Feed: Nihongo-Pro Online Japanese Lessons - AggScore: 93.9
Summary: Nihongo-Pro Online Japanese Lessons
Free Japanese Quizzes for Everyone (PR)
We
have just launched a free Japanese quiz service with free quizzes
every day at four skill levels (introductory Japanese, beginning
Japanese, intermediate Japanese, and advanced Japanese).The interactive Japanese quizzes cover a variety of Japanese and Japan-related topics, and allow Japanese students to test their skill in Japanese vocabulary, grammar, Kanji, and reading comprehension. A large number of quizzes focused on the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) is also included, just in time for JLPT test takers to do final study and preparation for the upcoming JLPT.
Unique Service Among Online
Japanese Schools
The free daily quiz service is available to all visitors to Nihongo-Pro.com. If you register, you get more freebies, such as tracking of your individual quiz results and access to the Nihongo-Pro 24/7 video chat room. Nihongo-Pro is the first online Japanese school to make the chat service available to students and visitors alike, making for a more engaging conversation.
The quiz service is also unique among online Japanese schools. "Through services like our free quizzes, we hope to raise awareness of the value of our private Japanese lessons, and help everyone learning Japanese," Nihongo-Pro president Terry Phillips remarked.
"It's common to think of Japanese as impossibly difficult, but that simply isn't true. Success in learning Japanese comes from patience, perseverance, and practice. By spending a few minutes every day taking our free quizzes, for example, a Japanese student can make steady and definite progress in learning Japanese. A JLPT student who takes our JLPT quizzes every day for three months can accumulate hundreds of JLPT practice test questions for free . It's a simple investment of time to learn Japanese online that can pay off big."
According to Phillips, the free quiz service is just the first of several free services in Nihongo-Pro's expansion plan. Interactive games targeting Japanese learners are due to be introduced soon, and the online school is making plans for service expansion beyond private Japanese lessons.
Phillips added, "We're striving to make Nihongo-Pro the best place to learn Japanese online--whether through free services to the Japanese learning community, our private Japanese lessons, or new lesson formats we are planning. Three things set Nihongo-Pro apart from the competition: free services like the quizzes, the quality of our customized lessons, and the quality of our Japanese teachers. Because we pay our teachers much better than most online Japanese schools, our teachers in turn build better lessons."
Date Published: Nov 15, 2011 - 10:29 pm
Upside Down Japanese
The other day in my online Japanese lesson, we were doing a JLPT reading comprehension question. For those of you not familiar with the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test), the reading comprehension portion consists of short, medium, and long passages of Japanese text, followed by one or more multiple-choice questions about the passage.
This passage was a reading on Buddhism, so not only were the
sentence structures difficult, but there were new vocabulary
words and concepts. In all, it was a difficult Japanese reading
problem for me.
When it came to answering the question, I was confused. The
question concerned the central point of the essay, yet I couldn’t
find the right answer. That’s when my teacher led me through to
the answer, and, in the process, showed a fundamental difference
between Japanese and English.
Japanese is upside down, or backwards to my way of thinking, if
you will. This passage on Buddhism—as most Japanese writing—is
structured in almost reverse order from a typical English
counterpart.
I don’t mean simply that the verb comes at the end of the
sentence in Japanese, or that there are Japanese particles with
no English translation tacked onto the end of words.
I mean that the author’s conclusion appears at the end of
the passage, and that his supporting statements appear
before his conclusion. Most English writers would start an
essay with a brief statement of their opinion (the thrust of
their argument), and then follow that with their supporting
reasoning and description of the overall situation.
Japanese is just the opposite—a Japanese writer will describe the
situation, briefly point to opposing views, and sum up his
opinion as a conclusion, often by way of a rhetorical question
(～でしょうか or
～だろうか).
From Upside Down to 起承転結
(kishoutenketsu)
Good Japanese writing is supposed to follow the sequence of
起承転結
(kishoutenketsu), a four-step process as follows:
- 起 (ki, to occur or arise): The story’s beginning. Introduce the reader to the situation and characters involved.
