A New Word Order
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens.

November 20, 1991

A kanji dictionary is similar to a thesaurus. Words are grouped together by a shared element of meaning: objects, ideas, processes, abstractions. Both contain cross-references which enable you to find where a word you already know is categorized and examine words with similar meanings.

A phonetic dictionary orders language sequentially, keyed on character. In order to access a word, you must know the sequence of the 26 keys, and the spelling of the word. In this alphabetical arrangement, no semantic relationship exists between adjacent words. The dictionary provides access to words divorced from their meanings.

Dictionaries of Japanese words are also arranged sequentially in the order of the Japanese phonetic alphabet--which, of course, is not alphabetical (alpha beta a-b-c), but a-i-u-e-o. Learning the new sequence of dictionary keys is almost as difficult as learning new readings for arabic numerals. Some bilingual dictionaries arrange Japanese words in alphabetical order; but it is good practice to get a dictionary that arranges the words in Japanese order.

One great test is at the train station, looking up your destination city on the fare board. I quickly learned that Beppu was not listed near the beginning (as it would be in the world of ABCs), but listed near the middle, under "he", of which "be" is a variant.

Continue...

Mind Like a Sieve
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens.

This month I've made the mistake of not sticking to my plan to learn ten kanji a day by studying daily. As a result, I'm suddenly losing ground. My memory is like a funnel. A stream of words drips out of it at a steady rate. If I pour in a lot of words, then I'm ahead. If I don't, my mind is eventually emptied of all I've learned.

I had worked up to about 450 characters in the last two months. After goofing off this week, I'm confused. I don't know what I know. I look at a kanji and my mind freezes up. I will have to take a review test and then, as the British put it, revise..

I feel discouraged. I planned my run, but failed to run my plan. Sigh. Back to work..

O is for onigiri
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens.

I've never dismissed out of hand the charges of cultural bias on US standardized tests. When working as a remedial reading teacher, I saw enough cases where a child knew how to spell or read a word, but was confused by the graphic representation of an unfamiliar object.

In America, most children learn, even before they go to school, that "a" is for apple. To get an idea of the cultural barriers to test success that some children face, look at a Japanese equivalent and tell me, in Japan, what is "o" for?

My resident Mancunian replies, "Strawberries with elastoplasts?"

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Rote Memorization
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens.

April 10, 2002

I grew up in the generation where nothing was learned unless one could demonstrate that it had a personal meaning. Learning was all about relevance. This generation rebelled against memorization, especially when things were memorized without understanding.

I was fascinated with the idea in Farenheit 451 that people would or could memorize entire books, in the process, become that book. I couldn't even remember the lyrics to a song I heard 100 times. Yet, as recently as my parent's generation, students memorized long poems, passages from Shakespeare, the Preamble to the Constitution, and the Gettysburg Address.

Recently, I read a blurb in A Common Reader for the book A Poem A Day. "To memorize poetry is to construct one's own museum of contemplation, a private gallery of reflection and repose in which words coalesce into a sixth sense that informs our apprehension of the world ." To carry it with you always--reason enough for memorization. Meaning can come later. Then, too, there is the motivation of mental calisthenics; we must exercise our brains just as we do our bodies to keep them supple, limber, and strong. Yes, push-ups are tedious, but they are necessary.

Instead of poetry, I've decided to memorize the 1945 basic kanji. I've dabbled in learning kanji for years--too many years! I'd learn some and forget others. I didn't want to move forward until I really felt I understood. I never really progressed.

So, I've made a new plan. In order to memorize all 1945 by the end of 2002, I would have to learn about 200 a month, or 50 a week, or 10 a day. That is my goal. Even if I don't learn a kanji perfectly, I go on. The ones that confuse me go into the review stack. So, eventually they get learned. Once a week I have a test. The ones I had learned and forgotten go back to the review stack.

I've been at this for 5 weeks now. I'm up to 250 kanji (that I know the meanings and readings of without thinking). It's getting harder. But I've tried so many systems. I'm determined to make this one work for me.

Continue...

Not On My Own
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens.

Despite my 17 year fascination with Japanese, I've never taken a Japanese class. I've been studying on and off over the years on my own-- not very successfully, of course, since language is a social endeavor. Studying a language alone is like learning to play tennis alone against a backboard.

Japanese has always been my hobby, my escape from the world of technical writing and software architecture. But now economic and personal circumstances enable me to go back to school. So, I've signed up for my first Japanese class. School starts on Monday, August 26.

Spectacles
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens.

Wednesday August 14, 2002

I can no longer read my kanji dictionary without a magnifying glass. And in the last few months, I noticed I could barely read anything else without a magnifying glass either. So in preparation for my new life as a student, I bought some reading glasses. Because I have one near-sighted eye and one far-sighted eye, I can't simply buy a $3.00 pair of magnifying glasses at the bookshop. So I made an appointment with the optometrist in the mall (conveniently located next to LensCrafters).

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The First Day of Class
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens.

