In about a month I have to give a presentation on "Survival Japanese" to the new JET program participants coming into Kyoto. So, it should be aimed at people who have never studied Japanese before, or only started studying in the months before coming. The presentation will only be ten minutes (which seems quite silly, I admit). Anyway, I can explain whatever I want for ten minutes, and also give them resources or a list of resources that would be useful for them.

Since it's about survival Japanese, it should be about them learning enough Japanese to get by as quickly as possible. It's not about long-term serious Japanese study. Though, I plan to give them a handout on what to do if they're serious about Japanese study (I'll include a few textbooks, RTK and this website, Anki, Tae Kim's website, websites to find tutors, free lessons offered in Kyoto, the three grammar dictionaries, etc.)

But, for the most part it should just be about them getting as much learned as quickly as possible. Since I always studied Japanese as if it was a long term goal, I don't really know much about what resources would be useful, or if there's something specific I should teach them in the ten minutes. Does anyone have any recommendations?

Also, what do you think are the most useful phrases to know when you first arrive?

if they have to get a car or if they plan on driving, it's important to be able to read the difference between gasoline and diesel, as my cousin found out the hard way. =)

(he cannot read street signs or markings though. he only knows he's supposed to stop at the triangular red sign, hahah.)

10 minutes it pretty short! you're not going to teach them much vocab or phrases in that time..

I'd personally give them a quick over-view of japanese - the big differences between japanese and english grammar, explanation of kanji, hiragana, katakana, and politeness levels. Basically assume theyve never seen the language before. Dor each example, you can give them a useful word or phrase (which is repeated on the handout). Basic stuff like hello, goodbye, thankyou, how much is that? etc

Recommend they learn katakana! there's no easier way to be able to read japanese signs in english - tell them about Remembering the Kana, and using that it'll take 3 hours (it even has a digital pdf edition).

Encourage them to study long term! remember "normal" people believe japanese is insanely hard, and many of them may have already decided not to bother, or have given up in their minds already. Its your job to convert them. Mention that is is entirely possible to become fluent while they are there - maybe mention AJATT

Tzadeck Wrote:Also, what do you think are the most useful phrases to know when you first arrive?

I think the most useful word in the Japanese language is sumimasen, closely followed by daijoubu.

I remember when I first came to Japan, I wanted to know please and thank you, so well-intentioned people would try to teach me all of the complexities and variations of domo arigatou gozaimasu and kudasai/onegai shimasu. I just found it pretty confusing, and when I started giving the same advice to total beginners (who, like me at that time, don't really have a fully-fledged interest in learning the language) I was confronted by blank, confused, faces. So now the first word I teach people is 'sumimasen' because it can be used as please, thank you, sorry, excuse me and so on.

And daijoubu was the first word I noticed people saying to me when I came over here to meet my wife's family, so I reckon that's pretty useful too...

First, tell them to study Katakana so they can read menus. It shouldn't take long, and is by far the most useful thing they can learn between now and when they get there.
Some useful phrases? Apart from the usual, here's my top five from the first year I was here.
あたためてください。Atatamete kudasai. Heat it up please. Great for Winter convenience store food shopping.
けっこうです。kekko desu. No thank you, I'm good. When people are trying to give you stuff you don't want, from food to flyers outside the station.
ちょっと都合が悪いんですが。。。Chotto tsugou ga waruindesuga...Sorry, I'm a little busy, so... For when you are put upon to do stuff you don't want to do, which happens a lot.
そんなことないですが。。。　Sonna koto nai desuga... No, I'm not really. For when you are told you are good at Japanese.
And a special one for school teachers: かんちょうするな！ Kanchou suruna! Don't give me an enema! (You'll see).

Okay, good suggestions. Yeah, I was thinking over whether to tell them to learn katakana or hiragana first--but I think I will recommend katakana. I also learned katakana before hiragana. In addition to providing more immediate benefits, you will get less practice with it than with hiragana in the long run, and it has a tendency to stick with you a bit better if you learned it first.

