Improving Japanese with Karaoke

Does karaoke help you improving your Japanese? Absolutely! Let me tell you about my experiences!

The first time I went to karaoke was 2016 in Osaka, as we went with a group from a hostel to a nearby karaoke bar. Was like a normal bar, but there were also two screens to showing the lyrics of songs, two mikes and a tablet to select the songs you wanna sing. 

As we were a group of mostly foreigners, we chose many English songs. But at same point I wanted to have a go on Japanese songs. The thing was just at that time I even though I was able to read hiragana and katakana - my reading speed wasn't really good enough to keep up with speed as the lyrics are running through on the screen. So I needed a song which I need knew at least a little bit. So I tried the first DBZ theme song "Chala Head Chala" from Hironobu Kageyama. I struggled, but I was happy that I tried.

Two years later after moving to Tokyo, I started going to karaoke boxes with friends more regularly and with my constantly improving Japanese skills I got more confident trying more and more songs. I even started practicing at home by using lyrics videos available on YouTube. 

Now I can feel confidently sing "Chala Head Chala", "Dan Dan", "We gotta Power", "Kimi ga ireba" and many more. I keep trying many new songs from Dragon Ball, One Piece, Detective Conan or even Slam Dunk .. It's endless. "

I even tried crazy stuff like "Ultimate Battle" (究極の聖戦) from Akira Kushida. Those who have seen the Tournament of Power in Dragon Ball Super know what I'm talking about^^

Last November I went with a Japanese friend to karaoke for three hours to only sing Dragon Ball and/or Kageyama-related songs. We found several songs from videogames or old movie endings which I knew from hearing, but never tried singing. I gave it a go and wasn't too bad.

So therefore I can safely say that karaoke is a good way to get confidence in your Japanese. The more you try, the better you get and it improves your reading speed. Especially when you try songs from which you know the melody, but not the lyrics by hearts.

If you are learning Japanese and live in Japan, definitely give it a go! And if you a lacking confidence, get a drink before you start^^

Japanese with Corona: Useful Vocabulary

The Coronavirus pandemic changed our life - especially in the past month - and will continue to do so. You barely find any news article not being related to it. If you are studying Japanese you'll find certain words used in articles quite regularly. Let's take a look at a few ones:

感染（かんせん）
It simple means "infection" and by adding additional kanji you can create related terms like with 症 it makes it an "infectious disease" (感染症). Adding 者 makes it an infected person (感染者). That list can get long, so just more additional example with 爆発 (explosion) added: It becomes 感染爆発 (explosive growth of infections).

不要不急 （ふようふきゅう）
It literally means "not necessary and not urgent". I saw it used in the first articles when people in Tokyo and around where advised to stay at home on the weekend. Interesting is here also the structure of 不*不* of which the Japanese language certainly has several examples. Me, as a Dragon Ball fan, know the pattern from 不老不死, which literally means "not aging and not dying".

延期（えんき）
As the Coronavirus causes several events to be postponed, you'll find 延期 quite often.

緊急事態宣言 (きんきゅうじたいせんげん)

It's a quite long term which you find often recently as it means "declaration of a state of emergency". 緊急 means "urgent", 事態 means "situation" and 宣言 means "declaration".

My Language Learning Goals in 2020

As the new year has started I'd like to give input on my thoughts about my personal goals and feelings regarding language learning in 2020.

Much like in recent years, I keep on improving my Japanese. As I just passed N3, I already started studying for the N2 exam. It's a huge amount of more vocabulary, kanji and grammar I have to remember and understand.

I continue studying with the Anki app having a personalized deck, but I also downloaded a separate deck with N2 words. I study grammar with YouTube channels, and it's best to use some channels where the explanation is all in Japanese (like Nihongo No Mori, 日本語の森). 

Also, I can keep reading a lot of manga, but I feel that I should try reading an unknown story from a novel at some point this year. And manga with no furigana on the kanji would also be important. But for now I'm busy reading through all 42 volumes of Dragon Ball as well as catching up One Piece and Detective Conan with their recent volumes.

Also, as much as I'm able to read manga quite well, I still have lots of trouble understanding keigo in restaurants or combinis. Also it's spoken quite fast making me often unable to follow. Yeah, that's something I need to get better in.

