How to make the best of your learning materials!

1) How can I improve my reading?

Our workbooks use romaji, hiragana, katakana and kanji to accommodate a wide range of learners. If you are new to studying Japanese and don’t feel quite comfortable reading or seeing hiragana, make use of the romaji. We hope that you gain the confidence to look at and/or identify the hiragana one day. For those who feel comfortable reading and/or identifying hiragana, you can challenge yourself to read katakana and kanji. All of our katakana and kanji have furigana, which is hiragana on top of the kanji, to help you read them easily. Take note of new words in either your free Enikki or workbook. Creating a weekly word bank will be helpful to memorize vocabulary.

2) There’s so much to memorize!?

Yes, as beginner language learners, there are many things that you must memorize, but the task is not as daunting as you think as we focus on practical and useful words that are used in the contexts of dialogues, readings and exercises. In other words, we don’t teach vocab that is irrelevant to these aspects of the course, which helps you remember the words (whether you’re conscious of it or not). We know that retaining vocab and information is the most difficult part of the language journey.

Here are some tips to help you with retention:

• Convert words into images: If you're a visual learner, it will be helpful to go over the PPT to help you associate the word with an image. If images are not provided, try to imagine a picture in your mind that is reminiscent of the word. Thinking of a personal connection or thinking of how the word reminds you of something are great strategies!

• Create a set of flashcards: If you’re a tactile learner, making flashcards where you write the romaji or hiragana/katakana on one side of the card and the English meaning on the other side, will help you remember the word through a kind of memory game.

• Categorize words: Sometimes, it’s easy to remember words if we stack information or compartmentalize them into categories. For example, if you’re learning food words, make a word bank of food-related words. If you’re learning verbs, make a list of “u” and “i” and irregular verbs. If it’s adjectives, try to divide them into “i” and “na” adjectives (as we have done in our curriculum). BUT!! Making a list of words is not enough. Try creating flashcards or listening to the audio. See how they are used in sentences by re-visiting the workbooks.

• Have fun with mnemonics! (Words that sound the same or rhyme). Similar to the tip above, mnemonic devices help you retain and store information because they build connections with certain words. Take a look at the short video that explains how this process works!

3) Listening and Speaking

While many Nikkei learners of Japanese have strong pronunciation skills, we encourage you to listen to the audio to familiarize yourself with the pronunciation of the words used in our curriculum. Make it a weekly habit before or after class to go over the vocabulary and listen to the audio. Try to mimic the sounds you hear. If you are inclined to learn more about Japanese pronunciation, pitch and accent, we recommend the course Japanese for Phonetics 101, which can be found on the course page. We also recommend that you go to the Ochakai to practice speaking in Japanese.

For extra listening practice, click on the following links! We highly recommend them.

• https://www.mykikitori.com/

• http://genki.japantimes.co.jp/site/video/en/

4) Those Darn Particles!!

Although we teach the use of particles in class, many beginner learners of Japanese express difficulty in understanding the use of Japanese particles. One great way to use our workbooks to help you with particles is to circle or underline them in sentences to see where they are placed and how they function. For a brief recap of the use of particles, and Japanese word order, watch the videos below.

To review particles, click here!

5) Writing is so hard!

Although this course does not focus on writing, a sure way to improve is to write out the sentences in the workbooks. This might seem tedious, but it will not only help with writing the Japanese “letters", but help you see the grammatical structure of Japanese sentences, and help you remember them, which will ultimately enable you to speak Japanese fluently. Saying the Japanese words as you write them also has a mnemonic effect. If you’re struggling to write hiragana, take a look at the hiragana video-PPT under “eWorkbook and Resources” (on the course page) to get you started. JFN will also offer a writing course in the near future.

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