I was thinking that the three most important phrases for work are:
おはようございます。
おさきにしつれいします。
おつかれさまでした。

As well as
ありがとうございます。いただきます。 (For when you receive Omiyage)

Other than that I was thinking
すみません。
おねがいします。
はじめました。Tzadeckです。よろしくおねがいします。

I guess I'll also throw in 大丈夫 (although it can be a pretty obnoxious word when overused). They'll all be high school teachers, so I won't have to include かんちょうするな, haha.

Don't bother teaching phrases at all. You'll be wasting your audience's time. Just do a very quick rundown on the differences between kana and kanji and how they would benefit immediately by learning katakana. Then introduce some beginners textbooks and WHERE you can buy them in your area. Also talk about the Japanese for JETs course and other local resources a available for learning Japanese in Kyoto.

Close by challenging everyone to take N5 in December.

No way you can fit that in a 10 minute presentation, haha, good luck with that. Put everything else on handouts.



I've done the exact same presentation at JET orientation in Ehime. In 35 minutes of time. Lucky me. Anyway, out of 50 or so new JETs, only 2 had never studied Japanese before. That's why teaching phrases is going to be a waste of time.

I also recommend the phrase book "point and speak: Japan" and the "Kanji survival guide" which I believe is only available through AJET.

Pretty much agree with the above.
Don't bother with phrases, just encourage them to do their best to learn the language with examples of how it has enriched your life here. Also handout a brief list of good resources with some further explanation for those who would care to read it.

After that, if it were me, I'd probably talk about memory, explaining how language learning is an easy but long term process requiring consistency. I'd recommend against any form of studying that is based on cramming or overloading the short-term memory and explain why. And I'd also speak about the benefits in learning to read and write (particularly kanji). Other than that I'd try to drive home the point that consistently learning new vocabulary will be one of the most important things so they can start to benefit from all the passive listening opportunities they'll get.

God, I hate JET conferences though.

Wish someone would have taught me this when I first arrived >_<

I wouldn't spend time teaching phrases. Everything and more than they could possibly need is printed in the back of JET monthly planner they give everyone. There's even an example 自己紹介。

I couldn't imagine living in Japan for an extended amount of time and knowing nothing about the language.

If I were you I'd print out a nice sheet of important phrases or signs that people should know and hand it out. Then spend the 10 minutes talking about other stuff that people mentioned here.

Survival Japanese? Could go about it with Benny's angle on things. Encourage them to learn phrases and go out and practice them with confidence.

Hey, I'm a kyoto jet!

I'd just like to echo the others here and say don't bother with phrases so much. Last year at the Kyoto orientation we had over an hour with a mr Yano- sensei explaining many good phrases to use. He pretty much covered a lot of the survival stuff you need.
Plus that stuff is covered in the jet books and pre departure orientation. Still, a quick reminder of the phrases that most helped you get by in the beginning wouldn't hurt.

But nothing was mentioned on resources. So, I imagine talking about what things have helped you most for your short term and long term studies would help the newbies most. The stuff you mentioned should cover the full 10 mins.

Those 10 mins will fly by!

So, they basically told me that I have to include phrases, and told me that they should include phrases useful at work and in an emergency.

I decided to include these phrases.
Work
おはようございます。
お先に失礼します。
お疲れ様でした。

Food
＿＿＿＿＿を食べられません。
これは＿＿＿＿＿が入っていますか？
ベジタリアンです。/菜食主義者です。

Emergencies
たすけて！
救急車を呼んでください。
警察をよんでください。
火事だ！
事故がおきました。

At the doctor
ペニシリンアレルギーがあります。

General use
英語がわかる人はいますか？

And then two hand outs--one for serious Japanese learners, one for casual Japanese learners.

Any more suggestions or comments?

(Scotty, nice to see a Kyoto JET here! Maybe we've met?)

