strengthen your neural connections

Lately, I have been strengthening my neural connections, and it feels good.  I'd like to tell you what I've been up to lately.

reading like a native

I know many people have the notion that you'll never be as good as a native speaker in a foreign language. A few of us have the audacity to aspire to native-equivalent performance in our second languages and even fewer strive for native-sounding pronunciation. Even if we are delusional, I think for those that really want to be extremely good in another language, there is no reason that we can't expect to be able to read like a native.

For languages with alphabetic scripts or even phonetic scripts, reading as well as a native may not sound like something that would be questionable. All you need to do is put in the time and even if you don't feel like looking up unknown words, eventually you'll get a pretty good idea of what most of the words mean.

But for Chinese and Japanese (any others?), reading is quite a challenge even at the advanced stages of learning. I haven't much experience with reading Chinese, but I do for Japanese. So let me just talk about reading Japanese.

this is fluency in Japanese

I found a new hero for Japanese language learners. Watch this video! This guy is fluent in Japanese. His speed of speaking matches the speed of native Japanese. It is really impressive. In this, his first video on YouTube, he is speaking without a script. He pauses to think about what he wants to say, not how to say it, nor does he pause to recall any words. The second video he posted is much more impressive, however it is longer and is audio-only, with him and two other people. But if you listen to that one, you will think it is a Japanese guy speaking. Here is a link to that video.



So, what did you think?

disappearing Japanese language proficiency tests

Has it become an epidemic? A problem that's out of hand? Or is this some kind of cold, hard reality? I was so shocked that I figured I must write a blog report about this! What is this world coming to?!!

There was once a test called the Japanese Test of Communication, or JTOC. I believe it had a scoring system rather than a level system. Anyway, it disappeared awhile back.

Then there was a new test called the JAST which would be taken on a computer and thus allow testing from an authorized location anywhere in the world. But it too disappeared.

There's also a test for Japanese people to certify their Japanese composition ability or something. It's called the BunKen for short.  There's a note on the website saying the test has been suspended from 2009.

And alas, we come to the most shocking news of all...

tips for learning Japanese

Here is the second video with Charith. After we had finished the first interview he had some more he wanted to say. At first he starts talking about watching TV even when you don't understand any of it, and about not using a dictionary. He says that the words will enter you and you will acquire them naturally. But then he goes on to give some more tips and advice. At the end of the 5 minute video I have provided a list of the points he makes. I put the list up in Japanese and in English. You can just hit the pause button to read the list.

I have also subtitled this video, in Japanese and in English. Go to the YouTube site to get the subtitle functionality. You can turn it on or off in the lower right corner of the player. It is called 'CC' for closed captioning. I think this will be the last time I try to subtitle a Japanese video. It takes too much time. But since I figured many people here who don't learn Japanese will want to watch the video and know what he says, I subtitled this one. After writing all the Japanese down, creating the English translated subtitle file is easy. It's just the Japanese part that is difficult because I have to keep listening to parts over and over trying to catch the exact words used.

What's interesting about that is that I will have a part already transcribed and I'm trying to hear what is said after that part, and so I rewind and listen to it again but my mind gets stuck on what is being said and when the part I'm supposed to be listening for comes along, I miss it because my mind was preoccupied. That can happen like 3 or 4 times in a row!

Tips for Learning Japanese from Charith

watch a preview!

On March 27th, I wrote a post where I told you about a coworker who used TV to get his Japanese fluent. I will do a full interview with him and put it up on YouTube in 3 weeks.

For now, I have a preview that you can watch. I do an introduction to it in English and also the concluding part is in English as well. I also have painstakingly made sub-titles for the video. It should default to the bilingual one, but there is also an English only one and a Japanese only one. You can turn them off, of course, if you like. The bilingual subtitle is the same as the other two subtitles. There are no translations.

Here is a link for you so you can go watch the preview.

TV method switching channels

Here's big news from the TV method blog.

As you know, I have watched 549 hours of TV in Chinese. Lately I have been able to maintain a pace of 120+ viewing hours per month. Unfortunately, this has to change, starting now. I have to change focus from Chinese to Japanese and I won't likely break 100 hours per month.

Why the sudden switch?