Therefore, Japanese is keeping me busy on daily basis, but I also have some thoughts and plans regarding other languages:

As I grew up near Luxembourg, I speak a German dialect very close to the Luxembourgish language, and can also read news articles in that language. However, interestingly: I cannot really write it, I don't know the exact spelling of words. So I set myself also the goal to use the language more in written form, like texting.

And what about improving other languages? I know basic French and Spanish, but I've currently no ambition or even focus to pursue that. Could it be a something to focus on in the future? Maybe, but for now it's ok to just use it in a basic way, wherever needed. 

About learning any languages from zero? There are surely languages I have an interest to learn, but not this year. Another Germanic language would be interesting. I already understand and can read a bit of Dutch as it's quite close to my native German. 
Swedish or Norwegian would also be interesting. Or even Finnish, which is completely different language, but special in many ways. Also Italian could be interesting as I like the sound of it.

Other Asian languages? I studied a bit of Korean characters on my trip to Seoul by the end of last year and figured that it's actually quite simple. Still, when I sometimes see a name somewhere on social media I try to figure out the reading. Apart from that, I don't really have a connection to the language to further pursue it. And that's something which I feel is quite important. But I wouldn't exclude that there could be something which motivates me on that in the future...

Currently I have no deeper interest in learning other Asian languages. Learning Kanji can keep understanding a bit of Chinese. But I'm pretty sure I would struggle with the correct pronunciation. 

Anyway, I have enough goals right now anyway to keep myself busy. Let's see where this year will bring me.

「Ｎ３へ」ついに合格した! 次は...「一月の考え」

ついにN3を合格した！やっとやったぜ！でもN3への道は簡単のじゃなかった。実はまだ沢山勉強しなきゃ。

面白いことは今回は初めて日本語能力試験を合格した。自分のJLPTの歴史はこのようにだった:

2016年07月　N5　不合格
2018年07月　N4　不合格
2018年12月　N3　不合格
2019年07月　N3　不合格
2019年12月　N3　　合格

N3の三回目に合格した。この時に自分の問題のせいであまり勉強しなかった。試験日に日本にいるかどうかしらかなかった。とにかく、たくさんドラゴンボール漫画読んだし、もちろん毎日奥さんと話した。あと、アンキのアプリに新単語を勉強した。

もっと文法や、長いテクスト読みたかった。だからリーディングには24点だけだった。聴解(リスニング)の点はちょっとびっくりした。ときどき会話は早すぎだった、半分しか分からなかった。とにかく、上達した。

夏にＮ２を試してみると思う。今もう、新しい感じやＮ２の文法を勉強しています。特にユーチューブの「日本語の森」のチャンネルは本当にいいですね。たぶん本も買います。

あと、今はドラゴンボールを最初から読んでいる中、今は第17巻を読んで終えた。本当に簡単です。でも逆にワンピースに使った単語はほうが難しい。今の「ワノ国編」は沢山Ｎ１日本語がある。多分このことについて他の記事書きます。

じゃあ、これからもっと上達したい。頑張ります！N3は大切な目標だったんだけど、本当の挑戦は今のだ！

「Ｎ３へ」上達したけど…「十二月の考え」

夏にはまた合格しなかった。今回、少なくとも去年より点が上達した。だから十二月のテストまた登録した…

じゃあ、まずは七月のテストの不合格の理由について書きたい。大きな問題はこの日にちゃんと集中できなかったんだ。東京で七月の上旬の天気は本当に曇りだった。この数週間に太陽全然見えなかった。この時たぶん覚えてるでしょうね。

だからテスト中の文法とテクストの分に集中できなくなった。答えは推測した、仕方なかった。少なくとも単語と漢字の分に集中できたけど、いろんな間違えしちゃった。テストの休憩にもう気ついた。例えばほとんど同じ漢字「線」と「緑」の意味とか。あと、最後の分、「聴解」に感じはほうが良さそうだったけどまだよく分からなった。

これはもう二回目だった、また合格しなかった？その通り、八月末に確認された。一回目より84点だったけど、またできなかった。でも次のテストに参加するのは知らなかった。
新しいビサを申し込んだんだけど、もらうのは大きな質問だった。でも九月に登録した、本当に「今回こそ合格」と思った。

でもビサもらえなかった、だから韓国に行った。そのあとテストのため日本に帰った！今回はいい感じだった。単語か漢字はいいと思った。長いテクストはまだ問題だった。まだ遅いんですね。聴解もカンペキじゃない。

