The R3dragon’s Blog

**Due to the sure volume of stuff to cover… this page is a constant work in progress…

Quick Guide

• Introduction
• Japanese Text Books
• Remember the Kanji Status/Kanji Status

• The Japanese Language Proficiency Test N2

• PROJECT: Conquer My Japanese Surroundings (CMJS)
• Links and Resources

Introduction

Hajimemashite! My name is Joshua Wheeler– At the start of 2004 I began my quest to do, what has become, the single most hardest thing I’ve done in my entire life: Learn Japanese. I started taking classes at Clark College where I learned Hiragana and Katakana and basic grammar, then I transferred to Lewis and Clark where I studied intermediate grammar and vocabulary, then finally for one semester I moved to Sapporo, Japan up in Northern Hokkaido to study intermediate-to-advanced Japanese (aka Conversational Japanese).

As many who have traveled along the same path, I’ve used an array of text books for different classes. All total my studies have cost me and my family I dearth of money and time and it’s hardly close from over. This individual page isn’t a blog as much as progress report on how I’m doing in Japanese overall. Since I didn’t have a blog until most recently– I’m not going to cover everything, except for all the books I’ve used over the years- At the bottom of the page is a report on what I’m doing now to advance my studies, as well as, tips I may add from my blog. Overall this is more for me, but if it assists you in any way then I’m glad I could help.

It’s a hard long road– but it’s not impossible!

“Fight On” – Gokusen

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Textbooks Books I’ve Used:

Yookoso!

Back many moons ago I started with an earlier edition of Yookoso! An Invitation to Contemporary Japanese. Yookoso, as I remember, was part of a complete Japanese curriculum aimed at getting students prepared for Japanese language learning. The beginning was often written in “Romanji” the romanized version of Japanese and easy to follow. Yookoso– atleast in earlier editions– also made a point to interject culture lessions into it’s series and culture notes like how to pass buisness cards or how to introduce yourself properly in Japanese.

Overall, for the complete newbie, Yookoso may be a good start for you if you do it with a class that has all the materials (tapes, handouts, workbook, etc.).

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Nakama

When I arrived at Lewis and Clark College in 2005 the Japanese Classes there used a different textbook then Yookoso! Yookoso at the time didn’t have a second year book so Nakama sort of left off where Yookoso stopped. Nakama is a bit different then Yookoso as it’s more ‘language oriented’ then culture oriented.

The book I used was Nakama 2. This book was split into 10 Chapters and was organized to teach the student both useful vocabulary, grammar, and situational Japanese.

A Chapter in Nakama covers 9 basic categories:

1. Functions - As in how to do something, ask for something, or some functional compontent of operating within Japanese. For example, Chapter 3′s function is: Asking for favors and offering help and suggestions; Expressing how to do something.
2. New Vocabulary- Pretty self explanitory, Vocabulary in each chapter will complement the functions section, Dialog, Culture, Language, and any other unfamiliar vocabulary you might encounter in the chapter.
3. Dialogue- Dialogue is often an exchange in Japanese between two people to help assist the student in learning how to implement the functions.
4. Culture- Like Yookoso, the culture section will handle some cultural element of Japan (like vending machines, or telephones)
5. Language- this section makes up the bulk of the chapter. It’s the grammar portion of the chapter that explains various forms of the language.
6. Kanji- This book tackles Kanji- I don’t know how many, but probably the top 500.
7. Reading- Nakama has a reading section that challenges the student to read a paragraph and answer questions about it.
8. Listening- Listen is paired up with tapes so it’s important that you use Nakama in a class setting or have all the materials before moving forward.
9. Communication- Nakama assumes you’re in a class so there’s a small activity that you do to communicate with people.

Overall Nakama is very organized and good for a full balanced class study session of Japanese– For independent learners it’s also full of useful vocab, sentences, and reading paragraphs- If you want to know more about Nakama I encourage you to visit “Friends of Nakama.”
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Minna No Nihongo (more information here from 3A)

When I went to Japan to study intermediate Japanese and conversational Japanese at Hokkusei Gakuen University they used this book. Minna No Nihongo could be described as the Japanese’ Answer to teaching foreigner’s their Language. At first Minna No Nihongo can be intimidating only because book 2 (on it’s own) is completely in Japanese. While it may seem impossible at first– serious learners of Japanese will know the value of having 1 book out of a set of books in full Japanese is very valuable. There is an English translation and grammar book that goes with this too which is a lot like Nakama.

