Japanese is an amazing language, but for most people it is very tough to learn. Most students never reach a fluent speaking level and thus miss out on the enjoyment of being able to converse with Japanese.

So, why learn Japanese?

Well, for many people learning Japanese is more about;

* Understanding Japanese culture

* Enjoying Manga and Anime

* Ordering food at Japanese restaurants

* Having a Japanese homestay

* Visiting Japan while on holiday

All great reasons to study the language a little and learn the basics.

Living in or just visiting Japan can be an incredibly rewarding and a life changing experience if you know how to speak Japanese! In fact, the opportunities are endless if you can speak functional and fluent Japanese. With my understanding of Japanese I have been able to do some amazing things

Thanks to my Japanese speaking skills I…

* Taught English at several universities in Japan

* Made several life long friends. I was the MC and “best man” at two weddings for my Japanese friends

* Established my own English Language conversation school

* Married the girl of my dreams

* Teach Japanese online

Unfortunately Japanese is difficult language to learn. The biggest problem isn’t grammar, kanji or keigo. The problem is Japanese is made overly complicated due to teaching and learning methods. The biggest flaw being that functional Japanese is not really taught in terms of how it is spoken in Japan. Also, deeply rooted cultural aspects and societal behavior is not explained. This is the reason most people never reach a proficient speaking level of Japanese.

Due to poor current teaching and learning methods it takes most students many months or several years just to learn the basics of the language. Unfortunately, most of what is studied is formalized text book language that is not really spoken everyday in Japan.

To speak real Japanese – to actually engage in a conversation with a native speaker – you need to understand the language at an intimate level. No text book can teach this. Normally, this would require you to live in Japan for some time.

In a nut shell; just learning Japanese isn’t enough. I’ve know many students, who study hours and hours, struggle to have simple conversations with native Japanese. The secret is to understand that learning doesn’t always lead to effective communication.

So here it is. If you have read this far then you are about to be rewarded. If you want to be a great speaker, learn social behavior and cultural aspects of Japanese then the solution is simple. Model the language. Model native speakers. Watch an hour of Japanese drama every day. Hit the pause button every so often and model the actors – what they say and how they say. Do this for a month and you will be amazed with your progress.

My wife and I are in the process of making a product for learning to speak Japanese. We have thought about what is most important for the student. We have come up with several factors that we believe are most important in order to learn how to speak Japanese fluently. One is that we teach real colloquial Japanese that is spoken by Japanese in Japan. So we won’t be going with formal text book Japanese. Another factor is recognizing the importance of situation and culture, and the influence they have on the Japanese language.

Competitive research is becoming an important factor in the development of our product. Without getting too detailed we want to differentiate ourselves from our competitors and obviously make a better product. This has meant we have looked at several competitors and purchased products.

We looked at Pimsleur, Rosetta Stone and Rocket Japanese. Which is the best one?

Well before we get into that let me tell you what we looked for in each product.

• Value for Money
• Ease of Use
• Realistic conversation examples
• Japanese cultural references
• Enjoyment Factor

Rocket Japanese

At this stage we are only recommending Rocket Japanese. I believe it to be the best product online to learn Japanese  In fact, at one stage we were considering promoting the product aggressively instead of making our own. The core of the product is the 14 and a half hours of audio lessons. The lessons cover all the fundamentals of basic Japanese – from introducing yourself to getting around on public transportation, and ordering food in a restaurants. They take a friendly radio style approach with their teaching method. At times I do feel the lessons go on a bit and sometimes the dialogue seems too scripted. However, over all the audio lesson are very good and teach Japanese you would actually use.

Each audio lesson comes with grammar and cultural notes in a down-loadable PDF format. The reference material also contains instructions and explanations on written Japanese. Even if you don’t want to buy any products I recommend you at least subscribe to their Email course. It is great value – you get lots of sample lessons. Sign up ASAP.

Pimsleur

Pimsleur claims that you can learn a language in 10 days. I know that a lot can be learned in ten days with multimedia products and cutting edge learning methods, but learning Japanese in 10 days with the Pimsleur method doesn’t seem possible.  I think Pimsleur is somewhat dated and is in need of  upgrade and update. In order to speak Japanese I believe you need a certain amount of cultural understanding of Japan. This is something missing with Pimsleur.  Pimsleur claims that their CDs have been scientifically sequenced to rapidly lock language material into your brain after just one listening and that you can absorb Japanese effortlessly without any reading, writing or computer use. Sounds too good to be true. Learning Japanese requires effort – it takes more than ten days.

Rosetta Stone

Rosetta Stone is the most expensive language program out there. I would probably make some good money promoting their products. They have 3 levels they individually sell  starting from around $260. Buying all three levels at once is the best option, but you will have to fork out $550 dollars. The product comes in a CD-ROM format, with audio CDs. This means it is software heavy. This can be good for some things such as learning vocabulary and Hiragana and Katakana. However, in general I don’t believe learning a language through software is the way to go. You end up stuck in front of a computer learning just the basics.  Rosetta Stone don’t provide any samples of their audio lessons on their site. You have to sign up to get a demo. There are promotion movies at their site. However, as I watched them they gave me the impression that I would get sick of using the software after about half an hour.

So if you are looking for a product to help you speak Japanese in a short amount  of time we recommend Rocket Japanese.

The particle も can be used to indicate similarity as in the words ‘too’ or ‘also’. This particle replaces が or は, when used:

A: 私がえいがすきです。
B: 私もえいががすきです。
A: I like movies
B: I also like movies

This is a reasonably simple use of も, which can also be used in a double patternsuch as in the following sentence:

A: えいががすきですか、おんがくがすきですか。
B: えいがもおんがくもすきです。
A: Do [you] like movies, or do [you] like music?
B: [I] like both movies and music.

Remember that because も marks a similarity to something previously mentioned, you cannot use も out of the blue. It requires a prompt either by someone else, or by something you yourself just said.

A second use of も is after the て form of verbs and verbal adjectives. In this use, も acts as an emphatic contrasting particle, meaning something like the English “even [by/if] …”. The phrase below

“Even [by] leaving now, [you] probably won’t make it.” translates to いま　いっても　まにあわない　でしょう。

There are two special things that concern this particle. One, a special case of this use of も is in combination with the copula です, which becomes でも. We will look at this in a later post.

The second is this particle can be used with question pronouns. Have a look at the examples below:

なに　means “what”, なにも means “anything” when followed by positive verb or “nothing”, when followed by a negative verb.

どこ means “where”, どこも means “anywhere” when followed by a postive verb or “nowhere”, when followed by a negative verb.

だれ　means “who”, だれも means “anyone” when followed by a postive verb or “no one”, when followed by a negative verb.

This rule continues for words like どんな (what kind of?), どっち (which way?), いつ (when?), どうして (why?) and so forth and so forth.

As you can see the simple use of particles can greatly change the context and meaning of the Japanese language. If you have ever taken the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) before you will know one whole section of the grammar test is devoted to particles. Particles are important. So we will continue our study of them. Look forward to the next post on the particle の.

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.