じゃあ、合格するの可能性があるね。じゃあ、これから待っています。

韓国語の「ハングル」思ったより簡単です！読んでみた！

日本語を勉強しているんですけど韓国の文字は気になりました。何回「ハングルは簡単」を聞いたから、今回こそ本当に知らたかった！

先週に初めて韓国のソウルに行きました。だから出発前の日に韓国の文字について調べた。何回ハングルという文字を見たんだけど、読み方が全然知らなかった！ユーチューブで説明のビデオ見た。でもびっくりした！本当に思ったより簡単です！ハングルは覚えやすい。

たとえば、「서울」。「ㅅ」はロマージの「ｓ」、「ㅓ」は「eo」。一緒に「서 / seo」になる。次の文字は울。「ㅇ」は文字の上にあれば、聞こえない音になる（少なくても私聞こえない（笑））、「ㅜ」はひらがなの「う」みたいです。最後の「ㄹ」は「r / l」です。　

서울はソウル「Seoul」になる。かんたんじゃない？

韓国に着いた時に読んでみた！たとえば、もう駅の名前少し読めた！ローマジの名前と比べて読み方を確認された。

もちろん、韓国語の単語や文法は全然知らないけど、場所の名前以外にたくさん外来語読める！例えば「버스」は「バス」、英語の言葉です。面白いのは外来語の発音は日本語と違うです！特に母音。でもこれは他のテーマです。自分の意見は韓国語の発音は難しい。

日本語のヒラガナかカタカナと比べて、ハングルはほんと覚えやすいんです！使い方は違うんですけど、面白いアイデアだった！

とにかく、少しハングルを勉強するのは面白かった。自分の大きな目標は日本語ですけど、もしハングルの言葉どこかに見つければ読んでみたいです！

Tooned McLaren - Japanese Dialogue in Episode 7 "The Rising Son"

© 2012 McLaren Animation

As an F1 fan I used to follow the Tooned series by the McLaren F1 Team. In Episode 7 of the 2012 season, there was a dialogue between Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton in Japanese. Unlike back then, I can understand the conversation now.

That's how the dialogue looks in Japanese: 

バトン「おい、ルイス。今日は何をするつもりかな」
ハミルトン「やめて！日本語が分からないから。」
バトン「あー、そうか」

A literal translation would be like this:
Button: "Hey Lewis. What are we going to do today?"
Hamilton: "Stop. I don't speak Japanese."
Button: "Ah. I see."

The subs are a bit different, but adapted to fit the situation like adding the professor. The sentence is kinda vague anyway.

It is implied that Button knows some Japanese as he had a Japanese girlfriend at that time.

Watching the dialogue now gives me a smile as I can understand it unlike in 2012 watching this episode for the first time. An interesting thing to look back.

「Ｎ３へ」今の日本語はどうになった？ 「五月の考え」

僕の目標は7月の日本語能力試験のＮ３を合格したいです。しかも挑戦は僕は自分で勉強しています。去年の失敗後に今年の夏にチャンスはどうかな。

僕は今もうほとんど九ヶ月に日本で住んでいる。最初からいっぱい勉強した。毎日に日本語話すし、新単語はアンキのモバイルアプリで追加し勉強しています。でも問題はたくさん言葉は漫画とアニメから。僕はときどき使うけどでも答えは「あまり使わない」とか。

好きな漫画はドラゴンボールとワンピースと名探偵コナン。この漫画ほよく買いに行く。漫画を読む中面白くて必要な新単語見つけると僕はアプリに追加します。特に仕事の前に電車中。私の次の駅から会社の近くの駅までには多分40分ぐらいです。その時に僕のカバンの中に持っていた漫画読む。特に去年に僕はすごくゆっくり読み方のせいで一つの単行本は数週の間かかった。でも最近は自分の記録は六日間だけ！おっけ、これはドラゴンボールのが外伝だったのに、自分の早さに本当にびっくりした。しかも前に名探偵コナンに巻９５読んだけどよく分かりました。でも実はワンピースはドラゴンボールと名探偵コナンより難しいです。多分たくさん昔の単語のせいで、でも漫画は海賊時代から、今編はワノ国。