Monday, August 26, 2002

Walking into school on this hot, sunny August morning, I felt a mixture of excitement and nervousness. If I hadn't looked forward to returning to school for so long, I might have just kept walking. Out of the five Japanese classes offered, I purposely chose the one at the downtown Rio Grande campus, not only because I can ride the Dillo home, but because the old, former Austin High school building conjures all these fanciful associations of school as it should be.

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Native Speakers
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens.

Wednesday, August 28, 2002

Upon reflection I realize that my pleasure in hearing Cooke-sensei's Japanese is that I have never been taught a language by a native speaker of that language before. Before I graduated from high school, I studied Spanish (4 years) and Latin (1 year). None of my Spanish teachers were native speakers; none of them were even Hispanic. Senora Trapalleti came closest. She was a native speaker of Italian. For a year, I spoke Spanish with a strong Italian accent. Latin, being a dead language, has no native speakers. I loved Latin because we didn't have to speak it. It was all reading and writng at which I've always excelled.

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Readings and Meanings
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens.

Every student of Japanese quickly learns that Japanese is written in a combination of three different notations: kanji, hiragana, and katakana. Kanji are Chinese characters, imported into Japan from a language that has no linguistic relationship to Japanese. Americans might just as sensibly have decided to write English with Chinese characters. The two Japanese syllabaries were created by simplifying some kanji and represent syllables. Hiragana expresses the grammatical singularities of Japanese: particles, verb conjugations, and adjective declensions. Katakana expresses emphasis, rather like italics, and is used to write foreign words and in advertising.

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Why I Didn't Learn Japanese
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens.

Whenever people learn that I lived in Japan for two years, the exclaim,"Oh, so you know Japanese pretty well, then!" "Actually no," I sigh, partly in irritation at the assumption and partly in embarrassment at my failure.

Indeed. Why not? Why didn't I learn Japanese when I lived in Japan? I'm not stupid. I had (and have) a great desire to learn it. And I was totally immersed in the language. Still, I didn't learn it.

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Sight and Sound
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens.

In 1955, Rudolf Flesch wrote a book that revolutionized the teaching of reading in American schools Why Johnny Can't Read; And What You Can Do About It. His solution was phonics, a system of sounding out words. Although, I still grew up with Dick and Jane, I was also taught reading using this new system, with its classroom charts: at, b-at, c-at, f-at, m-at, s-at, th-at. Sesame Street still uses this approach.

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Studying or Learning
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens.

I've always known that there was a difference between studying and learning, just as there is between listening and hearing or between looking and seeing. I've been studying Japanese on and off for years, but I've never learned it. By enrolling in a Japanese class, I've made my own commitment to learn. (This is not the approach many would take, I know, but the structure and the camaraderie is what I require.)

I could get by with studying only an hour or two between classes. I could race through my homework and cram vocabularly to pass the tests. I did just that in high school Spanish for four years. And, no, I can't speak a word of Spanish, even though I made straight A's in school, it's the language of the majority here in Texas and my mother is a native speaker of Spanish.

To learn a language requires much more effort and time than the average student can or will devote. I'm lucky because I want to learn Japanese simply to learn it. This class is not a prerequisite or requirement for some degree. I don't need it to get a job. I'm doing it only to please myself.

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Inspiration
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens.

My biggest barrier to learning Japanese (or any of the languages I've studied) is my own personality. I'm not going to say I'm shy, because that word carries too many negative connotations and it isn't entirely accurate. Rather, I'm a very private person. In a public setting among strangers, I tend to watch quietly until I get a feel for the situation. Once I feel comfortable in a group, I'm pretty vivacious. In fact, I can be quite a chatterbox (some might say, an overbearing loudmouth.)

When I began my Japanese class, I felt a little nervous. I am twice as old as the average student. Some of them have studied Japanese before, but many have not. So this first month of class has been very, very basic Japanese. I resisted speaking out even when I knew an answer because I didn't want it to look like I was showing off.

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My Mind Went Blank
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens.

This morning I was commenting on Eri-san's post on the differences in English spelling and pronunciation and the difficulties that result. (By the way, Eri-san, I meant Noah Webster, not Daniel Webster...silly me.)

This afternoon I was studying katakana for my Japanese class. As I've said before, I don't mind writing katakana, but I hate reading it. The workbook exercise gave the Japanese word in katakana and I was supposed to write the English equivalent. First word, chokoreeto. No problem. I can sightread that. I know it's chocolate. The problem is, I suddenly have forgotten how to spell chocolate in English. I write "chocolet". I know that doesn't look right. But I can't think how it's spelled. I actually have to ask my son! Next word, resutoran. No problem. I begin to write restorant...no that's not right. Okay. Let's think. It's from the French...ah, restaurant.

My son comes over and gives me a pitying look. "When you learn a new language, you're not supposed to wipe out the old one."

Hajimemashou
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens.

Last week I debated whether I should try writing a little diary in Japanese. Since I've only just begun my lessons, the diary would be limited to very simple sentence patterns and vocabulary. The big advantage (for me, not for you, dear readers) is to practice what I'm learning in my Japanese class by trying to generate my own sentences.

