Secret #6 for Speaking Fluent Japanese - Synonym Generator

How to be five times as fluent in Japanese.
The sixth post of the series -13 Secret Techniques to Put You on the Fast Track to Fluency in Japanese.

Giles Murray's idea of increasing your powers of expression by memorising vocabulary and conceiving ideas in clusters of five is an idea that just keeps on giving. This alone is good reason to read 13 Secrets to Speaking Fluent Japanese. I first encountered a similar strategy when working in eikaiwa, as a way to expand vocabulary by using a dictionary and thesaurus to go beyond the word you had just learned and memorise a family of associated words and expressions.

Through a process of association, the original word is supported by synonym, litotes, exaggeration, comparison and fantastic statement. Learning to sort memory in these groups allows you to adjust your delivery to become more expressive, and increases your descriptive power even when you are running short on vocabulary.


The men and the ghost ? by ReallyJapan.com, on Flickr| CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

This strategy can be used on any type of word, but in this chapter of 13 Secrets it adapted for the description of an array of wild characters, the kind you would expect to meet in a b-grade schlock horror.

Rather than go down the familiar path of poking fun at people you'd probably get more use out the technique when you apply it to descriptive words you use everyday. All too often you can get stuck in the rut of using the same vernacular to describe completely unrelated events. I want to show you that with a little lateral thinking you can start expand your vocabulary.

Synonym

Take a simple expression like かんたんだ (kantanda | easy) and you already have a synonym.

シンプレな
shinpure
simple

You could go a little further with:

楽だ
らくだ
rakuda
easy

Litotes

Or, change direction with some thing not that difficult:

そんなに難しくない
そんなにむずかしくない
sonna ni muzukashikunai
not that difficult

Exaggeration

If you're in the mood to exaggerate then you might add a something to make things seem easier than they were:

目茶
めちゃ
mecha
excessively

or

すごく
sugoku
terribly

Comparison

Or you could compare it to some thing ridiculously easy, like pie.

パイみたいに
pai mitai ni
like pie

Fantastic statement

If you are willing to take things to extremes then I'm sure you could do the next one with your eyes closed

目閉じてもできる
めとじてもできる
me tojitemo dekiru
you can do it even with your eyes closed

Putting it all into practice.

None of this is any good unless you prepare a little bit every day to stretch your boundaries. Spend a little time tonight going over a descriptive word you use often enough to the point of being over repetitive and try saying it a different way.

Remember it's not about having an English glossary running in parallel with your Japanese. With enough practice you should be freely making these word associations, leaping from synonym to litotes and exaggeration without ever crossing the line back to your English mind.

If you need a place to start with some descriptive words, try this list of 66 Colourful Japanese Adjectives on smart.fm. Let me know what fantastic statements you come up with in the comments.

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]

Secret #5 for Speaking Fluent Japanese - Hypothesis

How to go beyond the merely factual

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

One of things Giles Murray is able to achieve with his book, 13 Secrets to Speaking Fluent Japanese, is a blending of authentic Japanese texts with the idea that fluency comes by stripping back your inhibitions and crafting new mental filters.

This chapter includes the production If - The Adventures of a Gaijin in Tokyo, an original 16-page manga by Tadashi Nomura of Tezuka Productions which aims to give you mastery of the subjunctive "painlessly". The manga as been been produced as animation and posted for your viewing pleasure on YouTube. Sit back and enjoy the story before we look more closely at the grammar.



What if there were more detail?

There isn't much grammatical detail given to the hypothetical structures condensed in to the brief yet entertaining manga of a romance that could have been. Reading the story of a young man's misadventure in Tokyo is hardly going to give you fine control of the hypothetical, but it is a concise way to explore a variety of important conversational devices like speculation and regret.

The claim that you'll "develop a mastery of all hypothetical forms by intensive exposure to them in the form of a custom written manga" needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Giles even concedes this in the introduction to the chapter when he suggests that for a fuller explanation of grammatical forms you read Yoko M. McClain's Handbook of Modern Japanese Grammar.

I haven't read McClain's handbook but I do have A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Sentence Patterns by Naoko Chino. Using Chino's classification system for each of the 30 sentences, I am able to break them down into 2 basic patterns with a few variations. Let's take a closer look at the 2 basic patterns and their variations with examples from Nomura's manga. The first Basic Pattern 47 is a verb pattern, identify the verb in each example and see how it changes.