- 承 (shou, to receive or accept). “Receiving” the material introduced in起, dig deeper in this step. Give a full, objective explanation of the situation, so your reader understands the context and detail of your topic.
- 転 (ten, to turn). The crux of the writing, 転 is where you grab the reader’s interest with a surprising or novel “turn.” The転 section often starts out with しかし (however ...) or そして (and...), meaning the writing is about to guide the reader in a direction the reader didn’t necessarily expect.
- 結 (ketsu, to conclude or tie together). With the unexpected turn of転 in mind, draw your final conclusion. This is where Japanese opinion writers will state their opinion, as a natural follow-on to the explanation of 承 and the twist of 転.
The Roller Coaster of 起承転結
(kishoutenketsu)
起承転結 can be compared to a ride in a roller
coaster:
- 起is the start of the ride, as the chain starts pulling your car up that long hill. You’re going slow, getting used to the new environment.
- 承 takes over as you get higher up the hill. You’re still moving slow, but you’re up high now, and can see the landscape much better.
- 転 hits when the chain releases your car, and you start speeding down the hill. Just when you thought you knew the landscape (going up, up, up slowly but surely), the whole scene changes, and you’re experiencing an entirely different side of the roller coaster.
- 結 is the coasting from the last hill to the end of the ride, a chance to wrap up, cool down, and take in what you’ve just experienced.
If you’re a manga fan, you probably know that 4-cell manga
usually follows the 起承転結 sequence as well. Indeed, the
four-step sequence of 起承転結 is the very reason for the popularity
of the 4-cell manga!
Date Published: May 13, 2011 - 4:31 pm
Mayor’s Vision Saves Japanese Village from Tsunami
Japan is in the midst of starting recovery from the massive earthquake and tsunami that struck the Tohoku region on March 11, 2011. Many of us have seen the horrific scenes of total devastation from the tsunami replayed on countless videos.
|
| Seawall at Miyako City, Japan being overtopped |
The city of Miyako in Iwate prefecture was devastated, despite a
10-meter (33-foot) seawall designed to protect the city from
tsunamis. This time, the giant wave easily topped the wall, and
surged into the city. The
heartbreaking scene of Miyako’s destruction has been played
over and over on Japanese TV, a grim tribute to the force of the
earthquake and the tsunami.
As I watched the scene from Miyako, I thought, “If only that
seawall had been a little higher...” If only the area had been
protected just a little more, perhaps those people would have
been spared the worst of the tsunami.
The Story of Fudai's
Seawall
Happily, there was such a place: the village of Fudai
(普代) in Iwate
prefecture. Fudai was protected by a 15.5-meter (50-foot)
seawall, and the tsunami was no match for it. Fudai had no deaths
in the disaster.
The story of how Fudai came to have such a high seawall begins with the great earthquake and tsunami in 1896, during Japan’s Meiji period. That year the village was struck by a 15-meter (49-foot) tsunami, and again in 1933, the village suffered another powerful tsunami. Altogether, 439 lives were lost.
Following those tsunami, village mayor Kotoku Wamura (和村幸得)
pressed for a seawall at least 15 meters high, often repeating
the tales handed down to him growing up: that the devastating
1896 tsunami was 15 meters.
The project was a huge one—a wall to hold back a surging wave
five stories high and over 200 meters (650 feet) long. During the
planning stage, there was strong opposition to building such an
excessively high wall—after all, a 10-meter wall, dubbed “the
Great Wall,” had protected parts of nearby Miyako City from the
tsunami caused by a Chilean earthquake in 1960.
But Wamura did not budge, insisting on a 15-meter-plus wall.
“明治に１５メートルの波が来た”
(In the Meiji earthquake, a 15-meter wave came), he was
fond of reminding skeptics.
Wamura prevailed, and the seawall was ultimately completed in
1967. Floodgates were added in 1984.
Owing to Wamura’s steadfast insistence—and a vision of the
protection Fudai needed, based on stories and knowledge handed
down to him—this tiny village was spared the great tsunami of
2011. 63-year-old Sadaji Oota, gazing out at the wall from a
Fudai izakaya he runs, put it best: “If we didn’t have this wall,
we’d all be dead.”