Of course I'm one of those people who is fascinated by language. As I try to figure out how to say things in Japanese, I become curious about the corresponding English expressions and word derivations. So, even with the first entry, my new blogette (yes I just coined that word) expends quite a few words musing on the English language and American usage.

So, without further ado, here is Hajimemashou. Let's begin!

Kurt--Thanks for your technical advice on the Movable Type setup. My husband looked at the MT discussion group and nosed around in the code and figured out basically the same thing. He had to change the language to UTF-8 in one module so that when MT sent a "get" to the server to retrieve an entry for editing, that it preserved the encoding. He still doesn't know why the input box can't preserve the characters, but changes them to unicode (at least in Mozilla). IE for the Mac doesn't even do that.

Test Anxiety
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens.

I just woke up from a nightmare about the big test we're having in Japanese class today. This is the written portion of the chapter test.

In my dream, Murakami-sensei (my liaison at Mizobe Gakuen) was giving the test. I discovered that I couldn't even write my name in katakana. After struggling with the first page for awhile, I decided to leaf through the test and answer as many questions as I could, rather than try to work through the test sequentially. But I couldn't answer any of the questions. All the other students completed the test and left the room. I told Murakami-sensei that I was going to work until she called "time". She replied, "Well, I'm calling time now."

I handed her the almost blank paper. "But I know the answers! Just ask me something."

"What time is it?"
I tell her.
"That's wrong! You say it ...."
"But that's how Cooke-sensei taught us to answer."
"Well, then. Cooke-sensei is teaching you wrong." Thankfully, at this point I woke up.

Wow! I didn't realize that after 12 years I still harbored so much resentment and frustration toward Murakami-sensei. Somehow, though, it doesn't surprise me that she was the one to appear in my dream to tell me I would never learn Japanese.

Kanji Recollections
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens.

Now that it's the semester break, and encouraged by Kurt's efforts, I pulled out my box of homemade kanji cards and began, tentatively, to go through them. I was surprised that a reading would pop into my mind, even as I would stare at a card thinking "What does this one mean?" Or I'd look at the components: "Fire in a paddy...oh, yes, cultivated field...that's hatake". After a short review, I was almost back to where I left off. What a relief! I really must have learned and not just studied.

Continue...

Inflection
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens.

One of the nice things about Japanese compared with other languages I've studied (English, Spanish, and Latin) is that the verbs have no number or person. There's none of that "I am; you (singular) are; he, she, it is; we are, you (plural) are, they are" that makes European languages such a pain for new students.

In Japanese, three things are distinguished by inflection (changing the form of the word): tense, affirmation/negation, and politeness level. English verbs form their negatives irregularly by appending one or more words. "I eat. I do not eat. It eats. It does not eat. I ate. I did not eat. I will eat. I will not eat/I won't eat." (Yikes! It's a good thing I already know English because I'd never be able to learn it.)

English verbs do not change form based on level of politeness. English has politeness levels, but they are expressed less systematically with word choice and (when speaking) with tone and enunciation. Politeness levels are not built into the forms of the words themselves.

Students of Japanese are taught the formal forms of verbs first. This is fine for the casual traveller. But now that I'm starting my second semester of Japanese and the informal non-past and past tenses are being taught, I wish I had learned them first. You see, there's a system. (I love systems.) And it's beautiful in its regularity. It's only taken a day to learn the informal affirmative and negative tenses of all the verbs I already knew. Try doing that in English, Spanish, or Latin!

I Love a System
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens.

Update

Because of reported problems with the PDF file not printing (even though I embedded the fonts), here's the HTML version. New and improved, too.

A straight line forward is not the only measure of progress. True, I've been accumulating kanji like tokens in a video game, but this weekend I stopped to build something with them, or rather, to reorganize them. I love a system, but prefer that it's my system.

Japanese verbs conjugate quite regularly following two sets of rules. (There are only two irregular verbs, that is, two verbs not in either set.) Over the years, I've found that although knowing the rules is good, it is only the beginning in language learning. To apply the rules effectively, I must practice the individual instances over and over. (And outloud! Training the mouth's muscle memory is one key to success).

My Japanese textbook explained the rules well, but provided only a few examples. Barron's 501 Japanese Verbs, is the largest reference on verbs I own, but I have several problems with it (some of which stem from my desire for a learning tool, which it is not; it's a reference book). First, I struggle with the romanization, rendered following a system which they explain is the most accurate way to reproduce Japanese words. If that's a major concern, they should have stuck with hiragana. I used romaji as a crutch far too long. Second, it doesn't show the kanji for each verb. Third, the verbs are organized in roman alphabetical order. Although appropriate for a reference, alphabetical order does not illustrate the principal for verb conjugation.

So after spending a couple of hours laboriously making flashcards by hand, I decided that I had finally accumulated the tools to do it on the computer faster. I grouped the verbs by their conjugation rules (either class 1 or class 2). Within each class, I alphabetized them, not by the first letter of the verb, but by the root's ending, which provides the key to conjugation. The cards are written in hiragana, which illustrates the conjugation patterns much better than romanization systems. Finally, I've included the kanji and its reading to reinforce my kanji practice. Now all I need is a printer and I can print out these cards and practice.

