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@zunou
Hello! I'm sorry if this has been asked before, but how do you become proficient at handling conversations in Japanese/handling grammar very well? I read your post on the JLPT, and it addressed issues I have been tip toe-ing around--indeed, passive actions such as listening or reading are easier than the active ones. How did you go about that? Did you write a bunch of sentences daily? Did you have a conversation partner? What would you rec. to someone who lives outside Japan? Thank you!
This is an excellent question, and one that I get asked a lot irl by Japanese people in particular. Let’s talk about gaining fluency and the ways we can go about it!
How to Gain Fluency in Japanese (and Other Languages)
Speaking Fluency versus Accuracy
Language proficiency is divided into two separate categories:
Fluency: Although there are no widely agreed-upon definitions or measures of language fluency, someone is typically said to be fluent if their use of the language appears fluid, or natural, coherent, and easy as opposed to slow, halting use. In other words, fluency is often described as the ability to produce language on demand and be understood.
Accuracy: Correctness of language use, especially grammatical correctness and word choice.
By the above definitions, a “fluent” speaker may make grammatical mistakes, but they can speak without having to stop and think too much about conjugations, word choice, etc.
An “accurate” speaker can speak with nearly zero grammatical/word choice mistakes. However, the speed of their utterances isn’t generally taken into account, so it could take an “accurate” person twice as long to articulate the same idea as a “fluent” person.
Ideally, you need to strike a good balance between these two qualities when speaking. I have a boss, God bless him, who is 100% fluency and 0% accuracy and…man is it hard to understand what he’s saying sometimes, but he can generally get his point across just barely. I have another coworker who is 100% accuracy and takes about 3 minutes to form a sentence because he wants it to be perfect.
How to Increase Speaking/Writing Accuracy
First, let’s talk about the easiest thing to improve, which is accuracy. It’s also (in my opinion) the least fun thing to improve, because it means grammar books and vocabulary memorization.
You can only use a language accurately if you know what is correct and what is incorrect, and you can only learn that by studying grammar and vocabulary (or if you’re a native speaker and picked it up innately, you lucky bastard).
So here’s some things you can do to increase your accuracy:
For example, if you’re having a hard time using the passive, you need to review that part of your textbook and find some exercises to drill it into your head.
Say the correct thing aloud. Lots. Sometimes I just walk around my apartment and narrate everything I see/do like a crazy person, but that’s good practice.
Write example sentences using the grammar you’re struggling with and say them aloud too.
There’s a bunch of cool apps that connect you with native speakers that can help correct you too! I used to use HelloTalk, I think.
If you’re a creative soul, when I was studying for the JLPT, I took 1 grammar point and 5 vocabulary words from my JLPT study books and used them to write a 2-page short story about the adventures of ネギ, a stray black cat that smelled like green onions because she napped in an onion field. Then I had a Japanese friend check it over for me and mark mistakes. I hand-wrote them to improve my abysmal handwriting at the same time. It was really fun! I sometimes think about doing it again just for funsies.
When someone corrects you, don’t feel like your entire life is over and you’re a failure and you’ll never get it right haha. I’ve seen people fall into that hopeless mindset, and that’s just nonsense. It’s a good opportunity for learning and nothing more! Say the correct thing you’ve just been taught out loud, then write it down if you can. And, if possible, find a chance to use it in conversation asap.
How to Increase Speaking/Writing Fluency
Now this is the hard one. Especially for those learners who do not have native speakers nearby.
I’m going to be dead honest with you. I started formally studying Japanese at uni, and I had a Japanese roommate/best friend since year one. I had a 4.0 GPA in my Japanese classes (and only my Japanese classes lol) because I was and still am a MEGA NERD about it.
…But it wasn’t until I studied abroad in Japan my 4th year of uni that I gained fluency.
There are a lot of things that can hold us back from fluency. An interesting thing I’ve noted is that Foreign Language is perhaps the only subject in which a student’s personality can directly affect their progress. To gain fluency, you have to go forth and speak, but if you are naturally a shy person, that is going to hinder you. If you are the kind of person who takes mistakes/failures poorly, you will be less likely to take risks and try to say harder sentences. In contrast, you can get full marks in math regardless of the above personality traits.
