I've been looking around for a webpage that explains, in Japanese, how to do all sorts of mundane everyday activities that I assume is good to be able to explain and talk about, like everything from tying your shoelaces to boiling an egg. Basically a "how to" guide for "dummies", with good sentences to add to Anki.

The Genki textbooks were so focused on a school environment, I felt like a lot of things were missing. I haven't seen any other textbook that seem to cover all of those missing pieces. The core deck seems solid and I'll keep doing that one, but it seems to lack a lot of those mundane things so far (I'm only a third through core 2k though, so maybe all of that comes later on?).

A Japanese acquaintance linked to this site http://www.tokyo-icc.jp/guide_easy/index.html , but that's more of a guide on how to set everything up when moving to Japan, so not quite what I was looking for.

Perhaps there's information on this already on this forum, but I haven't managed to find any so far. Any suggestions?

Boiling an egg and tying your shoelaces are things you might do often, but not something you talk about so much lol!

That's probably why it's so difficult to find: we talk about so many different subjects on a daily basis! Are you going to Japan soon?

I remember Anthony Lauder suggested a book called "How to Improve Your Foreign Language Immediately" and the basic idea behind it was to build "islands" of subjects you're familiar with. For starters, learn to talk about your hobbies, about Sweden, about why you're interested in Japanese. Then make an "island" of whatever you feel is interesting/might come up in conversation (think about what you really say everyday!! Boiling eggs is not quite the correct idea IMO! ;P) so that if someone starts talking about a book they read and you're familiar with describing your favorite movies, you can sort of merge the topic and talk with confidence.

I also like Maggie Sensei, run from Victor of the gimmeaflakeman YouTube channel: http://maggiesensei.com/ although it's more focused on grammar than vocabulary. Or the NHK easy news, because knowing about what's going on in the country is also a frequent discussion topic! Hopefully someone has other good links

I don't recall any incidents involving shoelaces or egg boiling specifically, but the manga Yotsubato! revolves around everyday situations, described using simple language. There are detailed conversations on the level of a five year old about doing the laundry, using an umbrella, going to the mall, going to various stores, festivals, school, using the telephone, making instant ramen, etc, etc.

The first couple of chapters have also been transcribed, and translated, specifically with easy use with Anki in mind. There's a thread about that on this forum.

And I agree with you that it's important to learn this kind of vocab first. That's why I read all 90 or so chapters of Yotsubato! before any other manga.

It sounds like what you are looking for may be the book common japanese collocations.
Its basically nothing but a collection of short phrases (not even full sentences) that will probably come up all the time in everyday life. It includes both of your examples (how to boil an egg, how to tie your shoelaces), and a lot more.
Most of the criticism of the book seems to be that its not really laid out so you can look up specific stuff in it. But if you just want stuff to add into anki, its gold.

I'm almost at 15 years of Japanese study and I don't know how to say "tie shoelaces" ; apparently it's 靴紐を結ぶ. Boiling an egg I would guess 玉子をゆでる just because of the word ゆで玉子.

Thanks for all the suggestions! True, boiling eggs and tying shoelaces may not have been the most relevant suggestions. Stansfields examples were better, like going to the mall and so on. It was just a couple of examples anyway (although I can think of several times when I've used both of those).

I'm not going to Japan anytime soon.. maybe in a year.

Yotsubato sounds like a must-read, so I'll go for that. That collocation book looks interesting as well. Maggiesensei I already know about ^^

I guess I have a few more things to do now (while I eagerly wait for my amazon.jp order of The Dark Tower series and The Stand in Japanese).

Thanks!

Edit: the thing about studying "islands" is interesting, comeauch. Do you know if Anthony outlines any detailed studying techniques for this concept?

Zarxrax Wrote:It sounds like what you are looking for may be the book common japanese collocations.
Its basically nothing but a collection of short phrases (not even full sentences) that will probably come up all the time in everyday life. It includes both of your examples (how to boil an egg, how to tie your shoelaces), and a lot more.
Most of the criticism of the book seems to be that its not really laid out so you can look up specific stuff in it. But if you just want stuff to add into anki, its gold.

Holy cow, a japanese sentences book that has no romaji AND has got furigana ? Awesome. I just ordered it. Thanks a bunch for the recommendation.

This thread reminds me of how I learned 結ぶ from よつばと！... and then forgot it <(^_^)

It's from volume 12! A good reminder that I should put it in my notes then.

I added a page into my notes about it and a screenshot from よつばと！ with the word: http://nihongo-notebook.blogspot.com/201..._2212.html

You can take a look to see how it's applied. A good example of how よつばと！ is great for learning everyday expressions. And I agree, 結ぶ should be a word that everyone knows. After all, children know it. Even if you don't exactly use it on an everyday basis, it's kind of like a common sense word? They are action verbs like 引っ張る, 巻く, etc.

(Moderators, if it's not allowed to post a link to a screenshot from a manga, please remove the link! It's only an example of why よつばと！ is a great buy for Japanese learners!)

Whilst of no help to Termy, this does seem like a useful thing to type into youtube to get some basic listening practice in.

I only mention this here as it's not something that ever occurred to me before, but I would imagine that typing in a simple Japanese phrase like 靴紐を結ぶ or 玉子をゆでる (as suggested by Yudantaiteki) could yield some useful results.

yudantaiteki Wrote:I'm almost at 15 years of Japanese study and I don't know how to say "tie shoelaces" ; apparently it's 靴紐を結ぶ.

I don’t think it’s uncommon for the SL speakers to miss vocabulary that is considered essential for everyday life. I remember very well my first visit to a hairdresser here in Sydney, when to my surprise I discovered that I was not able to explain how I wanted my hair to be done (nothing fancy, BTW). In hindsight, I should’ve looked up relevant vocabulary/expressions beforehand...

lumiina, I'm definitely getting that manga.

Woodgar: youtube does seem pretty useful. I've used it a bit to look up cooking videos and things like that, but not on a more structured basis to look up everything. I did find a number of instructional videos for tying shoelaces though ^^

I suppose writing down everything I say an average day (at home, at work, etc) might be a good idea... haven't gotten around to it though.

Inny Jan Wrote:I don’t think it’s uncommon for the SL speakers to miss vocabulary that is considered essential for everyday life. I remember very well my first visit to a hairdresser here in Sydney, when to my surprise I discovered that I was not able to explain how I wanted my hair to be done (nothing fancy, BTW). In hindsight, I should’ve looked up relevant vocabulary/expressions beforehand...

This is very true.

A few years back, I was in the US and I wanted to go grocery shopping to prepare a nice dinner to thank the family I'd been staying at. Once there I realized I had absolutely no idea what most of the ingredients I needed were called in English. I literally had to check for like 60% of the ingredients on my list, even for supposedly very basic and common stuff.

Here is a fun little test ; can you name, without looking anything up, 15 fruits / vegetables in any non-native languages you speak ?