Overall, before I used Minna No Nihongo (lit Everyone’s Japanese) I would have preferred Nakama. However– Minna No Nihongo’s book which is in Full Japanese is actually more useful as it immerses you in Japanese. If you are a serious student you’ll get this book along with the English Translation Notes and Grammar notes, and the workbook.

Time Required
Minna no Nihongo I: 100〜150 hours
Minna no Nihongo II: 100〜150 hours

Lessons
Minna no Nihongo I: 25
Minna no Nihongo II: 25

Vocabulary Items
Minna no Nihongo I: 1,060
Minna no Nihongo II: 900

Basic Sentence Patterns
Minna no Nihongo I: 79
Minna no Nihongo II: 73

Minna No Nihongo FAQ (taken from 3A Corporation)

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James Heisig’s Remember the Kanji 1.

Remembering the Kanji, Vol. 1: A Complete Course on How Not to Forget the Meaning and Writing of Japanese Characters. Starting in March I picked up a PDF copy of the Remember the Kanji (RTK) which covered 400 characters. How I found this book was more of a fluke then anything else, but I believe it was destiny.

Controversy over RTK goes from this is the worst book on Earth that teaches you absolutely nothing to this is the sacred Bible of Kanji.

James Heisig wrote this book with the intent of offering students of Japanese, albeit often discruntled students, a chance at learning all 1,945 Jouyou Kanji as well as an additional 107 kanji used for Names. Heisig doesn’t promise that his book will teach you how to ‘read the kanji’ or how to say in Japanese each Kanji’s name, nor does he help you figure out how his book will integrate into your Japanese studies. Because he doesn’t do this– often people will jump to the conclusion that this book is a hairbrain attempt at throwing you off your game– Yet that would be a GRAND OVERSIGHT as this book rather revolutionizes the way you study Japanese.

As a tool, RTK explains that to know Japanese is to know ALL kanji. Often books on Japanese (as mentioned earlier) will try and throw Japanese as an entire set at the student at once. Emphasis on Kanji is marginalized as books cut the entire 1,945  government regulated Kanji set to the ‘top 500.’ If you seriously contemplate the study of Japanese you will invariably come to realize how problematic this can be. While the top 500 characters will get you around Japan more easily, even the most advanced student will be crippled by kanji they don’t know yet. RTK does you the favor of teaching you in a very simple formula not only how to “Remember the Kanji” in his book, but how to study, learn, and remember Any kanji anywhere. This is done by breaking Kanji up into primatives (not to be confused with radicals).

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Remember the Kanji Status/Kanji Status

My current Remember the Kanji Status is that I’m:

Finished! Completed the RTK1 book and now on to bigger and better things!

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The Japanese Language Proficiency Test Level 2

Strategies for taking the JLPT N2.

(This strategy was adapted from Nihongo Pera Pera’s JLPT 2 Kyuu Page) (instead of Supermemo I’m using Anki, and I’m using the Kanzen books rather then the Unicom with the exception of 1 Unicom grammar book).

Estimated Time of Study: Between 4-6 months 3hrs-6hrs a day

2 hours – spent doing repetitions in Anki

1 hour – spent adding material in Anki

1 hour – spent studying the traditional method (writing/study)

Study Materials:

Anki (software)

The Daily Yo-ji: 2 kyuu

Lang-8 – Multi-lingual language learning and language exchange

How I passed the JLPT 2kyuu using SuperMemo | Nihongo Pera Pera (Fluent Japanese)

JLPT, Jobs & College in Japan – Reviewing the Kanji – Learning Japanese

JLPT Level 2 Study Page

New Japanese-Language Proficiency Test Guidebook and Sample Questions

Index of /datumcenter/jlpt/PDF – Source of JLPT past tests.

Books:

“どんな時どう使う 日本語表現文型辞典”
友松 悦子; 単行本（ソフトカバー）; ￥ 2,940

“完全マスター2級 日本語能力試験文法問題対策”
アジア学生文化協会留学生日本語コース; ペーパーバック; ￥ 1,260

“完全マスター2級日本語能力試験読解問題対 策”
草野 宗子; 単行本; ￥ 1,470

“実力アップ!日本語能力試験2級 文法編”
松本 節子; 単行本; ￥ 1,890

“45日間で基礎からわかる日本語能力試験対策2級文法”

松本 節子; 単行本; ￥ 1200

The Process: From Stage 1 through Stage 5:

Stage 1:

(Pre-stage) Review the test layout via the official guide, read other’s strategies of passing the exam, read JLPT N2 guides, find sources for the vocabulary, Grammar, Reading, and Listening sections; Briefly review kanji lists, vocabulary lists, and grammar points from JLPT N3.