I’m not saying that you have to be an outgoing explosion of a human being in order to gain fluency. But what I am saying is that you have to be willing to seek out conversations, and you have to be willing to take chances. Get out of your comfort zone. Use that new word you picked up the other day. Try to explain something that is difficult for you.
My problem was that, while I lived with a native speaker who would have happily taught me anything I asked, her English proficiency was much higher than my Japanese proficiency. And when I struggled to say something in Japanese, I’d fall back onto English. And when she told me something I didn’t understand in Japanese, she’d repeat it in English instead of Japanese, because that was easier for us both. The same thing happened when I was in Japanese class as well. I always had the assurance that I could fall back on English.
But when I elected to study abroad in Japan for 3 months, I knew that this was my big chance. So on the host family form in the “other requests” area, I wrote that I specifically wanted a host family that could not speak English. I was setting fire to my crutches, and I was scared but excited to see them burn.
By the end of my three months in Japan, I had gone from “Chotto matte kudasai” and needing a minute to form my reply, to “Okay, yeah I see that movie too and I liked the action scenes, but I didn’t care for the story little.” (I’ve underlined mistakes that I would have made in Japanese, to show you that I sacrificed some accuracy to obtain higher fluency.)
So, in short, the easiest and quickest way to increase your spoken fluency is to throw away all the crutches you can and use the language as much as possible. Every single day. Even if you’re just having an imaginary conversation with yourself! And like I said, there are a bunch of cool apps that connect you with Japanese people who want to learn English and you can do language exchanges with them. I had a lot of fun with those in the past.
As for increasing writing fluency…well. That’s a tough question with Japanese, because I can type Japanese at like 100 wpm, but my Japanese handwriting fluency is at a 10/100. I can read and type at the level of a native Japanese high school student, but I can only write the kanji that 7 year old can write. That’s no exaggeration.
The big reason for that dichotomy is that my work is paper-free. 100% of my work is done on screen, so about the only time I have to write out something is when I’m filling out a form, which includes my name (katakana), address, and maybe occupation.
If you want to increase your Japanese handwriting speed, just keep on writing. Write those little short stories about ネギ like I did, or find some writing prompts (I just started a side-blog with writing prompts yesterday btw) or keep a little diary. Make opportunities to write.
How to Have Nice Handwriting in Japanese
Okay, full disclaimer: I am the absolute LAST person qualified to talk about this, because I have awful handwriting in Japanese.
Unless you have prior experience with a different language that uses kanji, or you lack the keen eye of an artist, you will likely struggle to develop neat handwriting.
Personally, I really like using this app called Japanese Kanji Sensei. It’s on Android (not sure about iOS), and if you pay just a few bucks you can make your own kanji sets and stuff. Anyways, it will show you how to write the characters prettily. It gives you a good frame of reference for what nice, pencil/pen-written characters (versus calligraphy characters). It has hiragana and katakana on it too!
I get a stylus and write out the characters on this app for the muscle memory, so my hands remember the sensation of writing a certain character. (The muscle memory is different if you only use your fingertip.) This muscle memory and repetition is how Japanese people learn how to internalize kanji as well. I really enjoy and recommend this app. I’m sure that there are others out there like it too.
Summary
TL;DR: Review your textbooks, take risks, use every resource available or make your own, and just have fun with it! 💗
Keigo: Ancient Sound Changes that still affect Modern Japanese
Okay, so today I want to talk a little about everyone’s FAVORITE subject: Keigo </sarcasm>. Waaaaay back in Kobun Japanese, there used to be 2 types of conjugated adjectives which eventually both turned into い adjectives. These were called く and しく adjectives. Even though in Modern Japanese, these have both turned into い adjectives, in Keigo there’s still some weirdness. The major rule is that く turns into う, dropping /k/, but over time, there’s been a lot of sound changes that have made this rule much harder to follow.