漫画以外、私の文法はまだ下手とおもう。日本語の文章を読むと誰が何をするは分かりにくい。たとえば、男の人と女の人が買い物について話せば、誰が何を買うときどき分からない。文章を調べる時間があれば、多分分かるでも会話中に問題です。それよりいっぱい文法的なルールがある。去年よりもっと分かるけどまだ満足じゃない。

だから六月にもっともっと勉強しています。七月のN3の合格のため。頑張ります！

「魚の指」って何？

聞いたことないの？実は本当に美味しくて作りやすい食べ物です。私の料理の腕について、カンペキです！

！知らせ！私はまだ日本語を勉強しています。だからたぶんたくさん文法的な間違いがある。これも私の上達するのためにいいですね。
お読みありがとうございます。もっと頑張ります。コメントはいつもよろしくお願いいたします。

まずは去年の海外の話です。この時に私はニュージーランドの南の島のクライストチャーチに住んでいた。ちなみに、私は前にほんとんど一年間にスパインの島に住んでいたドイツ人です。この時に私の自分の料理は必要になりました。しかし、本当に下手です　（笑）
さて、「魚の指」はドイツの実家の住んでいる時からいつも簡単な食べ物だった。ドイツのスーパーにいつも見つれける。スパインとニュージーランドにも問題じゃないです。
ニュージーランドの時にたくさん日本人と同じホステルに住んでいた。みんなのキッチンで私はときどき「魚の指」とパスタ作った。
その時日本人が聞いた「これはなに？」「魚の指です。」
「ええ、でも魚は指がない？」
いつも面白い会話だった。（笑）
一回友達はその冗談のおためGoogleで魚の写真見つけた。この魚は指があった。（笑）
でももちろんこの食べ物は本当の魚の指ではありません。この名前はイギリスの英語から。Fish fingersという言葉の意味は「魚の指」。ところがアメリカの英語の単語は違う。これはFish sticks。ちなみに、ドイツ語の言葉と同じ意味です。これはFischstäbchen。
GoogleでFish sticksのカタカナでフィッシュスチックを探せば違う魚の食べ物が見える。でも「魚の指」のGoogleで正しい写真が来る。
でも日本でたくさんおいしいシーフードがあるのに今まで「魚の指」見つけなかった。だからあの時に日本人がびっくりした。でも大丈夫、ドイツより日本で他の本当に美味しい海の幸がある。だいすき。
でもときどき「魚の指」が恋しい。仕方ない。
もし、アイデアがあればコメントください。

「魚の指」を好きのドイツ人より

N3 not passed - as expected!

As I live in Japan now I wanted go to the next level and tried the N3 last December, but it was clear that was it bit too early for me to pass.

Looking back, my JLPT history is certainly not the best read at the first glimpse:
- Failed N5 (07/2016)
- Failed N4 (07/2018)
- Failed N3 (12/2018)

But if you look at how much my Japanese improved during the last year is stunning. Taking part at the tests pushed me further even though I failed. Even one year ago I was considering trying N5 again, but then I thought that would not have given me the challenge I wanted.

And since I live in Japan since August I my level is increasing on a daily basis by conversations, learning vocabulary/grammar, reading manga (yes, currently on Volume 91 of One Piece), seeing characters every day,... Generally living here really helps.

Anyway, back to the test. The biggest issue I had was my lack of reading and understanding speed. Also lots of unknown words. But understanding is a big point and I'm in the situation many Japanese learners are: I understand what a text or a dialogue is about, but not exactly. Who is buying the shoes? Did she only really the yellow ones and bought the blue ones instead? Okay, this could be an issue in any language^^ But seriously, exact understanding is something I really need to focus on. That's why I need to comprehend the grammar better, it's necessary.

Although I thought that the listening was the easiest part I got still more than half wrong, the part of the test where I expected more as I knew I would struggle at longer texts. Maybe the same issue as before.

Anyway, there is still a lot to do, I keep on learning and this time I'm intending to take N3 again in summer. Not planning on N2 just yet, maybe in December if everything goes well in July.

7 years with Anki

Over the years Anki has become an important and useful tool for myself to collect, repeat and learn vocabulary. 

More than seven years ago I was determined to improve my English and learn as much vocabulary as possible. When I read articles online I found new words, I added them into a deck, same as from TV shows like How I Met Your Mother, Lost and many more.

I was going to a school class in the evening after work which included two hours of English study - although it was probably too easy, but at least it helped me getting more personal confidence. Plus, I also added words from the classes to my deck.

