There’s an old saying that goes “You can’t teach an old dog new
tricks” but ask any dog trainer and they will tell you that this is
nothing but an old wives’ tale. There is no barrier for dogs for
when they reach a certain age they can no longer learn new tricks.
Imagine if a dog or human would be unable to learn anything new
after a certain age, or for some reason the more we get older, the
more difficult it is to learn new things, regardless on how many
new tricks we pickup to help us. Thankfully, we can continue to
learn as we did as children, and use our fully developed brain to
its full capacity.
Children are very fortunate; they are blessed to have been given
the opportunity to be immersed in a learning environment without
even working for it. What I mean by that is how they are always
learning day after day from the people around them, and the
activities they take part of while their parents provides for them.
It’s a cozy little situation, isn’t it? Children learn new words
every day through immersion and they have the opportunity to
practice over and over and over again.
But what about the rest of us? The ones whom are out of school, or
perhaps in school but without the opportunity to explore something
new because no one else is interested, or perhaps there may be
money problems, or maybe it’s just not taught in school?
How can we learn anything new when the local environment is against
us?
Many have tried to learn Japanese and given up after just a mere
2-weeks, this is very common but for most reasons, it has a remedy.
The common problem is that people rely on expensive and ineffective
programs, and don’t immerse themselves into a community that
dedicates itself to learning together.
Without a learning partner or many partners, learning a new
language is difficult and borderline impossible. Thankfully, here
at Jappleng there’s not a single dime you need to spend in order to
learn Japanese, and we have many resources on how to improve your
learning experiences.
But how should you learn? Are there different methods for different
people or is there a universal truth to learning something? Let’s
look at children, they communicate with their parents about the
language they are learning, they go to school and speak to other
children and teachers of the same language, and on a daily basis
they learn new things about the language itself.
Everywhere where the child goes, their native language follows them
and this is what we call the immersion experience.Let’s take
personal experience and look at how immersion really has made
learning a new language possible. When I moved to the United
States, I knew very little about the English language. But being
that English is the national language, it only took a year’s time
before I was fluent. I didn’t sit down and study English books day
after day; in fact I simply immersed myself.
What I would do is try to speak only English, I would write novel
ideas, play Role Playing video games
(they have a lot of
text), I would chat with many English speakers over Instant
Messaging programs, and read a lot of English websites. My life was
all about English for that year and it made the difference.
Learning a language fluently in a year or two’s time through
immersion is common and pretty much expected. You can all do the
same with the Japanese language or any language you so desire
without being in that country. It takes a little bit of prep-work
but in the end you’ll thank yourself. Here’s a list on various
things you can do to immerse yourself in the Japanese language and
culture.
- Bookmark as many Japanese-related websites that peak your
interest, start with Jappleng!
- Create a playlist of educational videos and audio help for your
pronunciation. Look at YouTube or our Educational Videos
section.
- Become part of a Japanese-centric community. Dare we say we
have a great one?
- Buy or download/print various learning materials such as a
Kanji or Kana chart, children books etc…
- Collect various Japanese artifacts and keep them in your study
room. The more you are surrounded by the things you are studying,
the more you’ll be willing to learn. This is your artificial
immersive environment, your personal “little Japan” if you will.
Get bamboo, get a Bonsai tree, collect anime figurines, you name it
just get creative!
- Explore various aspects of the culture and become involved in
it. If there are no local events, perhaps you can start your own at
school, after work, wherever, whenever! We’re working on Club
Jappleng to help with such an occasion.
- Practice Japanese crafts such as Origami and Paper Dolls. There
are so many different crafts, you can pick whatever seems most
interesting to you. Try them all if you can.
- Become friends with people with similar interest as you, this
is why we have JSpot!, the forums, our Chat room, the friend system
and so on… Without friends to help you, there’s no way to practice
your conversational skills!
- If you are fortunate enough to live near authentic Japanese
shops (of any kind), you can go there and practice your Japanese
with the staff, assuming they can speak Japanese.
- TV/Music/Movies/Books etc… You name it, just surround yourself
with Japanese entertainment. They won’t teach you anything about
the language but the more you hear or read it, the better you will
become. As an added bonus there are some structural patterns that
you will begin to notice when you become more proficient with the
language.
These are all suggestions and you’re free to cherry pick what you
like and what other great ideas you have to immerse yourself in
(let us know in the
forums!). But it’s not
all about immersion, there’s a 4.5 step process in all of this
which we call the Jappleng Language Learning Cycle, in fact it’s
pretty critical in the learning process and we went above and
beyond to give it a ridiculous name and acronym so you can remember
it.
Let’s take a look at the chart and see what it’s like:
THEORY / LESSON
Begin with the theory, as we always do in our lessons. Simply
memorizing new words won’t cut it; you will need to understand the
principle behind your actions. Understand what a verb or adjective
means, understand why the word order matters or doesn’t matter.
Theory gets the ball rolling and this is something that we always
begin our lessons with.
SELF PRACTICE / MEMORIZATION
After understanding the theory behind what you are learning, it’s
time to practice on your own. A good way to do it is through flash
cards since flash cards can be randomized and portable. It’s a
great way to refresh your mind about new and old words without
having a partner. There are of course many other ways to practice
on your own and it depends entirely on what you’re learning. Keep
an open mind and work with what best suits you.
CONVERSATION PRACTICE
Now that you have gotten
practice on your own, it’s time to practice it with someone else.
These conversation pieces will be awkward in the beginning, and
sometimes downright embarrassing but every single time you practice
Japanese with someone, you will become much better at it. The more
you practice what you have learned, the quicker you’ll be at
it.
IMMERSION
Conversations are part of the immersion process but in this stage,
you’ll be putting yourself in a situation like going to an
authentic Japanese restaurant and ordering in Japanese. You might
not have the confidence the first time or two to follow through
with it but when you do, you’ll have become a superstar! Trust me,
Japanese people LOVE IT when foreigners try to speak their language
and show interest in their culture. It’s like you’re now part of
their family as soon as you show interest. Remember that scene from
Kill Bill where Uma Thurman wanted a Hatori Hanzo sword? It’s no
exaggeration. Immerse yourself any way you can.
4.5 - MISTAKES, LOTS OF THEM
This is the
.5 as mentioned earlier; it is the most essential component of all,
making mistakes in every step. If you don’t make mistakes, what
exactly are you doing? Don’t beat yourself up when you do, because
you will learn from your mistake. You will embarrass yourself
trying to order Japanese at a Japanese restaurant for your first
time, you will embarrass yourself trying to hold a Japanese
conversation or find out that you don’t know what the other person
is saying, but that’s the learning process. You learn from your
mistakes!
Learning Japanese or any language is not as hard as some people
make it seem to be. Sure, it takes dedication and it’s much better
if you can dedicate every day to practice a little bit at a time or
even fully immerse yourself.
But the reality of it is, you’re likely a student or busy with work
and it’s truly difficult to dedicate that much time into learning
something new. In a few months of basic practice, you’ll have the
basics to hold a pretty good conversation in Japanese and be more
than able to follow your favorite anime or Japanese drama. This is
of course assuming that every day you make a pledge to learn
something new each day, so practice, practice and practice!
Thank you for taking the time to read this lengthy article, and I
hope that it was both insightful and motivational to all of you!
Please be sure to
register as a site member (it's
free afterall), and explore the
many lessons
we have, and
wonderful community.