Although the original file was written in HTML, I've created a PDF version (66K) to make it easier to print. I don't claim that it's complete. It includes only the verbs I know and want to practice and the tenses I've already learned.

Don't Do It!
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens.

Last week in Japanese class, we learned the informal non-past tense (Verb + ない). As I was making flash cards, I noticed that the negative command form was just the informal non-past + で. For example, (I) eat: 食べる; (I) don't eat: 食べない; (You) don't eat!: 食べないで. Cool! This is like hitting two birds with one stone.

Actually it sounds quite familiar. I guess when I lived in Japan, people were constantly telling me not to do things.

Ko So A Do
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens.

Last semester, we learned that in Japanese pronouns could be remembered in sets. たとえば. これ、それ、あれ、どれ。この、その、あの、どの。こちら、そちら、あちら、どちら。

This morning, at 5AM, I was awakened by a tap, tap, tapping on the door. At first, I though I was dreaming. Then, I thought it might be burglars, but decided they wouldn't knock. Finally, seeing what time it was, I realized it must be JQS returning from work. I answered the door and there he was. He had lost his keys.

Sitting on the couch, trying to go back to sleep, I was remembering teaching English. "The boy went to school at 7 o'clock." "Who went to school? Where did he go? When did he go?" That kind of thing. How much more difficult it is in English to connect those question words with those pronouns. How could I have helped my students to remember?"

Then I thought, "When? Then. Where? There. What? That. Who? Thou." "Why" doesn't follow the pattern very well, unless you say "Why? Thy will be done." Sort of silly, but isn't it odd that I'd never noticed the pattern before, probably because of the pronunciation shifts. No one says "thou" for "you" anymore and "what" and "that" don't rhyme. I wonder if they used to.

Dog Plant Field
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens.

Riding back from the grocery store with AJM, I'm reviewing my kanji cards. (Focusing on the cards keeps me from gasping, shrieking, and nagging as he drives.) I stare at a card and nothing comes to mind. Sometimes deconstructing helps, since I make up a lot of my own stories as memory aids. "Dog. Plant. Field." Hmmm. Still doesn't ring a bell, so I turn the card over. "Oh, of course, neko. Cat."

"Cat!" snorts AJM. "There's no way you're going to rationalize some explanation for writing 'cat' out of 'dog, plant, and field'." He can see I'm thinking about it. "So don't even try." Oh, well. I bet I remember it now.

Testing, Testing
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens.

Yesterday, we had our first chapter test of this semester, and I thought it was disappointingly easy. The reason I'm taking the class is because I need structure and deadlines to do my best work. Sitting at home with all the time in the world does not result in much...or provide any sense of accomplishment. Besides, (she says rationalizing away her lack of self-discipline), language is a social endeavor.

When I trained to be a teacher, test-making was one of my favorite activities. I was taught that a test should measure the concrete objectives of the course. We would identify these objectives, create a test to measure them, and then create the activities to teach our objectives. Good tests focused on the significant points. Good test questions did not trick the students. The majority of the students should do well on the test (80% or better). If not, then either the teacher had failed to teach the objectives, or the test had failed to test them.

When I taught in Japan, I learned, as Kurt as pointed out, the point of tests in Japan seems to be to weed out people. No one, it seems, is expected to get 100 per cent. If they do, the test is too easy. To pass our high school entrance examination, you had to get at least 35 per cent. Most of my fellow Japanese teachers felt that any grade between 35 and 75 was good. In American schools. 60-100 per cent is passing and 80-100 per cent is good.

I was lectured for giving my students high marks, for making my tests too easy. My goal was to have the students do well, to learn the material I had set (to learn English). I tested them on what I was teaching them. If they learned the material, they did well. No trick questions!

So why am I complaining that the test I took yesterday was too easy? Because it didn't test the material we learned very comprehensively. It didn't test all the vocabulary we had learned. It didn't force us to write the 25 new kanji we learned. It tested some particles, but no conjugation (and we learned two new tenses this chapter). After I took the test, I had no clear sense of what I had learned and what still needs more study. My J-type personality definitely needs more structure than this.

Level Up
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens.

I've been taking Japanese classes since last August and I'm amazed at how it is now all coming together for me. I feel like a 3-year-old. I apparently have not learned Japanese like an adult learner of a second language at all, the type of student for whom our textbooks are designed. Instead I've spent years accumulating names of objects, a few actions, and a lot of descriptive words. But I had no grammar to enable me to use these things. Going to school has provided a means to assemble the individual pieces of this puzzle.

All of a sudden I can hear things and think things in Japanese. Not very complicated things, yet. But what I'm saying is I'm no longer hearing the Japanese and translating it into English before understanding it. I am just hearing the Japanese and knowing what it means. No translation. It's just a different way of saying something. I'm stunned and amazed and I feel a sense of awe, as if I'd found the long lost key to a treasure box that's sat dusty on the shelf for years.

