The Kochi Perspective

005 How to learn Japanese (Orientation presentation: The extended version)

mark.mrwizard@gmail.com (Mark Johnson) — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 02:01:00 +0000

This is the presentation I made at the Kochi Orientation + lots more depth and a bit more information. Total running length is 68:55 and you can check it out at http://www.archive.org/details/005KochiPerspective or directly download the ogg file. And with no further ado, here are the show notes I mentioned.
Learn Japanese Presentation -> Podcast

Topic
-Speaking note
:Example
*Pause and write

-Orientation presentation ++
-Get some paper and a pencil while I ramble,
-Write when I say to

Set Goal
-Realistic, Challening, Enforceable
: JLPT, Clair course certificate, jouyou kanji,
: able to understand newspaper, movie, anime, song,
: store interactions, morning meetings,
-Logically ordered list of multiple goals
-Small steps, reward your successes
* Write down your list of goals

About the JLPT
-Main certificate recognizing Japanese language ability,
-For jobs, applications, CV, self-motivation
-5 levels, 1 is hard 5 is easy
-Benchmarks of hours studied.
-Test twice/year in Japan, available in Kochi-ken
-Application materials at bookstores for about 500Y
-Timeline @ www.jlpt.jp/application/domestic_index.html

Routine
-Whatever you have to do to keep studying
: attending scheduled classes, conversation groups,
: study groups, free time at work, sitting on the toilet,
: before bed, before work, at lunch time,
: X day(s) of the week, X hour(s) of the day
-Plan out what your routine means more than just "study"
: MWF = 10 kanji, 20 vocab; TR = Textbook lesson,
: M = http://smart.fm list, T = Japanese for JETs, W = CLAIR, etc
-Ready materials ahead of time, no searching for 30 minutes
* Write what times you could spend on your studies

Resources and Study Materials
-Nankoku Japanese Class
: Wednesday 7pm-9pm in Nankoku City
: Call Ms. Nagano at 080-3162-2310
: for pickup/information or 090-4332-7652
: 100Y per session. Textbook is 1400 yen.
: Class A = Elem. Part 1
: Class B = Elem. Part 2
: Class C = Intermediate
-Japanese Salon, call for details
池　純子　TEL:848−0885　
尾中　美代子　TEL:840−0760
: www.kochi-kia.or.jp/info/other.html
-Outside traditional classes
: Make your own study group, study with friends on-line,
: Conversation partners, Language exchanges,
: Take correspondence courses through a university,
: study on your own and/or with the internet
-Textbooks, in JET community, CLAIR books, e-books
: Tae Kim's grammar guide www.guidetojapanese.com
: Remembering the Kanji

Technology (Free to use, some is free/open source)
* Write down any of these that you think you might use
-Computing in Japanese, input methods
: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Japanese/Computing_in_Japanese
: Jim Breems, www.jisho.org, rikai-chan/kun
-Flashcards, optimized learning
: http://smart.fm, Anki (OSS) runs on (DS, keitai, iphone, android, +)
-Communities
: http://lang-8.com, kanjibox (facebook), live mocha
-Other materials and websites
: http://japanesepod101.com (podcast)
: http://alljapaneseallthetime.com (blog)
* Write down at least 3 of these, bookmark their websites

Engage and Immerse
-Being in Japan doesn't guarantee immersion
-Actively engage activities in Japanese
-Consume media
: anime, dramas, movies, manga, music, books
-Perform/Create
: Tosaben Musical, theatre, film, speeches, fiction, poetry,
: maps, art, music
-Be Social
: clubs, cultural groups, your hobby in Japanese, friends, bars
: relationships, co-workers, ask questions, invite others
* Write at least 1 form of media, 1 creative activity,
* and 1 social activity that you will engage in for Japanese.

The art of learning well
- Mnemonics make memories (mmm)
: Example kanji mnemonic, story, image, etc.
- Use smart flashcard programs, add photos/sentences/etc.
- Learn in context, vocabulary doesn't exist in a vacuum
- Grammar makes more sense when you used it to express yourself
- Carry a Japanese Journal, write everything/anything
- Ask questions, ask strangers, ask friends, ask both
- For pronunciation, listen and talk to yourself out loud
* Make a mnemonic to remember what you've written so far.

