A good article that brings out important points on how to learn a language fast!

I found this to be a good article. It highlights four important points that you should remember while learning any program. Same thing also applies for Japanese. I don't know why other programs except for Rocket Japanese have not focussed on this aspect at all. Hard to understand for me.

 

Top 4 Tips to Learn to Speak Japanese Fast
By David McGimpsey

If you're interested in learning to speak Japanese, you may be interested in a technique known as pictorial learning. Using pictures, you can train your brain to work at a heightened level. Pictures provide important cues to help the brain retrieve information. By strengthening the parts of your brain used for imagery, you will be able to learn to speak Japanese quickly and easily. These tips will help you to improve your memorization skills and increase your Japanese vocabulary.

 

Four great tips to help you learn to speak Japanese:

 

Use Pictures to Learn
By associating each Japanese vocabulary word with an image, you help your brain to form important associations. These associations will aid in memorization and recall. Your brain uses "category cells" to group concepts that have common images. Take advantage of this great function, and use it to help you learn to speak Japanese!

 

Streamline Vocabulary Memorization
Associate each Japanese word with an English word or concept. Then associate this concept with a picture. Doing so provides your brain with an important path of cues to recall the necessary information. For example, to learn the Japanese word kau: to buy, you would first associate the word with an English word (kau=cow; they sound similar, so this is a fantastic association). Then picture that English word in a memorable image (for example, a cow buying groceries in a supermarket). Use that image to aid your brain in quick memorization and recall.

 

Focus on Pronunciation and Verbal Skills
For now, you are concentrating on learning to speak Japanese. The Japanese language has three separate alphabets, and learning to write Japanese can be a daunting prospect. However, speaking Japanese and expanding your vocabulary can be a quick and easy activity. For business or personal use, speaking a language is a great way to begin to immerse yourself in language learning. As you become fluent, you can begin to expand your vocabulary and learn Japanese writing skills.

 

Focus on Associations
There are two ways to learn a language, through immersion, or through association. To learn to speak Japanese over time, it would be useful to immerse yourself in the culture, and learn to speak the language as if you were a native speaker – through context clues. If you need to learn Japanese quickly however, you should focus on associating Japanese words and phrases with English words and phrases, using images as cues.

 

By putting these tips to use today, you'll be well on your way to learning to speak Japanese. Focus on associations, pronunciation, and verbal skills. These are truly the building blocks to learning to speak any language, and Japanese is no exception. To learn to speak Japanese, use these skills to streamline your vocabulary memorization. Practice using images to tie the concepts together in your mind. Be sure to take the time to develop clear, memorable images that tie your Japanese vocabulary with English concepts. Practice your vocabulary regularly, and you'll be on your way to fluency in no time!
To learn 100 Japanese words in the next hour, visit David McGimpsey's web site: www.SpeakJapaneseFast.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_McGimpsey

 

Update: 12th Jan, 2008 

I suggest that if the above article points look ok to you then have a look at Rocket Japanese here.

A good article on tips to learn Japanese.

Another good article on how to learn Japanese.

Learn Japanese Online - 5 Tips

By Jed Jones

With its four alphabets, thousands of characters, and uncommon verb conjugations like "passive causative," it is no wonder that the CIA classifies the Japanese language among the most difficult languages in the world. And yet, the value of learning to speak Japanese remains very high. Despite the recent rise in the economic power of China, Japan remains the world's second largest economy and will remain among the top 5 to 10 globally (and number 1 or 2 in Asia) during the remainder of the 21st century.

When I studied for and passed Level 1 (most difficult) of the Japanese Language Proficiency Exam in 1995, Internet usage among the general population was still very low. At that time, my fellow students and I who were studying Japanese had to rely on more traditional study techniques. For those studying Japanese today, the Internet represents a great additional tool for mastering Japanese. Here are 5 tips for learning Japanese online.

Tip #1: Get a good online flashcard system: Flashcards are an indispensable tool for learning Japanese. You can find great software programs or online applications that allow you to easily store and then test yourself on key words. Some even use pictures to really help you remember words faster.

Tip #2: Read at least one online newspaper article daily: Reading an online newspaper article every day - even as a beginner who has to look up each and every word in a dictionary - is a great way to study Japanese. Trick: try leaving an online dictionary open in a separate browser window (see Tip #4) while reading so that it is easy to copy-and-paste unknown kanji into that online dictionary. Toggling back and forth between the two is quick and this makes for faster reading.

Tip #3: Watch Japanese videos on YouTube: One of the most important parts of learning a foreign language is developing your listening skills. Do a search on YouTube or Google Videos daily for Japanese videos. To find videos this way, here is a trick: do a search for the word for video (bideo) using katakana in either of these sites and tons of Japanese language videos will pop up. If your computer does not type in Japanese, just go to an online dictionary that allows you to type in a romaji word and returns the katakana equivalent. Then, cut-and-paste the katakana word for video into your YouTube search box. Be sure to watch videos showing people of both sexes and all ages: everyone speaks a little bit differently and this is a great way to get exposed to different styles.

