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Johnson Banks recently put up a post about “phonetikana” which has to either be the most genius discovery of all time, or the laziest. Either way, there’s no denying that it’s beautiful, regardless, but you know me, I hate romaji with a passion (and you should too).

Here’s the concept behind phonetikana: 1. Katakana is irritating to learn / you don’t have the time to learn it / you’re lazy. 2. Katakana often spells out words that English speakers can kind-of-sort-of understand. 3. If you add the English phonetic pronunciation to the katakana, you’ll be able to read it and possibly decipher it. 4. Integrate it into the actual katakana to get that “aww, that’s boootiful effect.”

Let’s put it more simply (and visually). Here’s how you’d write “Uniqlo” in Japanese (Uniqlo is a big ol’ Japanese clothes company).

Now, let’s phonetikana it!

Now you can read it phonetically! Yoo-Nee-Koo-Roh. Doesn’t get you perfect pronunciation, but close enough for someone who doesn’t really want to learn Japanese in the first place.

What does a Cow say? Good job!

Who’s the top Banana here? Profess your Top-banana-ness in the comments below!

There are a ton more examples over on Johnson Bank’s post about phonetikana. If you haven’t gotten all the Top Bananas you can handle, be sure to go take a look. It’s pretty fascinating. I’ve always been into typography, but am totally incapable of making anything look nice (Anyone want to teach me about typography on eduFire? I’ll pay you).

Please start a flame war in the comments arguing about who’s the top banana, please, please, please. Use logic to prove your perspectives.

If you’re learning Japanese, consider using eduFire to get live online lessons!

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The moment Lang-8 created the option to upgrade to a Premium Account I did it. At first, it was because I wanted to support Lang-8 (hey, they’re cool Froods!) and make sure their servers kept on running. But, the more I looked at the features the more I realized that there’s a lot of awesome potential here, especially when it comes to power users of the site (and if you’re not one, you should become one). Definitely a few new features that could really accelerate your Japanese studies, which makes it worth a deeper look.

Premium Features:

There are 6 new perks by upgrading to Premium Lang-8, and here’s what I think:

1. Journal and Correction Data Download as PDF: This is the best new feature. You can download side-by-side corrections in PDF form so you can print them out and really practice your corrections and get better. Definitely something that will increase the rate at which you learn your Japanese. I’ve already enjoyed this feature, plus it lets you take some paper around with you if you have a printer.
2. Number of Foot Print Pages: Pshh, heck yeah. I want to know who’s stalking me and check out the trends from months and months ago. Don’t lie to yourself, you know you like the foot prints feature.
3. Max Number of Corrected Sentences Allowed to Add to Notebook: Sure, you could add these on your own to a notepad or something, but the notebook makes things a lot more convenient. Getting unlimited pages here is awesome for people who really use this feature a lot.
4. Personal URL: Some will enjoy this feature more than others. I know this kind of thing makes me happy.
5. Personal Journal Search: For the hardcore Lang-8 user, this is definitely a must. Being able to search is real nice and saves time!
6. Photo Album: Not sure what this is for exactly, but I have some feeling there will be something interesting happening here at some point down the road!

All in all, the upgrade is only $5 a month, and for that mere $5 the power user will see a lot of benefit. Like any freemium model, people who don’t use the service as much probably won’t find any reason to upgrade, but I do hope you consider supporting the nice folks at Lang-8 by subscribing anyways. Native Japanese speakers + extra learning tools = “WIN” in my book.

Lang-8 Premium Giveaway (Let me pay for your first month)

In fact, I want to support Lang-8 so much that the first ten people to go premium on Lang-8 and send me the receipts for their purchase (koichi@tofugu.com) will get themselves a nice little reimbursement via Paypal. I’ll only reimburse the first month, though, so if you get yourself a year long membership (a better deal) I’ll still only send you $5.00.