This unexpected rewiring of my brain makes me impatient with exercises shown in English to be translated into Japanese. I don't want to think in English first. I want to learn my Japanese grammar first, before I think about how to translate between the two languages. I'd rather use pictures or fill-in-the-blank sentences to learn a new grammatical structure.

I'm probably not being very clear on this. What I'm trying to say is that phrase books, or anything that translates word for word is not helpful to me for learning the big picture. I'm much more comfortable with books that present the grammar for a specific situation (comparison: A is more X than B.) Once I learn the equivalent pattern in Japanese, then I never have to think in English when I hear it.

I must be the slowest learner in the world, and I'm sure some of you are thinking, "Yeah, of course. This is obvious." Maybe the textbooks are designed just this way, but I don't think they communicate it very well. The best book I've found so far for learning patterns is Naoko Chino's A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Sentence Patterns.

Levels of Competence
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens.

Mastery of a skill or a subject can be measured with five levels of competence.

1. Unconscious Incompetence

The lowest level of competence is unconscious incompetence. At this point, you don't know that there's anything to learn. You can't understand people's answers because you haven't begun to ask the questions. You have no motivation to learn because you don't know how ignorant you are.

2. Conscious Incompetence

The next level of competence hits you like a brick because you become suddenly aware that you know nothing and that there's so much to learn. So you begin to study.

3. Conscious Competence

Study brings you to the next level, the level of theoretical knowledge. You understand the concepts, but to apply them, you have to think about them. In a lot of subjects or skills, you might never move beyond this level.

4. Unconscious Competence

When you can do something without thinking about it, you've become unconsciously competent. Riding a bike, driving a car, touch typing, speaking English are all skills in which I'm unconsciously competent. At this level, theoretical knowledge is transformed into practical knowledge. Study might get you to Level 3, but only practice will get you to Level 4.

5. Conscious Unconscious Competence

The highest level of competence is the ability to do something without thinking about it, yet retain a level of awareness of how you do it. This level of competence enables you to teach the skill to someone else. Most people who are very good at something cannot explain it to someone less skilled. They are so unconsciously competent, they don't know how they do it. They just do it.

Language is a skill like dancing, playing tennis, or playing a musical instrument. Studying a language will get you only to a theoretical understanding. But for skills, it's not enough to understand the concepts, you have to practice.

Right now I understand how to conjugate Japanese verbs and adjectives, but I can only do it with a lot of thought. I'm still at the level of conscious competence. And I get confused and flustered easily. If I'm going to be ready for that big test on Monday, I need to practice, practice, practice.

Going Out With A Whimper
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens.

Last Wednesday after finishing the oral portion of my final exam in Japanese class, I was so happy. No kid waiting for the final bell before summer vacation ever felt more joy. (Maybe to feel the joys of childhood again, one must suffer through the drudgeries, too.) Still, there was today's exam, the written final. But I wasn't worried about it. It was simply the epilogue to the larger story, now finished.

Yesterday was dark and rainy, my favorite type of day for studying. Unfortunately, I had an allergic reaction to some medication I'd been taking. I broke out in itchy spots and couldn't sleep. I felt tired, achy, and miserable. I was in no condition conducive to study. I tried to sleep, but couldn't. But I was too tired to do anything. I managed only to crawl into bed with my Powerbook and headphones and listen to the dialogs in iTunes.

I felt better this morning, but when I sat down in class, I realized I'd left my glasses at home. There was no time to go back for them. Luckily, sensei uses a very large font on her tests. Luckily, too, the test wasn't hard. It's over now. I should feel happy, but I just feel drained and let down.

Enough whining. (Thanks for listening; I do feel better somehow.) Okay! Now to come up with a study plan for summer.

Snapes or Dumbledore
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens.

Last night AJM brought up an interesting article he'd heard on All Things Considered on his way home from work. The gist of it is that video games boost visual skills. The speculation is that the "simulated tension and danger" in video games makes them good teaching tools. You learn better when you're in fear for your life...even a virtual video game life.

I always wonder how I can apply a new theory to my never-ending study of Japanese. But then I began thinking, maybe this is why students don't appear to learn as much as they did generations ago; schools have gone soft. Discounting the tension and danger of social failure, where's the fear factor? Now that the rod and the paddle are gone, what provides negative reinforcement for failing intellectually?

I studied to be a teacher in those rainbow days of the 1970s when it was more important that everyone feel good about themselves than actually be able to produce good work. I can't abandon my training entirely. But I do wonder whether taking away the pressure means fewer people excel. In retooling our educational techniques to help those that need the most help, are we ignoring the needs of average students, thinking they'll get by on their own? Do we learn more from the Professor Snapes of the world because they make sure we're afraid to fail?

Free Lunch for Hungry Minds
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens.

In 2001, MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) implemented a revolutionary program, the The OpenCourseWare Initiative; they put their courseware online, available free to anyone who wants to study it.

Browsing through the 500 courses, I found just what I was looking for: Beginning Japanese I, Beginning Japanese II, and Intermediate Japanese I.

