Using Google Translate to help you to learn Japanese

Yes. Ok. You can put an English phrase into Google Translate and get some sketchy Japanese back in return.

But, in terms of learning, it also works well the other way round.

I wanted to test what I'd been learning so I typed the romaji versions of some basic phrases into GT to make sure I got the correct response. GT then suggests the kana/kanji version of what  you've typed. I then started to experiment with the various building blocks of sentences, moving from 'my name is...' to 'my friend's name is...'  for example, without having learned that particular phrase

GT has three ways of inputting Japanese text. You can type it in romaji, you can use the keyboard to generate hiragana, and you can use the mouse to draw kana and kanji.

When you type to generate hiragana it's important to remember that you need to double tap the N key to make ん, to make sure you use a double consonant when you want a small tsu e.g. matte まって (wait), and type compound hiragana as they sound (kyu (きゅ) rather than Ki u (きう) or Ki Yu (きゆ).

The ability to draw kanji and have GT interpret them is great. Recently, I was trying to work out what 非常識 meant and managed (admittedly after a bit of trial and error) to input all the kanji and get to the meaning: Insane! The drawing doesn't have to be dead on and GT will put up multiple suggestions.

As you can see, my version of 識 (しき) is rubbish, but it was enough to generate the correct Kanji.

GT is great (and let's all appreciate that it's free). It's far from perfect and doesn't replace actual conversation and other ways of getting insight into the Japanese language. However, it can get you out of a jam and provide you with some insight once you've got some basic grammar and vocab under your belt.

Studying without books

I'd been studying without using any form of textbook for ages and, now I've been cured of this affliction, I can tell you, it's much easier with some textual support.

When I'm bored of an evening, I do tasks on Mechanical Turk. MT is a site where you can do very simple online tasks and get paid a tiny amount of money for them. As I'm in the UK I can't get that money paid directly into my account and instead it gets credited to my Amazon balance.

Brilliant for the occasional textbook purchase.

I plumped for Japanese From Zero!

I'm really getting along with it. It's really well structured and not overly patronising. I'd already covered hiragana by the time I started with this book but if you've not, it's a great introduction. The book gradually moves from romaji to hiragana substituting more and more characters in each chapter. 

The book has a lot of writing tasks (which I don't do many of so my writing is really poor) including frameworks to help you to learn stroke order etc. Even though you don't need to know any Kanji to get through this, the book is cunningly setting you up to be able to read and write the symbols easily. 

When phrases are introduced they are written in both hiragana and Kanji/kana so you start to absorb the way in which standard Japanese is written. 

There are a whole series of these books so, if you get on with them like me, there's a path ahead of you.

Hoorah!

Knock On

As I've been writing these posts I've had to dip into the iPhone app store to find details of the various things I've tried. Last time I ran across a new app which I really like.

Learn Japanese by Mind Snacks

The app itself is based on a series of games that you play with the increasing amounts of vocabulary you learn. It feels very similar to Duolingo in that it has a friendly, cartoony interface and it encourages you to keep learning by setting small goals and giving you points. As you progress you unlock new games and, of the games I've unlocked so far, they aren't just variations on a theme. Different games enhance different aspects of your learning. There are also three different modes of gameplay: Romaji, Kana, and Kanji. This allows you to control your progress even more. If you're doing well you can move up to Kana and, equally you can always go back to your previous lessons and play the games again on Kanji mode (tricky).

In the vocab section, you can tap each word to hear the pronunciation and all the games feature audio so you get a sense of how to speak the language, not just read it.

I really like it. It's great fun. But I'm still in the honeymoon period with it. So I'll see if it keeps my interest. But apart from it being fun, it's helping me to fix vocab in my mind that I'm learning elsewhere.
There's also a lot to be gained by having a few apps and books on the go as they have slightly different perspectives. For example I'd been using okaasan (お母さん) to refer to my mum in conversation and this app uses haha (母) instead. This then sent me off on a google mission to find out when and where the two should be used.

Overall, a really easy to use, fun way to get into learning Japanese.

A new app-roach!

Yes. Awful pun. Soz

After my time with the Lingolook app I launched into a series of App based learning experiments.

Learn Japanese with Phrases & Lessons by thejapanesepage.com 

I really liked this app but I didn't think the app guided your learning particularly well. Although at the point at which I started using this app I was still labouring under the dilution that I could get some basic Japanese under my belt without learning Hiragana and Katakana. You can't.
Once I gave in and decided to learn start learning Hiragana this app came into its own. It was great to have access to flash cards wherever I was and once I got more confident I was able to dip into the phrases to improve my ability to read the kana.

Japanese-hiragana by hk2006

This app is great fun, if a little childish and I got it to help me learn Hiragana as I was struggling. It functions almost entirely in Japanese and looks like a slightly modified version of something that might help young Japanese children to read and write Hiragana. There are several games within the app. My favourite is one where the app says a word and you have to tap the character that begins that word before the computer does. You can also trace the patters of the characters with your finger.

The apps were a great starting point but it took a lot of work with a notebook and pen to get the characters into my head. I still confuse some of them (especially as they can be written in slightly different ways) but these apps really helped to get me started and, most usefully I could do the exercises on the go.

The first steps.... [Lingolook Japanese App]

I'm learning Japanese.

By my self.


It all started because I was asked to work in Japan last year. I was the only non-Japanese person on the project and, although I had a translator with me all the time (she was amazing and deserves some sort of medal) I felt as though I was letting people down on a regular basis.

So I was determined to learn.

In this post I'm going to wind back a little bit to before I worked there.

I started with an app. I got a Lingolook Japanese app and got stuck in.

The app is well structured. The phrases are divided into categories so you can access what you need and the phrases are written in English, romaji (Japanese phrases written in Latin letters) and in Japanese script (hiragana, katakana, kanji). There is also audio for all the phrases.

The app was easy to use and I learned a couple of useful phrases (hajimemashite, はじめまして; and sumimasen, すみません for example) through listening to the audio and looking at the romaji. In this respect it was a great intro to Japanese. The app helped me to understand the way in which the different sounds are pronounced in Japanese. It gave me better access to other learning materials.

That said, I think this app is best for tourists rather than long term learners. The range of phrases is driven by the emergency situations a traveller might find themselves in. If the situation were dire, you could always just let the app do the talking.

But the app gives you no help with the grammar and structure of the sentences. And there's no way to break up the sentences.

A good app, but it's usefulness was limited. That said, it was reasonably priced and, when I was in Japan, I knew I had instant access to a range of basic phrases. Not to play into people's ears, but to remind me of what I needed to say.

It was a decent beginning.