Related posts:

1. Why you should use a Mac to study Japanese
2. Nipponster’s Japanese Toolbar
3. 10 Ways to Hack Google to Become an Awesome Japanese Learning Resource

This is an example of something really cool (i.e. not Japanese learning)

Of course, one of Tofugu’s goals is to make Japanese learning cool again. “Again?” you ask. “But I’m so cool.” Sorry friend, but the All-Mighty Google doesn’t lie. It looks like learning Japanese is trending down, despite the popularity of anime, manga, and the like (though, actually, if you look it up those keywords are also trending down as well… Cause/correlation? Hard to tell). So how dorky and niche has Japanese learning gotten?

Japanese Language Trends

Over at Google Trends, you can see what people are searching for. In this search, I looked at “Japanese Language” to see how that was doing. As you can see since the beginning of 2004, the search “Japanese Language” has really gone down. It looks like it hasn’t quite leveled out yet, so I imagine we’ll continue to see a bit of downward trends. I wonder how language learning companies have been doing. Perhaps they are in trouble right now?

The term “Learn Japanese” has also gone down – it’s not as sharp as “Japanese Language,” but it still reflects the downward trend. Uh oh, Japanese. So, how is Japanese doing against other Asian languages?

Over the last twelve months things have been fairly level. I was surprised to see that Chinese isn’t that far ahead of Japanese, especially considering the popularity of the Chinese language recently.

So what do you think (that’s why I wrote this post, because I’m curious of your opinion)? Has Japanese become less popular? Have you noticed this trend, or is Google crazy? I’d love to hear about your experience and what you’ve noticed in the Japanese learning space.

Related posts:

1. 10 Ways to Hack Google to Become an Awesome Japanese Learning Resource
2. Win an iPhone 3GS by Learning Japanese

This video was made because of the swine flu, and because children don’t wash their hands. Also, apparently this video thought hand washing just wasn’t fun enough either, which is why they’ve turned it into a dance. GREAT.

A while back, when this whole Swine Flu thing got started, I was going to write one of those “controversial” posts on how Japan was way too worried about the Swine flu, and how they were never going to have a problem with it. Granted, I knew they, and everyone else probably would have some kind of problem, but it’s always fun to write things that will get a lot of angry comments. So, I thought this was a great opportunity to write about the Swine flu and Japan, and why I think Japan should quit worrying about it so much.

Why Japan Won’t Have a Problem with the Swine Flu

1. Culturally, things tend to be a lot more clean, and people tend to be a bit more anal about things (eww, not that anal!).
2. When someone is sick (or going to someplace that might have a lot of sick people), it’s common to wear a facemask to help protect yourself.
3. They have Swine Flu fighting business suits (that don’t even cover important areas…)
4. Japan is an island, and slightly xenophobic, which means less people will be coming in with the Swine Flu.
5. Japan is a 1st world country, and like all 1st world countries the Swine Flu has a death rate lower than the normal flu.
6. People in Japan don’t handshake so much like we do in the West.
7. Kissing isn’t as common. ewww, you like giirrrrrls.
8. There’s a ton of emphasis on going to the doctor / hospital the moment you get sick. Seriously, I’ve never seen so many people go to the doctor just for a cold. Very good preventative thinking, I suppose.
9. Moriyama (the guy in the hand washing video) will be there to dance the flu away, if he has to.
10. Robots will take the place of any Japanese human who comes down with the Swine Flu.

See? Nothing to worry about, except for the guy who choreographs weird dances and songs for dirty children that don’t wash their hands.

Related posts:

1. 10 “Crazy” Things About Japan
2. 100 Ways to Entertain Guests Visiting From Japan

While I get my act together and write a few more interesting blog posts, I thought I’d share with you some pictures from a wedding I went to a few weeks back. Beautiful wedding, but unfortunately it looks like my camera came from the Meiji Era. Wait, what’s that in the shot? Do you see it? Is that who I think it is? Is his best man…Ultraman!?

This one was taken a few minutes later. I heard a rustling in the bushes, much to my surprise it wasn’t a flock of white doves. Godzilla just has to ruin everything, doesn’t he? Unfortunately, my camera melted (Godzilla’s radiation, etc) before I could photograph the battle that ensued.

