Since then, I’ve continued with this fascinating language.

My aim has been to put in at least thirty minutes of focussed study and practice, at least five times a week.

Japanese learning language log

By the end of July this year, I’d clocked up 299 hours, 30 minutes.

Here’s an update of the numbers on the clock:

August 2020: 18 hours, ten minutes (including 3.5 hours conversation) over 23 days.

September 2020: 21 hours, twenty-five minutes (including 4 hours conversation) over 23 days.

October 2020: 13 hours (including 30 mins conversation) over 20 days.

Running total (1 January 2019 to 31 October 2020): 352 hours, 5 minutes

My approach

Whether or not you should start speaking your target language early depends on your personality and how you motivate yourself to learn.

The last language I started learning seriously was Basque.

I put a lot of emphasis on speaking early and often. From the early stages I had regular, live one-to-one lessons via Skype, booked through the excellent italki platform.

With Japanese, I’ve returned to my “traditional method” of internalising the key grammar patterns, a core bank of key phrases and the most frequent vocab before starting to speak.

I’ve done this by working through several courses in as interactive as possible a way (using audio for listening practice, developing my listening skills through dictation, using the shadowing method to practise the pronunciation and rhythm of Japanese; doing self-correct exercises).

Speaking practice

I did some basic spoken Japanese on the ground in Japan after nine months of preparation, of course.

I only started with some one-to-one speaking sessions in summer 2020, though.

The push that got me trying to speak was participation in my friend John Fotheringham’s Language Accelerator programme, which ran through July.

In July I took had ten live one-to-ones with a Japanese native-speaker teacher as part of the Accelerator. Then I continued with John’s follow-on programme in August and September, which involved taking another four sessions in August and four in September. Now that programme has finished too and in October I deliberately switched back to my previous mode of operation and only did one live session.

My summer 2020 foray into speaking confirmed that my Japanese is still very basic but it was fun to see that, yes, it does work, after a fashion.

Shouldn’t I be better by now?

In my last update vid, I shared the clip of me practising my basic Japanese “self-introduction” phrases (for John’s Accelerator programme). I wasn’t reading the phrases out but I did need to rehearse them a lot.

Commenting on my very elementary performance, one regular viewer over on the YouTube channel suggested that by holding back on speaking, speaking for me had become “almost as a review activity”.

She added: “You are here going through the very basic sentence structures of early A1 and practising those. I would think that you will advance through the rest of A1 and A2 now with a reasonable pace, as you have already accumulated so much more vocabulary and grammar, and have trained your eyes and ears to take in more advanced material in the language.”

I think there’s a lot in this. In the vid, I’m a bit like a foal trying to stand up for the first time on fully formed, but very, very shaky legs.

The experience got me thinking “Am I ‘on target’ with my Japanese?”. What’s reasonable to expect at this stage?

It’s estimated that to get to a “upper beginner” (A2) level in Western European language on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, you need to put in 180 to 200 hours. To get to the top of “B1” (lower intermediate), you need another 400 hours.

When I shot my “self-intro” vid in early July, I had 286 hours on the clock. So, could I expect to be well into B1 with a bit more speaking “activation practice”?

Just how well formed can I expect my “legs” to be at this stage?

First, I need to recalibrate that 286 hour total.

Some of that time has gone on thoroughly learning the two phonetic alphabets (more accurately “syllabaries”) that are used in Japanese’s eclectic writing system.

A lot of time has gone on learning the third ingredient in the mix that is written Japanese: the kanji (that’s to say, the Chinese characters). In the first months of my project I studied the first 200 in James Heisig’s classic Remembering the Kanji book. The 80 characters taught in my core textbook, Japanese from Zero 3, were nearly all from within those 200, but it still quite a lot of time to go through the six or seven that the authors presented in each lesson (and to do the reading and writing exercises in the book that use the characters).

Most European languages are, of course written in Latin script and both the Cyrillic and Greek scripts are quite simple to learn. So, I think it’s fair to deduct “kana time” and “kanji time” were to be deduced from my running total. If I did that, I’d guess my total in early July would still be at, say, 240 hours.

On the other hand, I have also done about 50 hours listening to the Pimsleur audio only course (not included in my time log), so that might push my total back to around 300 hours.

A running total of 300 hour suggest I “should” be able to activate my language even to mid B1 if I keep speaking.

This is especially so given that, compared with French or German, Japanese has some very easy aspects: no word “gender”, no cases, a simple and regular system of verb tenses), a great many loan words from English.

