In my last post about choosing Japanese classes I talked about the importance of speaking and listening to native Japanese speakers. It is something I believe is very important for those wanting to speak Japanese. I also mentioned that those interested in the chance to learn and speak with a native Japanese speaker should stay tuned. Well I have some good news.

I have received a number of comments and mails from people wondering how to go about finding a Japanese speaking partner or teacher. After a bit of convincing, I was able to get my wife (a Japanese native from Tokyo) to start teaching classes on Edufire. Eri is from Tokyo, but graduated from college in the US, so she knows what it takes to learn a foreign language.

Her main focus will be teaching conversational Japanese and greetings. To start out with, she is offering two free classes that will take place in the next few days. She is also planning to run smaller more private classes in the future and students who attend these classes will have first shot at them. You can find more information on the classes here: Free Japanese Classes.

The classes will basically cover the same material (I believe), but I recommend you to sign up for both to get extra practice.

Free Japanese Class

Since I started Japanese Words I have tried to give a lot of tips and information about how to learn Japanese. I have given tips on choosing books, study tools, study methods, studying the right words (including common words lists) and a few tips on grammar. The one thing I haven’t done is create videos teaching you how to speak Japanese. There is a good reason for this. I lack one very important credential: I am not a native Japanese speaker.

Yes, I studied abroad as a university student and now currently live and work in Japan. I speak Japanese everyday and conduct my daily activities in Japanese. But my spoken Japanese is not perfect, and almost no non-native Japanese speaker is. Even if they use all the right grammar and all the right words, they will almost always have an accent. And since you are trying to learn perfect Japanese, you need to hear perfect Japanese. This is something a non native Japanese speaker can’t provide.

I would even go one step further and say that you should learn from a native speaker who speaks the “standard” dialect. In Japan’s case this is the dialect spoken in the Kanto area (Tokyo and the surrounding areas).

Grammar can easily be learned from books, but how to actually speak and which expressions to use in the right situations and how to pronounce them correctly requires  practice with a native speaker.

For those who are wanting to find a native Japanese speaker to learn and practice Japanese, stay tuned….I will posting about this soon!

I have mention before that learning the the most common Japanese words first is an essential part of learning to speak Japanese quickly. You want to learn the words that you will use, not just the ones that are ordered in a book.

However, wouldn’t it also be great if there was a simple way to learn the words that didn’t require just pure repetition. A way to remember the words are pronounced and what they mean without having to look at it 20 times, finally remember it, only to forget it because you didn’t use it for a week?

The link to the program below focuses on exactly this problem. Unlike a lot of  the programs available Speak Japanese Fast doesn’t try to be a full Japanese learning suite. Instead it focuses on teaching you vocabulary quickly and remember them by using interesting stories to learn the meaning and the pronunciation. Remember the Kanji uses a very similar method in teaching Kanji and it works pretty well.

You can check out the program here.

Disclaimer: I get a percentage of all sales purchased from this link and appreciate your support. The money is used to keep Japanese Words up and running and allow me to spend more time writing and developing the site.

I am always on the lookout for good Japanese learning tools. With all the available channels there are a lot of different types products, but to be honest, many fall very short of really teaching you the language. But every once and a while, I happen to stumble across one that really impresses me. What’s even better is that this particular video series is completely free.

Now I will admit that Let’s Learn Japanese is a little bit outdated, but the over all content is great (and I did mention free right?).

The videos do a great job, of putting the Japanese words and conversation in context so you can get an understanding even if you don’t understand the Japanese. They then break it down and explain the meaning and have you practice the various Japanese phrases and words .

The other thing I like is that the series is shot as a funny and interesting little story. While it isn’t a blockbuster, I thought the film crew did a good enough job that I wanted to keep watching. The story line follows Yan, a foreigner coming to work and live in Japan.

There was also a companion book for the video series called “Let’s Learn Japanese”, but it seems to be out of print now. I was able to find some PDF copies on Scribd.

You can find the rest of the Japanese videos below:

Japanese Basic I- I am Yan

I have mentioned several times that studying Japanese should be fun. If it’s not fun then it is going to be much harder and take you longer to learn. An ideal method would be one that makes you feel like you aren’t studying at all. Over the last few weeks I have been playing with a Japanese learning tool called NihongoUP. And I say “playing” in the literal form, because NihongoUp turns Japanese study into an addictive game.

NihongoUp is made up of 4 different games (kana, kanji, words, and grammar). In the kana game, little balloons with kana fall from the top of the screen and you have to type them before they hit the bottom of the screen. With the other three games you are given a sentence and must click the falling balloon containing the correct answer before it hits the bottom of the screen. The balloons fall faster and faster with each correct answer and slow down again after you miss one. The advantage to this method is that you will constantly be challenged to read and answer quicker each time.

The game is designed in Adobe air which means it can be played on on any Operating System. The game itself is beautifully designed and runs fast. I didn’t care much for the music, but luckily there is an option to turn it off. Rather than music, I would prefer readings of the sentences or characters. I think that would be much more helpful.

NihongoUp isn’t a full Japanese language suite and the author of the program is the first to mention this. For instance, the kana feature doesn’t tell you how to type the characters you get wrong. Kanji and words that you missed are only shown briefly. And by that time you are already working on the next word or character. Adding a review or a report showing the correct answers would be a very helpful addition.

Having said that, what it is designed to do, and what I think it accomplishes very well, is to help you study material you already know in a fun way. It gets you to focus on getting the next high score and in doing so makes you forget you are studying. Though you will definitely learn some new words and kanji along the way.

The program costs a total of $4.99. I think this is pretty cheap for the amount of study you will get out of it. There is also a trial version available.

You can find NihongoUp at the link below:

NihongoUp