Change #1: aく -> おう This change happened because in Japanese, 95% of the time あう becomes おう (this is where the おう conjugation comes from; it was originally the Mizenkei of the verb with う, but it sound changed into おう)
ex: *おはやくございます* -> おはようございます (I guarantee you’ve heard this before)
Change #2: iく -> ゆう This one has similar motivations as the last one; as time went on, いう started being pronounced as ゆう, as in 言う
ex: *大きくございます* -> 大きゅうございます
Change #3: uく -> うう This one also makes sense if you look at it; the く becomes う, and the old う just stays the same
ex: *寒くございます* -> 寒うございます
Change #4: eく -> よう Actually, this one’s a lie. If there were えい い- adjectives, this is out it would work, but if you remember back to your early Japanese learning, you’ll remember that all adjectives ending in えい are な-adjectives.
Change #4.1: oく -> おう Again, this one is pretty simple; く becomes う, and they just combine.
ex: *面白くございます* -> 面白うございます
Change #5: しく -> しゅう I’ll be dead honest here: I have no clue why this one happens. It down’t follow any Kobun sound changes, and just kinda does its own thing. If anyone has an inkling what’s going on here, please let me know!
ex: *涼しくございます* -> 涼しゅうございます
Sound changes also affect Respectful Verbs, though to a lesser extent than Adjectives
Change #6: り -> い
ex: ござります -> ございます ex: いらっしゃります -> いらっしゃいます Change #7: れ -> い
ex: くだされ -> ください (You’ve almost definitely heard this word too) ex: なされ -> なさい (Again, probably a word you’ve heard before)
Anyways, I think that about covers all the major sound changes that affect Keigo.I hope this helped if you’ve ever ran into troubles with these words before!!
North and South Korean dialect difference and your vocab list preferences!
Okay, so I’m not sure how you guys would like me to do these vocab lists, because in “Crash Landing On You” they use a lot of North Korean dialect, atleast from Jeong Hyeok and his men, since that’s the country the drama is situated in.
For example, in the clip below, Jeong Hyeok says: “여보시오” (Yeo-bo-si-o) which as you may realise, sounds similar to “여보세요” (Yeo-bo-se-yo), and thats because the former is “Hello” (when answering the phone) in North Korean dialect, and the latter is the same but in South Korean dialect.
I do find it really interesting how the dialects can be so similar, yet different, but in terms of benefitting you guys, maybe I should just stick to using vocab from Se Ri instead, since she speaks in a South Korean Seoul dialect?
Let me know what your opinions and preferences are!!
감사합니당~~💘.
직업 (Jik-eob): Occupations! 👩🏽⚕️
직업 (Jik-eob): Job/Occupation(s)
일 (il): Job/Work of any kind
(일 is also the word for ‘day’, confusing, I know!)
회계사 (Hwe-gye-sa): Accountant
배우 (Bae-u): Actor/Actress
건축가 (Geon-chuk-ka): Architect
예술가 (Ye-sul-ga): Artist
우주 비행사 (U-ju / bi-haeng-sa): Astronaut
운동선수 (Un-dong-seon-su): Athlete
저자 (Jeo-ja): Author
은행원 (Eun-haeng-won): Banker
사업가 (Sa-eob-ka): Business person
출납원 (Chul-nab-won): Cashier
사장 (Sa-jang): CEO
요리사 (Yo-ri-sa): Chef
회사원 (Hwe-sa-won): Company employee
작곡가 (Jak-kok-ka): Composer
치과의사 (Chi-gwa-ui-sa): Dentist
조사자 (Jo-sa-ja): Detective
영양학자 (Yeong-yang-hak-ja): Dietician
의사 (Ui-sa): Doctor
기술자 (Gi-sul-ja): Engineer
연예인 (Yeon-ye-in): Entertainer
기업가 (Gi-eob-ka): Entrepreneur
농부 (Nong-bu): Farmer
소방관 (So-bang-gwan): Firefighter
승무원 (Seung-mu-won): Flight attendant
