Learn Japanese

I’m going to Japan! The interview to study abroad went really well. I introduced myself in Japanese (a surefire way to impress the panel) and got a lot of good advice. Primarily, be open to new experiences and take advantage of all the resources available to me both at Sozosha (Soh.zoh.sha) and my home school. Also, another student, Tara, who’s an illustrator, is going as well. We’ve form a small band of language learners and speakers, working with a tutor, Rio Sensei, and one of my Japanese obsessed instructors, on the side.

For Japan, I’m planning on going out at the beginning of March, Spend about a month in Tokyo so I can adjust to the culture, and take a language class to really immerse myself in the language to prepare myself for school. I’m going to stay with a host family, rather that trying to navigate a month in hostiles and the like. It will also give me time to scope out the Japanese creative scene. One of my instructors has a connection in Tokyo at a design and animation studio called Tokyo Lab. They don’t specifically do what I do but the founders were both educated at American design schools and work bilingually. They’ll be a good insight into what its like to be a creative in Japan and help me know who I need to know.

Then I’ll head out to Osaka at the beginning of April to start my design classes at Sozosha. There, I’ll also be staying with a host family, who will be indispensable in navigating my way through my time there. Let me tell ya, I’m looking forward to some good Japanese eats. I’m going to approach it with an open mind and try as much as possible. A vegetarian open to new things; a flexitarian. Our group went to a Japanese restaurant, the most delicious in town, and Rio taught us manners. I had what is called a Donburi. They vary in ingredients, but mine consisted of a bowl with a bottom layer of rice, with tempura vegetables piled on top. Osaka is known to be the place for food and the place for the arts; a perfect combination. Classes at Sozosha go until August. Then I’ll fly back to home and start up classes again at the very end of August.

Hard work is paying off; cant wait to jetset to the other side of the globe.

Today in Japanese class our sensei introduced us to a handy phrase, giving us the ability to ask how to say something, that we don’t already know, in Japanese.

__ は にほんご で なん と いいます か。
__ wa nihongo de nan to iimasu ka?
How do I say __ in Japanese?

Q:
Glassesはにほんごでなんといいますか。
Glasses wa nihongo de nan to iimasu ka?
How do you say Glasses in Japanese?

A:
めがねいいます。
megane iimasu.
You say megane.

This phrase is handy, especially when talking to a teacher, because they are able to take your english request and parse it into Japanese.

When in Japan, I know I will be using this phrase all the time, but my Japanese host family probably wont understand English. Thus this helpful modification is appropriate:

Q:
これはにほんごでなんといいますか。
kore wa nihongo de nan to iimasu ka?
What is this called in Japanese?

A:
それはほんです。
sore wa hon desu.
That’s a book.

The next time you’re not sure how to say a word in Japanese, don’t be afraid to ask. Just us this valuable phrase.

To read more about my journey to learn Japanese, check my blog: Wired in Japan

Tomorrow marks the first day of my institutionally structured journey to better understand the Japanese language. I will be taking Elementary Japanese 101 at a local liberal arts college, in addition to my current education at design school. The course is a requirement in order to study abroad, yet one that I am looking forward to.

We will be using the Nakama Japanese textbook and workbook. Together, they were over $100 used at the bookstore. Hello Amazon.

In my self guided study, as well as working with my Japanese tutor, we worked with the Genki textbook. Genki was accessible and tried to make learning the language fun, overall a good textbook. Solely judging by the cover of Nakama, it looks strictly business. Hopefully as we progress, it will open up a bit.

Looking forward to meeting my fellow classmates and studying hard.

As usual, がんばります！(I’ll do my best!)

Read more on my blog: Wired in Japan

Throughout my time learning the Japanese Language, thus far, I’ve been asked if I know hiragana and katakana; It is a good way to measure a beginner Japanese learner’s skill level. I would always answer that I knew my kana well; I knew the phonetic sounds and how to write Japanese characters on my computer.

Yet when I was asked by my Japanese tutor, Rio sensei, who is thankfully very specific in regards to learning the Japanese language, I thought, no problem. Yet, there’s a twist: say them aloud, in order and then write them out, by hand, without any reference. Fail. I knew some, but many I simply drew a mental blank.

Thus, Rio provided me a handy sheet for practicing hiragana and katakana . Thus far I’ve completed 80 sheet of kana practice. That’s approximately 12,300 individually written kana; does your arm hurt after that. This is over a time span of about five months now.

That said, there are a few pesky kana, particularly katakana, that I blank on. While the previous kana worksheets are great for learning form and order, I have devised a new work sheet to help with memorization; unaided recall.

