The way I see it, most of us are blessed with one of two things: Either time, or money. Some of us have neither. Even fewer of us have both.
For those of you who have more time than money, here are a few free study resources to study from using non-traditional methods.
Japanese Wikipedia
I wrote about this in early 2008, but I want to reiterate the utility of the Japanese version of Wikipedia. With all controversy aside about the accuracy of information, you can use this amazing resource to study almost any topic you’re interested in! From Napolean to Naruto to natto. Whatever you’re into, there’s probably an article written about it in Japanese, for Japanese, by Japanese.
Couple that with Rikaichan, and you’ve got a pretty useful resource on hand. (Don’t rely on Rikaichan too much – She’s an angel, but she’ll suck out your study-retention-mojo) Update: I don’t officially endorse Rikaichan anymore. Read this thread for my explanation.
Google Blog Search Tool
By now I think it’s pretty safe to state as a fact that Google is the internet. So why not take advantage with all of their revolutionary services? The Google Blog Search tool was one of the first “new” internet services I took advantage of when I handed over my life to Google. (In Google we trust.) Run a search for a topic you’re interested in reading in colloquial Japanese, and go at it.
What’s great about studying from native Japanese speakers’ blogs is that they type like they speak. Like this:
今日はね
すごいことがあったのよ
今でも信じられないが
世界一番おいしかったうどんを食べたのよ！
All of those carriage returns between words represent natural pauses in speech patterns, giving their writing a little bit more of an impact. As an English speaker who was mainly exposed to the English-internet, it threw me off a little bit at first (I think my first response was, “I think this person has an uncontrollable right-hand-pinky spasm.”) but you get used to it.
Word of caution: Make sure you know whether a woman or man wrote the blog you read. One of my biggest pet peeves is listening to a guy talk like a 14-year-old Japanese girl.
Online news (this suggestion by Captain Obvious)
The news. Study it. In Japanese. But don’t just study it. Consider trying this – Study the same section of news over a long period of time. If you want to learn about politics, read only the politics section every day. Same for economics if that’s your goal. Or entertainment. Or sports. Whatever you want. Just pick one section and study it.
The reason I suggest this is because you’ll be exposed to the same words every day, but presented in a different sentence, showing that your memory retention is the term itself and not simply that it’s associated with one specific article. (Although it is important to also associate it with some contextual situation. I’ll get into this more tomorrow)
Lang-8.com
Do you write a Japanese journal at home that nobody ever reads? Discontinue that, and sign up for lang-8.com. Lang-8.com (the ‘8′ is supposed to represent the mark for infinity, only it’s vertical), for those of you who don’t already know, is an exchange journal correction social website. It’s not technically free – You should be looking to correct native Japanese speakers’ English journals in exchange for them correcting yours. But, it only costs you a few minutes of time, and the advice and feedback you’ll get in return is nearly immediate and very helpful.
Smart.fm
I’ve already explained this system and how best to utilize it, but it’s worth mentioning again because it’s really that great. One more suggestion I have for you when you study with this site – Shadow the sound clips. Read everything out loud. I’ll go into this a little bit more in the post I’m planning for tomorrow, but reading out loud will help you solidify the language in your memory even more.
Final words
Like I’ve said before on this site – Feel free to switch up how you study and what you study when you feel a case of the motivational-meltdowns coming on. Don’t let yourself get tired of Japanese. Keep your studies as fun as possible, and keep at them.
Related posts:
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
はじめまして, Alex! I stumbled across your blog and have been enjoying it.
I am interested in learning Japanese, but I am wondering where to start… I began with Hiragana, but I am becoming a little overwhelmed. Where do you recommend is the best place? Thank you. –アリシア
Hello Alicia,
I think you should just power through Hiragana first, and then Katakana. Memorize all of it. Make sure you’re grounded in their readings and pronunciation, and abandon Romanization all together (it’s a crutch now, but it’ll cause your language muscles to atrophy).
If you’re looking for a text to work from, I suggest the Genki
series. Although it’s designed for classroom use, you can mine it for the information useful for your home studies.
Considering you posted on the “Free Japanese study resources” post, though, I’m inclined to think that you are looking for the cheapest route to go. The Genki Website actually offers some free resources to work from, but they’re not really that fun.
There’s also Smart.fm to work from. One thing I suggest for hiragana is to practice writing them out so that your writing gets smooth.
After you’ve got the kana systems down square, just ease yourself into vocab learning mode through sentence digestion from any Japanese resource that fits your level. (Genki, Smart.fm lists, or whatever)
How much you learn is based on how much you invest yourself in the process. Make short-term goals for yourself, make studying Japanese a habit, and try to immerse yourself in the language as much as possible. If you are a procrastinator, you might consider joining a class at a local university or college to get a push to study, but don’t think that just attending a class will magically make you able to speak the language.
That’s all the advice I can really offer to a beginner with the limited time I’m working on at the moment. Good luck, and がんばれ！