Holizz versus the Web

Welcome to today’s lecture on the Tom method of learning Japanese. As all the best lecturers, I shall use bullet points and nothing else.

• Watch anime (and non-anime Japanese films and TV) every day.
• Read Japanese weblogs. Start with something that isn’t a newspaper and is about a subject you like (I read Yukotan Hour).
• If you’re using Firefox, get Moji. You can highlight single kanji or whole words and it’ll give you readings, information on the radicals, and everything.
• Use a dictionary, a translator, the Unihan database, a charmap utility. And most importantly, remember that these are not infallible (especially translators), but they can be useful if used appropriately.
• Look up every interesting word you hear.
• Subscribe to Japanese learning feeds: Kanji a Day at ようこそ, japanese.about.com.
• Read manga. Even if it’s in English you’ll still pick up lots of sound symbols (what does Chiyo-chan being hit on the head by a ball sound like? べん).
• Speak Japanese all the time. Think it even if you don’t say it out loud. Pick a phrase you’re thinking of and see which words you know in Japanese and have a shot at constructing a sentence even if you have to substitute in English words (for instance, wetです—it was a rainy day).
• Make some Japanese friends and practice on them (as in use the odd Japanese phrase, not treat them like a personal tutor).
• Oh, and don’t forget to read the weblogs of ex-patriots! They may not necessarily have much Japanese language in them, but they tend to have a lot of cultural anecdotes.