Strategies for Learning Japanese

Japanese is commonly considered one of the most difficult languages on Earth for non-native speakers to learn and master. And yet, due to Japan's economic success and tremendous cultural influence (via such media as anime, video games and music), every year thousands of students join the ranks of the already considerable number of Japanese language learners. I, myself a member of that intrepid group, have developed a number of learning strategies, by research or plain old trial and error, which I have compiled into the following list. Many of these methods may already be well-documented elsewhere on the internet, but what I offer in addition is a record of my personal experience--the pros and cons of each method--and the way to make the best use of them.

1. Become familiar with your own learning style. It goes without saying that everyone is different--our brains are hardwired in myriad unique ways--and this is expressed quite vividly in the diverse ways that each individual best learns new information. When approaching a subject as complex as foreign language learning--especially a language as rich and complex as Japanese--the first and most important step is to figure out exactly what works for you. Lists like this one are great starting points, but none of these techniques or tools should be taken at face value. For instance, flashcards do nothing for me. But if they do work for you, don't let anyone tell you otherwise (least of all some anonymous person on the internet!). Experiment with the expectation of certain failures until you find a method that resonates with your unique learning style. And most importantly, when you find one that works, stick with it.
2. Learn new vocabulary in and from context. As I mentioned before, flashcards do not work for me. Of course, drilling flashcards may enable you to retain a short list of vocabulary long enough to pass a test--and I've certainly used them for that purpose before--but will those words stick to the walls of your mind and become a functional part of your lexicon? That is to say, in an actual Japanese conversation will you be able to use those words you learned properly? I believe that if you just drill vocabulary alone that, sure, a word may rattle around in your memory, but it will not become usable until you have also learned that word's meaningful associations with other words, its function within real sentences. Language is a web. Not a string of single meanings, but a network of interlaced connections. You may learn the word for dog. But it will exist only as an abstract until you have placed it into that larger web--in which dog also draws up the words leash, walk, pet store, park, food, bark, companion etc... Instead of learning a new vocabulary word by picking it out of a pile of cards--learning to recognize merely the form and sound of the word itself--try learning a new word by creating a number of sentences built around that word--learning that word's meaning in relation to other words, and fitting it into the broad web of context.
3. Stop thinking in English. The most common mistake that learners of a foreign language make is continuing to think in their native language. What students often do is think of what they would like to say in English first, and then translate it into Japanese before speaking. Using English as a middle-man between what one wants to say and what is actually said slows down the communication process tremendously, and sometimes grinds it to a halt entirely. You may find that this limits your ability to communicate at first. And you'd be right, it does. But part of the problem that language learners face is that they often attempt to articulate concepts well beyond their ability to communicate them. Thinking in Japanese first--as opposed to thinking in English and then translating to Japanese in your head--limits one to simple concepts and structures that are within their communicative limits. By cutting out English from the process your thoughts will become limited to only what you are capable of articulating, and this may cause you to feel sort of childish. But is that really a bad thing? Remember, children have a prodigious talent for absorbing languages. And I believe that part of the reason kids learn languages so quickly is because they paint only with the limited palette at their disposal. They do not have a large and sophisticated vocabulary in some other language getting in the way. So I feel it's best to dispense with English entirely. You should feel a switch flip in your brain when you engage in Japanese. Two distinct modes of consciousness should begin to emerge and you should find yourself becoming more and more capable of alternating between them. When you start to think like a kid, you'll begin to learn like one.