Related posts:

1. G-FEST Chicago: The Mecha-Godzilla of Godzilla Conventions
2. Godzilla has a Blog (and more!)
3. How Godzilla Affects My Daily Commute

1. Show them a trailer park: You want culture shock? This is how you do it.
2. Use Yelp: Will help you find all the really interesting stuff, hopefully
3. Go hiking: You can never go wrong with hiking
4. Take them to your school: Probably totally different from their own – take them to math so they can laugh at your country’s tiny brain.
5. Take them to a baseball game: They have baseball in Japan, but from a cheering standpoint, a completely different experience.
6. Take them to a football game: This is something you don’t see much in Japan.
7. Get them signed up for Facebook: Too many Japanese are still on Mixi. Turn your friend into a convert / traitor.
8. Go to Costco: and enjoy the wholesale goodness!
9. Take them to a mall: You can spend even more hours looking at all the stuff in all the stores.
10. Show them your room: Make sure you hide the… yah know.
11. Walk around downtown: Hopefully it won’t come to something as boring as this, but downtowns can be a bit weird, right?
12. Take them to a farmers market: Buy local fruits, food, and veggies!
13. Go hunting for bugs: The Japanese and their relationships with bugs is something I’ll never understand. Show them your bugs.
14. Let them try a non-Japanese UFO catcher: These are the claw machines you find in some grocery stores and malls. Show them how our UFO catchers are actually impossible to win.
15. Take them to an arcade: So they can get a good laugh.
16. Eat a big steak: It’s fun to hear Japanese people comment on how big the food is, and steak is a great way to do it.
17. Eat a big hamburger (see if they try and use a knife and fork): Last time I did this, my guests had to eat with a fork and knife. I kept telling them it wasn’t a fancy establishment, but they kept on going.
18. Take them to the animal shelter and laugh because it’s free! There are places full of cats that you have to pay to go in. Show them your local animal shelter.
19. Teach them how to play a computer game: Computer games have never really caught on in Japan. Show them your favorite, and get them a copy of Starcraft!
20. Buy a bunch of candy: Candy is completely different in America – nice and cheap shopping for the gifts they bring back to their friends.
21. Buy a bunch of drinks: Same like candy, our drinks are probably a bit strange.
22. Take them to a local tourist location: World’s largest yarn ball? Sign me up!
23. Have a family gathering: Get the family together and have a big dinner. Really fun for them to meet your crazy uncle Bob (be careful not to leave them alone though… you know how Uncle Bob gets).
24. Make up a local holiday and celebrate it (but pretend it’s real for them): If you don’t want to make one up, celebrate a holiday someone else has made up. Take Festivus for example. Even if it’s a total lie, it’ll be a fun experience to take back!
25. Go to a U-pick farm: Get back to your farmer roots!
26. Teach them some pimpin’ English slang: The Japanese love to learn English slang, just because their English education is so drab and boring (or maybe everyone likes learning slang?).
27. Bring them to your Japanese class, so they can laugh: If you’re taking Japanese at a school or something bring them along so they can help out, and have a good laugh while they are at it.
28. Show them American homeless people: The homeless in Japan are totally different from what you see in America. Nobody sits and asks for money, and they have nice semi-permanent tarp shacks.
29. Drive on the right side of the road: In Japan you drive on the left side – should be at least a tiny little thrill to do something so dangerous feeling, until it wears off.
30. Buy a bunch of different cereal: You certainly don’t see much cereal in Japan. Treat them to some CoCo Puffs!
31. Get something really sweet for them to eat: Food in Japan doesn’t get all that sweet. Normal-level sweet stuff in America is way too sweet for Japan. That’s why you should get something that’s considered too sweet for America.
32. Take them to a vegan restaurant: You’ll find some vegetarian stuff in Japan, but vegan is almost unheard of. Even if you’re not vegan, try it out!
33. Make a Bacon-Maple Donut: Enough said.
34. Take them to your work / your parent’s work: It’s boring for you, but not for them! Make them do some work for you while you relax!
35. Go to a 7/11 or another convenience store: I’d recommend 7/11 just because it’s common both in America and in Japan. The food is completely different, and it’s so much sketchier in America!
36. Take them to the beach: I still don’t get what’s so special about the beach. Every Japanese book your read, everyone wishes they were at the beach, swimming around eating Takoyaki.
37. Watch TV: I bet the commercials will be interesting.
38. Take them to eat something that’s really really bad for you (like Chicken and Waffles?): Donuts, maybe?
39. Ask them what they want to see: Don’t forget to see if there’s anything they want to see.
40. Hang out at a friend’s house: Friends always bring another level of entertainment, not to mention their houses.
41. Go on a day trip: Head off somewhere!
42. Go to a thrift store like Goodwill / Value Village: Kind of dirty, kind of gross, but so much fun to see people’s old stuff.
43. Order pizza and get it delivered: I might be wrong on this, but if I’m not mistaken, delivery pizza is pretty hard to come by in Japan. What a novelty!
44. Go on a scavenger hunt: Come up with a scavenger hunt and walk around finding things. Better yet, make it a photo scavenger hunt so you can do funny poses.