On the other hand, the way that Japanese works (and most of the core vocabulary) is very different from the European languages and it often seems to take Europeans longer to learn (even if you factor out the writing system).

On balance, then, I’d say I should be able to advance “at a reasonable pace” to A2 with more activation practice. But with these time totals on the clock, I shouldn’t be beating myself up for not being further on than that yet.

Main course: Japanese from Zero

My main course book is Japanese from Zero. by George Trombley Jr and Yukari Takenaka. It’s a five volume course and at the end of June I’d finished Lesson 11 (of 13) of Book Three. I didn’t use the book at all in July. The time went on the “Accelerator” instead.

I got back to Book 3 towards the end of September and finished the course on 27 October.

Lesson 12 was very light on new grammar. For some reason, the series really rations out the verbs as if they’re a special treat. Lesson 12 introduced two very useful new verbs できる (to be able, can do) and かわる (to change, turn into). Lesson 12 also covers how to turn adjectives into adverbs (final -い changes to -く).

In the Lesson’s “Culture Clip” introduced the traditional way of counting years. The reign of each Emperor is an “era”. The Heisei Emperor reigned 1989-2019, Western style. So, if you were born in 1995, you’d say “Heisei 6” and so on. This system is still very much in use, though the Christian date system is also widely used.

I knew all this before from my other courses, so Lesson 12 was consolidation for me (none the less important for that).

Lesson 13 introduced something new: the potential form of the verb (can/could)(the “eru” form). Like all the Japanese verb forms I’ve met so far, it is very regular and not difficult to form. Using it correctly will no doubt be a different matter.

There were also some more useful verbs. I’d met three of these before elsewhere:なくす (to lose),　めつける (to find),　めつかる (to be found) and おやぐ (to swim). The fourth was new to me: がきんする (to have patience, endure, bear with). This verb, says the course, has a lot of cultural significance. The Japanese are known for their ability to hold back their emotions in public and to endure.

When I started this project, my aim was to complete the first three books of Japanese from Zero before I left for Japan (so, by the end of September 2019). Erm, I was just over a year out. I have lots of thoughts about the series, but I’ll come back to those another time.

For now, I have not ordered Japanese from Zero Book 4. Instead, I’ll be spending some time between now and the end of the year to review the first three books (as a secondary activity, rather than my main focus).

Assimil’s Le japonais

My complementary course is Assimil’s Le japonais

At the end of July I’d worked thoroughly through the first 37 lessons (of 98). I’d also doubled back and reviewed many of the lessons. By the end of October I had completed to the end of Lesson 44. I’m still enjoying the course. One of the main ways I interact with it is by using the excellent audio for dictation exercises.

Pimsleur

Pimsleur is a five-level, audio only course.

In June I completed Level Four (of Five), Lessons 23 and 24 (of 30). As I reported in July, I hadn’t used the at all since June and didn’t use it during August to October either.

This isn’t a negative comment on the course.

Until mid March I’d been listening to the course on my walks to and from the underground station on my commute to work and on my daily run or walk round the local park. Since then, I’ve been working from home, so the commute has vanished. Also, I’ve been using my time in the park to listen to native-level Basque talk radio (either live or podcasted).

As I write this (early November), I’ve started fitting a little Pimsleur in again on my walks. I do intend to get back more fully to Pimsleur Level Four before too long. I also bought Level Five, so won’t want to let that go to waste.

Teach Yourself Japanese

Since April, I’ve also been working a very old version of Teach Yourself Japanese (C J Dunn and S Yanada) (1958, reprinted 1971). Some of the vocab is dated and some of the phrases stilted but it’s still a great reference work and a source of extra grammar explanations and exercises.

I finished Lesson 18 in mid August. Since then, I haven’t moved forward with any of the remaining Lessons (19 to 30). Instead, I’ve doubled back on some of the exercises. I used some of my live lesson time to have my teacher record sentences from the book for me and I’ve been doing dictation with the aid of those recordings.

Colloquial Japanese

In September, I acquired another older course, Colloquial Japanese by H D B Clarke and Motoko Hamamura. (1987 reprint of 1981 edition). This has is much more conversational in focus than Dunn and Yamada. It also comes with an audio cassette (which I’ve copied onto .mp3). There’s lots that I really like about this book and so I’m planning to use it a lot for the rest of this year.

Like Teach Yourself, this edition of Colloquial Japanese uses romanisation rather than the kanji and kana.

Kana and kanji writing practice?

I’m continuing to get reading exposure to the kana phonetic syllabaries (and some of the kanji characters) as I read Japanese from Zero and Assimil. I do quite a bit of kana writing as I use them for the written exercises from all the courses and my own dictation practice with the Assimil, Teach Yourself and Colloquial audio.

