Trying Out the New Smart.fm (iKnow)

  I'm sure by now that most of you have heard the news of Smart.fm turning into a pay to use site, well since I had been signed up before the switch, I was offered an extended free trail of their new service which goes by the name iKnow. This free trail lasts until March 31st of this year so I will be using this time to test out iKnow, and determine if it's worth the 1,000 yen a month price tag (which I highly doubt it is). 

  

  Day One: First thing I notice is that the layout is a little confusing (which may just be because I've become so used to Smart.fm's layout), but it does have a "study calendar" on the right hand side which tells you how much time you've spent studying everyday and your overall total for the week and month. That's a pretty nice feature if you want to have a visual of your progress.

  You get an option to take a "diagnostics test" which will attempt to place you in a lesson level that's right for you. The test has 25 questions and depending on how well you do, you will be placed anywhere between Japanese Core 1000 and 6000 (levels are in increments of 1000, so there are 6 different levels). The test has two different question types: multiple choice and spelling. Questions consist of just showing you a random Japanese word and reading it out loud for you (sometimes). There's no confirmation if you got the question right until after the test. 

  

  My results: 6 out of 25 correct (wow) placed in Japanese Core 1000 which covers 100 of the most basic words. Okay, I'll trust you on this iKnow, I'll start on the lesson that has been recommended. I scan the vocab list of this lesson, and I notice that I already know plenty of these words but there are also a few that I'm not too confident with, so this lesson should be a good start I suppose.

  I have some previous lessons I hadn't completed in Smart.fm, and it turns out that I can transfer my progress over to iKnow, however, it didn't transfer over half of my lessons. Okay, no problem, I'll just go to the course list and find those lessons, right? Wrong. iKnow only provides their own lessons, any user created content from Smart.fm is nonexistent here. You're only options are Japanese Core 1000 through 6000 and a hiragana and katakana course. iKnow's lessons are pretty good, but the user created content allowed more freedom in what you wanted to focus your studies on, so this is disappointing to me. 

  It seems like the biggest changes from Smart.fm to iKnow is that they got rid of old user created content and started charging for a stripped down version of Smart.fm.... how is this a good deal exactly? Maybe they'll change a few things later on, so I'll stick with iKnow and I'll be sure to post anything new. Check back tomorrow!

iknow's address: http://iknow.jp/

Learn to Construct Japanese Sentences: From Native Speakers!

  The biggest goal of learning Japanese is to attain a native level grasp on the language, right? Then what better way to reach this goal then to be taught by someone who is actually living in Japan? With an internet connection, it's entirely possible to have the help of hundreds of native speakers, and the best part is that it's free!

   

   The amazing site I have in mind is Lang8. Lang8 allows you to write a journal entry in the language you are learning (your "target" language), upload it for everyone (or just your friends) on Lang8 to read and Lang8 provides tools for native speakers of your target language to correct and comment on your journal. There is also a function on Lang8 that allows you to save these corrections as notes so if someone gave you a really great correction or taught you something new, you can save it to your notes so you can review it and memorize it. 

   I've been using Lang8 for a little over two months now and I highly recommend it! The community is friendly and eager to help you out, so no need to feel shy. I suggest you sign up right away, because if I've learned anything from Smart.fm, it's that great free to use sites like Lang8 have to be taken advantage of while they're still free!

Learning to Read Japanese: Subject Particles

  In the hiragana family, there are a few characters that have special functions:

1. は
2. も
3. が

  These are called "particles". Of course these aren't all of the particles out there, but these are the "subject marking" particles. Meaning that they... mark the subject in a sentence.

   

   Learn to use は correctly first. It's like the grandfather of the subject particles and it is by far the most commonly used. 私は学生です= I am a student.

   In my opinion, も is by far the easiest particle to understand and use. 私も学生です = I am also a student.

   And then there was が, the filthy bastard. By far the most confusing particle, there are even entire books dedicated to understanding how to properly use it! Don't feel bad if  が has you confounded, a lot of people have trouble with it!

