Learning Supplies

Today I want to show you the stuff I am using for learning japanese.

I am a “Genki” User. I saw this textbook a while ago when a friend of mine started learning japanese at university. I thought it is a really good book. Nicely explained with fun characters and you learn stuff that you need as a young human being. Of course the vocabulary is especially for students so that makes sense.

Bought the text- and workbook on my trip to Japan for myself and enjoyed learning japanese with this book after I had to experience the textbook “japanese for busy people” which was a punch in the face.

I took some breaks and only managed to get to lesson 4 until now but I got not motivated at all because I was missing something. And this was the audio lessons. It is no good to learn japanese without being able to listen to the audio lessons of a textbook. And even the workbook was full of audio parts which I couldn’t do.

Now I finally got my CD Set für the Genki Volume I Set. The only think I am missing now is the Answer Key Book which will arrive at my place in probably two to three weeks. And than I can seriously start learning japanese.

Together with Genki I use the Kanji flashcards for the JLPT Level 4 and 3 produced by Whiterabbitpress.

They are a great addition for learning on the go. If you have to go to school/university/work by bus or train you can use the time traveling on reviewing some Kanji.

They provide you with the different readings, the translation, the stroke order, the radical, similiar Kanji so you don’t mess up, and five ways of using the Kanji in different vocabularies. That way you can remember a bit easier the different readings and you can improve your vocabulary as well.

The next thing I own is a Kanji encyclopedia. I am not using this book that much but it really does help in finding Kanji if you read them on print media. I have a small japanese – german dictionary too which is not the best dictionary because of its size but it wasn’t that expensive and sure can help you out if you are in Japan and don’t own an electronic dictionary or an iPhone/iPod touch with an app.

If you want to get better at japanese you have to listen to it. You have to use it. You have to read it.

And for the reading purpose I have the whole set of light novels from the series The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.

Sure there are a lot of Kanji I don’t know and reading and particulary understanding is somewhat a pain but it can help in getting fluent at reading Kana. For some easier understandable books I have a few volumes of Yotsubato! which is a great Manga for learning japanese. It isn’t a too complexed story with futuristic words and stuff. And even if you don’t understand at all you can still laugh because the drawings do the talking.

The next things I want to buy are some books for children. They are full of Kana and with basic Kanji for elementary school kids.

Learning a new language means to learn like a child. At first you really don’t know anything and it takes time to learn.

It takes a while until you can speak good enough and it takes a while to read and write. If you get yourself into this state you won’t rush learning japanese. At the beginning you are faster as a child because you already know how to speak one language. This helps out alot.

But remember. Even japanese don’t know every Kanji from the beginning. They don’t know every single word. They have to go to school for years and learn just like yourself. So don’t rush your studies but have fun and enjoy what you are doing. This way your will put more effort into your studies.

And now I will show some digital supplies. For computer use I have some favourite websites and programs.

My most favourite program is Wakan. It is a offline dictionary for english-japanese and english-chinese and has a huge list of Kanji as well. It is really well explained and you can enter japanese words without being able to write Kana or Kanji. The program recognizes japanese words even if you are writing them in romaji.

And of course I do use Anki, which most of the people probably know already. Anki is a flashcard program based on SRS. Spaced Repetition System. The program knows when it has to ask for a word or Kanji again if you honestly answers its questions.

Two really helpful websites I want to show you is smart.fm and Hiragana Megane.

smart.fm is a flashcard program as well but it is more flashy with example sentences and a huge community providing learning lists.

Hiragana Megane is a really brilliant website. If you are no Kanji expert you can somewhat translate japanese websites if the text is not in a picture or flash. All Kanji on the website you linked with Hiragana Megane will get additional furigana. Let me give you an example with the SCANDAL Blog. As you can see above all Kanji are Hiragana characters. Now you can read japanese websites without knowing all the Kanji.