Tip #4: Use a good online kanji dictionary: Once you actually graduate from romaji and start using kana and kanji, I highly suggest switching to an online kanji dictionary as soon as possible. A great, no-frills and FREE one that I have been using for years is maintained by a gentleman called Jim Breen. You can find his current site by searching for "Jim Breen WWWJDIC" in Google.

Tip #5: Use Google to check your writing: Once you are at the stage where you are writing in Japanese on your computer, a great way to check your phrase usage for correctness is to search for it in Google. Be sure to use quotations so that you get an exact match. Tens or hundreds of thousands of search results returned for your phrase usually indicates that it is correct. Caution: Japanese people make mistakes, too, so do not just assume that if you get a handful of search results your phrase is correct; try an alternate phrase for comparison. This method is not foolproof, but I have found that it is ten times faster than trying to look it up in a book or asking someone. I use this method almost daily to check my Japanese grammar and syntax.

Harness the power of the Internet and you will master one of the world's most important languages faster and with better retention. Good luck on your journey!
Want to jumpstart your Japanese? Use the effective, award-winning Dynamic Immersion method from Rosetta Stone. You can access a FREE online demo here: http://www.Do-It-To-It.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jed_Jones

Japanese, Origin, History & A Lot More In This Interesting Article

Got a couple of minutes to spend on knowing about Japanese. Not learning but knowing!. This is the article to go. I read it even before I started thinking of learning japanese. It is one of those few articles that tell you a lot without the unnecessary fillers. Read it ALOUD :)

Learning the Japanese Language
By Frankie Goh

"IMPOSSIBLE," you say? Not necessarily. Why, if you think about it you may already know some words in Japanese, such as kimono and sake (rice wine)! Did you know that if you say the English pronoun "I," it sounds as if you are saying "love" in Japanese (ai)? Or that if you say "cow" in English, the same pronunciation means "to buy" in Japanese (kau)?

Some claim that a person can learn Japanese overnight merely by poring over a 'How-to-Learn' book. Though it is not quite that easy, one can quickly master enough Japanese to have an enjoyable time visiting Japan as a tourist.

From Where?

Even more complicated than the Japanese language itself are various ideas regarding its origin. Two decades ago, Leptcha, a language spoken in a valley of the Himalaya mountains, was found to be closely related to Japanese. Others claim that Japanese bears greater affinity to Korean than to any other language.

What is the relationship between Japanese and Chinese? Due to the use of Chinese ideographic script, which we call "Kanji," Japanese is often thought to have close connections with Chinese. But the differences are considerable. Chinese is a "monosyllabic" language, containing words of only one syllable. Japanese, however, is "polysyllabic," having numerous words of two or more syllables. In Chinese, word meaning is conveyed by pitch and word order, while in Japanese the meaning is conveyed by the words themselves and by the word endings.

Nearly 2,500 years ago, the Japanese language had, basically, the same grammar as that used today. But by the end of the ninth and tenth centuries, changes began taking place. This made it necessary to know one set of words for reading and another set for speaking. The result was that until the end of World War II, one had to know 3,000 to 5,000 Chinese characters and two sets of syllabaries of 50 characters each in order to read any weighty material.

Since 1945, however, the essential Kanji have been somewhat simplified and reduced to a little less than 2,000. The language also has adopted many English words. Nowadays, besides these Kanji characters, schoolchildren are taught two sets of romanization. This requires hours of work at memorizing as well as writing practice until, by the end of grammar school, children have learned 881 Kanji, and, by the end of high school, 1,850. Reading college textbooks, however, requires knowledge of about 3,000 Kanji.

Let's Say Something in Japanese

Perhaps you are anxious to test your ability at speaking Japanese. The pronunciation is easy enough, as there are, basically, only 50 different sounds possible. What presents the biggest problem is grammar. But for now, we'll stick to simpler matters.

To begin with, there are five vowel sounds, all pronounced as in Italian: A as in far, I as e in me, E as in nest, O as in old, U as in push, when the U is a short vowel; when long, the U is as oo in soon. It is very important to learn the short and the long vowel sounds. A rather frequent mistake made by missionaries is confusing so shi ki (organization) with sM shi ki (funeral). Not a few audiences have been shocked at hearing about God's great heavenly funeral, rather than God's great heavenly organization. Another easy mistake is that of calling a young girl shM jM (orangutan) rather than shM jo (young girl). Clearly, both the learner of Japanese and the listener are benefited by having a sense of humor.

Often the same vowel, or phonetic sound, is used consecutively, as in a ta ma (head), ko ko ro (heart), or to ko ro (place). Sometimes a phonetic sound is lost through contraction when saying certain words. For instance, when pronouncing kM fu ku (happy), one drops the middle u and slurs the f and k together. This results in the pronunciation kM f'ku. Practice saying it several times and you will see how easily the Japanese rolls off your tongue! Another basic word is the pronoun "I," which in Japanese is wa ta ku shi. It is pronounced correctly wa ta k'shi, with the loss of a u and the slurring of the k into the shi sound. In recent years "I" has been still further abbreviated to become wa ta shi.

Consonants can be tricky too. For example, the single-consonant "k" in the word kM ka gives us "school song," while the double consonant in the word kok ka makes it "national anthem."

