We continue our Japanese Language Series with Olly Richards, a polyglot and language teacher who speaks seven languages. Olly joins the GPod to talk about overcoming the difficulties of learning a new language and offers a few tips from his list of 42 Insane Japanese Language Learning Hacks!
Olly asked some of the top languages learners from around the web to send in their best language learning tips and curated the answers into his list. We don’t have time to cover all 42 but Olly is going to talk about his top five tips for learning Japanese.
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Top 5 Tips For Learning Japanese
- You must enjoy the learning process.
- Use full sentences in your flashcards.
- Write in Japanese and have it corrected by a native speaker.
- Find ways to start talking as soon as possible.
- Think in patterns.
For the full list of 42 Insane Japanese Language Learning Hacks visit I Will Teach You A Language.
We introduce a new study series on GaijinPot Study. Written by Olly this series will help you kickstart your Japanese studies in six simple steps. If you are ready to start learning Japanese head over to the GP Study section and Kickstart Your Japanese Study.
We are also joined by Ryoko Takei who is a Tokyo based opera singer and runs a website dedicated to promoting Japanese culture through her music. For anyone who likes to learn through song, or if you’re a fan of Japanese opera visit Foster Japanese Songs for more information.
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I used regular textbooks initially, such as Genki and Japanese for Busy People to study Japanese. I was studying for over a year until I jumped into the deep end and began using native Japanese books to learn the language. I bought two manga online (which cost me an arm and a leg due to the shipping costs) but couldn’t get through a page without having to resort to taking out my dictionary. The best thing I did to improve my learning was to buy Japanese children’s picture books from the site http://www.memories-bunko.jp/ which, the wonderful thing is, they have English translations for every book they sell, so learning is simple. Learning using native books is, in my opinion, the fastest way to improve in Japanese. The language is true to reality, meaning it is completely natural. I’ve improved a huge amount since I’ve started using picture books to study. Watching Japanese anime and t.v. shows also, I’m now at the level where I rarely look at the subtitles! Honestly, I don’t recommend textbooks for learning Japanese. All that formal business language is dead boring and honestly, if you want to make Japanese friends, you don’t want to be using that! Stick with native stuff for learning!
Cheers,
Shane.