I have to begin an employment acquisition campaign immediately. I found out 2 days ago that the company I am employed by is folding up. The company was founded eleven years ago and will cease to exist at the end of next month. Since I live in Japan and need an income, I had better boost my Japanese language ability in a hurry. The only way I know to do that is to start watching Japanese TV. I mentioned three weeks ago about my coworker who improved his Japanese speaking ability by watching TV. After I posted that, I asked him about it again. I asked him, "How long did it take?" He replied, "3 months."

What kind of improvement do I expect?

I don't know what to expect, but I hope that I will be able to speak Japanese more smoothly. I want to at least appear to be fluent because no Japanese company is going to hire a foreigner who is not fluent in Japanese during times like these. There are not as many job openings and those that are willing to hire foreigners have raised their standards. So I really need to get used to speaking Japanese. I haven't been speaking it much lately and I still get nervous when going into a situation where I'll be expected to speak Japanese.

So I'm saying I'm not good at Japanese now but I want to get good, like, yesterday. How will you know? I don't expect you to take my word for it, nor do I expect you to trust my self-evaluations, so I want to document it by video. Today I went out and finally bought a webcam. A webcam is one of those little video cameras that sits on top of your computer display and makes you feel self-conscious. What I intend to do with it is to record myself speaking Japanese and put the recordings on YouTube. Then whomsoever desires to judge for himself may do so.

So my TV method for Japanese is going to be like Ramses TV method for Spanish. I already have a high level of comprehension in Japanese. I passed the JLPT Level 2 in December 2006. Every time I look at Level 1, though, I go into shock because of all the vocabulary words it tests on. The majority of the words I do not ever remember seeing before. So I won't be doing only Japanese TV as a method. I'll be speaking as well, at least. Most of my speaking will probably just be for the camera.

To be continued...

another TV methodist

There is a new entry into the world of the TV method! His name is David and he is going to learn Japanese by watching TV. He emailed me and asked me some questions regarding the TV method and we exchanged a few messages. From his email I can see that he understands the principles of Automatic Language Growth and he knows what to expect.

You can read David's story at Sushi and Sumo. I think we'll be getting some exciting reports from him soon. He's currently at 3 hours with the TV method.

I'd wish him good luck, but luck isn't needed with Automatic Language Growth. He just needs to watch TV. Well, maybe he needs luck finding good dramas to watch.

Good Luck, David!

what is fluency?

What does 'fluent' mean? Does it mean, "getting by" using just your foreign or second language? Are you fluent if you can carry on a conversation? Does somebody who has an office job and has to communicate with coworkers in their language only, qualify for the title "fluent?"

I do all of the above in Japanese. However, I don't consider myself to have reached fluency. I always run into things I don't know how to express. Every time that happens, it reconfirms to me that my knowledge is lacking. I can surely fix that with a lot of input just by watching TV. But since my focus is on Chinese now, the Japanese can wait.

I bring this up because I recently had a conversation with a Japanese tutor at LingQ. I signed up for a 15-minute 1-on-1 conversation that lasted 25 minutes. At 18 minutes and 40 seconds into the conversation, she stated that I was fluent in Japanese. While I wouldn't say it about myself, I guess she has every right to say it. I've made a lot of improvement in the last 1½ years in my ability to speak.

Here is a small mp3 file of the statement the tutor made. It is about 4 seconds long, in Japanese.

Japanese handwriting sample

I got this advertisement package from a house builder today. In it, there was this page with handwritten Japanese. So I decided to scan it in and post it here so you can see what Japanese handwriting looks like.

(file size: 476 K)
handwriting_sample.jpg

Can you recommend me a Kanji book?

Is there a book that teaches Kanji? I mean, really teaches it. Some provide background information and educate you on Kanji, but all books that I have found so far, provide you with no effective way to learn Kanji. What you generally find in the books on Kanji is just information. You can look up a character and get the information you need but as for learning the Japanese written characters, all books rely on the user to memorize. Even Heisig's famous method requires you to memorize your own made-up stories. So that series is no different.

漢字を教える本はありますか？本当に教えていますか？背景を説明して漢字の知識を仕込む本はありますが、今までの見付かった本は効果的な漢字学習方法はありません。漢字を学ぶ本の中に、一般的な見付ける内容は情報だけです。字を引いて欲しい情報を取ることが出来ますが日本の漢字を習うという方法は、全ての本は学習者が暗記するのを頼りにします。ヘイシグ先生の有名な方法も自分が作ったストリーを暗記する必要があります。だからその本も違いません。

Words, what are they?

