Archive for March, 2010
Speak Japanese Fluently
Speak Japanese Fluently promises to teach the student to “Speak Intermediate Level Japanese Fluently within 30 Days or Your Money Back.” That’s a big promise, but one that becomes more understandable as you read more about the program.
First of all, the makers of Speak Japanese Fluently did not design it for beginners. A husband and [...]
Speak Japanese Fast
Speak Japanese Fast is a Japanese learning program with a twist. Unlike most Japanese teaching systems, the creator of this system applies techniques he learned from the works of memory expert, Harry Lorayne to the study of Japanese. In order to decide if this course is for you, you need to first know who Harry [...]
Nihongo Japanese
Takanori Tomita, the creator of Nihongo Japanese, learned how difficult it is to learn a new language when he moved to Australia at the age of fourteen and had to learn English from scratch. Upon returning to Japan, he undertook a dual career in translation and online Japanese teaching. Nihongo Japanese is the result of [...]
Bullet Japanese
As the name implies, Bullet Japanese is a speed learning program. The developer of the Bullet system certainly doesn’t waste time making some very big claims for his program. He claims to be able to teach you how to memorize up to 100 words of Japanese in one hour. It is such an outlandish boast, [...]
Notes about Japanese Language Learning Systems
Anki….
<Anki> is a free to download piece of flashcard software. Based on the principles of <SRS – link to Wired article> or, <Spaced Recognition Systems>, Anki intelligently scehdules flashcard repetitions based on your rate of success or failure of previous reviews, taking the work out of having to decide what to review, and when. Successfully [...]
IPhone Applications for Learning Japanese
Japanese Learning on the Move
By all accounts, the iPhone should be a seriously useful piece of kit for the Japanese learner with it`s portability and touch screen functionality. However, it doesn’t quite seem to have the killer apps required to make it a truly useful piece of kit. However, it still has a few useful [...]
Online Resources for Japanese Language Learning (SharedTalk, Rikai.com, 10,000 Sentences)
The last post provided a couple of applications to start bringing your Japanese learning into reality, with a useful SRS application to review kanji, and a web-based application to help build word power. This article shares both more ways of bringing your Japanese learning into the realistic domain, and introduces an application to help you [...]
Online Resources for Japanese Language Learning (Anki, Kanji Koohii)
This site really takes a lot of the effort out of learning kanji and is a pleasure to use. Unfortunately, it is no longer free (although accounts created prior to charging will be honoured as free), but it is really worth the $10 sign-up for a lifetime membership (and additionally, you can get the hirigana, katakana, and JLPT4 decks as part of a free trial).
Online and Lesser-Known Resources for the Japanese Learner
Japanese is difficult, from the sheer number of kanji needed even to read basic materials such as menus and train schedules, through to the alien pronunciation, to the esoteric sentence structure and impenetrable grammar, to the myriad politeness levels needed to not cause offence, things are not easy for the Japanese learner.
The Heisig Method
Heisig is a powerful mnemonic Kanji learning technique, invented by James W. Heisig in order to expedite the process of “how not to forget the meaning and writing of Japanese characters”
