Learn Japanese Today

Well, a lot has happened since I posted last. I’ve officially transitioned back to school, making my base of operations Minnesota rather than Chicago.

Also, I broke my nose.

It’s been a hectic couple of weeks.

But.

I have a shiny new toy for you. It’s called Getting Things Done.

Getting Things Done was the brainchild of management consultant / life coach David Allen. It’s essentially a way of thinking about life and how to best manage your “work.”

“Work” in this sense, refers to things you either want to, or are expected to do. It can be answering e-mails, writing a term paper, planning a birthday party, and yes, studying Japanese.

The goal of GTD is to have you focusing 100% on the task at hand and not on other things. If something else enters your mind, it’s probably something you still have to do, but are helpless to do anything about. So you just worry. And that wastes your mental energy.

So what you need to do when something else enters your mind is write it down somewhere, somewhere you know you’ll check later. If it’s someplace you know you’ll check later, then you can trust that you’ll get to it then, and stop worrying about it in the present.

Doing this regularly will allow you to completely respond to your “work” and focus yourself as best as possible.

I can’t summarize the whole book in this article, so you’ll just have to get it yourself here.

As far as Japanese goes, there are some really useful ideas for working on your Japanese in this book. Beyond the benefits of getting all the other thoughts out of your head, this book also stresses the importance of breaking down your long-term goals, like learning japanese, into smaller goals, like learning the jouyou kanji, into smaller tasks, like studying kanji for two hours a week.

I’ve been trying this system out for the past couple weeks, and I’ve noticed a big increase in my productivity as far as studying, schoolwork, and writing goes. Try it. It works.

I’ve touched on some key ideas in Getting Things Done, but I can’t summarize the whole book in this article, so you’ll just have to get it yourself here.

One of the best ways to become comfortable speaking in Japanese is to first become comfortable singing in Japanese. It’s all smooth sailing after that. Just about everyone is at least a little bit timid when it comes to singing, and combining that nervousness with a general lack of self-esteem when it comes to Japanese makes singing Japanese songs the perfect hurdle for cowardly Japanese students. Why would you be afraid to talk to someone in Japanese if you aren’t afraid to sing to them.

That’s why I’m introducing the Sunday Sing-Along. I know today’s not Sunday, but that’s not important. Every Sunday from now on I’ll post a YouTube video of a Japanese song and accompany it with the lyrics. Watch the video and Sing-Along. Then do it again. Actually get a feel for the song. Sing with some moxy. My high school Japanese teacher really advocated this approach, and its really effective.

Here’s an example of what this kind of thing will be like. This is the first song I learned in Japanese. Enjoy Banzai, by ULFULS

IEEEI kimi wo suki de yokatta
kono mama zutto zutto
shinu made happy
BANZAI kimi ni aete yokatta
kono mama zutto zutto
la la la futari de

tsumaranai koto de kimi wo komarasete
omoi dasu tabi akaku naru
waracchimau kurai ni mainichi wa
tada mou sugiteku a tto iu ma ni

sugee sugee shiawasena kibun no toki wa
kaeri michi de kimi wo omidasu
combini wo uro uro shinagara
omoidashi warai wo kami korosu

dassai kakko wa shitakunai
toshi wa toranai you ni
tsukuri warai nanka shitakunai
dakara BABY soba ni oide yo

IEEEI kimi wo suki de yokatta
kono mama zutto zutto
shinu made happy
BANZAI kimi ni aete yokatta
kono mama zutto zutto
la la la futari de

ii on’na wo mireba furikaeru
honto sukebe ore no ataman’naka
demo yappa gutto kuru hodo no on’na wa
kokoro no naka ni hitori dake

kiza na kotoba wa terekusai
kakko tsukezu ni ikou
itsumo futari de jaretetai
dakara BABY koko he oide yo

IEEEI kimi wo suki de yokatta
kono mama zutto zutto
shinu made happy
BANZAI kimi ni aete yokatta
kono mama zutto zutto
la la la futari de

dakara BABY BABY
soba ni oideyo

IEEEI kimi wo suki de yokatta
kono mama zutto zutto
shinu made happy
BANZAI kimi ni aete yokatta
kono mama zutto zutto

IEEEI kimi wo suki de yokatta
kono mama zutto zutto
shinu made happy
BANZAI kimi ni aete yokatta
kono mama zutto zutto
la la la futari de

Now go forth and SING!

Alright, so San Francisco is pretty much fantastic. That’s why it’s taken me so long to post. It’s the kind of place that lends itself to long bike rides, beautiful views, overwhelmingly large lunches and afternoon naps. Definitely my kind of place.

I really haven’t had a free second until now to post, but this morning I seem to be awake well before my friend Andrew who I’m staying with (maybe because my internal clock is 2 hours ahead), and I’m going to take advantage.