Oh, here's a question, which iPhone/iTouch applications should I recommend? Can someone make a list of three or four? I don't really use any. Is there a good dictionary where you can type in Kanji?

tokyostyle Wrote:My opinion of survival Japanese is knowing words like 歯ブラシ、シャンプー、申し込み and knowing kanji like 米、玄米、麦 or whatever. There are actually things you need to know from day one that can be surprisingly hard to come across in textbooks. Imagine that you need things like food, toiletries, transportation and utilities and then try and come up with stuff that is really important to know, but not always obvious. You can add some things targeted at your audience like 無料 and 飲み放題. Finally you might want to throw in a list of brand names that are useful. I seriously wish someone had told me that Attack and Top were brand name laundry detergents and trying to figure out what toothpaste had all of the goodies in it was a pain too. That's real survival stuff!

Awesome suggestions. Didn't even think of that. Since I only have ten minutes, I can include them on a handout.

Thanks for the iPhone suggestions too.

Going along the lines of tokyostyle's suggestions I'd also put more phrases about daily living. For example

ふくろをおねがいします/ふくろを持って来ました。 - I know when I lived there some places you had to ask for a bag and they charged you too (5￥)

＿＿を売りますか? Atleast if they have a dictionary on their iPhone etc handy they can look up what it is they need.

すみません、私は道に迷ってしまいました。 - No doubt it is bound to happen sometime.

Also words like 電気、水道、ガス

As a variation on tokyostyle's idea, I've come up with a list of things on home appliances that would be helpful to people who just arrived. I'll post it in case it's ever useful to anyone. I still haven't done the supermarket type stuff, as I suppose I'll go to a supermarket and look around and write stuff down.

Anyway, here it is. I marked the more important items with stars. I'm just going to give this as a handout.

On Your Rice Cooker
★炊飯 = cook rice
★とりけしOR取り消しOR切= cancel, turn off, reset
★快速 　OR 　急速＝ cook fast
★保温＝ keeping the rice warm
★メニュー = menu
保温選択 = options for keeping the rice warm
時刻合わせ＝set time
予約＝reservation (set the time when you want the rice to be cooked)
白米＝white rice
焼きこみ = mixed rice
無洗米 = rice that doesn’t need to be rinsed (you can buy at supermarkets)
玄米 = brown/unpolished rice
すしめし＝rice for sushi
軟＝soft
硬＝hard
少量＝small amount
浸し＝soak
炊き分け＝different kinds of cooking
通常＝normal
おさえめ＝reduced

On Your Washing Machine
★電源・入／切　(dengen・iri／kiri) = power on/off
★標準(hyojyun) = standard mode button
★スタート (sutaato) = start
★停止(teishi) OR一時停止(ichiji teishi) = stop
水量(suiryo) = water volume button
予約(yoyaku) = reserve button
ダイレクトモード = direct mode
倍速(baisoku) = double speed mode
ガンコ汚れ(ganko yogore) = stained/very dirty clothes
毛布(mofu) = blankets
ドライ(dorai) = dry mode button
槽洗浄(soh senjyo) = tub clean
洗い(arai) = washing with soap
すすぎ(susugi) = rinse / washing without soap
脱水(dassui) = spin dry
セレクト(serekuto) = select

Air Conditioner/Heater
★冷房 = Air Conditioner
★暖房= Heater
★運転 OR電源・入／切= On/ Off button
ドライ= Dry
運転切り替え= change mode (usually between AC and heater mode)
風量切り替え= change volume of wind
風向= direction of wind
風向切り替え= change mode for direction of wind
タイマー = timer set (auto off/ auto on)
時刻 = time (to set the present time, you can set the timer)
温度= temperature
風量= volume of wind (strong-mid-weak)
The wind volume options are usually something like these:
自動= automatic
強 = strong
中 = middle strength
弱 = weak

That's cool, I remember being stuck with the air-con remote!

@Tzadeck: I'm not 100% sure, but didn't have Nihongo Sou-matome N3 vocab exactly these lists?? You could use it for your inspiration then. Don't have the book here right now, so perhaps someone else could check?