4. Communicate at all costs--and don't be afraid to look silly doing it! One of the other reasons that children are such efficient students of language is that they have no fear of looking silly. A child feels no compunction over using exaggerated hand gestures, facial expressions or pantomime in trying to communicate an idea. If a child comes across a word they don't know they fill in the blank by some other means. Sometimes this includes compensating for the lack of a word they do not know by explaining it with words that they do. Not only does this contribute to a more fluid conversation, it also serve as a great mnemonic tool. The forgotten or unlearned word--the blank--becomes easy to remember because, if a gesture or expression was used, it is now viscerally associated with a physical action, or if it was described using other words it is now more firmly embedded in the web of connections that is language itself. While children do this by default, most language learners do not. We hesitate. When we come across a word we don't know, or have forgotten, we stop the conversation and try to think of it. We let fear of appearing silly or stupid get in the way. We let preconceptions of how an adult speaker of any language aught to communicate limit our options. If you forget the word for "elephant," holding your arm up to your face like a trunk will get the point across just as well. And if you forget the word for "lake" calling it a "small ocean" or "place where fish live" is close enough. Naturally, you'll want to exercise your judgement on a case-by-case situation. Acing like an elephant in a job interview, for instance, probably won't get you the job. But your friends and teachers won't begrudge you a bit for using whatever means necessary to communicate--in fact they may even thank you for it.
5. Use as much media as possible; video games, newspapers, television, comics, movies and books are all excellent learning tools. Among all the myriad tools and gadgets and widgets and widgadgets available on the internet, one stands out as inestimably valuable; it's called Rikaichan for Firefox (or Rikaikun for those Chrome users who have sworn fealty to our Google Lords), and it's a plug-in that allows easy reading of in-browser Japanese language text. Simply click to activate the plug-in and then hover your mouse over any Kanji and, poof--like some sort of technomantic sorcery--the dictionary definition and variant readings will appear as a pop-up. What's more, it's recognition of difficult compound words will open up an entire new world of learning material for you. You can read newspapers, ebooks or messages from Japanese friends with the ease of a mouse click--and most importantly, you'll learn in the process. Video games are another excellent study tool. If you are going to spend time playing video games you might as well make the most of it and brush up on your Japanese simultaneously. Sure, in recent years one of the problems with finding, buying and attempting to play Japanese video games was first of all, their relative scarcity in the U.S., and second, the fact that many older consoles were locked regionally and did not allow Japanese games to be played on a console purchased in America or Europe. That has, by and large, changed. Now, import video games have taken a strong foothold in a growing market and most modern consoles have dispensed with regional locking. Particularly useful for the video game enthusiast/learner of Japanese would be several offerings from video game monolith, Nintendo. First, you have to consider what has in recent years been a tremendous blessing to Japanese language learners: many of the licenses on older Nintendo games, like those for the SNES, have expired and Nintendo has not renewed them. This means that most of these older games can be found online and downloaded for free as a ROM image, and played via emulation software. This provides a great opportunity for more aged gamers (we prefer "seasoned" or "dignified") to nostalgically turn back to games of their youth, like Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger (and don't forget Earthbound!), and give them a play through in Japanese (the Kanji may be a little bit pixelated, but you'll absorb a tremendous amount of vocabulary, especially if you're already familiar with the basic script). It also gives younger gamers a chance to experience these classics perhaps for the first time. Or, ambitious sorts can find some of the older games that have never been released in English, such as Bahamut Lagoon and Treasure of the Rudras. Second, the Nintendo DS offers several games with furigana provided by default, such as Dragon Quest IX, and, even better, others that allow the furigana to be displayed by tapping the Kanji with the stylus, such as The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks. This is a great way to drill Kanji while still enjoying everything a good video game has to offer. You may even find that returning to a familiar game in Japanese causes you to notice things you missed the first time through. And while we're on the topic of the Nintendo DS, I would be terribly remiss if I failed to mention Kanji sonomama rakubiki jiten, a piece of software that essentially converts your DS into a highly functional electric dictionary. Not a game, per se, but just as Rikaichan/Rikaikun allow you to cruise through digital media with ease, using the stylus to look up Kanji quickly and efficiently will allow you to read through manga, books and newspapers in paper print nearly as smoothly. Plus, the act of writing the Kanji in the process of looking them up is a great mnemonic. One of the best ways to teach yourself Japanese is to become a voracious consumer of all forms of media available to you. It almost goes without saying that television and movies are included in this category, and the best way to use them is fairly self-evident. But here's a quick tip before we move on: try watching a Japanese movie (or TV show) with Japanese subtitles. Your brain will start pairing the sounds you hear with the characters you see, and it's almost like practicing reading and listening simultaneously.