I'll tell you how I feel and I wonder if anyone agrees or disagrees.

In English, I feel that most words are tied to a distinct meaning. "This" is this, and "that" is that. This not that and that is not this. Such as a car. A car is a car and not a truck. A truck is not a car. But a vehicle can be a car or a truck. But a bicycle is not a vehicle. Anyway, most words are pretty distinct and do not cross over into another dimension.

But not so in Japanese! In Japanese "blue" can be blue or green! In fact, there are so many examples like this, where we would say they are not the same in English but in Japanese the words may not have as specific of a meaning as what they are translated to in the dictionary. This is a real source of frustration for learners of Japanese. That is why when you look up a word in the J-E dictionary you get so many words and many of them have very specific and distinct meanings in English.

Many Japanese words do not have English equivalents. What that means is that ideas and things are thought about in a completely different way. You will hear "shikaku." And you would probably associate it with the meaning "square." What it actually means is "four angles." So it can be a square or a rectangle. A real square is "mashikaku" but I've yet to hear that used. I look in my dictionary and it says "shikaku" is a square. So you confirm with the dictionary what it "means" and people are using "shikaku" for squares all the time and then one day somebody calls something "shikaku" that isn't square, it's a rectangle! And that's when you start pulling your hair out and going crazy.

OK, so those are just the nouns. I won't be going into "expressions" which are completely different from your native language!

Japanese Time Capsule 02

Here is my second recording speaking Japanese. But can we really call this speaking?!! I'm not very good at speaking in Japanese. I used to think my Japanese pronunciation was really good, but now I know it's not. At least I never fooled myself into thinking that I could speak Japanese.

Maybe I will do this more often since I need the practice. The problem is that I don't know what to talk about and even if I do want to say something I don't know the best way to say it. But I think I might be getting better!

I'm not afraid of making mistakes! I am afraid about ingraining them. But mostly, I just don't know how to speak. Oh well, someday, someday I'll get there.

Japanese_Time_Capsule_02.mp3

Japanese makes Mandarin Chinese look easy

People tend to think that Japanese and Chinese are at about the same difficulty when it comes to English speakers learning them. I disagree. English and Chinese word order are more similar to each other than Japanese word order. Chinese grammar is much easier than either English or Japanese. Chinese words, such as verbs, never change shape. Japanese verbs are like transformers! Japanese characteristics are more round about, but Chinese are more straight forward like English. Since Japanese borrowed the Chinese characters, they also borrowed Chinese words. So there are many duplicate words in Japanese and the writing system is a mess. The only thing that is easier in Japanese is pronunciation. For everything else, you will need tons upon tons of exposure to get used to Japanese.

I am not yet an expert in Chinese, so I like to cite this article which clearly shows a difference. Keep in mind that the author learned both languages at DLI. That is the Defense Language Institute. He studied Mandarin before Japanese, so he was an experienced language learner when he studied Japanese. He was put through an intensive course and he didn't find that to be particularly difficult. Then he spent over 7 years in Japan and still didn't feel comfortable with the language. And he was not the only one who felt that way.

Japanese is hard to get used to. People keep changing their speech so you don't get enough exposure to it. The writing system can write things in different ways, so again you are robbed of exposure. You always stop to think about the verb form even though the meaning doesn't change. Well, you don't always stop to think, and then you end up not saying it the way that you know is better.

Anway, I'm going to paste that article in here because I'm afraid that one day it will no longer be available through the link. Please read the whole article. It is quite interesting. So, here it is:

Chinese Mandarin is Easy

Comparing Its Difficulty with Japanese, German, and Spanish

by Mike Wright

"The biggest impediment to learning Mandarin seems to be fear--sometimes caused by the teachers. I've studied quite a few languages, and none of them were as easy for me as Mandarin."