As the tsunami approached on March 11, about 100 dock workers
took refuge on the top of the big wall, and not one got so much
as wet feet.
If you’d like to read this story in its original Japanese, please
visit:
Forewarned Is Forearmed
Or, as the Japanese say:
備えあれば憂いなし
sonae areba urei nashi
In contrast to the accusations of inadequate disaster planning on the part of Tokyo Electric at their Fukushima nuclear power plant, Fudai is a reminder of the power of one man's vision and determination. Wamura knew what had to be done, overcame protests from all sides, and, in the end, saved his village and its people.
Fundraising for
Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief
Nihongo-Pro is raising money for earthquake and tsunami relief
operations in Japan. In addition to a corporate donation, the
company pledges an additional $10 donation for each contribution
received via the Nihongo-Pro web site through April 30, 2011.
Date Published: Apr 05, 2011 - 11:22 pm
Learn to Read Japanese
Some people think learning Japanese is easy; others say it is hard. I think everyone can agree that learning to read Japanese takes time and effort. Japanese is one of the most complex written languages in the world, mixing four different scripts:
- Kanji: Chinese characters, such as 日本語
- Hiragana: A curvy-looking alphabet that is used to connect words and for words of Japanese origin, such as です
- Katakana: A squarish alphabet used primarily for foreign words, such as ブログ or コンピュータ
- Romaji: Words written in roman letters like these
Starting out learning Japanese, any student of Japanese first
studies hiragana, followed by katakana. Then, we start up the
Kanji mountain. There are about 2,000 Kanji in common use in
Japanese, or about 3,000 if you count the poetic and literary
usages found in many Japanese novels.
Kanji Readings: Kunyomi and Onyomi
Each Kanji in Japanese typically has two or more different pronunciations, or readings. When Kanji were imported into Japan from China, Japanese assigned the Kanji meanings to words in spoken Japanese with the same meaning. So, yama (mountain) was assigned the Kanji 山; kawa (river) was assigned the Kanji 川; and so on.
But the Chinese also brought native Chinese pronunciations for
these words, as well as thousands of Chinese words using these
Kanji, which the Japanese tried to mimic. The closest Japanese
pronunciation for the Chinese word for mountain was san,
so, in addition to yama, the山 Kanji could be pronounced san,
depending on context. For example, 山脈 (sanmyaku) means mountain range
(literally, vein of mountains).
As a result, most Kanji in Japanese today have at least two
readings:
- Kunyomi (kun reading) is the native Japanese pronunciation, such as yama for 山.
- Onyomi (on reading) is the pronunciation imported from Chinese, such as san for 山.
Some Kanji have more than one kun reading; a few Kanji also have
multiple on readings as well. On the other hand, some Kanji have
no kun reading, and others have no on reading. But, as a general
rule, think of one kun reading and one on reading for each Kanji
in Japanese.
By convention, kun readings are written in hiragana, and on
readings are written in katakana. For example:
山（やま、サン）
Learning Kanji Is Easier Than You Think
Learning 2,000 Kanji may seem impossibly difficult, but you don’t
have to learn all 2,000 to read most Japanese texts. In fact,
according to this analysis of Kanji usage, if you learn just 1,000
Kanji you can read 93% of the Japanese you find on the web,
including Japanese newspaper articles.
The key is to choose those 1,000 Kanji carefully, based on how
often the Kanji are used. Many students studying for the Japanese
Language Proficiency Test (JLPT), especially at level N1, N2, or
N3, study from JLPT Kanji lists—lists of Kanji specifically
targeting the various levels of the JLPT. (Strictly speaking,
these lists are designed for the pre-2010 JLPT, but the Kanji
lists are still widely used.)
The thinking goes that if you memorize all Kanji on the JLPT
Kanji list for your level, you’ll ace the Kanji portion of the
test. That is true, but it’s also true your score on the much
larger reading comprehension portion may suffer.