Around that time I started creating a new English Anki deck every year to collect vocabulary. It got more and more and it helped me a lot. The repetition pattern was truly helpful.

Therefore it did the same with other languages like for the time I lived in Spain I collected lots of words with Anki.

But especially recently I got really efficient using it with Japanese. I downloaded decks to learn hiragana and katakana, started with  personal deck of my vocabulary.

It has more than 3300 entries by now. First, I entered words only in hiragana or katakana, but then I found the "Ultimate" template which has line for kanji, kana and English translation. And luckily, the well-known dictionary app Jisho has a connection to Anki so that I can easily send words from the dictionary to my own deck.

It allows me to increase vocabulary lists rapidly - especially now living in Japan. I collect words from everywhere: Anime, manga, music, conversations, advertisement, manuals, office work, streets signs,...

My settings give me like 100 words a day and it's seems quite efficient. I also created another personal deck with sentences and initially I also filled out the kana line for the Japanese reading, but now I leave it as I expect myself to be able to read the kanji used in the sentence.

Generally, I can only recommend using Anki - it's a great tool for personalized vocabulary learning and especially to recommend for learning Japanese. Maybe because Anki (暗記) is a Japanese word and means "memorization"...

The trouble of learning two languages at once

Last year I lived in Spain and faced the inner trouble of trying to learn two languages at once.

For a job opportunity I moved to Spain and I wanted to take advantage of living in another country by picking up the Spanish language.

I used the Memrise app for getting more and more vocabulary and created my own Anki deck to collect more words myself which I either saw on streets, heard in conversations or in social media. I also started following Spanish social media sites covering my interests - like anime. Even acquired a Spanish One Piece manga.

As for the work in the company I didn't necessarily need Spanish, but sometimes emails were in Spanish - same as conversation between colleagues depending on their background. I tried to immerse to get more and more palabras, but having conversations was still troublesome. I felt more comfortable in reading as it gave me time to understand.

And I didn't start from zero, a few years before I started some self-studying and participated in a course in Valencia, yet still a lot to be learned.

But I was in a conflict: I was also studying Japanese. I even brought a few Japanese manga to Spain to read sometimes. And as Japanese is a much bigger challenge to learn - especially character-wise, I actually didn't have the time to do both. It's actually too much.

Some people asked, if I don't mix it all up, and at first I interestingly replied that it wouldn't be a problem, since it's about two completely different languages. So I thought, but in hindsight I was totally wrong...

It actually caused chaos in my brain, because while trying to speak Spanish I sometimes accidentally almost (and possibly sometimes did) mixed it up putting a Japanese word into a Spanish sentence.

A funny example was the usage of "to drink". In Japanese it's 飲む (nomu) and in Spanish it's "beber" and "a drink" would be "la bebida". However, as I mixed it up, I created a new word called "nomida". So basically my brain took the Japanese infinitive of verb to create a Spanish noun. Total mess, but kinda funny.

There were probably more examples, but that's the funniest one. As mentioned before I filled my memory with lots of vocabulary using Memrise and Anki in Spanish, but I did the same for Japanese. Probably because the learning process was kinda similar (even though) different characters - the way of remembering vocabulary remained in a similar pattern.

As Spain also has anime conventions I went to one where I you could watch the movie "Your Name (君の名は). It was in Japanese with Spanish subtitles. And it really summed up both my back then language priorities. I was able to understand most of the movie, partially the listening Japanese and also through Spanish subs.

Still apart from that, my priority was Japanese and it definitely distracted me from Spanish. For language learning it's definitely better to have full focus on only one like I have now with only looking into 日本語 - that's the best way to actually learn a language. After leaving Spain and now living in Japan, it's really effective with setting my priorities straight.

My personal conclusion was actually also like: As Japanese is for many reasons more difficult to learn I figured that it's also better to learn it the earlier the better. Maybe one day, I go back to learning Spanish again, although I still passively absorb it by social media or listening to working colleagues talking.

Did you have a similar situation with setting priorities on languages? Please tell me yours in the comments!

Confronted with Chinese characters while learning Japanese

As I started learning Japanese from last year more seriously than before I faced a few times the situation that I saw Chinese characters and got extremely curious about their meanings.

Is it being at the airport, running through Chinatown or working in a factory, it's so easy to be confronted with Chinese characters. But when you are studying Japanese it can be confusing: You notice characters which look familiar and some you've definitely seen before. You even know their Japanese readings and also what it means... But you don't speak any Chinese language!