공무원 (Gong-mu-won): Government worker
미용사 (Mi-yong-sa): Hair dresser
주부 (Ju-bu): Housewife
통역사 (Tong-yeok-sa): Interpreter
발명가 (Bal-myeong-ka): Inventor
판사 (Pan-sa): Judge
변호사 (Byeon-ho-sa): Lawyer
구조원 (Gu-jo-won): Lifeguard
마술사 (Ma-sul-sa): Magician
우체부 (U-che-bu): Mail carrier
부장 (Bu-jang) / 매니저 (Mae-ni-jeo): Manager
정비사 (Jeong-bi-sa): Mechanic
군인 (Gun-in): Military personnel
영화 감독 (Yeong-hwa / Gam-dok): Movie Director
음악가 (Eum-ak-ka): Musician
모델 (Mo-del): Mode
보모 (Bo-mo): Nanny
간호사 (Gan-ho-sa): Nurse
목사 (Mok-sa): Pastor
약사 (Yak-sa): Pharmacist
사진사 (Sa-jin-sa): Photographer
조종사 (Jo-jong-sa): Pilot
경찰관 (Gyeong-chal-gwan): Police officer
정치가 (Jeong-chi-ka): Politician
교사 (Gyo-sa): Professor
프로그래머 (peu-ro-geu-rae-meo): Programmer
신부 (Shin-bu): Priest
교장선생님 (Gyo-jang-seon-saeng-nim): Principal
부동산업자 (Bu-dong-san-eob-ja): Real estate agent
접수원 (Jeob-su-won): Receptionist
심판 (Shim-pan): Referee
기자 (Gi-ja): Reporter
판매원 (Pan-mae-won) / 영업 사원 (Yeong-eob / sa-won): Sales person
과학자 (Gwa-hak-ja): Scientist
안전요원 (An-jeon-yo-won): Security guard
비서 (Bi-seo): Secretary
가수 (Ga-su): Singer
사회복지사 (Sa-hwe-bok-ji-sa): Social worker
학생 (Hak-saeng): Student
택시기사 (Taek-si-ki-sa): Taxi driver
선생님 (Seon-saeng-nim): Teacher
번역가 (Beon-yeok-ka): Translator
여행사 (Yeo-haeng-sa): Travel agent
백수 (Baek-su): Unemployed
대학생 (Dae-hak-saeng): University student
교감선생님 (gyo-gam-seon-saeng-nim): Vice principal
지원자 (Ji-won-ja): Volunteer
작가 (jak-ka): Writer
Example sentences:
무슨 일을 하세요? (Mu-seun / i-reul / ha-se-yo?): What do you do?
직업이 뭐예요? (jik-eob-i / mwo-ye-yo?): What do you do for a living? / What is your job?
나는 교육 분야에서 일해요. (Na-neun / gyo-yuk / bun-ya-e-seo / il-hae-yo.): I work in the field of education.
나는 의사이다. (Na-neun / ui-sa-i-da): I am a doctor.
How to learn (+remember!) Korean words
I’ve seen quite a few posts that claim to have tips about learning Korean vocab, and while they have some solid advice, they’re usually pretty general and could be applied to learning any language. As someone who has learned 2,000 Korean words in the past year (but is still very much a learner), I thought I would give some advice for how to learn Korean words specifically–foregoing the traditional advice that one can find anywhere. (Note: I do not live in Korea; this advice can apply to learners living anywhere.)
Learn with audio. I use the AwesomeTTS Add-on for Anki as well as the audio files from HTSK (I’m learning from their word lists and highly recommend them) when available to integrate both text and audio into my flashcards. Using audio helps you to learn the word as an actual word and not as just a series of syllables. After adding audio to my cards I was much better able to remember the words. And of course, learning with context is important!
Learn the alphabet. It’s essential. Using flashcards with audio will help you to learn pronunciation rules as well as how these rules change when syllables come together.
Learn -하다 verbs and adjectives as verbs and adjectives, not nouns. This can’t apply to every -하다 verb and adjective, but take for example 불평하다. If you were to learn 불평 first, you might not know that it could be combined with -하다 to create a verb, especially if you aren’t familiar with Chinese characters (hanja). However, if you knew that 불평하다 meant to complain, then you could guess that 불평 might mean a complaint.
