Hello. Alex has kindly given me a bit of blog space on the learnjapanesepod.com site so I shall endeavor to use it to write about all things Japan and Japanese. For the usual bit of background, I will say that I’m an English teacher in Japan. I arrived March 2009 and live and work in and around Chiba. I used to work in IT, and will probably go back to that eventually, maybe in Japan. I’ve been studying Japanese for about 5 years (evening classes – this is my first time in Japan and it shows) and will take the JLPT level 2 test (again) this December. I also studied a Masters at SOAS, London, majoring in Japanese history. My dissertation was on Second World War Japanese propaganda.
That’s my background.
Useful sites I use for studying Japanese are these.
http://smart.fm/home
Great site for studying vocab. Has a lot of lists already created by people however you can create your own.
http://lang-8.com/
Write a diary and have native speakers correct it and give you notes. You do the same to theirs.
http://www.thinkmac.co.uk/ikanji/
I use the iKanji touch person on my iPhone. Great tool for studying Kanji on the train.
I also go to free lessons.
http://www.mcic.or.jp/e_index.htm
Free one to one lessons from volunteers. Most of my teachers friends who live around Chiba do this. As long as you are clear about how you want to study, it’s good. They are usually not trained teachers so chatting is what I get out of it, with correction.
I also go to the Tsudanuma Kouminkan for a group lesson. More structured and a better teacher. You can hear a podcast mentioning this kind of class and giving more information. I think it’s a fun friday podcast.
That’s about it. I usually write a diary 3/4 times a week, based around a theme (with themed vocab) or a set of grammar points I want to practise (don’t just write things – you’ll normally write what you can already do pretty well). I also take vocab from lessons, diary corrections, reading Manga (currently reading Inu Yasha – it’s a bit too hard), JLPT books and emails with friends and use that in SmartFM, taking the Kanji from that vocab and putting it into iKanji. It kinda of all melds together nicely. Listening to Anime or TV helps, although I prefer the former as you can rewind and dictate for better practice. And Japanese TV is bizarrely bad.
Anyway. More to come. よろしくお願いします。