But as an learning addict your mind wants to figure out the meanings. Looking at food menus you often get an idea on what it means, but on the other hand I noticed some train stations in Singapore which I couldn't understand properly.

Then I was in a factory and I could read characters for example for milk. The characters don't feel like 'unreadable' anymore, it's amazing. 

You even start looking up characters via radical search with your Japanese dictionary app (e.g. Jsho) only to find out that the character is only not really used in Japanese. For example I found this on a package of a box:  姆

Looking at the radicals it means "female" and "mother", so it made me curious of course.

Also, I guy from Hong Kong I met in Australia told a good example of how meanings of a Kanji can differ by the example of 湯. In Japanese it's ゆ and a common term for hot water - especially at places like onsen. However, in Chinese the meaning would be "soup" (tang). I found that quite interesting. 

I'm aware that there are lots of examples, so if you know an interesting one, just let me know in the comments.

And how do you feel as Japanese learner being confronted with Chinese characters? Okay, of course it's clear to me, that Japanese Kanji are based on Chinese ones, so maybe I should rephrase: Are Chinese words confusing Japanese learners or make them rather curious?

Let me know^^

My 2018 JLPT N4 experience!

Last Sunday I finally participated at the JLPT N4 test in Düsseldorf. Let's review how it went...

During my time in New Zealand earlier this I decided to do the JLPT test level N4 during my 'summer break' in Germany. Back then I knew that there are a lot of kanjis to be memorized, lots of vocabulary to be learned and so many grammar rules to be understood and applied.

After failing an attempt for the N5 test two years ago I made huge steps recently making me confident enough to go even further. I could have played save trying the N5 again, but that wouldn't be the kind of challenge I needed now to move forward.

Back then I failed mostly because my reading speeding was way too slow for being able to finish and a lack of many kanji and grammar rules.

Ready for the test I arrived in Düsseldorf as many more than 500 other people did. Interestingly the most of the participants were applying for the N2 test which I found quite interesting leaving me respect for those reaching that level.

Of course also many were in the N5 one - most of them probably giving it their first shot. 

The test

In any case: I gave it a shot in the N4 test and the first session was the vocabulary and character test for thirty minutes. My general impression was quite positive, but in some cases I had to guess the answer since two kanji looked quite similar, but of course just one was the right one. 

The second part was the one hour grammar and reading test. I didn't felt really sure in much of the grammar questions since I often couldn't see THE answer, in my view many could have made sense. The texts were alright, I felt like I generally wasn't quick enough and fully focused. I felt that the time is running out and that I should get the 'save' points first, but generally it had an impact on my concentration. Not too mention, that it was also a very hot afternoon.

And as by the end the time really ran out, I had to guess the rest. Not sure, if I reach enough points to get through, but next month I'll know more.

Finally, the listening part came and it was definitely one where I felt I could make up points. The level of the conversations being played were way lower than the previous texts and mostly really easy to understand. The only thing was where I and others I talked to afterwards lost points was - again - the focus. If you drift away when the conversation begins and the questions are asked, you found yourself like: 'Ok, I understood the question, but what did they talk about?!' 

But definitely the easiest part of the whole test!

Final thoughts

The question is of course: Did I pass or did I not? Generally this test showed me in which areas I definitely need to improve and although I can read way quicker now then I used to, there's still a lot to be done.

For example certain grammar, I need to understand why certain things are correct and others are not. Plus: I noticed that in terms of kanji I rely too often on furigana. Definitely not the best idea, even though it's convenient. Maybe I should switch them of more often while reading the NHK Easy News.

So, what's next? With myself intending to go on Working Holiday in Japan by the end of next month I definitely plan to do some more courses in Tokyo. Will I even prepare for N3? Probably too soon, maybe I will even do N4 again.

Nevertheless I'm already increasing the vocabulary towards N3 level. Maybe in case of repeating the N4 one it's easier to be a bit more beyond this level. 

I met one guy in Düsseldorf even tried the N4 test now for the third time - without being certain if he made it this time.

So time will tell...

ではもっともっとがんばります。

How much you understand and how much you don't...

With my current chance to live among many Japanese people in a hostel I'm daily confronted with Japanese - in terms of listening to conversations and speaking a bit myself.