Jump in, it's fun

< kana = Send me your name, and my name
< kanji = Send me five kanji and describe your mnemonics
all = Send me your answers, i'll give feedback & encouragement

mark.mrwizard@gmail.com

004 Learn Japanese

mark.mrwizard@gmail.com (Mark Johnson) — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 00:11:00 +0000

Took about a week for it to process... sorry about the wait. This is episode 4 broadcast from Motoyama with guest co-host Ben Barrett. We spent the time talking about coming to JET with different levels of Japanese experience and we both think JETs should strive to learn more Japanese or at least stay engaged with it even for very advanced speakers. Ben had to run at the end because he had Yosakoi dance practice, a dance festival coming up next week in Kochi city that will attract thousands of visitors and tourists to the prefecture.

Stream with the embedded player above or download directly from the Internet Archive. You can also get the OGG file (my personal recommendation for quality and filesize).

003 Kochi Events

mark.mrwizard@gmail.com (Mark Johnson) — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 04:57:00 +0000

At long last. I wasn't lying, I'm just slow. Here's the third episode of the Kochi Perspective. I had the luck to have three guests on so please excuse running well over the target time. Two links worth noting that came up are the Chobitto Film Festival entries. You can check out Hikari Yume and Takeshi on Youtube.

As always you can download the FLAC, OGG, or VBR mp3 from the Internet Archive download page. Or you can stream from here or there.

Total run time is 41:45.

(Edit, 2009-06-29: All problems resolved.)

Okay FOR REAL!

mark.mrwizard@gmail.com (Mark Johnson) — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 06:35:00 +0000

Okay, I finally have a real plan for this weekend, so the third edition of the Kochi Perspective Podcast should be out by Monday of next week. Tentatively planning to co-host with Ben, the CIR from Motoyama. We'll be, as I said before, talking about events in Kochi prefecture, both festivals and JET-related events, both of which play a big role in the lives of a lot of ALTs and CIRs in the prefecture.

The following weekend I'm tentatively planning to podcast with Gary, the Sakawa JET about places in Kochi. We'll break down the geography a bit and detail it a bit from our own perspectives, which probably differ a bit.

Slow to publish

mark.mrwizard@gmail.com (Mark Johnson) — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 14:36:00 +0000

A combination of laziness, slacking off, and not quite knowing what I wanted to podcast about has delayed the next episode, but stay tuned. I'm planning on bringing you a feature filled cast about major events in the prefecture including such awesome things as the Genki Tosaben Musical and the Yosakoi festival.

002 Say hello to George!

mark.mrwizard@gmail.com (Mark Johnson) — Mon, 31 May 2010 01:14:00 +0000

This week I co-hosted with a good friend, George Upton. George is a Kochi city, high school JET. We talk about the differences in our jobs as well as our experiences living, working, and studying in Japan.

You can download the FLAC, OGG vorbis, or MP3 file from the internet archive.
Total running time was 32:09

001 Me, My job, and Kochi

mark.mrwizard@gmail.com (Mark Johnson) — Sat, 22 May 2010 16:12:00 +0000

Episode 1 of the Kochi Perspective is out! I havn't figured out quite how to syndicate it via RSS yet, but for now you can download it normally from the internet archive. Here's the download page if you want options. And here's the direct link to the OGG vorbis track.

I just went over what I plan to do with this podcast, that be talk about Japan, teaching English, language learning in general, and Kochi prefecture. Also talked a little bit about my own situation and my background.

Total running time was 21:09

Thanks! Until next time.
-Mark

Introductions

mark.mrwizard@gmail.com (Mark Johnson) — Wed, 19 May 2010 14:16:00 +0000

Ahoy, howdy, welcome! I'm here to announce an upcoming project hopefully to be released within this month (May 2010): A new podcast series about teaching English in Japan, especially in Kochi prefecture. At the moment it looks like I'm going to be hosting solo, but hopefully I will either find a co-host or at the very least have a guest co-host every week.

Podcasts will be hosted by the Internet archive and summaries of each podcast will be written here. The plan is to update weekly, probably by Sunday night every week.

For the open source enthusiasts out there, you'll be happy to know everything (except this blog at the moment) will be open source. Recordings done on Ubuntu Linux, with Audacity, and derived by the Internet archive from FLAC files into other formats like Ogg Vorbis.

-Mark