I also try and incorporate the 80 kanji I’ve consolidated in Japanese from Zero 3 Aside from the eight kanji taught in Japanese from Zero 3, even though “Project kanji” is very much on hold. It’s a question of what to prioritise in the time I have available for Japanese.

Goals for November and December

The plan is to continue with my thirty-minute focussed study slots through November and December.

Part of the time will go on review as I dip in and out of all three of the Japanese from Zero books that I’ve completed.

I’m also aiming to work through the whole of Colloquial Japanese, in a very active way (flashcarding and/or speaking the answers to the written exercises into my phone’s voice recorder and self-correcting them). I anticipate moving very fast through at least the first three quarters of the book, as it will be mainly consolidation.

I’ll also use Teach Yourself Japanese whenever I can fit it in.

I’ll continue to work with Assimil, and I’d like to have completed as far as least to Lesson 50 (that’s half way through the course).

In January, maybe I’ll be ready for a new phase: a lot more listening to authentic (non course-book) audio and maybe booking regular speaking practice sessions again…. Watch this space

If you’re a Japanese learner (or a teacher), let me know what you think of my approach so far. How is what you’re doing (or what you’d recommend to your students) different? What are your favourite materials? I’d love to hear in the comments below.

By the way, although John Fotheringham has now paused his Japanese Accelerator programme but if you’re beginning Japanese or are a more experienced learner wanting to get back into it, you should definitely check out his Master Japanese guide. I’ve partnered with him as an affiliate, so if you buy it with my link, it will benefit my work here at the site, at no extra cost to you. You can check out the offer here:

=> John Fotheringham’s Master Japanese

Here’s my August to October “Project Basic Japanese” update vid:

Related posts

For the most recent post on the project, check Update August 2021 to March 2022 (another one coming soon! Dr P, January 2023).

The post Japanese update: August to October appeared first on How to get fluent, with Dr Popkins.

I hope you’ll enjoy my selection. Of course, it could only ever be incomplete and maybe you’d like to add a few insights of your own in the comments at the bottom 🙂 .

Mindset and motivation

1.  You’ve got fluent in one language, so of course you can get fluent in another.

2.  While some people are more talented at languages than others, we all have a unique mix of talents we can bring to the language learning party.  We may not be the best, but we’re all good enough!

3.  It’s not really easier for children to learn languages (except maybe the pronunciation).  They just have different strengths and weaknesses, fewer inhibitions and eons of time. Older adults may not have such good memories, but have more context and experience.  So, no, you’re never too old to learn a language.

4.  Like the kids, you should not be afraid to make mistakes.

5.  It helps to be really clear as to why you are learning the language.

6.  Initial enthusiasm may wear off, though, even when your reasons are strong.  You won’t get far without making a habit of effective study and practice.

7.  Developing a social dimension in which to use your language will force you to speak…and could help make it all feel more worthwhile.

8.  Aiming for fluency is like chasing the horizon…When you do that, of course you certainly move forward….

9.  …but it helps to set interim goals: specific, meaningful, action-oriented, realistic and time-bound.

10.  Exams can be very useful in as a spur to drive you forward.

11.  Others can hold you accountable too, if you ask them to.

12.  You can get a great start – even get fluent – without living in the country….Being away from home may even be a massive distraction.

Methods

13.  There’s no one magic method….but some methods are better than others….

14.  Still, consistent use of somewhat sub-optimal methods is better than flitting from one method to another or not doing anything at all.

15.  Because language learning is all about making a habit out of practising the four skills: listening, reading, writing and speaking….

16.  All those skills are intertwined and if you want to excel, do all of them as much as you can (I usually fall short on the writing).

17.   Make sure you get constructive, corrective feedback.

18.  Short, frequent study sessions trump long, infrequent ones…

19.  That’s partly because focus is key.

20.  Research shows that “interleaving” (practising one thing then another during one session) is more effective than “blocked practice” (focussing on just one thing until you feel you’ve mastered it).  It may not feel that way at the time, though.

21.  You can’t buck the system: it takes 650 hours (French, Spanish, Swedish) to 2000+ hours (Mandarin, Japanese, Arabic) to get a good working knowledge of a language, depending on the distance of the language from ones you already know.

22.  Focus on core vocab and structures for rapid early progress.

23.  Your engagement should be as active as possible. That means:

24.  Elaborate your material (retell it, imagine it, personalise it)….

25.  …test yourself…

26.  ….and return to vocab and structures at intervals. When you do, don’t just look at the material and repeat it. Force yourself to recall.  Think “spaced recall” not just “spaced repetition”.