On the one side I notice already how much I understand, even if it's just a bit or sometimes even whole sentences. However the lack of knowing the context or certain vocabulary or grammar rules makes it difficult on the other side.

First you have the relief seeing your progress getting more and more understanding and being able to have easy conversations yourself or even shocking some Japanese people by being able to talk to them in their native language.

The latter is certainly funny and I tell things like: '自分で勉強します。(I'm studying myself). It's definitely nice to be praised for your effort learning Japanese - personally I'm satisfied on the one hand - just comparing myself to last year - but I want more.

I noticed my ability to read manga or even some Facebook comments, news articles with furigana and similar stuff got faster. 

The biggest issue stopping me from reading faster is the lack of Kanji and certain vocabulary. But luckily I could see some improvement in that regard.

Through these daily conversations - also on FB messenger - I can increase my Japanese skills gradually which is really motivating.

But still, it's a long way ahead which I'm willing to follow.

New Japanese vocabulary - Mid-February 2018

As I'm currently continuing to improve towards my goal learning more and more Japanese I'm currently surrounded by many Japanese people which helps me getting more and more vocabulary - these ones I found quite important this week:

休憩きゅうけい
Meaning: break, recess
Comment: It's an important word for being at work. I memorized this word by using the following sentences to my Japanese working colleague: 休憩までは１０分。=> 'It's 10 minutes until the break.'

個室こしつ

Meaning: private room
Comment: As I switched to a private room that week I was taught this important word. I especially to a closer look at the second kanji: 室. It means 'room' and is one of the level N4 ones which I can remember now.

連絡れんらく
Meaning: to contact, to get in touch

Comment: Actually an easy and common one, but as I had it in several conversations (LINE and 'real') this week plus I still struggle to memorize the Kanji it made sense to put it into this list. Despite it's seems quite often used, the Kanji characters are for JLPT N2 and N3.

渡るわたるMeaning: to cross over, to go across
Comment: After work, a street needed to be crossed and like 'koeru' 'wataru' can be used. How I memorize it? Wataru is also a Japanese name and the first thing which comes to mind is Takagi Wataru (police guy from Detective Conan, 名探偵コナン). So I thing like 'Takagi is crossing the street' and here we go^^

Application out for JLPT N4!

This year it's time to go for the JLPT again. But unlike two years ago I will go one step further and will try the JLPT N4.

It's time to raise my game and give my ambitions improving my Japanese a new challenge. Two years ago I failed passing the N5 test, but back then I wasn't really used to read Japanese and my Kanji and vocabulary knowledge was quite low.

Especially the ability to read is important which I noticed during the test in 2016. I wasn't used to it and way too slow. I couldn't really read the longer text at the end and ended up guessing the answers without having gone through the text through the lack of time I had.

Additionally I wasn't that confident with the N5 Kanji and I guess I even made silly mistakes in that regard.

But the situation now is different: Just a few months after failing that test a acquired some manga in Japanese on my travels and kept me more into reading the language plus it also plays a huge role in learning new words. My Anki deck is getting filled with lots of vocabulary and especially words directly written in Kanji (but with furigana).

I found with Obenkyo an interesting recommendation for learning Kanji and the necessary vocabulary.

But surely it's not just that: Many grammar rules are important and are needed to be understood and learned. It's something where I definitely need to catch up.

Recently I was indecisive about taking N5 or N4, but I felt like that I could already easily pass N5 by now, but as it's still a few months to go until July I figured that it would be best to aim one step higher and go for N4.

So with currently being in New Zealand I had to sent my application via post delivery to Düsseldorf in Germany as they don't have the option yet to apply online. I found out that other places have that possibility already and that it's really easy in Japan as well of course.

But anyway, the application is out and now I can fully focus on passing N4 in July.

How I will continue to follow One Piece

After watching One Piece for around 15 years and especially in the last few years in the original dub with subtitles I recently decided to take another approach...

I was mostly following the anime being around 20-30 episodes behind the broadcast and was on the way to reach episode 800. Through some spoilers I was aware that there will be an emotional fight between Luffy and Sanji soon and checked that volume 84 will cover exactly that.

And with my will to take my Japanese skills to the next level I decided the following step:
- watch the One Piece anime that far that I can continue with reading volume 84... in Japanese!

While being in Tokyo I bought this very volume and caught up with the anime that I could start reading in it's original form.

