Hi everyone

I have been trying to learn Japanese for some years. Actually I passed the old JLPT 4 some years ago and finished learning Remembering the Kanji although I have forgotten many of them because I stopped doing SRS and actually almost stopped learning Japanese for 3 years.

A week ago I bought one ticket to go to Osaka for one month -my Japanese girlfriend is from there-, so I will be there for one month and travel on weekends to Tokyo, Kyoto... However I don't want to speak about my trip plan but about how can I improve my Japanese focusing on make the most of my stay there, in other words, to prepare myself to understand better daily life situations, be able to communicate... I want to focus on that but anyway I want that to be helpful for me in the future, not only for one travel but to keep learning.

In think maybe I will have to focus more than usual on grammar and speaking skills because that's what we don't usually practice so much when learning outside from Japan. However of course I will have to learn kanji and vocabulary too, so it's a big challenge.

Any idea about how to face this?

Honestly, I'm going to suggest you visit AJATT.com and look in the table of contents. Stuff written back in 2007, 2008 or 2009 is pretty good. Since then it has mostly been repeated variations of the same core message.

To summarize the core points of his thinking.

1. You don't learn a language, you get used to (acquire) it. This is following from the linguist Krashen's so-called "input" theory. Comprehensible input is how people learn according to Krashen.
2. Because of 1., your job is to maximize comprehensible/fun input. Fun>Comprehensible though. If you are enjoying yourself, that is a good sign, because you can continue for longer.
3. In order to carry out a maximum immersion program, you need to think more about shaping your environment into something that will help you. You need things to read, things to listen to, things to watch -in the language-. These need to be always ready at hand, close by, in your face, in your ears. If you have some computer skills you can experiment here. Think of getting the audio of a movie you already know by heart. Split the audio up into chunks. Put that on your iPod and listen to it a few dozen times over a week. Then watch that movie. How does it feel?
4. Use an SRS.


That's about it. With your limited time, I wouldn't worry about grammar so much as sentence patterns. The core 6000 deck with audio from iKnow will help you understand the structure of the language through repetition.

A lot of ajatt ideas are a variation of stuff over here http://www.antimoon.com

You have to listen to a lot of japanese to get used to it. i would recommend familiarizing yourself with standard japanese and then move on and listen to oosaka-ben a lot since you're gonna spend most of your time there. the intonation for oosaka-ben is different from standard japanese. you might find oosaka-ben easer to mimic then the standard japanese with the intonation...

Go through Assimil Japanese with ease. At least that's what I would do, because it will give you a good enough ability to communicate and you'll still have time after you're done with it.

meeatcookies Wrote:Go through Assimil Japanese with ease. At least that's what I would do, because it will give a good enough ability to communicate and you'll still have time after you're done with it.

I completely agree!

I always suggest that people imagine what situations you might find yourself in and study for those situations. Make sure that not only can you get a good grade on a test, but that you can actually conduct yourself in that situation. Considering going shopping? Make sure you know how to ask for larger pants, and anticipate the various answers you might get. Considering asking directions? Asking directions is easy, understanding the different possible answers at full speed Japanese, is a lot harder. But it'll be easier if you study the possible answers you may get. Ordering at a restaurant is another subset of Japanese that shouldn't require learning too much more vocabulary or difficult grammar, just a little preparation and practice.

In other words, I'm suggesting that instead of studying everything Japanese, that you specialize in the parts of Japanese that you will have the most probability of wanting to use.

If your Japanese is good enough for a conversation, Boris Shekhtman suggests memorizing "islands" of conversation. For instance, if you have a conversation with anyone, you'll probably want to tell them where you come from, how long you are staying, where you have been, where you are going, how you like japan so far etc.. Why not create a short mini-speech where you explain all of this in Japanese and then commit it to memory. You could also develop short, pre-made conversation snipits about your work, your family, how you met your girlfriend, etc.. That way you'll avoid answering every question someone asks with yes or no.

I'd recommend taking a look at the Genki series if you want an intro./refresher on some core concepts/vocabulary. It's a textbook, so the stuff in there might sound a bit stiff (like many textbooks), but it can give you the basics fairly painlessly, and a lot of the examples are for daily life stuff. Supplement the concepts with vocabulary that you personally might find useful

I'd make sure you know some of the basic important kanji if you can't remember them from Heisig days (like those for food, water, etc.) just in case your vocab. fails and you can just draw out your shapes. But I think you could probably focus less on kanji you will probably never need when traveling. Brush up on your kana if it's rusty.
You're probably right that you should focus on speaking over writing. Maybe keep a journal of your daily activities for a week and then see if you feel like you can replicate those activities in Japanese.

I recommend going through Erin's Challenge. It has a lot of exposure to various things you might experience in Japan, such as shopping. In addition to that, there is much more listening offered than the average textbook and more listening that is at a natural pace (Erin is the only character who talks slowly).

I think the suggestion to look into the Osaka dialect and immerse yourself is also good, but since the trip is so soon, also look into how you can practice your speaking ahead of time.

Shadowing (repeating after the Japanese you hear) is a great start to practice speech (but not expression, since it's just repeating). Look into as many opportunities for expression as you can but avoid too much incorrect output. A good place to do that for a beginner is a website like Lang-8. You can practice writing journal entries there and people will correct them. Also, perhaps you can find a language exchange partner on Lang-8 or iTalki to practice talking through Skype.