This new sheet has no sample kana to sample from; it is just you and your memory. I like to write vertically, right to left, and stream through hiragana then katakana, in proper order. If I blank, I leave a space and move on.

Download the new Write Japanese practice sheet . [3mb, pdf] Print this out, double sided if you can, and write the full hiragana and katakana alphabets from your memory.

Thus, I know that I frequently forget: め(me), も(mo) in hiragana and ヌ(nu), ネ(ne), メ(me), モ(mo), ル(ru), レ(re) in katakana.

What hiragana and katakana do you seem to always forget?

Many people seem to be using the Nintendo DS video game My Japanese Coach to learn the Japanese language, so I thought I would give it a play.

I have been learning Japanese, self studying, for some time now. Thus in the placement test, I tested into lesson five.

The placement test gives you a series of, at the most, 50 some questions. If you get two incorrect answers in a row, the test ends and you get placed in the appropriate lesson. The part that I fumbled up on was the days of the week. I should know them by know, so I am glad that’s where I’m starting out. The days of the week are an important thing to know.

The video game My Japanese Coach is a great resource as an introduction to the Japanese Language. It is fun and easy to get into. It starts you out with English spellings of Japanese words (romaji) and as you progress becomes written with Japanese characters (hiragana, katakana, kanji).

My only qualm is about the necessity of romaji for continued learning. It serves its role in making this game accessible, but is a crutch in the long run; if your learning a foreign language, you should use the proper characters. Thus, my word of advice: learn hiragana and katakana as soon as possible and get away from romaji just as quick.

Overall a fun game. がんばって！ (Do your best!)

Japanese designers, architects, engenieers, creatives, and thinkers from Kenya Hara’s book Designing Design
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shigeru ban
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masahiko sato
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kengo kuma
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kaoru mende
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kosuke tsumura
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naoto fukasawa
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norihide imagawa
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tadasu ohe
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akio okumura
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kaoru kasai
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kanji hayashi
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mayumi miyawaki
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shin sobue
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toyo ito
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shuhei hasado
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yasuhiro suzuki
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shunji yamanaka
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keiko hirano
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masayo ave
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reiko sudo
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kazunari hattori
/

For all you Smart.fm users, I created a list on graphic design terms in Japanese. These terms a very helpful when searching for Japanese design. One can get a good view about what is happening in Japanese design by googling in the native language.

The list encompasses basics like:
グラフィックデザイン – Graphic Design
フォント – Font
ロゴ – Logo
ポスター – Poster

To more esoteric terms like:
バウハウス – Bauhaus
ポール・ランド – Paul Rand
スイス・スタイル – Swiss Style
ヘルヴェチカ – Helvetica
ビジュアルコミュニケーション – Visual Communication

All the words are in katakana, because they’re loan words or foreign names. Basically sound out the English word with Japanese pronunciation.

がんばって！

Wired in Japan

パンくん (Pankun), the genius chimpanzee, is the star of a Japanese television show. Pankun is a chimp that’s able to complete everyday tasks and is one comedic character.

In this episode watch Pankun face off with Aiba, a Japanese entertainer, in a contest of feats. They battle in various physical activities, such as: push ups, an eating contest, and a dance off.

Part One

Part Two

To make learning Japanese a bit more interesting, I find it enjoyable to watch videos in which Japanese is the only spoken language, without any English subtitles. Watching videos without subtitles seems daunting at first, yet one is able to gain at least a fragment of understanding, even without completely understanding what they are saying.

If you simply watch the way people use body language, as well as listen to the emphasis and emotion that is put into the way they speak, it is easy to get the gist of what is going on.

I don’t see watching video in Japanese as a way to learn the Japanese language, but rather a fun way to see how your listening comprehension is. After learning Japanese for a little while, I am able to progressively pick out words and phrases. The more that Japanese I learn, the more I will be able to understand.

Wired in Japan

こんにちはりおせんせい。
わたしはとうふがすきです。なっとうはすきじゃありません。

あなたはすきですか。

From a message I hand wrote to my teacher:

Hello Rio sensei.
Tofu is my favorite. Natto is not my favorite.
(I've never actually tried it, but i hear it is quite peculiar.)

What is your favorite?

Wired in Japan

こんにちは。わたしのなまえはライアンヘーガマンです。はじめまして。
Hello. My name is Ryan Hageman. Nice to meet you.

I’m starting up new Japanese lessons and I’ve already learned a lot. Our first assignment, to improve our kana and perfect our basics, is to write out basic phrases in Japanese, by hand. I do most my Japanese writing by typing (probably because I spend most of my time in front of the computer). Although, writing by hand develops more associations, helping one to better use and recall learned information.

Wired in Japan