Study hanja. You don’t have to memorize how to write the characters, but learning what certain syllables mean can help you to guess (and remember) the meanings of many words.
Learn from word lists targeted toward Korean learners. When I first started learning Korean, I used list of “commonly used words” geared towards language learners in general. One of the words was “cold”, which has two problems: 1. I translated it as 감기 (a cold that you catch), not knowing if that meant the disease or the adjective; and 2. There are many Korean words that could translate to “to be cold”. Using the right word lists will teach you the correct definitions for every Korean word.
Don’t let your vocab get too far ahead of your grammar. At the beginning, your grammar resource(s) will likely provide you with all the vocab you need as you learn. It’s much easier to expand your vocabulary once you know basic grammar.
Don’t be too concerned with learning slang. In Korean especially, Internet and slang phrases come and go quickly, so unless you have Korean friends to teach you (or you spend lots of time on the Korean Internet), I would recommend spending your time learning standard Korean words. If you’re curious about up-to-date slang though, this blog is amazing.
I hope these tips are helpful, and please let me know if you have any questions~
Languages resources that won’t break your wallet
I am a strong advocate of waiting as long as possible before spending money on learning a language, because there are many free resources out there. Without further ado, lets get into some of my favourites!
Note: These are not language specific, but feel free to let me know if you want any language specific ones!
https://www.101languages.net/
https://www.livelingua.com/fsi/
https://www.surfacelanguages.com/
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Department:Languages
https://www.duolingo.com/ (I know everyone knows this one, but I recommend using it if you can not to learn properly, but to get a feel for the language first)
http://en.childrenslibrary.org/
http://www.gutenberg.org/
https://www.livelingua.com/peace-corps/
http://lexicity.com/
https://lrc.la.utexas.edu/eieol
https://www.omniglot.com/
Three of my favorite things lately
1. 공유 bedtime story on audio clip. This is great for many reasons. Firstly 공유 voice is so freaking calming that it’s relaxing when I need to sleep. Another thing is he tells these stories slowly so I use them for listening practice too.
2. “악마와 계약연애 “ on NAVER webtoon app. I just started this last week and I can’t understand it a 100% but I can understand it enough to enjoy it and I just look up words when I get stuck.
3. Italki . I used this site a lot last year before I moved to korea and in November I started using it again. I currently take lessons 4 times a week with 2 teachers. One I use for speaking and the other I use specifically for writing. I don’t use English at all during lessons which is nice. And I alter between getting help/practice with class work and learning to talk and write about stuff related to my major. For example my writing teacher is showing me how to do look up research for my major and my speaking teacher we are just reviewing class for this week and last week I we talked about comparisons of korean and American health care systems and policies. There are lots of teachers and they are various price ranges and experience levels. It took me a few trials to find teachers who really fit me but I feel good about the ones I have now
These are my 3 favorite things so far. Do you guys have something you’re really into these days?
Hello! I'm sorry if this has been asked before, but how do you become proficient at handling conversations in Japanese/handling grammar very well? I read your post on the JLPT, and it addressed issues I have been tip toe-ing around--indeed, passive actions such as listening or reading are easier than the active ones. How did you go about that? Did you write a bunch of sentences daily? Did you have a conversation partner? What would you rec. to someone who lives outside Japan? Thank you!
This is an excellent question, and one that I get asked a lot irl by Japanese people in particular. Let’s talk about gaining fluency and the ways we can go about it!
How to Gain Fluency in Japanese (and Other Languages)
Speaking Fluency versus Accuracy
Language proficiency is divided into two separate categories:
Fluency: Although there are no widely agreed-upon definitions or measures of language fluency, someone is typically said to be fluent if their use of the language appears fluid, or natural, coherent, and easy as opposed to slow, halting use. In other words, fluency is often described as the ability to produce language on demand and be understood.
Accuracy: Correctness of language use, especially grammatical correctness and word choice.
By the above definitions, a “fluent” speaker may make grammatical mistakes, but they can speak without having to stop and think too much about conjugations, word choice, etc.
An “accurate” speaker can speak with nearly zero grammatical/word choice mistakes. However, the speed of their utterances isn’t generally taken into account, so it could take an “accurate” person twice as long to articulate the same idea as a “fluent” person.