Are there any rules as to which syllable should receive accent? Authorities differ, but some agree that it is better not to accent any syllable than to accent the wrong one. For example, the city of Numazu is pronounced nu ma zu, with equal emphasis on each syllable.

Especially since the seventeenth century, Japanese has borrowed many words from European languages. For instance, the Portuguese word "pao" (bread) becomes pan in Japanese. The Dutch "blik" (tin) is bu ri ki. "Butter" in English becomes ba ta. Another English word, "strike," expands to five syllables, with two different meanings. It is su to ra i ku in baseball jargon, but when some want better pay or working conditions, the word becomes su to ra i ki.

Other Things of Interest

One must realize that Japanese word order differs from that in most other languages. On a visit to Japan, you might say in English: "I would like to visit Mount Fuji." In Japanese you would say, "Watak'shi wa Fuji San o hMmon shitai desu." The literal word order is: "I Fuji Mount visit want." In Japanese the verb always comes at the end of the sentence. As noted above, verb endings are also most important. To know whether an expression is in the present or the past tense, or whether it is a positive or negative response to a previous question or statement, one must listen to the very last syllable of a sentence.

An unusual feature of the Japanese language is its system of honorifics or keigo. All conversations must take into consideration three things: the speaker, the one spoken to and the person spoken about. Besides these, the speaker must consider the respective positions, ages, belongings, families, friends and social groups embraced by the conversation. These factors affect-to name just a few-vocabulary, suffixes, prefixes and verb endings used in conversation. The pronoun "you," for example, is represented by many different Japanese words, according to the status of the person addressed. The polite way is often to use the person's name instead, or to omit the "you" altogether. One making one's residence in Japan should be determined to learn the various forms of address. The visitor on a temporary basis, however, will be forgiven blunders of this type. The Japanese, as a whole, are delighted to hear people make the effort to speak their difficult tongue.

Let's Read Kanji

Even though you may not know the correct pronunciation of a Kanji character, you often can know its meaning. Do not be afraid of what may appear at first sight to be "chicken scratches" all up and down a page. Although opinions vary, there is a fairly easy way to learn to read Kanji. This system of writing has, basically, 300 "building blocks." By combinations of these, all the thousands of Kanji are formed. Shall we try a few?

The character for ka wa (river) comes from the flowing river [Artwork-River Drawing] and looks like this [Artwork-River Drawing]. Now, if you squeeze that river [Artwork-River Drawing], what do you have but the character for water [Artwork-Japanese Characters], mi zu?

A traveler in Japan will find it helpful to know the characters for "entrance" and "exit" that are in train stations and other public places. First take a mouth [Artwork-Mouth Drawing], form it into [Artwork-Japanese Characters] and pronounce it ku chi. Now picture a small river running into a large river [Artwork-River Drawing], square it up [Artwork-Japanese Characters], and you have hai ru or iru, meaning "to enter." Put the two together [Artwork-Japanese Characters], smooth out the pronunciation, and you have the word for entrance, i ri gu chi, or, literally, 'enter mouth.' To leave the station, you must know another character. So think of a flower growing out of the ground [Artwork-Flower Drawing]. Shape it up a bit [Artwork-Japanese Characters], and you have the character for de ru (to leave). Put [Artwork-Japanese Characters] with [Artwork-Japanese Characters] and you have [Artwork-Japanese Characters], meaning 'coming out mouth,' or exit, pronounced de guchi. That wasn't nearly as hard as you expected, was it?

Many of the characters tell a story, as does the man [Artwork-Man Drawing] [Artwork-Japanese Characters], standing by a tree [Artwork-Tree Drawing], which becomes [Artwork-Japanese Characters]. The two together [Artwork-Japanese Characters] constitute the Kanji for vacation, pronounced ya su mi. How about a man leaning on a shovel [Artwork-Man Drawing], next to his horse [Artwork-Horse Drawing]? Put them together and you have e ki, or station [Artwork-Japanese Characters], as in "Tokyo Eki," where you can catch the bullet train.

There are many, many more to learn, and while requiring effort, it is a thoroughly fascinating and entertaining study. Over the years the writing of Kanji is being progressively simplified. As the older and younger generations differ in their way of writing Kanji, often a letter received from a grandmother or grandfather will have to be read and "translated" by someone living nearby who is in the same age group as the writer of the letter.

Some Reasons for Learning Japanese

There are many reasons that may prompt persons to learn Japanese. With some individuals, it may be simply a hobby that helps to broaden their views of people from a different culture and environment. Others will want to learn Japanese for business reasons. Tourists will enjoy their visit to Japan all the more if they know some basic Japanese. But to gain a real working knowledge of Japanese, one would have to live in this country for some years.

If you wish to learn Japanese, you can. Our word of advice is: "Ganbatte kudasai!," that is, "Stick to it!"
Frankie Goh is a family counselor and researcher.

He manage a website : Earn Money Online http://www.ezy-cash.com

He is also the Internet Marketing Co-ordinator of Healthbuy.com Herbal Products & Dermitage Wrinkles-Free Program.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Frankie_Goh