45. Learn pig-latin: Then tell them it’s how the upper class speaks.
46. Leave them alone with your most ridiculous relative: Uncle Bob?
47. Plan a trip to Japan to go visit them: Have them tell you where you should go and come up with plans to see each other again!
48. Go to KFC: KFC is big in Japan, so you might as well try it out here and see if there’s any difference.
49. Take them to a basketball game: Same answer as Baseball.
50. Go to Taco Bell: No tacos in Japan, especially fast food tacos.
51. Go to McDonald’s: I don’t know why, but this is too much fun for them.
52. Go to a terrible sushi place so they can tell you how good it is in Japan: Or, they’ll just pretend it’s tasty and you’ll feel like a big jerk.
53. Cook something together: A mini Thanksgiving dinner is what I recommend.
54. Make a silly video: Then you’ll remember this visit forever!
55. Come up with a secret handshake: You can tell I’m reaching for straws here.
56. Play a first-person shooter game: You don’t see too many of these in Japan, so it could be fun to sit down and teach them how to play Halo.
57. Show them anime that’s in English: Dragonball with male voice-actors voicing over male characters? WhATT?
58. Take them to a bookstore: They’ll buy a book in English and tell you they’ll use it to practice English, but probably won’t.
59. Take them to buy Levi Jeans, because they’re so cheap! It’s up to you to decide whether or not you want to tell them the quality is worse.
60. Find a local fair or event: So many matsuri’s go on in Japan, see if you can find one in your area.
61. Take them to a carnival: Carnivals are so weird. Why wouldn’t you take them here?
62. Go to a store full of weird things like Urban Outfitters or Spencer’s: More fun omiyage.
63. Take them to a gun range / place that sells guns: No guns in Japan, so let them go all out and shoot so they can tell all their friends.
64. Test drive a really big car: Hummmmer!
65. Help them buy music off of your local iTunes (and burn it to CDs if they need it): Music in Japan is ridiculously expensive. Help them buy a bunch of music while they’re not in Japan and take it back with them.
66. Go camping (real camping): When a Japanese person says “camping,” they often mean getting a hotel room out in a rural area. Show them what real camping means.
67. Go fishing: And then make some sashimi out of it!
68. Teach them about sarcasm: Unfortunately, the Japanese don’t get sarcasm very well. But, you could help, right?
69. Taste the tap water: Does it taste okay, or did you both get sick?
70. Go to a Subway and order a sandwich: mmmm
71. Make a Maple Bacon Donut: All you need are maple donuts, and then fry some bacon to put on top. Yummy!
72. Go to an outlet mall: Japanese love shopping, especially when it’s so unbelievably cheap!
73. Go mushroom hunting: Make sure you know what you’re doing, though. Find some Matsutake mushrooms and they’ll be so happy that it doesn’t cost $300 /lb.
74. Walk around a forest, eat some berries: Once again, make sure you know what you’re eating.
75. Make and fly a kite! No explanation needed
76. Play Time Crisis 3 in your local mall: This way, they can feel nostalgic, since it’s not Time Crisis 54.
77. Teach them about Macs, and how they’re so much better: I just added this one so I can know how many people made it this far down the list. Macs vs. PC posts always get lots of comments, hardee har.
78. Go ride a horse: Don’t forget to dress up like cowboys / cowgirls, yeehaw!
79. Play Miniature Golf: Or, if you’re like me and my friends, play Miniature hockey golf.
80. Find some really big dogs: All the dogs in Japan are soooo tiny.
81. Go get some ice-cream: The more ridiculous the place, the better.
82. Go to an “Asian Market”: Then you can show them where you get your Gumi from.
83. Teach them about Torrenting: To download Linux builds, of course… sheesh!
84. Go to WalMart: Tell them how evil this corporation is while you’re walking around with an armful of cheap stuff.
85. Visit a mountain: Pretty typical tourist stuff, right there.
86. Teach them about Left4Dead: Because zombie teamwork is great.
87. Introduce them to 30Rock: And tell them they should learn all their English from this television show. Always Sunny in Philadelphia is a decent alternative, though.
88. Visit an Alpaca / Llama farm: They’re so cute, those furry camels!
89. Go bowling with friends: And while you’re at it, teach them about “The Big Lebowski.”
90. Go eat Chinese: Real Chinese, not the Panda Express kind. Dim Sum if possible.
91. Go walk / drive around some really big, expensive houses: If they thought big Japanese houses were big, time to think again.
92. Take them to a big department store (like Target): You can spend hours looking at all the different products.
93. Go stargazing: Does it look different from here? Would anyone notice?
94. Go to an old car show: so they can see what existed before Toyota and Honda took over the entire car market.
95. Make S’Mores: because they make you want to say, “I want S’more!” (too lame?)
96. Get on a boat: and get out on some water.
97. Go to Pizza Hut: Where are the octopus / potato pizzas?
98. Take them to a big Catholic church: Attend mass, too. It’s super interesting and different – probably more so for them than for you, but you never know.
99. Exchange bad words: They give you bad words in Japanese, you give them bad words in English. Straight trade. Everyone loves learning bad words in the language they are learning, right?
100. Come up with your own stuff: and add them to the comments below!

