Secret #4 for Speaking Fluent Japanese - Statistics

How to Master Numbers over 10,000

The fourth post of the series -13 Secret Techniques to Put You on the Fast Track to Fluency in Japanese.

In my last post in this series I showed you how you could master the numbers from one to ten by associating them with easy to remember catch phrases found in phone numbers. The joy of numeracy doesn't end at 10 however, in fact real mastery of Japanese numbers starts at 10,000. Unlike English, where large numbers are counted in units of one thousand until one million, in Japanese large numbers are counted in units of 10,000 until 100 million. Giles Murray in his book 13 Secrets to Speaking Fluent Japanese outlines a technique to divide large numbers into 10 bands and choose a representative statistic as a reference you can call on at any time.


MARKETS-JAPAN-STOCKS/ by artemuestra, on Flickr | CC BY-SA 2.0

It's a good idea, but there are two problems I have with the way they are presented in 13 Secrets. Giles doesn't emphasise the natural way kanji can assist in breaking down large numbers in to readable chunks. The statistics are also well out of date and seem to centre around dry economic figures that I just can't relate to, but more about that later. Let's approach the first problem with just a little kanji under our belts.

Kanji from 1 to 10.

This is a really good extension from last week's telephone numbers game, because again it emphasises the natural way Japanese learn numbers. Sound out the following kanji from one to ten.

The four zeroes.

Sounds like a really good name for a Japanese punk band right? It could be, but it relates to the way numbers jump into the next range of magnitudes. Remember how I said Japanese count to 10,000 and start a new set of numbers to count by? The western world counts three zeroes, you can see it in how the comma is placed in the examples below. Look at the right hand column though.

The first four darker rows include numbers in the range of 4 zeroes to 7 zeroes and is signified by 万 （まん|man）. The orders of magnitude in this band are denoted by 一、十、百、千　(1,10,100,1000). The next four grey rows are signified by 億 （おく｜oku） with 8 zeroes and the count starts again from 一 to 千 with a new zero each time. The last 2 rows are signified by 兆 （ちょう） with 12 zeroes. By the time you get here the numbers are so large that it doesn't go much sense to go any further than 十兆　（じゅっちょう｜jucchou） with a whopping 14 zeroes.

Roman Numerals	Kanji
10,000	一万　（いちまん|ichiman）
100,000	十万　（じゅうまん｜jyuuman）
1,000,000	百万　(ひゃくまん｜hyakuman）
10,000,000	一千万　(いっせんまん｜issennmann）
100,000,000	一億　（いちおく｜ichioku）
1,000,000,000	十億　（じゅうおく｜jyuuoku）
10,000,000,000	百億　（ひゃくおく｜hyakuoku）
100,000,000,000	一千億　（いっせんおく｜issenoku）
1,000,000,000,000	一兆　（いっちょう　｜icchou）
10,000,000,000,000	十兆　（じゅっちょう｜jucchou）

So all you really need to know are the numbers from 一 to 十、百、千、万、億、and 兆 and to start counting again after four zeroes.

The problem of relevance.

If something is going to be memorable, it has to be interesting. I'm no good at pulling big numbers out of thin air so I spent a bit of time on Wolfram|Alpha the worlds first computational knowledge engine. I wanted to know more about Japan, the Japanese language and culture.

The first thing I did was find out about the Japanese language, because there are bound to be some interesting statistics about the number of speakers in certain places around the world. It's probably something I should really know about too.

Native speakers per country:

Source: Wolfram|Alpha | Japanese language

These numbers cover 3 orders of magnitude, two that use 万 and one that uses 億. I can start to fill in my table with these statistics, and create example sentences.

Roman Numerals	Kanji	English statement	Japanese translation
10,000	一万　（いちまん|ichiman）	In Australia there are 12,000 people that speak Japanese.	オーストラリアには日本語を話せる人が一万二千人います。
100,000	十万　（じゅうまん｜jyuuman）	In the United States there are 805,000 people that speak Japanese.	アメリカには日本語を話せる人が八十万五千人います。
1,000,000	百万　(ひゃくまん｜hyakuman）
10,000,000	一千万　(いっせんまん｜issennmann）
100,000,000	（いちおく｜ichioku）	In Japan there are 126,000,000 people that speak Japanese.	日本には日本語を話せる人が一億二千六百万人います。
1,000,000,000	十億　（じゅうおく｜jyuuoku）
10,000,000,000	百億　（ひゃくおく｜hyakuoku）
100,000,000,000	一千億　（いっせんおく｜issenoku）
1,000,000,000,000	一兆　（いっちょう　｜icchou）
10,000,000,000,000	十兆　（じゅっちょう｜jucchou）

I'm missing two numbers for the last two orders of magnitude in the first range. Perhaps I can continue in the same way with population figures.

Tokyo, Japan Populations:

Source: Wolfram|Alpha | Tokyo, Japan

Let's imagine for a moment that I'd like to live in Tokyo. I could determine how many people live in both the city of Tokyo and the greater metropolitan area. So now I have all orders of magnitude that use 万 covered and some example sentences I can relate to. This is where things start to get difficult.