Ideally, you need to strike a good balance between these two qualities when speaking. I have a boss, God bless him, who is 100% fluency and 0% accuracy and…man is it hard to understand what he’s saying sometimes, but he can generally get his point across just barely. I have another coworker who is 100% accuracy and takes about 3 minutes to form a sentence because he wants it to be perfect.
How to Increase Speaking/Writing Accuracy
First, let’s talk about the easiest thing to improve, which is accuracy. It’s also (in my opinion) the least fun thing to improve, because it means grammar books and vocabulary memorization.
You can only use a language accurately if you know what is correct and what is incorrect, and you can only learn that by studying grammar and vocabulary (or if you’re a native speaker and picked it up innately, you lucky bastard).
So here’s some things you can do to increase your accuracy:
For example, if you’re having a hard time using the passive, you need to review that part of your textbook and find some exercises to drill it into your head.
Say the correct thing aloud. Lots. Sometimes I just walk around my apartment and narrate everything I see/do like a crazy person, but that’s good practice.
Write example sentences using the grammar you’re struggling with and say them aloud too.
There’s a bunch of cool apps that connect you with native speakers that can help correct you too! I used to use HelloTalk, I think.
If you’re a creative soul, when I was studying for the JLPT, I took 1 grammar point and 5 vocabulary words from my JLPT study books and used them to write a 2-page short story about the adventures of ネギ, a stray black cat that smelled like green onions because she napped in an onion field. Then I had a Japanese friend check it over for me and mark mistakes. I hand-wrote them to improve my abysmal handwriting at the same time. It was really fun! I sometimes think about doing it again just for funsies.
When someone corrects you, don’t feel like your entire life is over and you’re a failure and you’ll never get it right haha. I’ve seen people fall into that hopeless mindset, and that’s just nonsense. It’s a good opportunity for learning and nothing more! Say the correct thing you’ve just been taught out loud, then write it down if you can. And, if possible, find a chance to use it in conversation asap.
How to Increase Speaking/Writing Fluency
Now this is the hard one. Especially for those learners who do not have native speakers nearby.
I’m going to be dead honest with you. I started formally studying Japanese at uni, and I had a Japanese roommate/best friend since year one. I had a 4.0 GPA in my Japanese classes (and only my Japanese classes lol) because I was and still am a MEGA NERD about it.
…But it wasn’t until I studied abroad in Japan my 4th year of uni that I gained fluency.
There are a lot of things that can hold us back from fluency. An interesting thing I’ve noted is that Foreign Language is perhaps the only subject in which a student’s personality can directly affect their progress. To gain fluency, you have to go forth and speak, but if you are naturally a shy person, that is going to hinder you. If you are the kind of person who takes mistakes/failures poorly, you will be less likely to take risks and try to say harder sentences. In contrast, you can get full marks in math regardless of the above personality traits.
I’m not saying that you have to be an outgoing explosion of a human being in order to gain fluency. But what I am saying is that you have to be willing to seek out conversations, and you have to be willing to take chances. Get out of your comfort zone. Use that new word you picked up the other day. Try to explain something that is difficult for you.
My problem was that, while I lived with a native speaker who would have happily taught me anything I asked, her English proficiency was much higher than my Japanese proficiency. And when I struggled to say something in Japanese, I’d fall back onto English. And when she told me something I didn’t understand in Japanese, she’d repeat it in English instead of Japanese, because that was easier for us both. The same thing happened when I was in Japanese class as well. I always had the assurance that I could fall back on English.
But when I elected to study abroad in Japan for 3 months, I knew that this was my big chance. So on the host family form in the “other requests” area, I wrote that I specifically wanted a host family that could not speak English. I was setting fire to my crutches, and I was scared but excited to see them burn.
By the end of my three months in Japan, I had gone from “Chotto matte kudasai” and needing a minute to form my reply, to “Okay, yeah I see that movie too and I liked the action scenes, but I didn’t care for the story little.” (I’ve underlined mistakes that I would have made in Japanese, to show you that I sacrificed some accuracy to obtain higher fluency.)