27.  Learning should often feel hard and at times will discourage you (a sign it’s working).

28.  For when you’re flagging, have less demanding downtime activities and fun things to do in your target language….

29.  …..and to make doubly sure you’re getting a binge diet of language input.

Materials

30.  As for specific learning materials: keep it simple.  Don’t overwhelm yourself.

31.  Use a textbook to provide a framework and progression (and maybe a second one alongside for variety).

32.  Make sure those textbooks have audio and exercises with answers.

33.  And, once you’re approaching lower intermediate, get a good dictionary. Here, paper trumps electronic because…Erm….just because 😉

34.  Technology can be distracting and some apps just feed an illusion of progress…. Still, kept in its place, perhaps tech can be great as part of a wider approach  

Learning grammar and vocabulary

35.  If “grammar” puts you off, first think of it as the core patterns and regularities…..

36.  Prefer courses with light explanations and lots of example phrases.  Because even if you just lurrrrvve grammar, you can’t speak from a memorised table of declensions or conjugations.

37.  You can “study” exceptions and explanations in-depth later, as needed. Grammar books that come with exercises (and the answers) are great for this.

38.  The top one hundred functional words come up again and again….and the first one thousand words make up about seventy-five per cent of your typical conversation or text.

39.  So, start with these words and also tool kit words and phrases and learn vocab specific to your life and needs as well.

40.  Next, your task is to get to about three to five thousand words as fast as possible. Without that, reading and listening will be too slow and inefficient.

41.  That’s not such an overwhelming goal if you pay attention to the component parts that make up longer words (prefixes, suffixes, roots, compounds)….

42.  Increased awareness of these is a reason why vocab learning gets easier the further in you get. Another is that you’ll be able to take more info from the context.

43.  Which brings us to chunks: learning words in set phrases (“How’s it going?”) or as “collocation” pairs (you “sit” an exam in English, “put it down” in German and “stand” it in Welsh). This helps you to remember the word and means you’re sure you’re using it correctly.

44.  Plus, deploying chunks is probably the way native speakers do it so fast with only limited processing power (“working memory”).

45.  Don’t assume there’s a literal translation in meaning….or in phrases. In English you say “everybody”, in French it’s “all the world”, with no bodies in sight.

Speaking

46.  Language is first and foremost sound. Listening and speaking trump reading and writing.

47.  Speak as early and often as you can….though just speaking alone won’t be enough.

48.  At the beginning, learn about phonemes and allophones…..and, if your target language has them, tones.

49.  Work on your pronunciation with a native….and return to this now and again throughout.

50.  Unless you want to be a spy, you goal is to be understood with ease, not to disguise your origins.

51.  To ensure you’re understood, intonation beats accent….

52.  ….and speaking a language is a whole performance.  Model your voice, your body language, your persona…on a native speaker similar to you.

53.  To keep the conversation moving, don’t neglect “fillers” (“I mean…”, “actually”, “basically”, “right”,…. “and I was like basically, literally….erm…..speechless”  🙂

54.  Repeating back what you’ve heard and asking questions can help make sure you’ve understood what you’re told.

55.  Don’t know a word you need? Describe your way round it!

56.  If you’re shy, focus on the other person.  Others are probably more interested in the content of what you have to say anyway…and in how THEY come across.

57.  As a beginner, there’s nothing wrong with anticipating and preparing phrases you think you’ll need.

58.  You can also develop “islands of fluency” – frequent topics relevant to you, that you’ve practised talking about many times before.

59.  Learn about the body language and wider cultural conventions and associations (that’s “pragmatics” in the jargon). Your new language, after all, is a new culture.

60.  If they switch to English, explain you want to practise their lingo….and stick to your guns.  If that fails, ditch them and seek out a better milieu  

61.  Talking to yourself? Having pretend conversations on the phone? Bonkers? Maybe. Yet many successful learners do this.

62.  Recording yourself is a good way to check your intonation and accent and to hear your own mistakes (you could then work through the recording with a teacher).

63.  As you move towards the upper intermediate level, make sure you’re still pushing yourself out of your comfort zone…Or you risk getting stuck on the dreaded intermediate plateau of mere “functionality” (though that’s a very respectable place to be, if you want).

Listening

64.  For wannabe speakers, listening is an oft-neglected skill…Remember, it’s half of every conversation.

65.  No, you can’t learn a language by listening in your sleep….Or by just listening passively and hoping you’ll just “pick it up”.