Each course provides the study materials and practice tests with answers. This is the part I really like. I find it difficult to learn from many of the books I have since I don't have to actually do anything. A test challenges me, but it's only worth the challenge if I the answers are available to check my work. This is a great resource the next time you resolve you're going to start studying Japanese again (for the 10th time).

Continue...

Back To It
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens.

Another semester of Japanese started today: same school, same teacher, same classmates, but a new book. We are starting year two. I looked over today's lesson, a review of course, with apprehension and dread. I had meant to study so much more over 冬休み (the winter break). I did study a little every day, but I didn't study as diligently as I'd like, or complete any of the objectives I'd set for myself. I should be happy to have the resources to devote to study, but this morning found me as pouty as any schoolchild. I need more time to absorb this material before moving on. I understand it conceptually, but can barely put what I know into practice.

Still, I don't want to talk about my hobbies, or how many brothers and sisters I have, or whether the pen is to the left or the right of the book. But, as JQS reminded me, think of how the teacher feels, facing this same group, knowing that most of last year's learning has slipped away over the vacation, and having to get everyone enthused about the new material. No, I don't have to imagine it. I've been there myself.

Walking into class, I note the familiar faces. About two-thirds of last semester's class is here. One new guy, from California, joins us. He's taught English in Tokyo for two years and he is more confident in putting his Japanese-speaking skills into practice than the rest of us. And probably he's more skilled. I think he'll find our class a bit frustrating.

Sensei is speaking much faster and I understand much less of what she's saying than I did before. Panic! Then I realize it's not just that she's speaking faster. She's stopped going back and forth between English and Japanese. It's all Japanese now. Wow, good! This is much more challenging and there's nothing like a challenge to spur me on. As long as I'm listening or reading, I do okay in class. But when I have to make up sentences, especially from scratch, rather than in a set dialog, or Q&A, then my mind empties. I actually feel the air whoosh in to fill the space between my ears.

Mangajin
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens.

In June 1990, when I still lived in Japan, the first issue of Mangajin was published. Mangajin took original Japanese manga, translated it, and explained the grammar points and vocabulary along the way. Like having a tutor at your side, Mangajin coached you through reading Japanese far more interesting than any textbook. The visual nature of manga provided the context to make sense of how a word was used, or to better understand formal and informal, male and female speech.

I managed to collect 20 of the 48 issues over the years. At the time, since I hadn't studied Japanese formally, I didn't retain much vocabulary or grammar. As a result I didn't learn much Japanese, but I did learn a lot about Japanese. The experience was rather like clearing the land before planting the seed.

Now that I've completed a year and a bit of college-level Japanese, I was extremely encouraged to open up a Mangajin read it. I still appreciate the sidebar explanation. It keeps me from going to the dictionary and it clarifies idiomatic expressions that might confuse. It's the perfect tool for the intermediate level where I now find myself. Untranslated manga, newspapers, or even graded readers are still beyond me. Mangajin provides that step between textbook and real-life reading that inspires and encourages, that sense that understanding is attainable, in view. If I keep it at it, just a little more, just a little harder, I'll get there.

Learning to Read, Again
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens.

Last week, Ken Loo sent me several books in Japanese. I've been struggling to read one of them, Kaori Ekuni's ぼくの小鳥ちゃん (My Little Bird). Sometimes I find myself sounding out the words, character by character making no sense of anything. Other times, whole phrases and sentences pop past my eyes into my brain and I stop suddenly with the realization, "Wait! I read that."

The difficulty, I find, lies not with the grammar or the amount of kanji. (I find it easiest to read kanji with furigana, where the text provides both visual and aural clues to meaning.) My lack of vocabulary slows me down, but reading a novel is a great way to acquire vocabulary. The biggest stumbling block is my lack of context. What kind of book is this? When you're learning to read, setting expectations and providing context are very important to comprehension. We approach mystery, science fiction, magical realism, historical novels, slice-of-life narratives, and romance differently. For example, if there are talking animals are they magical or metaphor? I love reading Mieko's Diary, because I read the English first to set expectations and then am able to wend my way through the Japanese.

I like the challenge of trying to read this novel. The graded readers I have are boring and the newspaper is still too difficult. So, I think what would help most is trying to read a story I'm already familiar with. Jack Seward says he practiced reading Japanese by reading English classics in translation. But I think it would be better to read something written first in Japanese. One book I'd like to find in Japanese is Tetsuko Kuroyanagi's 窓ぎわのトットちゃん, which I've read in translation "Totto-chan: The Little Girl at the Window"--so I'm very familiar with the story. Perhaps I will find it at Kinokuniya, when we go to San Francisco this year.

Reading ハリー　ポッター
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens.

In San Francisco last week, I did go to the Kinokuniya bookstore for "Totto-chan" and while I was there I saw the Japanese translation of Harry Potter. Initially I was against reading Japanese translations of English books because I thought I'd acquire a more natural rhythm of the Japanese language by reading books originally composed in Japanese. But that is still a bit difficult for me. So on impulse, I bought Harry Potter.