So, in short, the easiest and quickest way to increase your spoken fluency is to throw away all the crutches you can and use the language as much as possible. Every single day. Even if you’re just having an imaginary conversation with yourself! And like I said, there are a bunch of cool apps that connect you with Japanese people who want to learn English and you can do language exchanges with them. I had a lot of fun with those in the past.
As for increasing writing fluency…well. That’s a tough question with Japanese, because I can type Japanese at like 100 wpm, but my Japanese handwriting fluency is at a 10/100. I can read and type at the level of a native Japanese high school student, but I can only write the kanji that 7 year old can write. That’s no exaggeration.
The big reason for that dichotomy is that my work is paper-free. 100% of my work is done on screen, so about the only time I have to write out something is when I’m filling out a form, which includes my name (katakana), address, and maybe occupation.
If you want to increase your Japanese handwriting speed, just keep on writing. Write those little short stories about ネギ like I did, or find some writing prompts (I just started a side-blog with writing prompts yesterday btw) or keep a little diary. Make opportunities to write.
How to Have Nice Handwriting in Japanese
Okay, full disclaimer: I am the absolute LAST person qualified to talk about this, because I have awful handwriting in Japanese.
Unless you have prior experience with a different language that uses kanji, or you lack the keen eye of an artist, you will likely struggle to develop neat handwriting.
Personally, I really like using this app called Japanese Kanji Sensei. It’s on Android (not sure about iOS), and if you pay just a few bucks you can make your own kanji sets and stuff. Anyways, it will show you how to write the characters prettily. It gives you a good frame of reference for what nice, pencil/pen-written characters (versus calligraphy characters). It has hiragana and katakana on it too!
I get a stylus and write out the characters on this app for the muscle memory, so my hands remember the sensation of writing a certain character. (The muscle memory is different if you only use your fingertip.) This muscle memory and repetition is how Japanese people learn how to internalize kanji as well. I really enjoy and recommend this app. I’m sure that there are others out there like it too.
Summary
TL;DR: Review your textbooks, take risks, use every resource available or make your own, and just have fun with it! 💗
Some useful collocations for time
(from “Common Japanese Collocations” by Kakuko Shoji, with some additions)
時間をつぶす to kill time 時間を無駄にする to waste time ~に時間を費やす to spend time (wastefully) on ~ 時間を節約する to save time 時間をかける to take (a long) time (to do something) (usually ~に時間をかける or 時間をかけて~する) 時間がかかる (something) takes (a long) time 時間を決める・変更する to set/change a time 時間に追われている to be pressed for time 時間に縛られる to have a tight schedule 時間が余る to have time left over
食事制限
しょくじせいげん
dietary restriction
「HOUSE ハウス」 / 大林 宣彦 / 1977
The Exorcist, Kazuo Umezu. 1974
To commemorate The Exorcist‘s release in Japan, then-to-be legend Kazuo Umezu was asked to create a full color spread in the July 7th issue of Shonen Sunday. At the time, Umezu was 38 years old and had a few of his most famous works of his career already behind him. These included 猫目小僧 (Nekome Kouzo, Cat Eyed Boy), おろち (Orochi, Orochi: Blood) and 漂流教室 (Hyouryuu Kyoushitsu, The Drifting Classroom)
Korean Textbooks Master Post
Hello everyone! Here are some textbooks I had time to scan and upload (marked with an asterisk) or had found somewhere online. I hope you find something here that helps you! This post will be updated as I get more time to scan books, purchase more books, or if I happen to find more books online.
Can’t find the textbook you’re looking for on this list? Please feel free to hit up my ask! I may have it, but just haven’t scanned it yet.
