7 posts tagged “language”
When I first considered a job teaching English in Japan I had a vague idea of what learning a foreign language might be like. My experience of learning a language at school in Australia was disjointed at best, and was centred around standardised classroom texts and didactic teaching methods. Subsequently I didn't learn much of the Japanese, Italian, French, German, Latin or Ancient Greek I was taught.
I was fortunate however to have been educated in a school where most of the students spoke a second language at home, so I knew even then that bilingualism was a reality for many people. When I made the commitment to go to Japan, I also committed myself to learning the language, and studying martial arts over a two to five year period. My best chance of learning the language centred around being immersed in the culture, and using it to accomplish tasks of an everyday nature.
When I arrived in Japan, I enrolled in survival Japanese courses offered at the local international centre and took my notes home and practised phrases every day. I also mastered hiragana and katakana early on because I wanted to be able to read. Towards the end of my first year I moved to a rural town, from a prefectural capital, and my opportunities for engagement with the locals grew. I was beginning to feel more confident in my language ability.
Being a language learner gave me a much greater appreciation of what my students needed in the classroom. Everyone learns differently, and made sense for me to approach language acquisition from a learners perspective. I took the Japanese Language Proficiency Test in my second year, and sat it each year following. Studying for the test helped me understand the different modalities of language learning. Doing the past exams helped me to understand my weaknesses and better prepared me for what was ahead. I was constantly on the lookout for different learning techniques. Language learning itself, became my hobby.
When I met my then future wife in 2004 all of our communication was in Japanese. As we grew together as a couple my language needs changed, I was now required to understand things with a degree of subtlety that I hadn't had before. Speech was infused with nuance, and although the potential for miscommunication was high, I credit my wife's patience and understanding with my current language ability. We now have two children, a boy and girl aged 2 years old and 3 months respectively. They will be joining me in Australia in June.
I have come to the realisation that language learning is not separate from cultural experience. Language learning doesn't happen in a vacuum, it must be connected with and through people to what you want to achieve as an individual. Just as the motivation for learning a language must come from within, so too should the approach. Language learners are individuals first, and approaches to language learning should be centred around individuals.
Keith, I hear what you say about a plateau being equivalent to imperceptible change, but change nonetheless. What is important is that we keep pushing on. There is however the problem of getting in a rut, like I have with my breakfast cereal. I don't like bread that much for breakfast, my wife eats it every morning and doesn't care. But I realise now that I am almost in the same rut with my choice of breakfast cereal and I must break out of it.
So how do we get out of the rut, it's not enough just to push on doing the same things. We must break out of our comfort zone and work on different strategies. In cycling, if I can draw another analogy, we train our weaknesses and race our strengths. To be an all rounder, when you are weak on hills, you train on hills. When it comes to race day, if you are good in the sprint this is where you must focus your energy, having successfully made it over the hills.
Having good diagnostic tools are essential, this is why I like paper based tests such as the JLPT and the Kanji Kentei. The grades are very clearly set out and it is easy to find your weaknesses. Of course tests like this can't cover all bases, and there will always be times when other weaknesses pop up through your daily interactions with language partners. That's why you can't always have your head stuck in a book.
Which reminds me I have to put my head down and do some study! All the best with your study for the JLPT, did you get your application in?
Every now and then I get a rare insight in to the Japanese psyche, from students who are articulate speakers of English. I may not always agree with what they say, but I appreciate their point of view nonetheless.
My verbal sparring partner for this evenings match prefers Kansai humour, he thinks that Tokai humour is too dry. Kansai humour is funny because Kansai people themselves are a joke. They do self parody very well, I guess that they don't have much choice, because it is considered rude to poke fun at other people in public.
Classic humour like manzai and rakugo are his favorites, they don't need props and rely heavily on the art of story telling. Recent derivatives of Japanese humour are made for consumption on the small screen and are heavily westernised, he tells me. I tell him the reason Japanese games shows are so funny for westerners is that we just aren't allowed to humiliate people in the same way on TV.
Some things of course are taboo, the royal family, gay humour, socal vices and gangsterism, all staples in the western diet of comedy. Things are changing however, Yakkun is a guy in school girl drag that carries a baseball bat, Hard Gay is an ex pro-wrestler in leathers, humping anything with two feet and a heart beat. He says that bad taste is not possible in Japanese humour, if the majority disapproves then it ceases to be funny.
We talk at length about black humour and how manic depression often gives us our best comedians. He can't remember ever watching The Blues Brothers, so I write it down for him. He finds it hard to define the Japanese sense of humour but he knows it shaped by a stratified and heirachical society. It is only permissible to ridicule someone for the sake of humour if you have established the pecking order.