   If you want to understand how to use these particle, I have an extremely useful link for you that helped me out a lot:  http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar/particlesintro

Important News!: Smart.fm Closing!

  Sad news today, one of my favorite sites and language learning tools, Smart.fm, has announced that they are going to be closing the Smart.fm service! Official announcement here.

  Smart.fm will be changing into a paid service under a new name. Anyone who is already registered to Smart.fm will get to use their new language learning service for free until March 31,2011 according to the official post. Also, you can have a free trial until Feburaury 28, 2011 if you were not registered to Smart.fm previously.

   I'll be looking for a new free service to use in Smart.fm's place and I will make a post as soon as I find something good.

Using Your Eyes to Listen

 When you are learning a new language, one of the best ways to get some effective listening practice in is to use your eyes. Yes, it sounds a bit stupid the way I just said it, but allow me to explain; if you're only listening to audio, it will be nearly impossible to understand and pick out words unless you already know a good majority of the words being spoken. However, if there were pictures or animation to go with the audio, you could figure out the meaning of words since they are being used in context. The definitions of these words are actually being shown to you. The more senses you are using at the same time, the more effective your studying will be. Always keep this in mind.

  Now, to follow what I just said, I have two great sites in mind that you should bookmark and use at least a few times a week. The first site I recommend is hellonavi.com. (my link will direct you to the page you need so you don't have to stumble around the Japanese) Hellonavi has various interactive animated lessons that cover everyday situations, so this site is very useful if you're taking a trip to Japan soon and need to know some survival phrases. Another great thing about Hellonavi's lessons is that any text you need to read on this part of Hellonavi will only be in hiragana and katakana, so it's very easy to use. Highly recommended for beginners!

 The second site I recommend is kankomie.or.jp. Unlinke Hellonavi's lessons, Kankomie provides animated storybooks complete with a native Japanese speaker reading the story to you. In contrast to Hellonavi, Kankomie is harder to use since the text will include kanji and the speed at which the text is read to you might leave you in the dust if you're a beginner. People who are more advanced in their studies will get the most use out of this site.

* exact URL of Hellonavi's lessons: http://www.hellonavi.com/foldera/index.html *

* exact URL of Kankomie's storybooks: http://www.kankomie.or.jp/mukashi/# *

Google Translate: A Golden Turd

 Oh google translate, I want to love you, but you just don't cut it. I give you a Japanese sentence to translate for me, but half the time you spit out something in a mangled English that may have been written by a monkey. Sure google can translate simple sentences for you such as: 私は寿司を食べます (I eat sushi), but try and input "I eat sushi" in English to get a Japanese equivalent, and you get: 私は寿司を食べる. The thing google gets wrong here is that 食べる is not the polite way to say eat! The polite form is 食べます! Politeness is a big deal when you're using Japanese, so though this may seem like a small mistake, you could actually end up offending some one if you use the wrong form! So don't rely on google translate to give you accurate results.

 However, google translate still has some use. Google translate can do one useful thing for you, and that is providing you with Japanese audio to go with the Japanese sentences you input. Simply input your Japanese and you will notice a small blue button labeled "listen" which will read the sentence out loud for you (just make sure the "From" tab is set to Japanese first). Let's say that you run into this word while you are reading: 先生. Of course you'll have no idea how to say this word since it's all kanji, but with google translate's audio function, you'll be able to hear how it is pronounced! Glorious.

Nintendo DS: My Japanese Coach

  As some of you may already know, the DS is a great tool for learning Japanese since it has no region lock, enabling you to play any and all imported Japanese language games. However, I'd like to talk about a great DS game that can help you learn Japanese and that you don't have to import! I'm talking about "My Japanese Coach".

 In my opinion, the best part of this game is that you can record yourself speaking Japanese and compare it to recordings of native speakers using the built in microphone on the DS. This is really great if you need the extra work on your accent/pronunciation and you don't have a native speaker around to help you out. 