P.S. Great quote from Brandon at Zen Everyday: “You listed Make a Maple Bacon Donut twice. At first I thought it was a mistake, but then realized, that 2 maple bacon donuts could never be a mistake.”

Made me laugh.

Related posts:

1. It’s Christmas in Japan!
2. More Ways to Connect with Tofugu
3. 10 Ways to Hack Google to Become an Awesome Japanese Learning Resource

Have you heard of eduFire SuperPass? Maybe you’ve seen the big banner in the right-side bar. Essentially, SuperPass is a subscription program over at eduFire that lets you take unlimited (SuperPass) classes for a low fee of $29 a month. We’re talking less than $1 a day here, and you can get a lot out of it. I’ve definitely seen a lot of people really improve their Japanese over the last couple of months way faster than if you were meeting with someone once a week, or something along those lines.

BUT, I know a lot of you are poor, and if only you had the chance… just one chance (or eight chances?)… you would eat it up and try your best (and then get pretty good at Japanese!). There are eight blogs out there giving away eduFire SuperPass subscriptions right now. I’ll be giving away some on Tofugu at a later date, so for now, I’ll have to bid you farewell and send you off to eight amazing blogs. Check out their other posts too – all of these blogs are blogs I already read, and you should too!

How to Win eduFire SuperPass

1. RainbowHill’s Language Lab:
Brett is an Aussie who lived in Japan for a long time, and is also a teacher on eduFire! So, if you won his contest (or any other contest) you might end up taking lessons from him! His contest involves Twitter and tweeting. It doesn’t get any easier than that, right? For your chance to win, head on over to his Japanese language blog and figure out the details.

2. Caught Red-Handed:
Don’t get caught red-handed not checking out this site. I always love the extra work that goes into each and every post. Just like the beauty of the website, to win your copy of SuperPass on this blog you have to do something beautiful as well… write poetry. Specifically, a haiku. You can post the haiku on Twitter or the comments of the actual post. You can read more rules by visiting this super-sexy Japan blog.