Anyways, on to today’s tip.

Play Japanese video games.

This doesn’t mean beat Pokemon in English for the 4^th time, nor does it mean play those language-learning games that are thinly-veiled flashcard programs.

What I mean is that you should play the same kind of games you normally do, except in Japanese.

You like Pokemon? Of course you do. Everyone likes Pokemon. So rather than beat it in English again, go download a Game Boy Advance emulator and some Pokemon ROMs . Seriously though, this site will let you search for ROMs by country. It’s really great for finding ones in Japanese. If you’ve never used an Emulator before, click here .

Or if Pokemon’s not your style, take advantage of all the other emulation resources on the web. Excluding the current generation of game systems, you can find almost any game for any system for free on the internet if you look long enough. And most of them in Japanese.

And if you don’t want to deal with the whole download process, you can buy games straight from Japan for all your favorite consoles from Play-Asia.com . Keep in mind, most systems other than the Nintendo DS and the PC have region codes, so you’ll need a Japanese Xbox to play Halo in Japanese. But you should definitely look around the site, you’ll find something you like.

But why am I recommending this? What does it matter what language you play a video game in?

First of all, this is another thing in the long line of daily activities I like to modify to include Japanese training, like watching Japanese TV and reading a Japanese book before bed. If you change what are essentially wasted hours playing video games into Japanese study as well, you don’t need to feel as guilty about playing because you’ll know you’re learning as well.

The big thing though, is that playing video games in Japanese, specifically ones with stories that have text on the screen (no Halo), will REALLY help your Japanese. When you have to figure out a puzzle in addition to figuring out the instructions it adds an extra level of challenge, and this can really motivate you to try and figure out what people are saying based on the words you know. This is AMAZING for your survival Japanese, where you just have to go off what you think the person means and hope your right. I mean, if you can survive Final Fantasy 7, you can probably survive a trip to the konbini.

And it’s fun. The addition of language can make simple games like Pokemon more challenging and exciting. Some sections of games are dull, but when there’s Japanese to figure out, you’ll have more vested interest. It makes for a great gaming experience.

And if you’re not a gamer, don’t worry. This post is for you too. Maybe you never got into games because you thought they were a waste of time, and you were probably right. But playing games in Japanese is really helpful, so find something that looks simple and just give it a try. I’ll recommend some games down the road to help you out.

Alright, that’s it for this week. I’m about to go to a diner that apparently serves pancakes the size of frisbees. Yum.

You know the feeling when you KNOW you have to go to sleep, either because you need to get up early the next day or you just stayed up to late.

You get in your pajamas, you wash up, you brush your teeth and you get in bed. There’s just one problem.

Your eyes are still open.

They’re wide open.

You’re body may be tired, but your mind is still going on about that attractive new co-worker that just learned your name or that term paper that your have to write sometime in the next 36 hours. Your mind keeps going and your eyes can’t close.

This is a feeling insomniacs and workaholics are quite familiar with, always thinking about something else so you can’t get any sleep. That’s why they turn to NyQuil or sleeping pills, which give them the luxury of falling asleep the second their head hits the pillow.

Waking up is another story. They wake up groggy and drowsy, and they can’t drive or do anything until they get some caffeine in their system. Then, when it’s time to go to bed, they need to take another sleeping pill to fall asleep. This makes them constantly dependent on caffeine and sleeeping pills to get through the day, which can have all sorts of stressful consequences, especially when one of the drugs isn’t in stock. Not ideal.

There was a period towards the end of last year when I had a pretty bad cold, so I started taking NyQuil every night so I could get to sleep. Once I got better, I found myself still taking NyQuil for another week. It was great being able to fall asleep so easily, but then I was totally worthless in the morning. I had trouble focusing in class (assuming I didn’t sleep through it) and I couldn’t really get anything productive done until at least 3 PM. That’s what made me decide that I needed a chemical-free way of falling asleep at night.

I’ve always been a big supporter of reading before bed. It’s a good, relaxing time to read, and more importantly, it settles down your mind and tires out your eye muscles so you can go to sleep. Of course, some books are much better for bedtime reading than others. For example, The Cantos of Ezra Pound knock me out after a stanza and a half, but the one time I was dumb enough to try reading just a chapter of the 7th Harry Potter book, I was up until 3AM.

This is where the whole point of this post comes in: Keep something written in Japanese on your bedside table.

It can be a book, magazine, newspaper, anything really. You should also probably have a kanji/regular dictionary on hand as well so you can make it through. All you have to do is just read as much as you can before you fall asleep. And believe me, you will fall asleep.

You know that feeling you get sometimes when you’re studying, when you feel like the scale of knowledge you must know to be fluent is just too massive and you just want to take a break and close your eyes? Yeah, that’s the feeling I’m talking about. And it can work for you.