I've read the English version several times, and some passages I know very well. This makes so much difference trying to read it in Japanese. Since I know what it's trying to say, all I have to pay attention to is how it's said in Japanese. And though I don't know every kanji, or even half the vocabulary, knowing the English version makes it much easier to piece together the meaning and to make informed guesses of the vocabulary. I can get the sense out of whole passages, without understanding each individual piece. I can skim a page and find my place. The squiggles have cohesed into meaningful patterns. It's a really exciting feeling and very motivating. In some ways it's like skimming through the descriptions dense with nautical terms in a Patrick O'Brian book. I don't stop reading to look up the difference between a coxswain and a bosun or larboard and starboard.

Now that I'm home, I'm able to compare the translation to the original, look up words in my dictionaries, and add new compounds to my kanji cards. The grammar is straightforward. The thrust of my study is on vocabulary acquisition.

I wonder about many peculiarities in the translation. For example, some kanji are supplemented with furigana; others, not. Since this is a childrens book, I expected some indication of the level of kanji required. In America, childrens books usually indicate the age range of their target audience. The sentence structure matches almost exactly. For example, the subject of the sentence and the person's name is repeated just as it would be in English. Uncle Vernon is always referred to as バーノンおじさん. The Japanese reader is really short-changed on the puns, and the significance of names, which are rendered in katakana. There is no way to understand that Slytherin is a variation on slithering 「にょろにょろ」, "to slip or slide like a snake" or to connect Gryffindor to the mythical griffin, the combination of eagle and lion used on coats of arms.

Rowling draws heavily on Latin and Greek roots to create an "old school" atmosphere, to distinguish between the ordinary world and the magic world, modern and medieval. All of this tone is lost in Japanese when the names are katakanized. Japanese is rich in onomonopoetic words that would translate the flavor of writing better. Rowling's choice of Latin-based words, instead of Anglo-Saxon equivalents, could be indicated with on-read kanji compounds, perhaps with katakana for pronunciation.

Since this is my first attempt to read a book in translation, I don't know how these things are usually handled. When a Japanese reads a book like this, does the structure of the sentences seem foreign and English-like? the repetition of personal names? the extensive use of pronouns?

Elsewhere

You can find a comparison of the Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese translations of Harry Potter on cvjlang. The discussion on the translations of Rowling puns is what got me interested in trying to read Harry Potter in Japanese in the first place. I am intrigued with his analysis of Dumbledore's style of speech in Japanese. I wonder if I'll ever be able to pick up on those kinds of nuances.

Read Me a Story
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens.

I started nipponDAZE over three years ago as a way of remembering and sharing the years I lived in Japan with my friends and family. I had hoped that the people I knew when I lived there would jump in with their own stories, as we do when we are together, and that our different recollections would spur each other on. That plan never quite bore fruit. On the other hand, I came to know a lot of people in Japan via their blogs. Some I feel quite close to, even though we have never met.

The lack of updates recently is evidence that my store of memories is running out. However, my interest in Japan and in studying Japanese is not. This year, I'm continuing with my attempt to read Harry Potter in Japanese. As I said in my last entry, I purchased the audio book on CD via amazon Japan. It arrived a couple of days before Christmas and I've been studying with it every day since. I love it!

Today I finished Chapter 1 and in the process learned 29 new kanji, reviewed 17 kanji I'd studied before, and learned 51 new kanji compounds. I also reinforced quite a few grammar points I'd studied in my Japanese classes and learned some new verb endings and expressions. I'm a bit dizzy with the intensity of it (I'm a slow, though tenacious, student). But I'm sticking with my plan, which is to press on, even if I don't understand or remember everything I read.

My process is as follows. The CD is divided into subchapters of 3 or 4 minutes each which basically corresponds with each 2-page spread in the book. Each day I study one of these subchapters. I try to read a sentence aloud. Then I listen to it being read and read it again. After I finish the section, I go back and read each sentence and compare it to the English version. Usually I can get the gist of the meaning without looking at the English version, but I don't get a lot of the detail--especially cause and effect, or passive versus active verbs. Then I look up the kanji and the compounds I want to learn. And then I spend the rest of the day practicing reading along silently for the entire selection, or just listening and trying to understand what is being said.

So far it's not getting any easier as I go along. Every page has a dozen new words or more to learn. But it is a very interesting way to learn. The guy who is doing the reading is a fantastic voice actor. He makes it sound interesting, even when I can't understand what he's saying. So I have no problem listening to it over and over. One of my favorite sections in Chapter 1 is when Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall are talking. The former talks in slow "wise old man" speak and the latter just rattles on in a fast, impatient, snappish style.

I realize that to get some lasting benefit from this study that I'm going to have to start writing up what I've learned. And that means I'm going to have to redesign my Japanese language site. When I do, that site will probably be getting a lot more updates than this one. I'm not abandoning nipponDAZE entirely. But it was never intended to be a daily journal as many other blogs are.

Kanji: 1000 Down! 1000 To Go.
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens.

Longtime readers might remember that I've been lost in the kanji forest for years now. I plod along, slowly and unsurely, not in any hope of finally learning Japanese, but because I enjoy the mental challenge. Some people do the crossword puzzle. I study kanji.