3. DumbOtaku:
Feeling a little dumb? We’ve all been there once or twice, where we made a huge mistake and people look at us funny. DumbOtaku’s contest is all about mistakes… more specifically, Japanese language mistakes. Got a funny one? Head on over to DumbOtaku and share it with the world (to get your hands on some juicy SuperPass).

4. RockingInHakata:
Deas has been RockingInHakata for a while now, but he hasn’t had a logo to show for it. Fancy yourself a designer? Think you can outdo his plain text header? I think you can. Head on over to RockingInHakata now and help this guy out! For your hard work, you’ll get yourself a month of free Japanese lessons!

5. TheNihonSuki:
I think a lot of you have a favorite Japanese word, right? Like mine is 滅法. TheNihonSuki would like you to use your favorite Japanese word in a sentence. That’s it! For more details check out the contest page.

6. Jamaipanese:
Hey Mon (can I say that?). On this blog, you’re being asked a bit of a riddle, and it’s not too difficult too! I have a feeling if you don’t know the answer already, you can find it somewhere on the Jamaipanese Blog. For more details, check out the contest page… Mon.

7. GakuranMan:
Wow. Not just one prize… More than one prize! If you don’t win tasty SuperPass, you can win some tasty sweets instead! Though, we all know that sweets are a fleeting pleasure, whereas language acquisition is forever (take that to the diamond commercials). All he wants is a tag-line for his site. I’m thinking something along the lines of “Gakuranman – Shouldn’t wear one of these when it’s warm.” Hmm, I think you could do better.

8. Claytonian:
This guy had a bat in his possession. Not like a wooden or aluminum bat, but like a Batman bat. That’s pretty cool. Also pretty cool that he’s giving away a SuperPass subscription. All you need to do is want it. That’s it. So do you? Punk?

More contests are coming, so check back on this page occasionally, or follow me on Twitter. Even if you don’t want SuperPass, definitely just check out these blogs. Every single one of them are great, and I read / follow them too.

FAQ about SuperPass

• What can you learn?
  It’s not just for learning Japanese, though it is the most popular subject (which means more classes). There are all sorts of other classes as well, including social marketing, cooking, other languages, business, and more, all of which you can take with a SuperPass subscription. You aren’t limited to Japanese, though I assume most of you are interested in Japanese.
• How much does it cost?
  It’s normally $29 a month (if you don’t win one of these prizes), though the first week is only $1. Not too shabby a price to try it out, right? And it’s super-easy to cancel, of course.
• Does it work?
  I suppose that depends on you. If you take advantage of it and take a lot of classes (it’s unlimited, yo!) then it works really well. I’ve seen a lot of people grow a ton in their Japanese ability over a pretty short period of time. It’s really all about how much you’re willing to put into it. Of course, if you subscribe and never go to any classes, you won’t improve at all. Duh.
• When will Tofugu give away a subscription or two?
  Later, later, later. Well, not too much later. Keep watching.

Any other questions? Ask them in the comments. If you don’t have any other questions, hurry up and check out those other blogs.

Also, you should follow me on Twitter.

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Getting to Japan is expensive. Living in Japan is expensive. Why not let someone else take care of the monetary part of going to Japan so you can go there for free? There are a lot of people (and governments) just handing out money (I feel like the guy that wears the question-mark suit on those commercials) to help you go to Japan and other places as well. Whether you’re looking to grab some scholarships to go to Japan, college, or some other country, these tips could be applicable to you (but even more applicable to those going to Japan).

Scholarships to Japan

First off, I’m not going to tell you where to find these scholarships. That changes all the time and I can’t track that. What doesn’t change (as fast, anyways) is how to get scholarships to Japan. You’re a Google search away from finding the scholarships on your own, but there’s a reason why most people don’t actually get them when they apply.