66.  At the start you won’t understand much and you’re listening for pronunciation and rhythm.

67.  We’ve already mentioned phonemes, allophones and tones. Learn about connected speech early on, too. Sounds may merge (elision: “the next day” sounds like “the nex(t) day”).  Sometimes, new sounds appear (liaison: “four o’clock” sounds like “four Ro clock”).  Othertimes, sounds are assimilated (“handbag” sounds like “hambag”…).

68.  Dictation can help you listen intensively.

69.  Listen to material at or below your current level is good for reinforcement. Just above where you are now is for pushing on upwards. The holds true for reading.

70.  A long way over your head is less effective….but I, for one, love it all washing over me all the same.

71.  Songs and podcasts can be a great way to get downtime exposure to the language and culture.

72.  Video and films don’t feel like work and have pictures to help. If you switch on the subtitles, only in the target language.

73.  Don’t listen to slow audio. If anything – speed it up!

74.  Then, if you can’t follow, use a transcript to help with the tricky bits. You could use course material combos, an audio book plus the text. You could pay your teacher or a freelancer to create transcripts for you.

Reading

75.  Be aware of the different roles of different types of reading.  Like listening, reading can be extensive (a novel) or intensive (a legal contract, a recipe). You can read (or listen) for gist (a report of limited interest to you) or to extract key information (from a bus timetable, for example).

76.  Once you’re off the ground (heading for intermediate), extensive input is great to help imprint vocab and patterns. The further on you got, the more you’ll even start picking up words without realising it….

77.  As a beginner/lower intermediate you need graded material….Your textbook is a great place for reading to start.

78.  For extensive reading, focus on flow and gist. Underline words you don’t know if you want, but don’t stop to check, unless they recur and seem key.

79.  Don’t overface yourself with length. Try magazine articles, for example.

80.  Anything heavy in dialogue will help more directly with speaking too (contemporary plays, comics?)

81.  For down time, read what you enjoy….Even a favourite text that you know already in English. If you wouldn’t be into something your native tongue, why would it appeal in a foreign one?

82.  Follow people on social media in the language.

83.  Change the interface language of your devices for some extra reading practice…and a feeling of “virtual immersion”.

Writing

84.  You can learn another alphabet like Russian, Greek or Georgian in well under a week.

85.  More complex writing systems, especially Chinese characters or the Japanese system will take a lot longer….but are also fascinating.

86.  Remember that rules of punctuation and capitalisation differ.  What? You don’t bother following them in English?  

87.  Writing helps you learn because it forces you to recall and produce and…there’s nowhere to hide. You can’t use context, fillers or body language to smooth over your mistakes.

88.  Learning to write well doesn’t come quickly.  Remember how long it took you to learn to write your native tongue? Yet you already spoke that REALLY well.

89.  Try and write a couple of lines, then paragraphs, each day. How about keeping a diary or a commenting on a news or sports event ?

90.  Start writing short posts on social media or commenting in discussion groups.

91.  As you move beyond intermediate, be sure to be aware of different writing styles and registers.

92.  Writing by hand is supposed to help with muscle memory.  Whether it really does or not, I have no idea!

93.  Translation is a supplementary written exercise…but can be a great core technique for that strenuous, active recall that leads to memorisation and active command.

Classes, teachers….and self-study

94.  Group classes can be inefficient….but are relatively cheap and can also give you structure, variety and a social dimension.

95.  One-to-one work with a teacher is much more efficient.  I recommend italki.com and here’s my personal link (we both get $10 credit if you sign up as new user).  If you can’t afford it, how about trying a language exchange?

96.  Book slots in advance…to box yourself in.

97.  Remember, your teacher can’t learn for you. So take responsibility for your own progress.

98.  Tuition has a real role to play but most of the magic will happen OUTSIDE formal tuition…

99.  Learning on your own and with others, getting exposed to and producing the language…building it into your life.

100. Which takes us back to mindset, motivation, habit, priorities and focus, to get off the ground rapidly and keep going over the long-term!

That’s what this site and the YouTube channel are all about.

Thanks for being with me for the first hundred posts….  I hope we’ll still be in touch for all that’s yet to come on the site 🙂

If you haven’t got “Discover how to get fluent” my five-part video course on how to get off to a solid and efficient start in any language, use the sign-up box or the link under the Free course/Resources tab.

Have I missed some insights from YOUR top one hundred? Have any of the points I’ve listed really clinched it in your language learning?  Do you disagree with any of them? Let us all know in the comments below or shoot me an email!

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