This gets some of your daily studying out of the way, and helps you get to bed faster. That’s two birds with one ishi. Tell your friends.

This is a Sansa Clip. It has 1GB of flash memory and is about the same size of a matchbox. A small matchbox. It has an easy-to-read 4-line display as well as a gym-worthy clip that can stay attached to your clothing through all but the most vigorous exercise. And it costs $35, on average about $10 less than the iPod shuffle, which does not have a screen.

Mine just came in the mail two days ago.

Having a small, cheap, MP3 player with flash memory (make sure it has flash memory), opens up all sorts of possibilities. Flash memory essentially means “no moving parts,” which means that you can jostle them around and it won’t be a problem. The classic iPod, and many other players have actual hard drives that can fall apart if you do a little jogging with them in your pocket. I should know, I’ve gone through 3 iPods that way.

Anyways, the iPod Shuffle and Nano both have flash memory, so you may want to get one of those if you have a lot of iTunes music. Otherwise get the Sansa Clip. Anyways, on to the possibilities.

Think about all the times during your day when you’re just standing around waiting. I’m talking about small windows, like waiting for your car to fill up with gas or waiting for a bus or carpool to arrive. Waiting to get your haircut. Life is full of these small windows of waiting, and you can take advantage of them.

Just keep your MP3 player with you all the time. Whenever you come across a moment when you’re going to have to wait for a few minutes, take out your MP3 player and listen to a Japanese song or two. And really listen. Try to figure out what they’re saying.

For example, when I’m on my lunch break, I usually walk to a pizza place or a Jimmy John’s that are both a few blocks away. I used to just waste that time, but now I can squeeze in a Japanese song or two. Not only does it make the walk more interesting, but it helps me do my daily studying. And if there’s one thing that’s good for Japanese, it’s repetition.

And then you’re done. When you’re done waiting, you stop listening. Then you get in another couple minutes later on. It just adds up.

It may not seem time-effective to reach into your pocket and get your headphones on for only a few minutes of listening, and it probably won’t be at first. But when it becomes a habit, and when you get some headphones that won’t get tangled up, you’ll wonder what you ever did before.

And that’s only the beginning. Your MP3 player should become an extension of yourself, like your wallet, your watch, or your cell phone. Just bring it with you wherever you go. Having a small player makes this quite easy. You can just keep it in your breast pocket, or clip it to your belt line, then just use it when you can.

Listen while you work out. Listen while you do the dishes. Listen while you smoke a cigarette. Listen while you poo (oh no he didn’t!).

Oh yes he did. Turn this into a positive habit. I mean, if it’s socially acceptable to leave just about any situation to go outside and smoke a cigarette, why would it be wrong to practice your Japanese?

If people ask, tell them what you’re doing. Tell them why. Tell them you have to learn Japanese. You’ll be surprised how impressed people will be.

This is the kind of thing Japanese for Overworked People is all about. Making positive study habits that are fun, and easy to keep. Things that are fast, and that you can do on the go.

At LEAST give it a try. If you’re not completely satisfied within our 7 day trial then… I don’t know, leave me a comment.

But this is good, real good.

Learn, learn, learn.

And buy a Sansa Clip here.

Start thinking about time like money. Wait. Don’t do quite do that, just kind of think about time like money. I mean, your time is valuable, but converting everything into how much certain activities are costing you is a one-way street to serious anxiety.

This is a better example. Just think about spending your time like shopping in another country. Your plane leaves in about 10 hours, and you have X amount of foreign currency that you need to spend before you go home because you’ll probably never use it again. So what do you do? You don’t just give it a way, and you certainly don’t leave without spending it. You find the things you want the most and buy them as best you can with your remaining money. Maybe you buy things that you’ve read positive reviews of, maybe you buy something new just for fun, and maybe you buy things you’ve wanted for ages.

The key things about this scenario as it relates to time management go as follows:

1. You don’t get your time back. You can’t return anything. You can just decide to not buy it again in the future.
2. You can’t “save up” your time, not doing anything with your time does nothing for you.

Now how does this relate to Japanese. Well, the biggest problem most students have is that, Japanese being the daunting language that it is, any time spent on it seems like a drop of water in a canyon, a waste of time. These students instead often choose to spend their time doing hours of Facebooking, e-mail, and internet games, in which all the goals are so simple (beat this level, send this e-mail, poke) that they can be accomplished nearly instantaneously, and it doesn’t feel like a waste of time.

It should.

At the end of a year, let’s say, do you really care about how many e-mails you sent or how many people’s walls you posted on? Do you care that you have the high score? Probably not. But you probably do care about your level of Japanese, and if you didn’t spend very much time on it, you probably feel bad about it.