Ewha Korean
Ewha Korean 1-1 Ewha Korean 1-2 Ewha Korean 2-2 Ewha Korean 3-2 Ewha Korean 4 Ewha Korean 5 Ewha Korean 6
KIIP Korean
KIIP Korean 0 KIIP Korean 1 KIIP Korean 2 KIIP Korean 3 KIIP Korean 4 KIIP Korean 5 KIIP Korean 6
Korean From Zero
Korean From Zero Volume 1 Korean From Zero Volume 2 Korean From Zero Volume 3
Korean Grammar in Use
Korean Grammar in Use Beginner Korean Grammar in Use Intermediate Korean Grammar in Use Advanced
Sejong Korean
Sejong Korean 1 Sejong Korean 2 Sejong Korean 3 Sejong Korean 4 Sejong Korean 5 Sejong Korean 6 Sejong Korean 7 Sejong Korean 8
Sejong Korean Conversation 1 Sejong Korean Conversation 2 Sejong Korean Conversation 3 Sejong Korean Conversation 4
Sogang Korean
Sogang Korean 1A Sogang Korean 1B Sogang Korean 2A Sogang Korean 2B Sogang Korean 3A Sogang Korean 3B
TOPIK
빈도별 토픽 중고급 어휘* 빈도별 토픽 중급 문법* TOPIK Essential Grammar 150 Hot TOPIK 2 Reading
Yonsei Korean
Yonsei Korean Grammar 1-1 Yonsei Korean Grammar 1-2 Yonsei Korean Grammar 2-1 Yonsei Korean Grammar 2-2 Yonsei Korean Grammar 3-1 Yonsei Korean Grammar 3-2 Yonsei Korean Grammar 4-1 Yonsei Korean Grammar 4-2 Yonsei Korean Grammar 5-1 Yonsei Korean Grammar 5-2 Yonsei Korean Grammar 6-1 Yonsei Korean Grammar 6-2
Yonsei Korean Reading 1 Yonsei Korean Reading 2 Yonsei Korean Reading 3 Yonsei Korean Reading 4 Yonsei Korean Reading 5
Miscellaneous:
Korean Stories for Language Learners* TTMIK Real Life Conversations (Intermediate)* Korean Reader for Chinese Characters Korean Slang Expressions Volume 1 Korean Slang Expressions Volume 2 Survival Korean
Last updated: 9/13/2019
korean & japanese particles
— a small particle comparison. if you’re studying either korean or japanese 🇯🇵🇰🇷 and want to learn the other language, this might be interesting!
은/는 ー は 이/가 ー が 을/를 ー を 과/와 ー と 으로/로 ー で (수단 / 手段) 의 ー の 에 ー に (시간 + 장소 / 時間 + 場所) 에서 ー で, から(장소 / 場所) 부터 ー から ( 시간 / 時間) 까지 ー まで 에게 (한테) - に (사람 / 人) 도 ー も 만 ー だけ
10 unusual language learning tips !
i see a lot of the same (sometimes unhelpful) tips being thrown around, so here’s my two cents:
1. write shopping lists/to do lists in your target language - often you don’t learn this vocab but it’s conversational & v useful! also writing yourself notes (lil pep talks on the bathroom mirror, for example) can work.
2. buy a small whiteboard and practice verb conjugation (esp. romantic languages) or script writing
3. talk to pets in target language if possible!
4. look for quotes in your target language - often the turns of phrase are more colloquial, and is a good opportunity to see how things are translated from your native language
5. find a fairly easy news headline (in target lang) and try to re-write it w/ vocab you already have. you’ll quickly find gaps - this is a good thing! (if you’re feeling extra spicy, try writing a small subheading or description about the article).
6. create an imaginary friend who you speak with on the shower, or on the train, doing the laundry etc. talk w/ them in your target lang (in your head, obvs) about your day, future plans, etc etc.
~for more advanced learners~
7. when you’re more advanced, and have some grasp of past/future tenses, buy a children’s/tween’s/YA book that you’ve already read. highlight and annotate the shit out of it. you’ll know the general gist already, which makes context clues easier to find.
8. change wikipedia settings into target language - same goes for any social media site. this can be a mega challenge, but is so good for vocab, plus you’re more likely to remember the info since you worked so hard for it.
9. write a review for a book/film/record/whatever you’ve most recently consumed. maybe start a diary of them, or just have an ongoing word doc.
10. find a bilingual edition of poetry/literature if possible. you might find you can spot translation differences, but you’re sure to find some new vocab.