What you need to do to get a Japanese Scholarship

To be honest, you don’t need to do that much. When I was in high school, I applied for and won a full scholarship to study in Japan for a year (they even paid for things like travel, train, my bike, and more!). It was through the Japanese Foreign Ministry, and when myself and the other 24 recipients got together before heading out I was surprised at the complete lack of quality, not that I wasn’t a little punk myself. I’m not necessarily saying that you can be terrible and still get one, but it’s definitely not like getting a full ride to Harvard either. Besides that, I’d recommend a couple of other simple things you can do for yourself:

1. Learn some Japanese: It looks good if you’ve studied a little bit of Japanese. Kind of makes people feel like you’re in it to learn something new, and not just to hook up with snow monkeys and vending machines. If you don’t have a local program, then you should consider checking out eduFire. Recommended study years 1-2 years, and I would say that self study doesn’t look quite as good, even if it can be just as effective if not more-so when done right.
2. Don’t learn too much Japanese: While it’s good to have learned some Japanese, it also looks bad if you’re too good at it.  They want you to learn something new, and would probably rather send someone who isn’t so proficient. If you’ve learned a ton already, or have spoken it at home since you were a wee lad, it might be good to skirt the truth a bit and develop that gaijin accent, in case anyone asks.
3. Learn some Japanese history: It’s best not to be ignorant about history. It shows you care about the country more than what it has to offer right now. Don’t only learn the good, learn the nasty bad stuff too. It’ll give you much better insight, and judges will appreciate this (and it will show in your answers!).
4. Write your goals down: I mean it, take out a piece of paper and write it. Then, figure out 10 people that can help you get closer to that goal and contact them about it. Every day, figure out who you can talk to and what you can do to achieve it. There was a study done recently. One group of people at the same college wrote their goals down, one group came up with goals (and didn’t write them down), and the last group came up with no goals. The group that didn’t write their goals down were twice as successful (in terms of salary), and those that did write their goals down made eleven times more. The people who didn’t think about goals at all are asking for your money when you walk by them on the street. WRITE THEM.

Some things to say on your Japanese scholarship essay

Most programs will make you write an essay, or at the very least answer a bunch of questions. Although I’ve never been on the other side of the table, here is my opinion on the things they are and aren’t looking for: DO:

1. Intercultural sharing: You want to say that you are excited to share your culture with people in Japan, and you are excited to learn about Japanese culture as well. It’s all about sharing cultures and making the world more international. World peace, yo!
2. Share a personal story: How has Japan affected you personally? Do you have a relative? Is there a particular historic event that makes you interested in Japan, because a grandpa fought in the war? Are you an anthropologist and are you interested in the Ainu? Is there a native Japanese plant species that you and your biology major must go study and learn more about? Little things like this that make you stand out really help. I think mine was that I was doing kendo and wanted to take part in the after-school club culture and learn about that culture + kendo, blah blah blah BS BS BS.
3. Be Excited: (but not toooo excited). They wouldn’t want to give a scholarship to someone who wouldn’t really appreciate it and make the most of it. One way to show this is by being excited – be careful not to go exclamation mark crazy though!!!
4. Include a video: I might be going out on a limb here, but I think videos really make you stand out. They show your personality, they give the judges a face to look at and relate to, and they give you a chance to shine (or fail horribly). It’s really easy to include videos on DVDs and such.
5. Keep a blog: Tell the judges that not only are you excited to share your culture in Japan, but you are also excited to share your experiences on your blog with the rest of the world. Probably would work better if you had a blog before you apply (I bet they’d notice you more if you have a blog with more readers). It’s also a good way for the judges to learn more about you, if they wish.
6. Have your mommy read it over: I know I felt really dumb when my mom revised my essays for school and such, but I also really appreciated it. Having other people revise your stuff (and staying humble about it) will really improve the quality of your application. Do it, and do it a lot.
7. Read your application out loud: When you think you are done, read your application out loud to yourself and see if it still sounds good. If it sounds good when you read it out loud, then you’re pretty close.

