On the Study of Japanese

[OokamiHenrii]

I was planning to publish this elsewhere, but this seems like a nice enough place:

Not long ago, becoming fluent in a foreign language required years of study at the university level. Because English is so prevalent in most parts of the world, even living or studying abroad is no guarantee of learning the language, let alone becoming fluent. As such, the creation of a system to quickly and effectively learn a language from complete ignorance to fluency is necessary.

Japanese is one of the most difficult languages for native English speakers to learn. It is perhaps second only to Chinese, which adds tonality to the laundry list of differences between languages. Still, it is quite possible to learn this language independently and inexpensively. Further, the principles listed here will (with minor changes) benefit those seeking to study any language.

Those that have already started their study of a language may find it difficult to follow these suggestions. These suggestions may require them to stop studying some part of the language in exchange to support another. It will also be difficult for those that need to speak instantly. This is not a system to learn a few phrases before a quick vacation abroad. This is a system intended to lead a determined student to fluency, as quickly and as possible.

The first principle that should be adhered to is consistency. As far as I know, there is no current set of instructional materials that follow the rest of this plan for the study of any language. As such, consistency will be extremely difficult to attain until this author releases such materials. Until that time, it is best that students of a language try to avoid studying the same material in multiple places. Do not study phrases for which you do not understand the grammar. Doing these things will impede a student’s progress in understanding.

The second principle is science and technology. Humans have evolved language over millennia. As such, there is a particular way in which we are best able to learn and understand languages. Traditional schools throw multiple layers of a language at a student so that they will be able to make basic conversation quickly, rather than building a foundation and working upwards. In the long-run, this practice is detrimental to a student’s ability to attain fluency. This system does not have such pitfalls.

The third principle is technology. Many students and teachers are unaware that education is a science, and there are breakthroughs quite often. One such breakthrough which occurred is SRS, Spaced Repetition Study. Despite the much improved results, it has failed to catch on in most education systems throughout the world. Computers have made studying with SRS much easier. One programs that takes advantage of this is iFlash.

The first part of any language that a students should learn is the characters. For the study of Japanese, this means first learning the Hiragana and Katakana. Each consists of 49 characters that correspond to a certain sound. This is fairly easy, and using SRS it could take less than two weeks. That said, the SRS cards will continue to ask you about these characters as the interval between each time increases. Unfortunately for those studying Japanese, there is a much larger set of characters that students must learn. These are the Kanji. Those that study Japanese literature in Japanese universities often have knowledge of about 6,000 such characters. Of course, the majority of the population knows roughly 2,000. Knowledge of these first 2,000 Kanji (or Jouyou Kanji) is essential to becoming fluent in the Japanese language. A student that is studying 20 Kanji each day (roughly one hour per day) will be able to learn all of the Kana and these 2,000 Kanji in just about 4 months - a feat that will take university students their first three years to complete.

The second part of learning a language is learning the vocabulary. Any student of Japanese knows that one Kanji does not equal one word. There are countless more words that are made up of combinations of two, three, and four kanji. An ambitious student with plenty of free time can do this alongside the study of the Kanji, but it is important to only study vocabulary for which all of the Kanji is known. As such, it is recommended that study of vocabulary begin once a student has learned all of the Jouyou Kanji. Once a student understands the Kanji, it is much easier to learn the vocabulary. One Kanji suddenly has many meanings when combined with Kana or other Kanji. It is possible to build a vocabulary of 10,000 words in 4 months if one is willing to study 100 new words each day, but it is far more reasonable to study only 50 new words each day to acquire a 10,000 word vocabulary in 8 months. An excellent resource of this is Kanji in Context, produced by the Japan Times.

Eight months to a year has passed. Only now should one begin the third part of language learning, the study of grammar. While it will be difficult being unable to practice the language without knowledge of the grammar structures, one will benefit from doing so in the long run. Learning the most basic grammar forms will unlock a world of conversation, due to the size of a student’s vocabulary.

The fourth and final part of language learning should be prevalent in all other parts of the language learning process. This part is daily practice. It will be difficult to practice speaking the language until one has started the study of grammar, and this is the point at which practice becomes a major part of study.

[Dent]

Osu!

A very interesting idea there, OokamiHenrii. Not being at all conversant with the scope of the Japanese language, I would have thought that the experiential learning method would be similar to most other languages.

Osu!