Basic Pattern 47 - The Subjunctive with V-tara

The first example is where the verb ending changes with 'tara'. As is often the case with Japanese sentences this one left open ended.

彼がレストランに行かなかったら。。。
kare ga resutoran ni ikanakattara...
And if he hadn't gone to that restaurant, then...

Variation 1 on Basic Pattern 47 - The Subjunctive with 'V-ba'.

The second example use the verb ending 'ba' to express speculation as to what might have happened, this time closing with the second clause.

あの男に出会わなければ、レストランに行かなかったでしょう。。。
ano otoko ni deawanakereba, resutoran ni ikanakatta deshou...
If he hadn't met that man, he wouldn't have gone to that restaurant...

Variation 2 on Basic Pattern 47 - The subjunctive with 'to'.

This next example expresses one thing happening as a direct consequence of something else It can not be used in conjunction with a command and is used in a similar way to 'when', or in this case 'if'.

日本に留学をしないと、本当の日本語を覚えられません。
nihon ni ryuugaku wo shinai to, hontou no nihongo wo oboeraremasen.
If you don't go to Japan, you'll never learn real Japanese.

Basic Pattern 15 - Subjunctive adjective sentence with 'tara'/'dattara'.

The second Basic Pattern 15 is an adjective sentence, again identify the adjective in each example and see how it changes.

暇だったら、一緒に公園を散歩しませんか？
hima dattara, issho ni kouen wo sanpo shimasen ka?
If you're free, will you go for a walk in the park with?

Variation 2 on Basic Pattern 15 -Subjunctive adjective sentence with 'kereba'.

This time the adjective conjugates to form an ending much like the verb in the second example above. How do you know it's an adjective?

アパートが狭くなければいいのに。
apa-to ga semakunakereba ii no ni.
If only the apartment wasn't so small.

Variation 3 on Basic Pattern 15 - Subjunctive adjective sentence with 'nara'.

The clause ending 'nara' may be used following a noun, adjective or verb and is often used in much the same was as 'only if'. In this case the condition is already believed to be true so the guy stepping out of the car reasonably expects that his desire for English conversation will be fulfilled.

彼がアメリカ人なら、英語力を磨くことが出来る。
kare ga amerika jin nara, eigoryoku wo migaku koto ga dekiru.
If he is an American, I can brush up my English skills.

Getting your head around the grammar.

Wow, that was quite a bit of grammar. Don't be overwhelmed though, it's all about recognising the recurring patterns. The next step to understanding how these patterns work when expressing regret, disappointment or the hypothetical is in identifying them as they appear in the text or video.

Review the video again, listen carefully and count each time you can her the patterns described above. Stop and rewind, play it again if you need to, this is an intensive listening exercise. In the comments below you're invited to share what you find, and create your own example sentences. In class this morning we speculated what would happen if he hadn't eaten that fugu...

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]

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]

Secret #3 for Speaking Fluent Japanese - Readable Phone Numbers

How to Master Numbers from 1 to 10

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

One of the things I first learnt in Japan, is that as soon as you can read the kana, everything becomes something worth reading. It's the same with phone numbers. Numbers needn't be something you gloss over in your study of Japanese. Sure there might be hundreds of different counters, and many different ways to use ten digits, but that shouldn't stop you from learning how to read them. Once you've learnt a few different readings for each digit, deciphering phone numbers becomes a game.


No 携帯 by kirainet, on Flickr

When I first encountered this technique in 13 Secrets to Speaking Fluent Japanese I didn't realise how prevalent it really was. But once I started paying attention to it, I found it everywhere. You're probably familiar with the practice in your part of the world of advertisers using numbers on the keypad of your cell phone as a handy mnemonic device. (The key '1' can map to either A B or C), as in the following example.

One of the most recognisable and memorable numbers in my home town is 13ecab or 132222. However this mnemonic relies on a touch-pad mapping rather than a true phonetic match.

Alternative Readings for Japanese Numbers

Just like kanji, there are two or more readings for Japanese numerals, kun-yomi and on-yomi. These readings described in the table below allow numbers to be mapped phonetically to spell out pithy phrases aiding memory. The most common use is in advertising.