Looking at statistics that use 億 I start to run out of figures that I can easily relate to, the last one that makes any sense to me is the population of China. The number of of people in Japan is dwarfed by its neighbour by an order of magnitude, there are by latest estimates 1.31 billion people living in China.

Roman Numerals	Kanji	English statement	Japanese translation
10,000	一万　（いちまん|ichiman）	In Australia there are 12,000 people that speak Japanese.	オーストラリアには日本語を話せる人が一万二千人います。
100,000	十万　（じゅうまん｜jyuuman）	In the United States there are 805,000 people that speak Japanese.	アメリカには日本語を話せる人が八十万五千人います。
1,000,000	百万　(ひゃくまん｜hyakuman）	8,337,000 People live in the city of Tokyo.
10,000,000	一千万　(いっせんまん｜issennmann）	37,200,000 People live in the greater metropolitan area of Tokyo.
100,000,000	一億　（いちおく｜ichioku）	In Japan there are 126,000,000 people that speak Japanese.	日本には日本語を話せる人が一億二千六百万人います。
1,000,000,000	十億　（じゅうおく｜jyuuoku）	China has a population of 1,310,000,000 people.
10,000,000,000	百億　（ひゃくおく｜hyakuoku）
100,000,000,000	一千億　（いっせんおく｜issenoku）
1,000,000,000,000	一兆　（いっちょう　｜icchou）
10,000,000,000,000	十兆　（じゅっちょう｜jucchou）

Astronomical figures.

To go beyond these figures you have to get astronomical, or perhaps economical. Much larger numbers come from the worlds of economics, mathematics and science, the problem now becomes "how I can I find a number that I can easily relate to?" I could tell you the number of years it takes light from the earth to reach the edge of the galaxy, or the value in dollars wiped off global stock markets in 3 months following the Lehmann Brothers collapse, but would you find that interesting?

So here is my challenge to you, find a large number, that fills one of the open spaces on the table above and make it really interesting. You may want to use Wolfram|Alpha (computational knowledge engine) as a source of these large numbers. For the four best answers I have another four google wave invites to give away.

Other posts in this book review series

• Book Review: 13 Secrets for Speaking Fluent Japanese - Introduction
• Secret #1 for Speaking Fluent Japanese - Abbreviations
• Secret #2 for Speaking Fluent Japanese - Explanatory Phrases
• Secret #3 for Speaking Fluent Japanese - Readable Phone Numbers
• Secret #4 for Speaking Fluent Japanese - Statistics
• Secret #5 for Speaking Fluent Japanese - Hypothesis
• Secret #6 for Speaking Fluent Japanese - Synonym Generator
  

[Fast Track to Fluency in Japanese is a Live Video Lesson on eduFire]

How to Use a Japanese Monolingual Dictionary to Discover Meaning

Use a Monolingual Dictionary to Unlock your Hidden Potential in Japanese

In the previous post I showed you some good reasons to lose your bilingual dictionary and go native with a Japanese monolingual dictionary. In this post I'd like to show you how to throw away the crutch of English definitions for Japanese words with a practical guide to using a monolingual dictionary.

へ・へ・キ・キ・ム・ー・血・二 by gullevek, on Flickr | CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

I've been through this process hundreds of times in practice, there may be other words for it, and it's probably a technique given enough experience in learning Japanese that most people would be able to discover for themselves. It's nothing new, it's something everyone can do, so you needn't be daunted by the prospect of opening a monolingual dictionary and not knowing anything. Remember, this is a learning process, so forget about what you don't know.

Choosing the right monolingual dictionary.

I covered some of the choices you might need to make in the eduFire article, How to Choose the Best Japanese Dictionary, and I think it's worthwhile looking at them again. Everyone has their favourite type of dictionary, but I'm going to recommend you get a software dictionary.

I'm only going to mention two and only because they are what I use　every day. Kanji Sono Mama Rakubiki Jiten for Nintendo DS would have to be one of my favourite Japanese dictionaries and goo jisho which is one of the fastest and most complete online dictionaries for Japanese. Both of them are written in Japanese for Japanese.

Here are some reasons you should get a software dictionary:

1. You can find things faster. Typing words and using copy and paste is much faster and more accurate than turning pages in a book. If you want greater exposure to vocabulary then you can do this faster with software. You might think you'd miss out on the serendipity of coming across words that you didn't expect, but the same thing happens with these techniques and in a more useful way.
   
   
2. You can save entries. Most software dictionaries have a save to flash card function where you can collect entries for later revision. Even your browser has a history, and if you are using the dictionary in conjunction with a spaced repetition service, then this makes a lot of sense. You would very quickly run out of bookmarks if you were to use a hard copy dictionary with the following technique.
   
   
3. You can listen to recordings. I'm yet to find a dedicated monolingual Japanese dictionary with sound recordings, if you know of one please link it up in the comments. However, If you are using something like smart.fm in the way you should, each time you find a word you're able to add it as an item to a list often with a sound and sometimes with an example sentence.
   