6. Make the best use of your free time. In my opinion, this tip is not just a little something extra you can do to add an edge to your Japanese, it is an indispensable and fundamental component of basic language learning. In order to really acquire a language, your brain needs to be constantly engaged with it. This means learning to use the little bits of free time you have here and there throughout the day to hone your abilities, and there are a few good tools available to help that process along. One of my recent favorites is an app for Android-powered smart phones called Obenkyo. It's a simple study tool with remarkably high functionality--and it's entirely free. My new favorite pastime during boring car rides or waiting for appointments is drilling Kanji with its quiz feature. In any event, a number of similar such products exist for various phone platforms. Another great way to pass the time in the car, even if you're driving, is to listen to recorded audio lessons. If you haven't given Japanese Pod 101 a try yet, I would highly recommend it. They have a huge database of content that grows weekly with material encompassing a range of difficulty from beginner to expert. Sometimes you can even catch them during a promotional event and sign up at a big discount. Tools and services like these help fill in the gaps that everyone has in their daily lives, and every little bit helps. Talk to yourself in the shower. Yes, that does sound ridiculous, and, admittedly, it kind of is. But any time you're alone and you feel comfortable is a great chance to run through some imaginary conversation scenarios in your head. Another great exercise to do alone is keep a journal or diary in Japanese. The act of writing it alone would be a tremendous benefit, but you can take it even further by later having someone check and correct your work. If you can't find a friend or teacher to help you with that you can always find someone on Lang 8, a community of language learners that exists for just such a purpose.
7. Enroll in an intensive Japanese course. High school and college level Japanese courses are an excellent way to consistently improve your abilities over time. Even better than that: going and living in Japan for an extended period. But in my experience the greatest improvement you will find in the shortest amount of time comes from participation in an intensive Japanese course. Intensive courses take as much as an entire academic year's worth of material and cram it into 6 to 8 weeks. This may seem daunting, and to be fair it is a little, but the pay off is huge. Some of the courses also have rules prohibiting the speaking of English on school grounds, forcing students to rely entirely on Japanese even outside of the classroom--and it is this sort of experience, being forced to speak in Japanese for days on end, that you won't even get living on your own in Japan. There are a number of programs in both the U.S. and Japan offering such programs. The one that I am the most familiar with is Middlebury College's summer language program. It is held every year either at Middlebury College in Vermont or Mils College in California. For 8 weeks you will speak only Japanese. You will attend over four hours of class every day (with nearly as many hours of homework). You will eat breakfast, lunch and dinner with your teachers. You will participate in numerous weekly events. You will participate in clubs and groups. And by the end of it, when you are finally allowed to speak English again, your mouth will ache from the effort of trying to form words that now feel utterly alien to you. Your brain will have built a partition and you'll feel as if there are now two parts, one of which is devoted entirely to learning a new language. And once the stress and fatigue wear off, you'll realize you've had one of the most enriching and rewarding experiences of your life. Now, I can't speak personally to the quality or content of the other programs, but through my time as a graduate student at the University of Michigan I do know several people who have attended the six-week Kyoto Consortium (KCJS) and the summer, semester and full year programs offered at the Inter-University Center (IUC) in Yokohama, and all the reports I've heard are entirely positive. It may require a fair amount of courage to enroll in an intensive course, and even more to survive the first week, but of those who have gone through it I've met none with any regrets.

In summation the key to language learning, or any learning for that matter, is steady, consistent determination. Language mastery does not demand fanaticism. You do not need to watch only Japanese movies or run around sticking post-it notes with the Kanji for inu or neko to your household pets. But you do need to keep Japanese on your mind. It needs to become a second mode of thinking that you regularly slip into. With persistence, over time that secondary mode will feel just as comfortable as the primary mode--and you'll speak Japanese as easily as you do English.