To explain, it's not my first Japanese manga, but mostly I bought manga where I already knew the story like some Dragon Ball or Detective Conan volumes. And of course I had to look up lots of kanji and vocabulary. But the important ones ended up in my Anki deck.

But the situation now is different: I'm now reading a manga story (where I know what happened up until now), but need to understand the upcoming development of the Whole Cake Island arc in Japanese.

It's a challenge, I need to read the chapter twice and more to get the meanings. And I wouldn't say I get every line. Sometimes I'm happy with understanding the just some words in a sentence. The furigana are helping a lot, but sometimes the kanji itself are helping more to get the meaning than the furigana.

Often used words I look up in Jisho.org and add them in my Anki deck. Generally I realized: Once I dived in reading it all in Japanese, having the time to focus on it really works. I see progress in my understanding and reading skills.

By now I already continued with volume 85 and will keep on going this path.

Why I love the Japanese train systems

It's so simple and it works perfectly: Such a well-organized and easy to figure out train system. The maps show the exact price straightaway. Let me explain!

How often you ended up in a train systems where you had to figure out 'Ok, so how much do I need to pay know?' and saw like the areas were divided into zones, sometimes even in separate charts. 

In Japan I found it very easy, despite there are even completely other characters. The easiest thing is you look for a station and the price in Yen is well-placed within the whole map. And even if you get it wrong and pay not enough: Once you leave the train there are machines where you can fix your ticket with paying the remaining Yen - or just go to the counter on the way out. All you need to know is the station you wanna go to.

You cannot leave unpaid - the system is so simple and so effective working. No need to worried, did I pay enough? Recently I took a longer way from Mishima to Tokyo and then I in Tokyo I went out at the Ryogoku station. I only payed a small amount at the beginning for the train (like 230 Yen) and payed the rest at the final subway station - after changing the train three times during that ride. No issue at all (as it was all JR line).

And since there are often different lines - especially in big cities like Tokyo - there are so many ways to reach the destination you want to, and even in cheaper ways than you initially think.

That's something I noticed this year when I was going from Osaka to Suzuka: According to Google Maps I saw a certain price, but in reality it was around 1000 Yen cheaper - by only using certain trains - with a short stop in Nabari and Ise.

Additionally I should mention that you can use prepaid IC cards which allow you to travel faster and more convenient. You can also use the machine to check how much you paid for what and how much money is left on the card.

For longer routes you should consider getting a Japan Railpass, where you have a flatrate for certain lines around the country.
Does it make financially sense? Depending on the routes and distances you take sense - but don't forget to get the pass in advance.

In general (to sum up) you should go to Japan and experience it yourself!

Overnight hours in Japan: 25:00, 26:00, 27:00 and so on...

Yes, you've read it correctly: In Japan you can actually find times beyond 24 o'clock. So what about it?

First off, their meaning is actually quite easy to figure out: So as seen on the left the picture of a store close to Ebisubashi in Osaka shows for example '28:00'. Basically 24+4 so 4:00 AM. 

Personally I have only seen this in Japan so far, so I got curios about it and wanted to find out what kind of reasons are behind that way of counting.

Interesting reasons

As demonstrated before one reason is that it's an easy way to calculate time frames starting the day before going beyond 24 o'clock. For example a TV show runs from 23:00 until 25:30. Now you can easily calculate that the length of the show was 2 hours 30 minutes.

So the hours beyond 24 are actually applied for things which start before midnight and go until a certain point during the night. This also counts for bars or night clubs.

Another reason is to avoid possible confusion between AM and PM. If a store has opened from 08:00 - 02:00 without using AM/PM there can be actually two meanings.

Also, the closing time of a store going into the next day will also be considered as the business day starting from the day the store opened.

Here it means: From Monday to Thursday opened until 27:00
Friday, Saturday and Sunday opened until 28:00

And there's also a thing about the cultural perception about the hours in darkness which should better fit into the previous day, starting with the day in the morning with the sunset.

I also read that there are other countries using that system in specific situations. Like UK, Hong Kong or China.

On the other hand there are also occasions when Japan uses the 12 hour system.

My opinion

It's surely an interesting approach and definitely easy to get used to, although it can be confusing at the beginning. Especially the reasons make totally sense to me why people are thinking that way.

If there's a connection to the previous day, use hours beyond 24! So surely, why not?