DON’T:

1. No Weaboos: Weaboos, essentially, are people who love Japan and have no idea why (the reason is anime, probably). These people don’t get scholarships because the judges aren’t weaboos, nor do they appreciate them (I’m sure they see Weaboo applications a lot, and can totally tell). They are scholarly anthropologist folk who really like the idea of sharing culture and language. They don’t like the idea of sending someone to Japan who has no idea why they love Japan and their Domo-kun t-shirt so much.
2. No anime, Manga: Probably a good idea not to mention these two things in your application. There might be a few ways to get away with it, but unless you’re already a near-professional manga-ka, it’s probably best to steer clear.

Just to break all this text up, here’s a video for you:

Things to do for your Japanese scholarship interview

Not everyone requires an interview. Some do, some don’t. Here are a few things you can do to prepare and do well.

1. Practice: Try to think of all the questions someone might ask you. Learn to tell your personal stories (that make you stand out) really well. There’s a reason why you enjoy listening to interesting people, and hate listening to boring ones. Make your story interesting and learn how to tell it in a way that’s precise, fascinating, and memorable.
2. Wear something nice: This seems like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised at how many people forget this or think they’re too cool to wear something nice. It makes a big difference. I like hiring people that wear nice clothes to their interviews.
3. Get better at speaking: Something I do to get better at talking with new people (I want to learn to be outgoing!) is talk to someone I don’t know every day and start up a conversation. Today I talked to someone at a coffee shop about their laptop, yesterday I talked to the transvestite in the elevator about shopping, etc. It’s been a couple months since I started, and now I definitely feel much more comfortable talking to people I don’t know. People who are great at talking aren’t naturally great, they practiced and got better.
4. Network. Network. Network. I don’t mean with the people interviewing you, I mean with other influential people that can help you get that spot. You have to find the right people in the right space. Some people just know everybody, and will be able to find a connection through someone else to your judges, so that they can recommend you personally (and get others to do the same). It’s no secret that over 50% of jobs are thanks to friends or acquaintances. The same goes for scholarships, it’s all about networking. Recommended reading: Never Eat Alone. Network network network.

What would you add?

Of course there’s a lot that I’m missing, and I’m sure there will be those that disagree with some of these points. Tell me your thoughts! Help others that might be looking for a scholarship to go to Japan. Unfortunately, I’m too old to get a scholarship anymore, but maybe you’re not, and you probably have different experiences. Even general scholarship tips can be useful here – share away!

No related posts.

My boss is heading to Japan for a few days next week (lucky!), so I’m helping him with some really last minute language study before he heads out. The goal isn’t to teach him any grammar, vocabulary, or anything like that, the goal is to make sure he’s able to get by as simply as possible. That’s why I made him a one-page cheatsheet, and then sharing it with all of you.

You can download it by clicking on the image of it up above, but let me offer some explanation on the pdf as well.

• This document was created for people with little to no Japanese language ability or experience. So, if you know a lot of Japanese then you should probably take a look at some other cheat sheet. It’s good if you’re traveling to Japan, don’t know any Japanese, and want to have the bare minimum to get by.
• I’ve included the “Japanese” version of most everything on there. This isn’t for the user of the sheet, it’s more for people who just can’t pronounce anything so that way they can just point to different things and native Japanese speakers will be able to read it.
• The “fill in the blank” section will probably require a dictionary (I’d recommend getting one on your phone if you can). I’ve included possible vocab words that you can put in the blanks right on the cheat sheet, but that won’t cover every possible situation. With a dictionary you’ll have a lot more flexibility.
• The Japanese language pronunciation guide might be a little confusing, but I couldn’t think of a better way to describe it. Most Japanese “letters” consist of both a consonant and a vowel (or just a vowel), and the sound of the vowel is pretty much always the same no matter what consonant is attached to it. Just do your best and point to things on the sheet all confused-kine if you have to. If you want to go more in depth on the pronunciation try learning some hiragana.
• Of course, I’d recommend you actually go learn some Japanese rather than relying on this cheatsheet if you are planning on going to Japan. It’ll make your life a lot easier, and a one-pager won’t get you very far. It’s one page, and covers only the bare minimum!

Hope you enjoy it and find it useful. Feel free to share it around, give it to a friend, etc etc. Once again, here’s the download link!

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1. Japanese Particles [Cheatsheet]
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