But there’s a solution. To stop wasting time and start learning more Japanese.

A Simple Substitution

Make a list, either on paper or in your head, of all the things you do that don’t really add anything to your life. Remember, fun and leisure are things in your life, so if you say, play some video games to releive stress, that’s fine. I’m talking about stuff the YOU KNOW isn’t important like looking through a stranger’s photos on facebook, or just staring blankly into space. These are things you aren’t proud of, things you wouldn’t necessarily want people to know.

“DUDE! I played free slot machines at this free online casino for like 6 hours last night! I made like $6000 fake dollars!”
“OMG! DUDE! That’s TIGHT! High-5!”

Anyways, once you have a list, come up with a reasonable limit for everything. I mean, I’m not telling you to give up Facebook and E-mail and stuff, just only use it as much as necessary. You might want to just use Facebook for 5 minutes a day, only check your e-mail twice a day, play video games for half an hour, stare into space never at all.

Then, once you’ve gone over your limits, or really whenever you feel I kind of dread like you shouldn’t be doing what you’re doing, just study Japanese instead. Don’t think about it, just start doing Japanese as soon as you can. Try to read an online Japanese newspaper. Put sentences in your SRS. Just DO something.

A good example of this for me is checking my blog stats. I limit myself to checking only a couple times a day, and whenever else I feel like checking my stats, I just study Japanese instead. Over time, my desire to constantly know my stats has decreased, and I feel more comfortable spending more time studying Japanese. It works out a lot better.

I know I’ve been hitting you with a lot of metaphors, but learning a language is a lot like filling a bucket with a hole in it using a faucet, rather than a canyon with a dropper. Only spending a little bit of time means the water trickles in and is mostly negated by the hole. However, if you shift time from other things (like wasted time) and spend more time on Japanese, the flow of the water can increase enough to fill up the bucket despite the hole.

I know you’re overworked, I am too, but finding new ways to increase your water pressure is the only way to fill up your Japanese knowledge bucket.

I’ve always had problems with the whole Japanese for Busy People, series of textbooks. I mean, if I had time for a textbook, I couldn’t really be that busy right?

I’m a strong believer that the amount of time you spend on a language should be measured in hours, not years, a belief strongly shared by AJATT and Antimoon (a site for learning English). However, I feel like these sites act like you don’t have work or other things your doing when you can instead be surrounding yourself with Japanese media. The big things they advocate are essentially just spending more hours of the listening to, writing, reading or speaking Japanese.

They’re right of course. Watching Japanese TV instead of watching English TV is always the right choice, but should you watch Japanese TV instead of say, reading the newspaper, or exercising, or writing on your Japan-related blog. This is the area where you start having to give up important other things if you want to learn Japanese faster. It’s tough, because although I’m sure you want to become fluent in Japanese, you probably want other things from life too. And why shouldn’t you? Being in shape, being good at a sport, being well-read, being a good parent, these are all great things. I can’t tell you that learning Japanese is more important than any of those things. It’s all up to you. What I can tell you though, is that you can make it work, no matter what you prioritize. Don’t give up on Japanese.

I work about 40 hours a week on the paper, do an additional 10 hours or so of freelance writing for extra income, and an additional 10 hours or so managing this blog. That’s 60 hours a week. Add the requisite 8 hours a night for sleep (which I don’t even get), plus about an hour a day for eating meals, and that comes out to 123 hours out of 168 a week already gone. That’s 45 hours a week, or roughly 6.5 hours a day to do everything else, including social interaction, reading, cooking, cleaning, exercise, hygiene and laundry. And maybe you have a family. Are you supposed to exile them while you immerse yourself in Japanese?

The point I’m trying to make is that you have to find away to put in all your Japanese hours while still doing all the things that are important to you. A lot of this revolves around multitasking. A basic and overgeneralized way to start thinking about this is to think about your day, and think about all the time when your eyes and ears aren’t picking up any necessary information. Then fill all those voids with Japanese. When you’re driving, listen to Japanese music. When you’re waiting for something like a doctor’s appointment, read a Japanese book. Watch a Japanese TV show with your kids. The list goes on.

So clearly, there needs to be some form of Japanese for Busy People that actually works, that’s not just a textbook and another class you’ll get bored of and stop doing it. I think it’s about time that someone tried to tackle the problem of learning Japanese while still doing all the other things you want to.

That’s why I’m starting this series of blog posts, which will become a weekly tradition here at Learn Japanese Today. Japanese for Overworked People, or in Japanese, hatarakasaresugita hitotachi no nihongo (働かされすぎた人たちの日本語). Tune in every week for tips and strategies for maximizing your exposure to and proficiency in without giving up the other parts of your life that mean something.

I don’t think I can wait til next week to start on this though. Come back tomorrow, and every Wednesday from then on for more.