Tori-kun Wrote:@Tzadeck: I'm not 100% sure, but didn't have Nihongo Sou-matome N3 vocab exactly these lists?? You could use it for your inspiration then. Don't have the book here right now, so perhaps someone else could check?

Ah, too bad I don't have time to go to a bookstore today and check it out. I do my presentation tomorrow.

Anyway, I also made a list of resources. This is what I included. This might be a little more controversial on the forum, since people have strong ideas about which resources are good, haha.

Textbooks
●Genki
●みんなの日本語 (Minna no Nihongo)
○A better book than Genki, but probably best with a tutor/class.
(●CLAIR Course)

Kanji
●Remembering the Kanji, Vol 1 (James W. Heisig)
○Best used with the website kanji.koohii.com, which also has a good forum for advice.

Grammar
●Website: Tae Kim’s Grammar Guide. http://www.guidetojapanese.org
○A fairly complete grammar guide available for free.
●A Dictionary of Basic/Intermediate/Advanced Japanese Grammar
●Making Sense of Japanese (Jay Rubin)
○An awesome and fun book for people at an intermediate level.

Computer Programs
●Rikaichan (Firefox)/ Rikaikun (Chrome)
○An application for the Firefox or Chrome web browser that lets you mouse over any Japanese word on the internet, and a dictionary pops up to give you the meaning.
●Anki (http://ankisrs.net/)
○A free flashcard program. There is also an iPod touch/iPhone
version, but it costs money.
○You can find Core 2000 decks. Core 2000 is a list of the 2,000 most used words in Japanese, with example sentences and audio.
● iPhones or iPod touch applications:
○Kotoba is a good Japanese-English dictionary
○There are many cheap or free applications for learning Japanese. Look around and find something which suits you.
●Wakan (Windows only, sorry) (http://wakan.manga.cz/)
○A great super-fast dictionary program that you can download. The nice thing about it is that it can recognize verbs you type in even when they are conjugated.

Some Websites
●www.japanesepod101.com
○A podcast with a monthly fee. But, there’s a free trial, and you can download a lot of material during the free trial if you like. It’s not really fair to download too much though (-_-
●www.lang-8.com
○A great free website. You can write journals or essays in Japanese, and have them corrected. In return, you correct other people’s English. It’s not really what the site is meant for, but you could also ask questions if you wanted to.
●iknow.jp (1,000yen/month. Great for vocab learning)
○A website primarily for learning vocabulary that costs 1,000 yen a month. It used to be free, and that was great. Now there’s a free trial. Look for Core 2,000—the 2,000 most used words in Japanese.

Tutoring/Classes
●There are various classes and services available in Kyoto city and other areas—Google to find something near you!
●You can find private tutors with sites like http://www.labochi.com
★Sites like this only set up tutors with students.
REMEMBER TO STAY SAFE. Make meetings with your tutor in a public place, such as a café. I was able to find a great tutor on the site.

Dictionaries
●See Wakan and iPhone applications, under Computer Programs.
●If you have a Nintendo DS and want to have a program where you can type kanji in with your pen, check out the DS game/dictionary “Kanji Sonomama Rakubiki Jiten.” In Japanese it’s written 漢字そのまま楽引辞典. Ask a sales clerk at a game store to help you find it. If you have an iPhone, a cheaper way would be to use an iPhone application with kanji input.
●More advanced learners should consider getting a real electronic dictionary.

Tzadeck Wrote:Food
＿＿＿＿＿を食べられません。
これは＿＿＿＿＿が入っていますか？
ベジタリアンです。/菜食主義者です。

You're not teaching いただきます??

Surely the most important food word..

aphasiac Wrote:You're not teaching いただきます??

Surely the most important food word..

Yeah, but this is about survival Japanese, not doing Japanese cultural norms correctly. The only reason I included ritualized language for the workplace is because establishing good work relationships is really important early on, and I was specifically told to include phrases for work.

Besides, even complete newbies will pick up いただきます almost instantly without me needing to tell them.

But, I welcome the suggestion!