Stage 2: *stage 2-stage 5 could take awhile

Enter vocabulary, kanji, & example sentences into Anki and review them until all of them are above 80% according to Anki.

Stage 3:

Enter grammar points, explanations, & Example Sentences from the grammar (文法) books into Anki as complete sentences (to testing sentence comprehension & and to review). Later, enter grammar questions & answers from the end-of-the-chapter quizzes and review those too.

Stage 4:

Start with full-on reading practice. Using the kanzen master reading comprehension book, start with small sections and work towards reading and understanding larger and larger paragraphs and stories. Here, the goal is to work towards faster and faster reading of materials. Enter words and kanji I’m still sketchy on, but no need to enter full passages into anki.

Stage 5:

Review & Review & Review Full practice tests starting from 1991-2009 over and over until I can pass the review test with-in the specified time with good accuracy. Questions, question forms, or words I’m stuck on I’ll stick into a separate Anki deck.

Final Stage:

Take the stupid test and try to pass it….

After Stage:

If I don’t pass, I’ll need to heavily review the areas I missed on. If I do pass, I’ll move on to JLPT N1.

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Concept PROJECT: CONQUER MY JAPANESE SURROUNDINGS (CMJS)

Project “Conquer My Japanese Surroundings” or CMJS is a strategy I thought up to use to become both more familiar with my surroundings, as well as work to attain fluency in Japanese. The Project would be structured much like Khatzumoto’s All Japanese All The Time Method (AJATT). In AJATT, the objective is to add about 10,000 sentences into a SRS program that you would like to learn. In the process of learning sentences you learn vocabulary, grammar, and all the other trappings of Japanese. As a concept it works out well and is applicable to many regardless of whether they’re in Japan or not.

CMJS would take a somewhat different approach. If one were living in Japan already it would be prudent use their surroundings as a learning tool. Starting with small things such as a Japanese remote control, computer, toilet, or heater– CMJS would aim at tackling Japanese from the immediate surroundings (such as one’s home/apartment) to the world just like how the Prince in Katamari Damacy rolls up ‘stuff’ in his Katamari ball starting with a paper clip to eventually the world!

CMJS would be separated in five distinct phases (with the last one being optional):

• Stage 1 would cover all the Japanese vocabulary, sentences, and kanji compounds within one’s immediate environment. Stage 1 would be “Conquering” all that confusing Japanese one run’s into on a day to day basis so that getting around one’s house or the office would be ‘doable’. So as far as someone’s “Sentences” or “Study Content” — They would start with things like: My Daily Mail, Memos (from the office), Schedules, Name Rosters, Flyer’s, Manuals, etc. Once one feels comfortable with their surroundings they’ll then move to Stage 2.
• Stage 2 would cover all things Local. From City Offices to Malls to Train Stations- The Japanese involved with these places would be their focus until they feel confident within their local area and around local people. In stage 2, depending on the Japanese ability of the person, one may want to pick up a Shakai (Social Studies) book and read it to learn about local politics and facts about their local area.
• Stage 3 would cover all Prefectural, Statewide, or Regional based Japanese. This might be news about an event happening in a town next to them or news from a vacation place somewhere in their Prefecture.  This might also include vacation flier’s, travel reports, prefectural magazines, and other prefectural news. An additional Part of stage 3 may even include learning some of the local-dialect, if applicable.
• Stage 4 would be for all things National, or not covered in the previous stages. This would include all national Television, Radio, Music, and Information about or from the government. This probably will be the most broad area of all the stages. The underlying goal, however, is full comprehension of one’s complete surroundings rather then specific subjects.
• So-no-ta Stage (Further Study)- So-no-ta stage would be if in the future one specializes in a particular field. So-no-ta Stage would follow along the same lines as stage 1, but would be more comprehensive based upon what field someone ends up going into.

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Links and Resources

Links to come soon.. in the mean time see links posted to the right.

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