If you focus on the JLPT Kanji lists, rather than learning the
most often used Kanji first, you wind up delaying the time when
you can start reading Japanese text with some confidence. You get
less practice reading Japanese, and your speed of reading
Japanese suffers.
Start Reading Japanese Fast!
For success in JLPT reading comprehension, or Japanese reading
for any reason, I’d recommend this simple approach:
Step 1: Learn about 500 basic, frequently used
Kanji.
Try to learn one kun reading and on one reading for each
Kanji. Don’t try to learn extra readings—just get the basics down
for now. This will take some time, but don’t get caught up with
perfection. The point is to get basic Kanji knowledge, so you can
get into real Japanese reading.Kanji flashcards work great, and there are all kinds of online Kanji resources. Perhaps the fastest way to cement a Kanji in your mind is to practice writing it. Learn the proper stroke order, and, as you write the Kanji, say out loud the Kanji’s kun reading and on reading.
Step 2: Start reading Japanese.
Online reading is easiest, because you can take advantage of
helper apps that show explanations and pronunciations of
unfamiliar words or Kanji. If you use Firefox, try the rikaichan addon. Another good Japanese tool for
all browsers is POPjisyo.com (as in pop-up dictionary—move your
mouse over an unfamiliar word or Kanji, and a dictionary entry
pops up). Reading Tutor Toolbox is helpful for studying
Japanese vocabulary.
Step 3: Read something in Japanese every day.
Even if just a single paragraph, make a promise to train your
brain for Japanese every day. I like Japanese newspapers, because
they have a wide variety of articles and writing styles. The
headline articles tend to use difficult vocabulary words, but
some of the articles on Japanese culture, food, or events are a
little easier.
Step 4: As you read Japanese, you will naturally learn lots
of new Kanji.
Some people like to make lists of new Kanji, and study them
separately from reading. Or, you might decide you like to keep
reading more Japanese, and absorb the Kanji knowledge through
reading alone. I think both approaches work (probably a mix is
best for most learners), but by all means, keep reading!
Date Published: Mar 02, 2011 - 11:13 am
Japanese Word Order: Pick An Order, Any Order
One of the first things you discover when you learn Japanese is
that the verb in a Japanese sentence always comes at the end of
the sentence.
あの人は買い物に行きました。
ano hito wa kaimono ni ikimashita.
That person went shopping.
東京の冬は厳しいと思いませんか？
Toukyou no fuyu wa kibishii to omoimasen
ka?
Don’t you think Tokyo winters are severe?
OK, in the second example, there’s ka at the very end,
turning the sentence into a question. Simple particles like
ka, ne, yo, or even ze, zo,
and na do come after the verb in a Japanese sentence.
Japanese Words in Any Order?
Interestingly, Japanese word order is loose compared to
English—except that the verb has to be placed at the end of the
sentence or phrase. When I say loose word order in Japanese,
consider this example:
昨日 彼に りんごを あげました。
Kinou kare-ni ringo-wo agemashita.
I gave him an apple yesterday.
In Japanese, the first three parts ( 昨日, 彼に, りんごを) can be put in any order! The only
requirement is that the verb show up at the end. For example, all
of these sentences are grammatically possible in Japanese:
昨日 りんごを 彼に あげました。
りんごを 彼に 昨日 あげました。
彼に 昨日 りんごを あげました。
Before you start randomizing your Japanese word order, remember
that I said grammatically possible—not all of these
sentences are natural Japanese. Ringo-wo kare-ni kinou
agemashita is particularly unnatural, but still grammatically
correct and understandable by any native Japanese.
One more point to keep in mind: The part closest to the verb is the part being emphasized in the sentence. So, if you want to emphasize that you gave him an apple as opposed to some other fruit, the choice:
works best.
One more point to keep in mind: The part closest to the verb is the part being emphasized in the sentence. So, if you want to emphasize that you gave him an apple as opposed to some other fruit, the choice:
彼に 昨日 りんごを あげました。
works best.
Try doing this kind of word rearrangement in your own language,
and the sentences probably won’t make sense. (“Him gave I
yesterday an apple.”)
