adult” course of action at the time: saying a definitive “sayonara” to formal Japanese study and the written language (linked by the feelings of inadequacy they both induced in me), I decided to drop out of the kanji race altogether, politely thanking my teacher for his trouble and saying I was unfortunately too busy to continue, and turning a “blind ear” when conversation among friends turned to the number of Chinese characters they’d memorized that particular week.

I was in a good position to “pick up” the spoken language, being surrounded by kind, helpful and largely non-English-speaking colleagues in the teachers’ staffroom, and I became quite adept at avoiding the necessity to read and write in daily life. But just how have I managed to remain illiterate for so long?

Did you know that you can learn Japanese online with our videos at Youtube? We have posted 75 videos for learning Japanese. You can learn how to read hiragana and katakana. We have video lessons to teach you Japanese words and phrases. We have samples our our products as well.

In this video lesson you will learn about “housework”. Don’t forget to write a comment.

家事　－　かじ

Key phrases:

せんたくを　しました              -　I did the washing.

そうじきを　かけました       – I vacuumed the floors

せんたくものを　ほしました   – I hung out the washing

トイレを　そうじしました          – I cleaned the toilet
Learning Japanese online is cheapest and most effective way to learn Japanese. I think it is even better than taking private Japanese lessons. There is lots of free quality content, including Japanese podcast lessons, video lessons and lots of blogs and sites teaching Hiragana and Katakana. Start learning Japanese today.

Welcome to a Read Japanese Fast Kanji lessons. In this lesson we have included grammar explanations. If you really want to start reading Kanji check out “Read Japanese Fast ” – it will have you reading Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji in 30 days. It focuses on reading rather than memorizing Kanji. Trying to memorize lots of Kanji adds up to whole lot of wasted time if you can’t read. You don’t need to know all the readings of each Kanji. You just want to start reading as soon as possible.

The lessons below comes with video tutorials – to learn more visit Read Japanese Fast

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Grammar Points

To speak Japanese fluently is usually the ultimate goal of anyone studying the Japanese language. To reach the level where you can speak Japanese fluently can become quite a time consuming challenge. Not because the language is so difficult, but because most of the methods people use to learn or study Japanese are unproductive and too confusing. In my experience the best foreign speakers of Japanese are usually people who have taken no formal Japanese classes, can’t read or write hiragana or katakana, don’t  know any kanji and don’t have a clue about Japanese grammar. They are also usually non-English speakers as well. How are they able to speak the language so well? They are forced to because of there job. Due to their environment or situation they have no option but to speak Japanese.

When living in Japan I met hundreds of English teachers who could speak Japanese, but never at a fluent level. They were taking classes, studying for the Japanese Language ProficiencyTest, and investing quite a lot of money on text books and audio programs. They studied hard but just couldn’t get to a fluent level. Then occasionally I would met someone from Turkey or India. They would speak the language like a native. Yet, they had taken no classes or purchased little in the way of study material. These speakers of Japanese wouldn’t learn or study the language in the traditional sense. They wouldn’t spend time learning hiragana or katakana. They certainly wouldn’t learn kanji or study grammar. In fact they would no nothing about the language except they could speak fluently. They would just soak up and use the language from their environment. They learnt the language from example and experience. The fastest and most effective way to study anything, especially a language.

In order to speak Japanese fluently you need to surround yourself with Japanese speakers and also not speak your native language. If you put yourself in a situation where you are forced to speak the language daily your Japanese will improve in leaps and bounds. If you spend too much time on rules about the language you will become knowledgeable about the structure of language and whatnot, but your speak ability will progress very slowly.

To develop the ability to speak you must observe how Japanese interact and then basically model what you see over and over. You have to become a bit of a actor and become Japanese. Japanese has to become a part or most of your life. Now, the problem is not many of us can just drop what we are doing and  fly of to Japan. So how can you learn to speak Japanese without studying the language?

Surround yourself with as much Japanese as possible. Immerse yourself in real language as much as possible. This means making Japanese friends, getting a Japanese girlfriend or boy friend, watching Japanese television and listening to Japanese radio. You need to listen to Japanese speaking the real thing. Don’t listen to podcasts that are designed to teach you Japanese. There is too much in the way of explanation and unrealistic examples. Most of what is taught is too formalized anyway. Focus your life on mimicking Japanese. Speak to yourself in Japanese. So now you know what you need to do if you want to speak Japanese fluently. If you follow my advice you end up saving yourself a whole lot of time and money.

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?

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.