. Cardinal Japanese Chinese Phone Number Readings . 0 ゼロ レイ zero|maru|o|wa . 1 ひとつ イチ i|hi|hito . 2 ふたつ ニ ni|fu|ji|tsu . 3 みっつ サン san|sa|mi . 4 よっつ シ shi|yon|yo . 5 いつつ ゴ go|i|itsu . 6 むっつ ロク roku|mu . 7 ななつ シチ na . 8 やっつ ハチ ha|pa|ya . 9 ここのつ キュウ、クウ kuu|kyuu|ko . 10 とう ジュウ tou

An Exercise in Code-breaking

Part of what I really enjoy about 13 Secrets to Speaking Fluent Japanese is that it peels back the layers of culture in a way that unlocks hidden visual resources you can then tap in to to accelerate your learning. Now you know what the readings are, use the code to unlock the hidden meaning in these examples.

Example 1 - An Eikaiwa Corpse

The following is from a company I would rather forget, but their number is etched in my memory. The phrase みによくつく can be translated in much the same way, 'stuck well to my body'.




Example 2 - An Eikaiwa Contender

Their competitor in the English Conversation world borrowed from the bastardised English ゴートークトゥミー, 'Go talk to me'.


Example 3 - From the Financial Papers

If you often read the Nikkei (Japanese Financial Newspaper) then you would know what these numbers stand for.



Now it's your turn

For the last two examples I have left the kana hints out, use only the numbers after the dash and little bit of creative license.

Phone code quiz 1 - Get your teeth into it!


Phone code quiz 2 - This is it!

How did you go?

I'd like to see your answers in the comments section below. For the best answers I have two Google Wave invites!

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]

Secret #2 for Speaking Fluent Japanese - Explanatory Phrases

How to Communicate Despite Not Knowing the Right Word

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

If there is one tip to take away from the book 13 Secrets to Speaking Fluent Japanese, it is knowing how to use a substitute phrase for the word you want but don't know. The one thing I come back to time and time again with my students is that an exhaustive vocabulary doesn't necessarily make a good communicator, the ability to talk around sticking points and repair conversation does.


Lost in Translation Too ? Shibuya Crossing Tokyo by hitthatswitch, on Flickr

The technical term is circumlocution, but all you need to know is that you can't always have the words you need at every given stage of learning. I've seen students with highly specialised vocabulary in their field of interest, start reaching for their dictionaries as soon as they are taken out of their comfort zone into novel topics. The trick is to sacrifice a little eloquence for a rough and ready description.

The technique is simple, describe something completely, without hesitation, with words you already know. Say for example you don't know the word for 'ambulance' in Japanese, but you do know that it is a car that takes people to hospital. Choose a descriptive phrase like 'びょういん　まで　ひと　を　はこぶ　くるま (byouin made hito wo hakobu kuruma | a car that transports people to hospital) and leverage words you already know to describe something new.

There is a certain redundancy to this technique, which allows the listener to guess at a word even when mistakes are made. If you mistakenly utter 'hold' (もっつ) instead of 'transport' (はこぶ) it doesn't make much difference in conveying meaning because of the other words in support. This technique works best with a forgiving listener, but even in the most difficult situations with strangers it can get you out of a bind.

The best way to practice is with a partner in a game like Jeopardy. If I describe either a thing (もの), an action (こと), a state (じょうたい), a place (ところ), a person (ひと) or other noun (くるま、どうぐ、どうぶつ、ほん、しょるい). My partner attempts to guess what I mean by phrasing their answer as a question. My description doesn't need to be perfect, it just needs to contain enough clues for them to guess what I am thinking of.

Let's try it together! Read the explanatory phrase and then select the text in the square brackets [like this] to discover the word I'm trying to describe.

Things | もの

とり　は　たまご　を　おく　ため　に　
つくる　もの

Q: tori ha tamago wo oku tame ni tsukuru mono
Q: Something a bird makes to place eggs upon.

「とり　の　す」　は　なん　でしょう？

A: [tori no su] ha nan deshou?
A: What is a 'bird's nest'?

Photo: Wunderkammen!! by peppergrasss, on Flickr

Actions | こと

おちゃ　を　のむ　ため　に　
みず　を　あたためる　こと

Q: ocha wo nomu tame ni mizu wo atatameru koto.
Q: The act of heating water to drink tea.

「わく」　って　なん　でしょう？

A: [waku] tte nan deshou?
A: What is 'boiling'?

Photo: Japanese Tea Garden by heather, on Flickr

States | じょうたい

め　から　なみだ　が　でて　
とまらない　じょうたい

Q: me kara namida ga dete tomaranai joutai
Q: The state when tears don't stop flowing from someones eyes.