What I came to believe is that Mandarin is pretty easy for native English speakers, while Japanese is one of the most difficult. Mandarin syntax is easy to teach using pattern drills. Furthermore, Mandarin sentence order is similar to English--but simpler, having no inflections (thus no irregularities) and with gender, number, tense, etc. being optional, whereas they are obligatory for most of the world's languages. The only difficult part of spoken Mandarin is the tone system. Even that isn't a big problem for practical use. I know that my tones have always been weak, but when I was using the language regularly, I had no problem communicating. What turned out to be more important was to adapt to the basic pronunciation and vocabulary used by the average Hokkien speaker when speaking Mandarin. Of course, I never got to go to China. I do remember how wonderful it was to run across a native of Beijing or Tianjin in Taiwan--it was so clear.

The biggest impediment to learning Mandarin seems to be fear--sometimes caused by the teachers. I've studied quite a few languages, and none of them were as easy for me as Mandarin.

Mandarin was my first serious language, after some Spanish and German in high school and college, and it was the easiest by far.

Comparison with Japanese

I didn't find Japanese too difficult while studying it at Defense Language Institute, but when I arrived in Japan, I found that I had a lot of trouble communicating. This was very different from my experience with Mandarin. When I arrived in Taiwan, I could pretty much discuss any topic. On the other hand, I spent a total of 7.5 years in Japan, much of it associating with people who spoke little or no English, yet I never felt confident in the language. It's not so much the syntax--the conjugation of verbs and adjectives is quite regular--but the way the language is used. In many respects, it seems to be as much a problem of culture as of language per se.

Japanese syntax, as usually taught in schools, covers about 25 percent of the syntax. Even Defense Language Institute probably wasn't able to cover more than about 60 percent. It's not that it's so difficult--there's just so much of it. Compared with conversational Mandarin, there seem to be many more common ways of expressing any particular idea. The Japanese seem to be more fond of synonyms, too, leading to the need for more vocabulary items. Japanese culture adds to the burden. The Japanese don't like to just come right out and make blunt statements. They talk around the subject. By comparison, Chinese speakers and English speakers are very much alike. They tend to be direct and precise. Although this is a matter of culture, it has a big impact on the ease or difficulty of learning the language of a particular culture.

So, I'd say that what made Japanese difficult for me (and for all of my fellow Defense Language Institute graduates) is that there seems to be so much of it, and that it's spoken by people who are living in the Japanese culture.

Many of my friends had similar experiences, including one who graduated from the Japanese course with a 98 average--the highest on record. He was quite angry when he arrived in Japan and found that he couldn't get around in the language as he had been able to do with Mandarin in Taiwan.

Comparison with German and Spanish

In comparison, German and Spanish are difficult because of inflection and gender. Although many people consider these languages easy because of the large number of English cognates, my personal experience is that vocabulary is nothing. You will pick up as much as you need--as you need it. The really tricky part is the syntax. If you don't have that down, no amount of vocabulary will save you.

Wanted

After my appalling performance in the J.TEST, I need a breakthrough in Japanese. Although, while I was taking the test, I could feel I was doing much better than I had before, the score shows that I have not improved significantly. To say the least, it was not what I had expected. I have been working for 20 months in a Japanese language-only environment, however it is not the type of work that is going to take one to fluency. More must be done! I will not remain content with my current level. In fact, I am almost at the point where reading in Japanese is less burdensome. Now is the time to turn on the intensity. I will search for audio material to listen to intensively and I will acquire the words, phrasings, and way of thinking in the language. I will not study for tests.

JLPT in China

It looks like the Japanese Language Proficiency Test is really popular in China. There's this news article about it which I'll paste here. It says that 200,000 people in China took the Japanese language test this year. That is an increase of 46% over last year.

＜日本語試験＞中国で２０万人超が挑戦　前年比４６％増

　【上海・大谷麻由美】日本語を母語としない人が対象の日本語能力試験が３日、日本を含む世界４８カ国で実施され、約５３万人が受験した。若者の日本語ブームを背景に受験者が年々増加している中国は今年、前年比４６％増の２１万１５９１人が受験し、過去最高だった。
　日本国内では日本国際教育支援協会、海外は国際交流基金が年１回、試験を実施する。外国人が日本の大学に留学する際の選考にも活用される。
　急速な経済発展に伴い、日系企業の進出が増加している中国では、日本語ができる人材の需要が高まった。若者の就職難も続いており、「日本語ができると就職に有利」として、日本語学習がブームとなっている。
　日本語能力試験では中国の受験者数が世界最多。今年の受験応募者数は、海外では韓国（９万３７５０人）が中国に次ぐが、米国が２８１６人、フランス１１８７人、英国７８１人と、中国の多さが際立っている。
　中国では０４年、受験申し込みの受け付け開始から１時間もたたずに定員（約１０万人）に達した。受験できず留学を先送りせざるを得ない学生が続出し批判が高まった。このため０５年に中国国内の受験会場を１４都市から２４都市に増やし、今年はさらに２９都市に拡大した。

