One thing serious learners of a language need to have in place are concrete strategies for their success. What’s fun is that just about any strategy will work, as long as you’re dedicated to it and adjust it from time to time. The other day I noticed some envelopes propped up against the TV, and when I asked my wife about it, she said, “Yes, I was watching the Fox show ‘The City’ to practice my English. But they show Japanese subtitles, so I put the envelopes there to hide them, forcing myself to listen to the spoken words.” One strategy I’ve employed while learning Japanese was translating and transcribing the lyrics of songs I liked, which enabled me to sing them at karaoke and also made it easy to memorize the vocabulary words that appeared in the songs. I went through a literary phase, reading Japanese novels and short stories by Japanese writers, and one trick I learned was to get an audiobook of a work and listen to it while I read along in written form, which really helped my comprehension. There are many other strategies for learning — I’ve heard from customers who primarily learn Japanese by playing import video games — which sounds like a great way to learn. Remember, if you’re interested in learning a little Japanese language or a lot, J-List has products that can help.
Let’s learn Japanese through video games!
