Talk Japanese After Listening 1 (One) CD!

This post is about the best spoken Japanese course I found so far. A Pimsleur Level I is what you may need.

• Yes, It's on 1 (one) CD! It has 30 tracks.
• No, you shouldn't listen all the 30 tracks at once!

The course relies on interactive spoken language training so no textbook is needed!
Pimsleur engages you in conversation, forcing you to answer as a Japanese person would, not as a textbook would encourage. The information is very easy to retain.
Here is the transcript of the first lesson if you're curious.
The lesson introduces some basic words like excuse me, you, I etc.

~~ conversation ~~

sumimasen eigo ga wakarimasu ka? - Excuse me, do you understand English?

iie wakarimasen. nihongo ga wakarimasu ka? - No, I don't understand. Do you understand Japanese?

hai, sukoshi wakarimasu - Yes, I understand a little

anata wa amerika jin desu ka? - Are you American?

hai watashi wa amerika jin desu - Yes, I am American

You listen and repeat. That's it!
At $250-$350 it's not the cheapest CD on the market. Curious? Google it!
Do you know any good audio courses? Please leave a comment if you do.

Great App To Study Japanese Words

The best way to learn new words is probably making a flash card set. Creating flash cards specifically for this blog would bee too time consuming for me, so I did some googling instead to find out what's out there. Here is a best flash-card-like application I found:
(takes few moments to download depending on your internet speed)



Clicking orange I know button allows you to study without signing up. Study more at smart.fm . There is an amazing number of word lists created by students. I may consider to sign in and make my own.

Current Progress Update

Here where I'm right now on my Japanese language journey:
- multiple choice tests on hiragana and katakana are close to perfect,
- reading is not so good, I keep messing some sounds,
- kanji - not even started.

Words with Kanji are not yet accessible for me, so I'm learning "Hiragana words" right now.

Only to follow my intent to present all my studies step by step, to show you what I'm doing, here is one of many fresh pages I write. As usual you can click on words below to hear me practicing stuff every Japanese kid knows in her/his first grade...ehhh. This is an extremely boring... you can hear it from my voice.

I look at the hiragana word, write it, read it (looking at romaji sometimes), and add it in english. I hope this way I pile words into my passive vocabulary, as well as to my passive "words reading & recognition" brain compartment. I'm absolutely not sure if this is the best approach. May be it's better to talk words first, and then, when they get settled, to "discover" how to write them. Anyway I feel I should practice both writing and reading words until my kana gets settled.

I will not be publishing more pages like one above since it's really tsumaranai. Find this word at the page above to translate it ^_^.

I get bored easily and so may you. Here is the hint: When you get tired of hiragana words, switch to "katakana" vocabulary. Since katakana words are just an English transcriptions, you may feel much more comfortable recognizing words you already know.

This is the way to avoid frustration, have fun and regain confidence. Just kidding.
Also, for my male readers: if you already forgot why you're here, imagine you'll be able to read the page like this. Excited? Heh...

Seriously, how do you learn Japanese words? Help!!! Please leave a comment below to share your know-how.

Amazing! Read Japanese Tweets in English!

Rikaichan is a popup Japanese-to-English/German/French/Russian dictionary add-on for Firefox.

Everything Japanese you hover your mouse over comes up with a kanji (if there is one), the hiragana, and then the English translation. This is wonderful for people who want to read my Japanese figures-related news at @animefigures tweets at some Japanese quickly, and it’s much better than relying on a translator of any kind.

Arigato to @tofugu !

Vocabulary & Hiragana At Once

I like how this video is made and the fact that it helps both with refreshing hiragana and gaining some words effortlessly.

Non-boring Katakana

Long time ago (actually this Monday) I stated that I want to read and to write Japanese along with speaking and understanding. That's why I return to Kana now. I need real words, not the words from "basic japanese phrases for idiots", and words come with kana and kanji. Next week or so I'll devote to Kana and basic Kanji to start actually reading real world Japanese posts on twitter. Is 1st grade school kanji enough for reading my own animefigures
robotwits? Let's see.

Initially I put booooooring kana table here, but deleted the post.

Here is a song for a start:


Next is a great set of kana learning games. Enjoy!

- Katakana Chart
- Game 1
- Game 2
- Game 3
- Game 4

When you done with the games watch videos below:


So much fun! Now chill out - with jazzy kana writing lesson (Do it! Must write after sensei):








Play with Katakana Drag-n-Drop
You done with katakana!

Speak Fluent Japanese without saying a word!