A presentation at Kitacon Quest in in Coventry, UK by James O'Neill
An Anime Fan’s Guide to Learning Japanese
PART I Why You Should Learn Japanese
Reasons You Might Want to Learn Japanese • To get by when visiting Japan. • To better understand Japanese culture. • To make new friends. • To watch anime without subtitles. • To live and work in Japan. • To work in translation. • To improve your brain and help prevent dementia in later life.
PART II Why Learning Japanese is Easier than You Might Think
Unless you think it’s really easy ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Reasons People Think Japanese is Hard to Learn • Three writing systems with thousands of characters. • The grammar structure is totally different to English. • Several levels of formality
Reasons Japanese isn’t as hard to learn as you might think • The writing systems make more sense when you understand the rules behind them. • Japanese has a limited range of sounds and none are difficult for English speakers to pronounce. • Many of the grammar rules are actually simper than English
PART III The Building Blocks of Japanese
Hiragana ひらがな
Hiragana • The ABCs of Japanese • 51 phonetic characters • Each character represents a single sound • Organised in blocks of five • Learning hiragana should be one of the first things you do
How to learn hiragana • Believe in the me that believes in you! • Download a hiragana chart and put it somewhere you will see it often. http://www.textfugu.com/resources/hiragana-chart/ • Study three to five new characters a day • Drill the characters you have studied whenever you get the chance • Use a flash card app such as Memrise
Katakana カタカナ
Katakana • Represent the same set of sounds as hiragana • Mostly used to sound out foreign loan words • Similar to upper and lower case in English • Also used for emphasis and onomatopoeia • Hiragana and Katakana together are referred to as kana
How to learn katakana • Repeat the same methods you used to learn hiragana. • Learn to write your own name. • Practise writing English words in katakana.
Vocabulary & Grammar 単語と文法
Vocabulary & Grammar • Japanese grammar is very different to English • Trying to literally translate sentences leads to awkward results • Expose yourself to as much natural Japanese as possible to develop an ear for what it should sound like
Vocabulary & Grammar • If you’re self studying then audio lessons and podcasts are your friend. • Beginner text books are a good source of basic Japanese and usually come with audio CDs. They’re usually quite wooden though. • Tae Kim’s Grammar Guide http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/ is an excellent overview of sentence structure. • Many people like Japanese Pod 101.
Kanji 漢字
Kanji • Pictographic characters adapted from Chinese. • Used to represent the meaning of words. • 2,136 "daily use" characters required for basic adult literacy! • Words can be made up of a single kanji, compounds containing two kanji, or combinations of kanji and hiragana.
Kanji • Kanji are made up of "radicals", smaller components that make up a bigger picture. • Radicals have their own meanings, when combined they represent the meaning of a character, often in an abstract way. • Some kanji only contain a single radical and often share a meaning with that radical.
Learning Kanji • Japanese children learn kanji by constant repetition. This is slow. • They learn characters with simpler meanings first, not simpler characters. • Many Japanese classes will teach kanji in this order, not expecting you to learn them. • There are better ways to learn kanji.
Learning Kanji • Study the radicals as well as the characters. • Learn characters roughly in order of written complexity. • Practise hand writing but don't mindlessly repeat the same character. • When you learn new words try to learn how they are written at the same time. • Focus on learning key words for a character over learning all of its readings. • Used spaced repetition to recall characters just as you are about to forget them.
Levels of Formality
PART IV Learning Japanese from Anime
PART V Useful Resources
Beginner Textbooks • Genki and Japanese for Busy People are two of the best known. • If you take a class they will probably follow one of these books. • They are okay when you know nothing but you should aim to move on to other materials. • Make sure you don’t use a romaji textbook.
TextFugu • Online Japanese textbook specifically designed for self-study. • Focuses on motivation and study techniques as well as content. • The first few chapters are available to read for free but afterwards there’s a subscription.
Remembering the Kanji • Guides you through all of the radicals. • Uses stories as mnemonic devices to recall kanji. • Assigns a single keyword to each kanji. • Doesn't tackle readings or vocabulary.
WaniKani • Web app using a similar methodology to Remembering the Kanji. • Contains radicals, kanji and vocabulary. • Tackles meanings and readings • Splits kanji into 50 levels (plus 10 bonus levels). • Uses spaced repetition to quiz you at timed intervals. • Free up to level 3, paid afterwards.
Thank You for Coming ありがとうございました 🙇
for free. You
can too.