How to make an immersion environment

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Marble101 Member
From: New Jersey USA Registered: 2011-09-05 Posts: 112

So, I was thinking about trying AJATT's idea of an immersion environment.
Kazumoto says to have Japanese TV and music on, as well as read Japanese books. The only problem is I have no idea where to get these things (i.e. which websites, etc.)

Can someone who tried to make an immersion environment say how they made it (as in what websites they used)

blackbrich Member
From: America Registered: 2010-06-06 Posts: 300

Theres the legal way for books and other media
Amazon.co.jp
Yesasia.com
Kinokuniya.com

J-blogs
Ameba.jp

News
Search google.co.jp for news
I personally prefer fnnnews

Then theres less scrupulous ways of obtaining media. Torrent.


Edit: can of worms...

Last edited by blackbrich (2012 April 25, 11:58 pm)

jordan3311 Member
From: ohio Registered: 2010-08-09 Posts: 201

Some of the things I did was change your itunes to Japanese and download free podcast and listen to there. You could put your Facebook our you tube in Japanese. Watch anime WITHOUT subs. Watch the news in Japanese. http://beelinetv.com/ You can also watch Jdramas. http://japaneselevelup.com/2011/05/16/u … guide-1-9/
This site is cool because he list a couple of J-dramas that he likes. Also Katz has blogs post where to get things for immersion.

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Reply #4 - 2012 April 26, 1:52 am
Jombo Member
From: AZ Registered: 2011-11-12 Posts: 48

I think when trying to maintain an immersion environment, you need something to fall back to and waste some time in. I find myself learning a lot of things when I'm just clicking through videos and web pages when bored.

If you frequent Youtube, search around for Japanese channels & vloggers. Subscribe to anything you find mildly interesting. This is so Japanese videos will appear in your subscription box more often and you'll be more likely to randomly watch them (if you're like me at least). I'll go ahead and recommend some channels to check out:

http://www.youtube.com/user/ANNnewsCH - News channel, they post several short clips about recent stories per day.
http://www.youtube.com/user/ARIKEITA113 - Guy talks news about various things everyday except Sundays. I kind of think of him like a Japanese sxephil. He also has another channel where he just vlogs.
http://www.youtube.com/user/megwin - Another everyday poster. He does a bunch of interesting things, and you don't need a good level of Japanese to tell what's going on. A lot of his videos are incredibly entertaining, and he has a lot of them so you can spend hours wasting your time watching this guy.
http://www.youtube.com/user/jetdaisuke - Reviews things and sometimes does other stuff. Getting a glance at some Japanese products might be pretty interesting.
http://www.youtube.com/user/MYGODEES - Draws anime characters. Not really any talking but its Japanese and its interesting.
http://www.youtube.com/user/PDSKabushikiGaisha - Unsure what this guy is about, I found him just recently. He seems to vlog quite often so he's worth a look.

Those are some good Youtube channels you can subscribe to. You can also try bookmarking some interesting Japanese websites. Try 2ch, Nico Nico Douga, Mixi, 2chan, and Wikipedia (In Japanese). Find a lot of things that you can relax and waste your time in, and make them really easy to get to. A majority of my immersion comes from the web. Tons of free stuff online.

And do what the others said. Purchase yourself a little something once in a while. You might be able to find cheaper stuff on sites like eBay, where people sometimes sell Japanese items. I bought a few raw manga for under $10 each from eBay.

Last edited by Jombo (2012 April 26, 2:07 am)

Reply #5 - 2012 April 26, 3:32 am
TwoMoreCharacters Member
From: Sweden Registered: 2010-07-10 Posts: 480

I've bought quite a lot of manga and light novels at fair prices from www.bk1.jp. I realized though that everything I've ever purchased can probably be downloaded illegally (*cough*rawscans*cough*) but I prefer the quality and novelty of the physical copy.

I also love 実況プレイvideos on niconico, especially these and these series. That's about 60 episodes of the バンジョーとカズーイの大冒険 games and 50 episodes of クラッシュ・バンディクー, all over 30 minutes long, with an interactive narrator and a community of viewers in the form of niconico's comment system.

madkracker6969 Member
From: Netherlands Registered: 2013-08-22 Posts: 37

Those are some pretty decent immersion options. However, I'll put in my two-cents here and hope it'll be of use to someone.
Essentially, immersion only works if your current dominant environment is changed over to Japanese. Instead of reading a website in your native language, read it in Japanese; instead of native language menu interface in your Windows/Linux/Mac environment, use Japanese menu interface; instead of native computer keyboard, use Japanese kana-input keyboard, learn to type using kana-input on a kana-input typing-tutor; begin using Anki flash cards to input kana from the kana-input keyboard and converting it to kanji, etc. Note that all of these things are found in computer-based environments. So, if your environment is mostly computer-based, that is the immersion environment for you to change-over to Japanese. It doesn't have to be done all at once, but gradually include something Japanese into your dominant environment instead of the comfortable native language.

For the most part, it depends entirely upon YOUR dominant environment. So if your dominant environment is on your cellular smart phone, try changing the native language to Japanese and begin learning the Japanese language so you can operate your smart phone that you are comfortable with, and already know how to use prevalently. Eventually, you can begin stepping outside of your dominant environment and begin including other environments such as the public library, grocery stores, town centers, etc. Begin reading Japanese books, I would suggest starting with the children's fictional stories section not because you are immature, but rather "dipping your toes in the cold waters" of reading the Japanese language in books in a new environment. The whole point is to not overwhelm yourself, yet, to not make yourself too comfortable. If you find yourself becoming comfortable in your Japanese immersed dominant environment, that's a good opportunity to step into another environment and begin "testing the waters" with what you've already picked up. If you feel too overwhelmed, and you find yourself having a hard time being able to learn Japanese in a new environment, revert back to your native language for the most part, using only what you are comfortable with until you become comfortable taking on new immersions, and then return to learning Japanese in the new environment. The environments could be literally anything, and only the limitations of your imagination prevent you from immersing yourself in the Japanese language within your environments.

To make it simple:
native language = dominant
japanese language = non-dominant
dominant environment = well-known and comfortable
new environment = not well-known and uncomfortable

Native language in new environments until they become comfortable environments.
Then slowly begin introducing new Japanese immersions.
Japanese language immersion in dominant environments until you become comfortable with the Japanese language in that environment.
Then one-by-one, comfortably introduce new Japanese immersions.

All this is, is leveraging what you know and are comfortable with performing in order to learn something you've never done before.

Above all else, put it to work FOR you, if something isn't working for you, re-think it, divide it up if possible into smaller immersions or move to less-uncomfortable environments.

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