Now I am beginning to understand why I am often the butt of jokes in my household, and why what I say is rarely considered amusing. My situation has been been compared that of the hapless Masuo Fuguta in the cartoon series Sazae-san.
I know this much, I enjoy childrens television and o-warai, but don't watch variety, or game-shows for that matter. I find they cater to the lowest common denominator.
What kind of Japanese humour have you seen? What makes you laugh and what makes you cringe? Have you ever wondered what they might laughing at?
I am writing this in response to Bart's post on learning languages, Polish and English. When writing my comment on the original post it soon became apparent there was a lot more I wanted to say on languages.
Thanks for the post, Bart. I agree with you in saying that the Internet is cheaper than almost any other method of learning a language. Except, perhaps, if you happen to live and work in a language community that is not your own. If you happen to have both, like me, then you are very lucky indeed.
I am also with Steve in saying that sources of good content are needed, but not necessarily more websites. You can find content in your desired language almost any where you look, in the street, in the library, on TV and of course on the Internet. Perhaps what we need as language learners, is to learn how to get this content working for us.
What do I mean "working for us"? Well, please let me explain. If we decide one day that we want to learn a language, we have a much better chance of doing that if our goal is to understand what people are saying in that language, moreover, to communicate with them in their native tongue. Language is about communication after all.
Now, communication happens between people, and those people share a common bond called community. Moving in with my wife's family in Japan has made me part of their family and the wider community. Most of us don't have the luxury of being able to move to another country, yet we all need community to achieve our language goals.
The people I teach English to do this by joining an expensive conversation school, where we simulate to a large degree natural conversation. In a sense I feel this interaction is artificial. After all, they are paying for a service and they have certain expectations, there are not the same bonds that normally hold communities together. I don't spend any money on language learning apart from the occasional text book or dictionary, I certainly don't pay for conversation. I don't think any should have to pay to find someone to talk to.
What the Internet has made possible for me, is to allow me access to wider communities of Japanese speakers. Within those communities I am exposed to a greater variety of communications styles, and hence vocabularies and expressions, than I would find at home. I naturally gravitate to communities where there is a large degree of activity, which exposes me to a greater number of opportunities to find people to talk to and things to talk about.
There are many tools that have become available recently that enable us to join communities and manage our involvement in them. Social networking has become the new media buzzword, everyone has facebook or myspace account, people are getting connected on a wider scale than ever before. What I am really interested in is how we can use these new tools and technologies to enhance our experience of this world as individuals, and secondly, as language learners how we can adapt them to suit our own language learning needs.
To see examples of where I am active in virtual communities of people who speaking or wanting to speak Japanese, look no further than this list (warning: shameless self promotion) .
- My YouTube Profile - Here I post a vlog in Japanese, my subscribers are mostly Japanese and non-Japanese who speak Japanese. Every time someone comments on my vlog I get constructive feedback on my Japanese, and in Japanese. Just recently we started a smaller community of non-Japanese who speak Japanese on YouTube groups for more support and encouragement.
- My Twitter Profile - I'm just new at this one, but it forces me to be attentive to my language production and comprehension skills during the day. I work in an English speaking environment, so I need to direct my attention towards communicating in Japanese more regularly than in the mornings and evenings at home.
- My 43 Things - Mostly posts in English but my involvement in things such as the goal Learn Japanese gives me access to other learners which can help me find good sources of content.
- My Vox Groups - Vox is of course both a social networking tool and a blogging site, having all of these rich media services also helps when pulling together a community. I still have a lot more connections that I want to build here, and Japanese speaking friends I want to make. It is also very handy to be able to put all your productive output in one place.
Well this post is starting to drag on just a bit, but I thought you might these things interesting. I'd like to know if and how everyone here is using social networking tools to improve their language ability. I'd love to share some more ideas with you all.
Brett F.
I`ve started to use the supermemo.net online learning tool and a free French phrasebook with audio samples to get the first 200 words/expressions down. You can find it at http://www.supermemo.net.pl if you are interested. Supermemo.net was instrumental in laying the foundation for my Japanese vocabulary, although I had to build the course materials for myself. I took a break from supermemo.net last year to focus on other things but I am considering taking it up again for Japanese as well.
The science behind SuperMemo is quite solid, check the site out. To quote the site "SuperMemo is the most successful single application ever developed in Poland". The software is available for various OS`s and PDA`s and there are two modes of study, the supermemo.net online version is light you can use it anywhere, even via email. The application for your desktop is a little clunky at times but is immensely powerful and configurable, even charting your progress on leanring new things. It`s a little bit too much software for the time I have to devote to it, so I might get into a little later down the track.
