The Learning Process

The following is a record of my learning process. As stated before, I have made many mistakes along the way, however, mistakes are often the best learning aids.

My interest in actually learning Japanese came about after I finished my first manga series. I watch the anime version of Gravitation and found the ending unsatisfying. After a quick peek at Wikipedia, I discovered that the manga the anime was based on only took the story through seven out of a total of twelve volumes. About ten minutes later, I found myself on Amazon ordering a copy of volume one. My plan was to compare the first volume to the first episode of the series. If the content matched up, I would simply jump to volume eight and carry on. Of course, the original work differed greatly from the anime. The story in the manga began much earlier and introduced many additional fun characters. I flew through the first volume and after a stroke of intuition, decided to check if the series was available though less expensive means. I have never been more shock than when I discovered that within my county's library system all twelves volumes of the manga were available. Within eleven days, I finished the series and wanted more. I realize that, like with any medium of content, only a small portion of it makes it into foreign markets. There is a wealth of anime out there and only a fraction of it is translated and available in the US. I also despise watching dubbed content, particularly live-action. It makes me feel stupid, each time their lips move and the sound doesn't match. That's when I decided to attempt learning the Japanese language.

My language journey did not begin in the most noble of ways, but honestly, what in this world does. I acquired Rosetta Stone via BT Airlines (if you don't get the reference, you don't need to). With a bit of magic, I installed the program and began right away. Only, its all in Japanese! Here is the biggest problem with Rosetta Stone. It is the perfect program to get your feet wet in any given language, but little else. The programs teaches by showing and leaving you to use logic to figure out the language, the same way a child learns their native language. But when the first screens pops up with a sentence full of Kana and Kanji, its time to hit the breaks. Screen after screen and nothing but a bunch of squiggles and lines that look cool but I could not read a thing. After a day and a half of frustration, I shelve the program and do some reading on the web.

Cyberspace recommends learning the Kana before attempting to learn anything else. The Kana include Hiragana (ひらがな) and Katakana (カタカナ). These are essentially the Japanese alphabet, the foundation of the written language. To learn these, I used a number of methods:

• From the library I checked out 'Let's Learn Katakana' and 'Lets Learn Hiragana' by Yasuko Kosaka Mitamura. These books became a great resource for learning stroke order and comprehending the basic use of the Kana.
• I made flash cards for each Kana.
• I wrote the Kana out by hand as I learned them.
• (TIP) Split the Kana up into smaller groups. Learn one group, and the next, but continue to review everyday.
• To learn pronunciation, I watched and sang along with these silly, but cute songs every day: Hiragana Song and Katakana Song. Never underestimate the power of music.
• To practice recognition, I played games here and here.

After two weeks, I had the Kana learned. However, I continued to write out the Kana each morning. I began using Rosetta Stone. The program is fun and informative, however quite a bit of guess work is involved. (TIP) When learning Japanese NEVER look at Romaji unless you are at a loss for pronunciation or cannot distinguish in a sentence where one word ends and another begins. (TIP) When doing a core lesson with Rosetta Stone keep it set on Furigana and switch to Kanji for the remainder of the lesson. Revert to Furigana only as needed. I made the mistake of rarely looking at the Kanji until I was almost finished with level one before I realizing what a terrible mistake I was making. Kanji is the biggest hurdle to learning Japanese and I was putting it on the back burner. I've spent the past five months slowly making my way through Rosetta Stone, learning Kanji by recognition but not how to write them. Another major problem with Rosetta Stone is that it implies only a single meaning of a given Kanji, when Kanji can have multiple meanings and combinations and pronunciations. Rosetta Stone also fails with grammar. It gives examples of Japanese grammar, however it does not explain its principles.

Up until a week ago, my progress has been stagnate. I was learning, but not retaining the language as I would have like. In my travels in cyberspace, I have come across a number of very useful sites, many of which I will share in future posts. However, the most inspiring find I have come across is the work of James Heisig, 'Remembering the Kanji: Volume 1'. His book has re-inspired my drive to learning this language. He approaches Japanese a language unique to any other. He insists it is best to learn the written language independent of the spoken one. And from a foreigner's perspective, this is entirely logical. Any single Kanji can have multiple meanings and pronunciations and when combined with another kanji or radical, it can have entirely new meanings and pronunciations. Obviously, this complicates matters. Heisig drops the pronunciation and instead breaks each Kanji into its fundamental elements and asks the reader to memorize an English meaning. This method affords a deeper understanding of the Kanji. Employing the lesson plan of a success story I found in cyberspace, Heisig's method will take seven months if I stick to this very very rigorous lesson plan. It requires that I learn twenty Kanji a day, five days a week and spend the weekend reviewing. If all goes as planned, I should know the meanings of 2046 Kanji by March 1. That is an optimistic goal I truly hope to reach, however, I a too much the realist to believe it will be met. Lets just say, I want to believe.