In Essential Kanji P. G. O'Neill says that two years "is perfectly reasonable for an average, conscientious university student to come to recognize (as distinct from write) two thousand characters and to learn their main readings, when studying them as part of a full-time Japanese course."

Ah, the wonder of young minds! My feeble old mind, however, has barely grasped the first 1000 in twice as many years. One obstacle is the time I can devote to study each day. I still find that my system for making my own cards is my best learning tool--and that's time-intensive. Despite all the books I have on kanji, it is my own associations that best help me remember. Another strategy I find useful is to always mark the kanji and words I look up in my dictionary. That way, if I forget them and look them up again, it reminds me that I've come across this word before. The more connections I make, the more it strengthens my memory.

Although I use the kanji cards for flashcard review, I agree with J.W. Heisig that the best review is from word to kanji. Make a list of words and then try to write the kanji. It exercises a completely different part of your memory than looking at a kanji and trying to remember its meaning or reading.

I don't spend a lot of time anymore writing a kanji a 100 times to memorize it. Most complicated kanji can be broken down to several components, and once you learn how to write the components, writing is easy. It's sort of like memorizing phone numbers. You don't try to memorize a 10-digit number. You break it down to three smaller components. Also I'm most interested in recognizing kanji quickly so that I can read more fluently, or use the word processor. Just as in English sight-reading (recognizing the whole) is a different skill than sounding a word out (recognizing the parts).

Katakana Kills Again
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens.

Last night we went to see Howl's Moving Castle. In Austin, one theater played the Japanese-language subtitled version. In most of America, if you can see it in a theater at all, you'll see the English-dubbed version.

I knew going in that the basis for the story was English, based on Diana Wynne Jones's book of the same name. So I was puzzled by the subtitling of one of the character's names: Markl. I dismissed it as one of those fantasy genre inventions.

Today I discover that in the book the character is named Michael. I typed Michael into WordLookup and it gave me the katakana rendering マイケル [ma i ke ru]. Mark has a couple of variations: マルク [ma ru ku] or マーク [mah ku]. So am I right in supposing that whoever did the subtitling mistranslated [maikeru] as Markl, instead of recognizing it as Michael?

This annoys me as much as people who write "The Ring, or Ringu as it is known in Japan."

I shall console myself by babelizing some phrases with Carl Tashian's Lost in Translation. For example...

Original English Text:
Howl's Moving Castle was fun.
Translated to Japanese:
喚き声の移動城は楽しみだった。
Translated back to English:
The portable castle of screaming voice was the pleasure.

I do have a sense of humor about this. I do. I do.

Reviewing the Kanji
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens.

Fabrice Denis has designed a slick kanji flashcard site, Reviewing the Kanji based on Heisig's Remembering the Kanji and the Leitner cardfile system.

I've been using Reviewing the Kanji daily for almost six months now and the best testimonial I can give it is the fact I'm still plugging away at it. Given my mixed feelings toward Heisig's method, this is high praise for Fabrice Denis's implementation. I keep coming back because the site has such a clean design, is easy to use, works quickly, is somewhat customizable, and provides a way to share ideas with others lost in the kanji forest.

As I said, it is based on the Leitner cardfile system which has you review flashcards at different frequencies. Flashcards move through five stacks; each stack has a different review schedule: 1, 3, 7, 14, or 30 days. Cards that have made it through to the last stack will continue to come up for review every 60 days.

The obvious advantage of the Leitner system is that you spend more time focused on the kanji that give you trouble. The less obvious advantage is that less frequent review is supposed to help move the data from short term to long term memory. And yet, every couple of months those cards you thought you knew come back to haunt you from time to time just to see if you really learned them or if they need to go back to square one.

I like Reviewing the Kanji because it provides an easy way for me to review a little every day. And since the goal of the Heisig system is to be able to write the kanji, I find that I don't want to review more than about 30 kanji a day. But when you consider that there are more than 1800 kanji to learn, you could review 30 different kanji a day for two months without repeating yourself.

You have to register (name and email) to use Reviewing the Kanji. This enables the site to track your progress, keep your flashcard stacks up-to-date, identify kanji up for review, and keep the mnemonics and hints you've added for each flashcard.

You also have to be studying from Heisig's books. This site is called Reviewing the Kanji, not Learning Kanji from Scratch. It's a tool for an existing system, not a standalone system. I would never have gone back to Heisig's method were it not for Reviewing the Kanji. I don't trust his choice of keywords. And when I know the Japanese word, Heisig's English keyword often just leads me astray. However, as Fabrice Denis says, the most important thing is to be able to associate one concept with each kanji and not mix up ones similar in meaning.

As usual, despite being steady, my progress is slow. I've added only 615 flashcards and gone through 5516 reviews (counted each time a card is flipped). That's far fewer cards than other members with a comparable number of reviews. But I'm being very strict with myself. To cheat would only cheat myself. I've found that the best way for me to retain information is to use it...and in this case it means taking a pop quiz every day. Reviewing the Kanji provides a great pop quiz which makes for active learning.