   
4. You benefit from Hypertext. I imagine you're aware of this already, but the importance of the ability to jump from a section of blue underlined text to a another text entry with more information can not be understated. You're going to rely on this, and your minds propensity to wander to discover more knowledge.
   
   
5. Software is more mobile. The ultimate mobility is the "everywhere" of the internet. I can leave my suburban sanctuary for the big city and log in to a completely different machine and still pick up my repetitions where I left off. On the bus I can flip through flash cards on my phone or my Nintendo DS and then put it away in my pocket. There is no way I'd bother lugging a weighty tome like a dictionary on the daily commute. I want to be able to master Japanese anywhere any time.
   

A technique of discovery.

The technique I'm about to discuss involves using the JP-JP dictionary in a way you probably wouldn't have thought of before by breaking down each definition into chunks that you can explore further. Let's use goo kokugo jisho, although you could use whatever JP-JP dictionary you like with much the same result.

The example I'll use is learnt in grade three of elementary school in Japan, and is tested in the JLPT 2kyu. It is ranked number 245 of the 2500 most used kanji in newspapers (source: jisho.org). It also appears commonly in place names and, once you know what it represents, it is easy to visualise. I'm not going to give away the answer yet, and if you know it bear with me as I outline the technique for those that don't.

しま【島】

Under the entry for shima しま 【島】 you will find the definition

四方を水で囲まれた比較的狭い陸地

1. Concentrate only on what you know. If you have rikai chan enabled avoid the temptation to hover. You may only know hiragana, in which case you will know where the words begin and end. You may know one or two kanji, and possibly only the meaning, but not the pronunciation. That's OK, you're looking for an opening in the wall of kanji.
   
   
2. Allow your mind to wander and create new associations in Japanese. You may recognise the first kanji as a number, 一二三。。。 Count to ten if you need to, cut and paste the kanji 四/方/四方 back into the search field and scan the the definitions for other kanji you might know. At the very least you will now have some alternate readings.
   
   
3. Look for similarity and synonym. Come back to the original definition and look again for kanji you already know. Can any others work in the same postions? Can you use the ones you know in different ways? What kind of 水 is it? Which 方 do you think is meant ほう or かた?
   
   
4. Build a mental image. You may be starting to see the bigger picture now, some kanji even has pictographic elements to it. Can you see a well surrounded by a larger enclosure? What kind of word is it? Can you put yourself in the picture?
   
   
5. Infer meaning from context for unknown words. Some parts of the Japanese language were developed to help send the reader on their way with a greater understanding of the structure of each sentence and a sense the intended meaning of each word. Use the hiragana you know to determine what each part of the sentence each kanji is. Is it a verb? An adjective perhaps? What can you leave out without affecting the meaning too much.
   
   
6. Forget what you don't know. It's not worth worrying too much over what you can't work out right away. Studying incrementally you'll have learnt that 四 and 水 are grade 1 kanji, 方 and 地 are grade 2. So reading only kanji that you should know before attempting the grade 3 kanji 島 you may have been able to find a solution.
   

The answer is of course an island, a relatively small land surrounded in every direction by water. A Japanese sentence parser like jdictionary may be helpful in checking your answer.

Definitions (via jdictionary)
四方	しほう	every direction
水	みず	water (cold, fresh)
囲む	かこま	to surround; to encircle
比較的	ひかくてき	comparative; relative
狭い	せまい	narrow; confined; small
陸地	りくち	land

Active learning.

There was really nothing new in this post, active learners do these things all the time. What I'm hoping is that you take these steps consciously. Challenge yourself to uncover meaning in the language around you, without resorting to a prepackaged concept you have words for in the language you already know.

I didn't cover any new grammar, and I didn't introduce a lot of new vocabulary. That would have had you scrambling for a textbook or a translation. It's not important to remember things like a word list, your spaced repetition software can do that for you. The secret lies in using what you know to discover new knowledge.

A challenge for you.

Find kanji that you are studying at the moment, but have trouble remembering the readings of or the meaning for. Make sure it is at the right level for what you'd like to achieve in Japanese, either from your last tested level or the one you are aiming for. Use the technique described above to discover a definition in Japanese for it. Outline the steps you took below in the comments.

Learn Japanese with Brett on eduFire

There is nothing stopping you from picking up a second language right now. Millions of people all around the world are using the Internet to enhance their language skills. Live video learning is just one way of doing it.

I've recently created a profile on eduFire and I've started taking on students in English and Japanese. Ultimately I want to share with you some of the methods I have for learning a second language, because I believe any one can do it, and the Internet makes so many things possible.

Here is my introductory video for edufire, which I posted on YouTube just a couple of weeks ago. I'll be making many more basic Japanese lessons over the next couple of months and I hope that you'll tune in and just take a look. Even if you never subscribe or take a live online lesson with me I hope that you will feel my enthusiasm for languages and learning.