Speaking of China, now that my supposed study for the JLPT is over, I've resumed my Chinese studies. I'm now using Assimil With Ease. I edited out the exercises so that I just have the dialogue and I removed all the spaces. So I've got the first lesson down to 15 seconds. I loop the audio and start speaking along with the dialogue. I worked on it for one hour in which it looped 250 times. I only spoke the part of one person at a time. Doing both parts was too tiring.

I started on lesson 2 today but my throat quickly became sore. I'll have to build up those muscles for speaking.

Vox25.mp3

J.TEST

Today I took the J.Test (実用日本語検定) Test of Practical Japanese. This test has levels A to F. Levels E and F are on one test which has a total of 500 points. Levels A to D are on another test with a total of 1000 points. That means there are two tests and you have to decide if you should take the beginner test (EF Levels) or the more difficult test (AD Levels).

I took this test twice in 2004. In February I took the EF test and scored 400 points. I received a nice certificate for the E level. Then two months later, I took the AD test and scored 376 points. At least 500 points is needed on the AD test to get a certificate for the D level.

So now it's two and a half years later. I'm hoping I get over 600 points. Maybe 625? That would be a nice 100 points a year improvement.

This test, unlike other Japanese tests, has a small writing component. One part of the writing component was just writing the reading of a kanji word. Such as 妹 and I wrote いもと (wrong answer!). There was also 束の間 and I didn't know it either. I wrote ひがしのあいだ (wrong answer). And then the other part of it was making sentences. The test problems had three words and you have to make up a sentence. The first one was はさみ　切る　紙 and I wrote このはさみは紙を切ることができない。I hope that sentence is correct. That's probably the only problem I'll get points for in the writing section.

Vox17.mp3

Japanese Time Capsule

This morning, I attended a company meeting. We have a meeting like this twice a year. There are about 30 people in the company and almost everybody showed up. Some of us were told to prepare a speech. Although, we were not given much of an advanced notice. I recorded my speech with my pda.

So, if you are interested in hearing me stumble through a speech in Japanese, then by all means go ahead and listen. I made mistakes. I omitted some words I meant to say. I didn't finish some of my sentences. And I forgot to say a couple of things I wanted to say. The pressure of trying to speak in front of people makes me lose my train of thought.

I'd appreciate any and all feedback on this one. If you have any ideas that might help me, please leave a comment. If you noticed any weakpoints of mine, I'd like to hear about it. Thanks in advance for listening.

The mp3 file is 6.7MB and the audio lasts 5:47. I begin talking on the recording after 15 seconds.

Japanese_Time_Capsule_01.mp3

Where do you live?

I live in Japan. I have lived here for over 3 years. I will continue to live here. This is where my life is. I live in a new apartment house. I work as a database programmer. When I came to Japan, I had no job and very low language skills.

Now I have a job and intermediate language skills. Today I read Steve's post which was a reply to a Japanese fellow. I had to look up 7 words.

It wasn't until last year that I finally got a job in a Japanese environment. So I have been working in a Japanese-only work environment for 17 months now. In the first few months I had to look up lots of words in email. Now, I usually look up one or two words per email. That does not mean that I know a lot of words now. It means that the words used are always the same ones.

I am better at Japanese than it feels like. I still feel quite inadequate and I am still reluctant to do anything in the language. The problem with learning Japanese is that the levels in the language vary quite widely. It's not easy to stay in the same level and work on it until it is mastered, and then go on to the next level. Basically, it's all real life and sometimes I am swimming and sometimes I am drowning. No wonder I am afraid to go in the water.

But I know I am progressing and I look forward to the time when I no longer find the Japanese language so challenging. At any point, I can compare my language skills to what they were a year ago and I know that I am much better than I was then. That is all that matters.

Vox02.mp3