 

 My Japanese Coach works best for people who are just barely learning Japanese. More advanced users will not get as much out of this game as beginners will. However, when you create a new save file, the game will test your knowledge of Japanese and start you off on the appropriate lessons and difficulty according to how much you already know. This way you won't have to waste time learning things you have already mastered.

  *A word of advice: My Japanese Coach can't teach you Japanese on it's own. The best way to use this game is as a study aid for when you wouldn't otherwise be able to study using your online resources.*

Online Japanese Dictionaries

  Japanese Dictionaries are a MUST when you are learning the language. I prefer using online dictionaries since you can save time by copying and pasting instead of flipping through hundreds of pages.

  The first dictionary I recommend is jisho.org. Jisho is simple to use and gives you all the information that you need. The only problem I have with jisho is that since it's an English to Japanese dictionary, it will some times give you results that are not in common use anymore, which is why I also recommend using:

  Space Alc. Space Alc is in full Japanese so if you're a beginner, this site may be too difficult for you to use right now. However, this dictionary will give you the most accurate results. There's one way beginners can still use this site: look up a word on jisho, and copy and paste the Japanese text into space alc's search bar to do a quick cross reference. This way, you'll be 100% sure that you're getting the right word.

  

 

Learning to Read Japanese: Hiragana

 Your first step to learning to read and write Japanese will be to learn hiragana. In order to streamline your hiragana studies, I suggest that you skip the writing practice for now and save it for later on in your studies. I know, this might seem like weird advice, but look at it this way, when's the last time you actually had to write something down that you couldn't just type up on a computer? Exactly. There will only be a handful of times where you'll actually have to write something down in Japanese, so save yourself the time for now and just focus all of your brain power into mastering hiragana.
 
  The absolute best site for drilling hiragana into your mind is Smart.fm! At smart.fm, they use an application that works much like flashcards but it is much more efficient and organized, it has voice samples from native speakers, and best of all it's free! Just take it slow and learn a few hiragana a week using smart.fm as your online flash cards.
  
  I'll save you the time and give you a link to the hiragana goal on smart.fm here.

Saving Money on Japanese Textbooks

 About 3 months ago, I signed up for a Japanese 101 class at my local community college and I finished it early last month. I'll tell you right now, it wasn't worth the money at all. The class itself cost about $150, the textbook cost around $100, and the workbook that goes with the textbook costs $50. So overall, Japanese 101 could cost you $300 or more. Not worth the price tag in my opinion since everything I learned in that class, you can learn for free using online resources. However, if you still want to sign up for Japanese 101 despite my warning, I can help you save some money to make it more worth your money.

  First of all, when you sign up for the class, don't buy the required textbook right away, never pay full price for that sucker! You see, the way the textbook industry works is they keep putting out new editions of their books and every edition is pricier than the last. That may seem logical, but the trick here is that all that is needed to brand a book as a new edition, is a few minor changes. Overall, it changes nothing essential about the book and the price of the previous edition takes a nose dive as they become "obsolete" when in reality, they are still quite usable. Price tag on a new edition text: $80 - $100, price tag on the previous edition text: $5.44 - $10. Epic savings right there.

  *If you need dirt cheap prices on books for class, I would suggest checking out abebooks.com. I haven't had any problems buying from them, but don't be dumb, don't buy from sellers with low bookseller ratings.*

The Best Place to Watch Anime

  Part of my daily Japanese studying routine is to watch at least one video in Japanese (with no subtitles!). If anime is your thing, I highly recommend using the completely legal and free site crunchyroll.com. On *most* of the videos on crunchyroll, if you right click on the video, some options will show up, one of them is to remove subtitles so you can enjoy your anime in it's pure Japanese form. No subtitles crutch for you anymore! As far as I know, this is the only site that offers the option to remove their subtitles, which makes it great for listening practice.

*some of the older anime on crunchyroll have the subtitles in the actual video, meaning they can't be removed at all.*