(Cross posted from my 43things - Where do I start, and how do I know when I get there? — 2 days ago)
So learning a language sounds like fun, and like many people who have tried it is, at first. Then the stark reality hits home that there is so much to learn and so little time.
There are so many resources out there that it is not simply a matter of finding them, the task soon becomes a matter of organising them and structuring a self directed learning course. Not everyone has a masters in linguistics or education planning so most people end up chasing their tails before either giving up or putting their heads down and getting to work. I prefer to work safe in the knowledge that I will not know everything, and I will always have to find new ways to learn as my situation changes. Therein lies the real challenge, will you adapt to different ways of thinking and viewing the world or will continue to see things through the safety of your own world view?
The differences between successful language learners and mediocre ones lie, I believe, in the sincere desire to participate in the culture of their chosen language. Language is culture so to speak, and niether operates in a vacuum. You must become a part of it for it to stick.
It really isn`t as hard as it seems if you the right attitude, the passion, the determination, the tolerance for mistakes and an iron hide to deal with miscommunication.
I have a working knowledge of Japanese but I don`t consider my self terribly fluent. I will be satisfied when I can read and understand the newspaper, debate on issues of broad social concern, and participate in activites of cultural significance and gain fresh perspective from them.
Having send that I don`t think I could ever consider this goal complete, for there is no end to learning. It would help however to have some sign posts along the way.
What do people consider a reasonable level of accomplishment in a language? When do you decide that it time to start focussing on other things?
日本の方へ、長い英語の文章をごめんなさい。ぜひビデオをご覧ください。よろしくお願いします。
I am always on the look out for new language learning methods, if they can make learning easier and more fun. I am essentially lazy, especially when it comes to long lists of vocabulary or drills for grammar. I enjoy reading manga, but I sometimes skip difficult kanji without reaching for the dictionary when the plot gets interesting. I think I am an average learner, and I know I prefer silence in most cases to idle conversation. It truly is a wonder that I have come this far in my Japanese.
I also have a long way to go before I am truly proficient, and only one year left here in Japan. There is a real sense of urgency for me now, and a driving passion for it. My Japanese wife and son will need my support in both English and Japanese when we first move back to Australia, and of course for a long time into the future.
I want to share some of the things that work for me in the hope that they will be of benefit to others, I am no expert of course, and I have no formal qualification in teaching languages. I do have four years experience in a large English conversation school and experience as a fitness coach and trainer, among other things. I`ve come to treat language acquisition as skill aquisition like any other. Of course it much more complicated that that but this way of looking at makes it achievable for me.
There are countless ways to learn a language, and many courses available that stress this or that or the other approach, but I would like to focus on what works for me. Hopefully by illustrating and demostrating what I have found to work, you the reader will start to see new ways of looking at languages, and through languages the world around you.
A lot of what I have learnt through various forms of input has yet to find a way out through productive channels. This is one reason that recently have turned to blogging in Japanese here on Vox. Some of you in my neighbourhood have enjoyed sending these posts through various translators and seeing the results, me too. I`m sure that even in Japanese they may seem a little strange to native speakers of Japanese.
They have had the effect of focusing my attention on output, putting into practice what little I have sponged up from the environment I am in and the books and other tools I have around me. The feedback from those in my neighbourhood has been important in maintaining consistency, although other writing projects have been on the backburner. I little while after I started posting in Japanese I discovered some thing very interesting happening on Youtube, a small community of non-Japanese vlogging for fun in Japanese. I thought what a great way to practice and since my first video posted just 3 weeks ago I have to date posted a total of nine.
At first I would compose my thoughts on my mobile phone, starting in the taxi on the the way to work and finishing my post of during breaks and on the way home. Posting these blogs to Vox would give me a chance to edit and gain some valuable feedback from my wife. The next day circumstances permitting I would find a quite space and verbalise what I had written the day before, in front of the video camera on my mobile phone. Often without editing I would upload them directly on to Youtube.
Each time I review one of these videos I get a chance to see my own mistakes, when I review the ones my peers on Youtube make I get a chance to see their mistakes too. The process creates a feedback loop that is sometimes lacking in self directed learning. It also involves me in a dynamic community of people who have a similar passion for the language. It exposes me to feedback from native speakers and very broad range of content.
Each time I make one it focuses my attention on speaking clearly and intelligibly in a way that doesn`t happen in conversation. With limited time in my break and limited space on my memory card I usually have room for one take. Occaisionally I`ll have time for editing a longer, more directed video like my study room tour, the simplicity and utility of the single take has filled a very real need in my language acquisition program.
日本の方へ、長い英語の文章をごめんなさい。ぜひビデオをご覧ください。よろしくお願いします。
