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4
March, 2001
LEARNING
JAPANESE … THE
MODERN WAY
Besides the tried and true method of taking lessons through a class, there are a number of other ways to learn the Japanese language on your own. Take my word for it - I've tried many of them myself.
| Learn "Conversational Japanese in 7 Days?" Yeah, right, sure. Whatever. |
Not surprisingly, I also happen to be a junkie for high-tech ways to learn Japanese.
I own a Berlitz CD-ROM for business Japanese which is pretty helpful, though it's now filed somewhere in a box in the basement. It featured a fun vocabulary quiz which had a Tokyo subway motif - if you answered correctly, you got to move to the next station on the subway map, which showed real Tokyo subway stops and lines. I've also tried another CD-ROM, "Exotic Japan," that includes primers on both language and Japanese culture using 19th-century woodblock prints of the Tokaido Road as stopping points for the educational journey. The CD-ROMs are attractive because of the extra features they can provide, such as the ability on one disc to switch the speaker pronouncing the vocabulary words from male to female animated announcers so the student can identify easier with the lesson.
Unfortunately, none of these low and high-tech tools have helped me become fluent in Japanese. Eventually, I get bored or frustrated or both and put them all aside. Both the Berlitz and "Exotic Japan" CDs are filed away in a box somewhere in the basement, and it's been several years since I've clicked around in them. I know, I know - it's a waste of money. The Japanese have a wonderful word for wasteful, "mottainai." How's that for a quick Japanese lesson right here? It's a word I grew up hearing, every time I left food on the table, broke a brand-new toy or ruined or outgrew a new piece of clothing. I know that word well.
Anyway, I feel guilty about buying all these gadgets, and will promise to find the discs and try them out again sometime soon.
Every once in a while I get the urge to try again, and the newest technology, including the Internet, offers even more choices for learning the language, while the books and old-fashioned learning tools keep coming out.
Recently I bought "Instant Immersion Japanese," a four-CD-ROM set that includes vocabulary and pronunciation lessons in two discs, "Talk Now!" and "World Talk Japanese," followed by a dictionary, translation and kanji reference disc, "JquickTrans" and "Voyage in Japan," an interactive tour of Japan. The price was irresistible - under $20 - so I thought I would try it. It's interesting and helpful so far, although I haven't had the time to thoroughly study it.
At the same time, Erin happened to purchase a package called "Ultimate Japanese" that includes a 512-page textbook and eight audio cassettes. The cassettes come in two versions - one that is all in Japanese, to use with the book at home. The other set is bilingual, and is very handy for learning on the go - the tapes are full of Japanese conversations which are translated line for line with long pauses so that you can repeat them to practice pronunciation.
Erin and I listened along and repeated the words on a recent one-hour drive down to Colorado Springs, and though I can't say I remember much about that lesson, I recall that I was pleasantly surprised at how much of the Japanese conversations I could understand before the English-speaking announcer translated the sentences for us. We've also popped the tapes in while we exercise, so we could work out our brains and bodies at the same time. I don't have many muscles yet, either….
The Internet is an incredible resource for Japanese language information and education. There are Web sites out there that even pronounce words when you click on them, and sites that teach katakana and hiragana alphabets by using animated brush strokes for the user to follow. Web browsers allow easy (and free) addition of software that shows kanji and other Japanese characters so you can visit Japanese Web sites and practice what you learn by seeing the Internet from a Japanese Internet surfer's eyes.
All of this effort is worth it if I can expand my career options and achieve personal goals such as eventually finding a job that will take me to Japan on regular trips. There's no denying it: Japan is still the second-largest economy in the world after the US, and though many people are predicting that Japan's business influence will be eclipsed by China and other Asian nations, the ability to communicate and conduct business with Japanese is a prime skill-set for success. People who ask students why they bother studying Japanese instead of some more "useful" language obviously have a limited worldview.
My interest isn't out of mere greed, though. I love my culture and have family members in Japan. I want to visit again as soon as my budget allows, and next time I'm there I don't want to have only halting conversations in broken Japanese with taxi drivers. I'll always be more American than Japanese, but I want to be a little more balanced and try to be less obviously a foreigner.
So I'm once again on a mission to try and expand my ability with the language of my heritage.
The one problem with trying to learn more Japanese is that the farther along I get, the more I realize I've forgotten about English. Driving to work with an "Ultimate Japanese" tape can sometimes be distracting because the announcer occasionally uses terms I only dimly remember from my high school English grammar courses to describe the Japanese words and passages I'm about to hear.
"The 'ba' form of verbs, 'ai' adjectives and the cupula at the end of a subordinate clause means 'if' or 'provided that,'" the pleasant woman's voice informs me before a Japanese sentence pours out of the speakers.
Um, yeah, right sure. Whatever.