Japanese Particles to the Rescue
Japanese word order is flexible (other than the verb), thanks to
particles like ga, ni and wo. By attaching a
particle to a word, you set the role for that word in the
sentence. Then, you can take the word and its particle and move
it in the sentence around like a building block, without losing
any meaning. (In English, by contrast, the placement of the word
itself dictates its role, so moving an English word out of place
causes it to lose meaning.)
Particles are fundamental to Japanese. Using the wrong particle
can make a sentence undecipherable to a Japanese speaker. For
example, if I wanted to say “I gave him an apple yesterday,” but
said:
昨日 りんごを 彼が あげました。
My Japanese listener would hear: “Yesterday he gave an apple (to
someone else).” And confusion would result.
One of my difficulties with listening comprehension in Japanese
(such as JLPT listening comprehension exercises) is correctly
hearing these very short particles, which have a big effect on
the meaning of a sentence. There are many cases where changing
ni to ga or vice-versa causes the meaning to be
exactly opposite. The writers of the JLPT know this, of course,
so they (evilly) set out to make some of the JLPT exercises
difficult in precisely that way.
If you are learning Japanese, watch your particles (and be sure
the verb comes at the end), and you’re sure to be speaking more
natural Japanese.
Date Published: Feb 16, 2011 - 10:40 am
Do Japanese Talk Fast?
You hear it all the time—to an untrained ear, it seems like a
Japanese speaker talks much faster than we expect.
Actually, it’s true—Japanese do talk faster—because Japanese has
lots more syllables than English or most European languages.
Consider an example:
夕べ10時まで働きました。
Yuube juu-ji-made hatarakimashita.
I worked till 10 o’clock last night.
This simple Japanese sentence has 15 syllables:
ゆうべ じゅうじ まで はたらき ました
The English equivalent has just 8. That is a pretty typical
ratio, with English having half or so as many syllables as
Japanese. Consider simple greetings in Japanese:
おはようございます。(9
syllables)
Ohayoo gozaimasu.
Good morning. (3 syllables)
おやすみなさい。(7 syllables)
Oyasumi nasai.
Good night. (2 syllables)
The syllables in Japanese are very short, so they can be uttered
quickly and with very little mouth movement. Japanese talk faster
to get out all those syllables, but the rate at which they
communicate is about the same as anyone else.
To a Western ear, though, hearing all those short Japanese
syllables takes practice. My brain is trained to pick up new
English words of 3 or 4 syllables, maybe 5 at most. But in
Japanese, a new word might have 8 or 9, even 10 or more
syllables. Even if I listen closely, I have trouble picking up
the last few syllables, and often wind up asking my Nihongo-Pro
teacher to repeat a new Japanese word several times.
It’s definitely one of the challenges of learning Japanese, but
also can be a lot of fun. Next time a friend asks you to say
something in Japanese, make an impression with one of these
Japanese syllable stews:
あたたかくなったのではなかったか？
Atatakaku natta no dewa nakatta ka?
Didn’t it get warm? (lit., Isn’t it true that it got warm?)
あったか、なかったか、しりませんでした。
Atta-ka, nakatta-ka, shirimasendeshita.
I didn’t know if it was there or not.
Date Published: Feb 02, 2011 - 5:10 pm
Online Japanese Lessons
www.nihongo-pro.com
Nihongo-Pro is an all-new online Japanese classroom that offers live, private Japanese lessons from experienced Japanese teachers. Great alternative if you're looking for a place to learn Japanese online with great services and policies for students and teachers.
For students, learning Japanese online has lots of advantages to a traditional classroom. You cut out the travel time, and you save lots of money. Online Japanese lessons at Nihongo-Pro are about half the price of an in-person tutor.
For teachers, Nihongo-Pro offers a relaxed environment without the headaches of other online Japanese schools. Pay is about 50% higher than other schools, and our "no hassle" workplace lets you focus on the job of teaching Japanese. Our software is easy to learn and easy to use. All you need is a web cam and a desire to teach Japanese online. Visit us today at www.nihongo-pro.com
Date Published: Jan 07, 2011 - 7:42 pm
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Date Added: 03/01/2011
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