Learning Japanese de Danny Choo

Preluat de la Danny Choo, mai exact de aici :D

The following is a list of the things that I done and the events that got me to my Japanese level today – hopefully there will be a few ideas that you can use for your Japanese learning too.

• Put up classified ads on the Japan Center message board asking for language exchange. Apart from books, the Japan Center also sold a lot of Japanese grub and other stuff which attracted many Japanese customers – many who were students over in London to study English. Through the ad, I was able to meet quite a few Japanese folks.
• I made a point of reading the weekly free Japanese journals that were handed out at the Japan Center and through the classified ads, I found out about an English/Japanese language exchange class held in Bond Street somewhere. Native Japanese speakers who were learning English would go to meet native English speakers and chat about stuff. Made a ton of Japanese friends through activities like this. I do feel that its important to spend time with Japanese folks as language is not all about the grammar – its about the culture too and you will learn much of the culture and mannerisms through being with the Japanese.
• I bought a ton of videos from a Japanese book shop in St Pauls. They had somebody in Japan who recorded Japanese variety programs including anime. When the videos got a bit old, the lady at the shop would sell them to me for about a pound each. I needed an NTSC video player to play the videos and I bought one with the annual grant that I received ^^;
• Bought a ton of manga including the whole series of Ranma 1/2 and Crayon Shin Chan. Both of these manga had furigana which helped me learn Kanji at the same time. Furigana is the hiragana pronunciation that you see above kanji from time to time.
• I also listened to a lot of JPOP (including Nishida Hikaru) and what I like about Japanese CDs is that they always come with the lyrics – learning through music was a good method.
• Japanese dramas while at times can be far fetched, you get to see a lot of “daily” Japan and hear “daily” words n phrases. I still watch dramas and am currently watching Sailor Fuku to Kikanjyu – love it.
• I set my tape player to run at 5 am in the morning at a low volume. The theory was that I would subconsciously hear the Japanese tape which would slowly brain wash me with the lingo.
• I set goals for myself like taking the Japanese language proficiency test. I managed to pass level 4 and then level 2 the following year through self study. Applying for the test and then studying for it was another good learning method which kept me focused while I was still living in London. After I passed level 2, my Japanese was good enough to get me into the second year of a Japanese language BA at London University.
• I wanted to make sure I spent time in Japan but needed cash. While I was at university, I took a part time job at a Japanese restaurant called Benihana in Chelsea London. I worked nights after school everyday so that I could save up for a plane ticket to come to Japan every year - and blow most of the remaining money on the first day in Akihabara on Idol DVDs and anime goodies ^^; 
• I thought I would make good use of peeing and pooing time so I made kanji charts which I put up in the toilet. I had one chart of “currently learning” kanji above the toilet for pee time and one beside the toilet for poo time. Those who poo standing up only need one chart.
• To speed up the learning of Kanji, I decided not to learn the stroke order. Each kanji should really be written in a particular way from top to bottom but my kanji are written from bottom to top ^^; As long as the kanji looks the same when Im finished writing then that was good for me.
• I contacted the publisher who released all the anime titles at the time in the UK (I think it was Island Communications) as I wanted some free anime booty. I met with the CEO and I ended up writing for the fan club magazine. Island would give me video tapes of Anime titles that they were considering releasing in the UK. Some of the titles were pre-production releases and I would write up reviews. The demo tapes didn’t have any subtitles at the time and this part time job served as another reason to keep on studying.
• After a while I started to translate freelance for simple publications which also helped me in my Japanese learning efforts and make a bit of cash on the side.
• During my later years at SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies – London University), I got myself a part time job at London Heathrow airport as ground staff escorting poor lost Japan Airlines passengers between terminals and arranging tarmac transfers – t’was fun and paid well at 10 pounds an hour (well it was good at the time). This was another good opportunity to use my Japanese and mingle with Japanese folk.
• I took out a loan for a computer mainly because I wanted it to help with my Japanese studies. At the time, English Windows 95 had lousy support for Japanese so I learnt how to partition the drive and install Japanese Windows. Using a Japanese OS was great as it helped me pick up Japanese computing words.
  We were all on dail up at the time and I remember my phone bill being about 200 pounds after discovering the internet and how much anime stuff I could download at 56K.
  It was through buying the computer and self studying Windows that got me into the IT field which started off as a computer engineer for Japan Airlines.
• After Japan Airlines, I got a job with Nature – the scientific journal. The position was to be based in Tokyo. I remember reading the job description at the time…
  “Need somebody who is a native English speaker who can speak Japanese, Chinese and who is proficient in current web technologies.”
  I took it upon myself to study HTML during my breaks at JAL and ended up producing a working prototype of a homepage for JALs computing and airline support division. Without this knowledge, I probably would not have got the job at Nature and wouldn’t be in Japan (gulp).
  Nature sent me to Tokyo for a week of tests which included verbal communication, and forecasting in Excel (the position was Marketing). By this time I was quietly confident with my Japanese speaking skills and passed all the speaking, translating etc tests.
  It was my first time working in an office with Japanese people. Nature served as an important step in picking up Japanese through listening and learning the phrases used in an everyday Japanese office. From then on it was on to Job Dragon as a contents producer, Amazon as Website Manager and now at Microsoft as a CGM (Consumer Generated Media) Product Manager – those who are interested can have a peek at my resume. Hmmmm, this is turning out to be more of my life story rather than a tips list on how to learn Japanese ^^;