「かなしい」　は　なん　でしょう？

A: kanashii ha nan deshou?
A: What is "sadness"?

Photo: [Shibuya] Sad Rain by scion_cho, on Flickr

Places | ところ・ばしょ

りょうり　を　する　ところ

Q: ryouri wo suru tokoro
Q: A place where you cook

「だいどころ」　は　どこ　でしょう？

A: [daidokoro] ha doko deshou?
A: Where is the 'kitchen'?

Photo: Untitled by Andrew McLucas [tokyogoat], on Flickr

Others | なんでも

びょういん　まで　ひと　を　
はこぶ　くるま

Q: byouin made hito wo hakobu kuruma
Q: A car that takes people to hospital

「きゅうきゅうしゃ」　は　なん　でしょう？

A: [kyuukyuusha] ha nan deshou?
A: What is an 'ambluance'?

Photo: 1950s ambulance used on a film location; Tsu, Japan by jsteph, on Flickr

Conclusion

The exercises in this second chapter of 13 Secrets to Speaking Fluent Japanese are arranged according to word types introduced above. They each include illustrations, a word in English, and a substitute phrase in English, Japanese and romaji. The answers to the explanatory phrases are included in the English - Japanese glossary at the back of the book. There is no suggestion of using this technique with a partner as I have demonstrated above.

In his introduction Giles Murray makes clear that his book is aimed squarely at independent and motivated self-studiers, but perhaps he doesn't go far enough to encourage working with others to improve language acquisition. Personally, I can't learn a language in a vacuum and I've always need others around me to bounce ideas off. After all, learning a language is all about communication and if you aren't doing that with someone else then you aren't communicating.

If you haven't tried this kind of thing before the quiz at the end of the chapter is a real confidence booster. Almost every time I'm stumped for a word I come back to the principle of thinking like a dictionary. This 'secret' frees you from having to know the exact word for the concept you want to explain, and it's something that can leverage your existing language ability immediately, and for a long time after learning it.

The technique is a valuable one, but by Murray's own admission many of the techniques in his book are things that you might "encounter at random" after several years in Japan. It's a good thing he has done us the favour of compiling all of them in to one handy paperback volume!

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]

Secret #1 for Speaking Fluent Japanese - Abbreviations

How to Speak with Maximum Efficiency

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

The first chapter of the Giles Murray book 13 Secrets to Speaking Fluent Japanese sets out "to increase vocabulary by learning abbreviated spoken forms". Like it or hate it, modern Japanese is littered with absurd abbreviations; of Japanese words, loan words, and hybrid words. Recognising that these words are part of everyday speech, and becoming familiar with them may help you in a limited range of situations.


Paul (in the center) speaks Korean fluently by Invisible Hour on Flickr.

Just as you wouldn't pepper your speech with TLA's (Three Letter Acronyms) in everyday English, there isn't much point alienating people by using these abbreviations too often. Even so, this chapter gives you a good idea of the structure of the rest of the chapters in the book.

There is a little bit of culture and history to start the chapter, a rationalisation for the choice of strategy, a few examples and then a quiz in the form of a short story. The answers to the quiz form a small vocabulary list at the end of the chapter. The vocabulary is starting to look a little dated, and the story of the research scientist is perhaps one not many people can relate to, so I've updated them in the smart.fm list How to Speak with Maximum Efficiency.

Let's take a closer look at some of the different types of abbreviations that are characteristic of modern Japanese. The first type to consider are Japanese words that you may already know, for example Nikkei, which is an abbreviation of Nihon Keizai Shimbun (日本経済新聞｜にほんけいざいしんぶん) The Japanese Economic Newspaper, or lesser know examples such as yougaku, which is an abbreviation of seiyou ongaku (西洋音楽 | せいようおんがく) Western music. This isn't much help though unless you are familiar with the Japanese in the first place.

Where you are going to get the most leverage is with the words you already know in English that have been abbreviated for Japanese consumption. There are many plenty of good examples from the world of manga, Fruits Basket (フルーツバスケット) known colloquially as furuba (フルバ) is just one. Anime (アニメ) is another of these abbreviations that has become so much a part of modern lexicon that we have reappropriated the word in English.

Slightly less familiar but also highly valuable are the hybrid abbreviations, combinations of Japanese and English in one contracted form. One such example is shāshin (シャー芯) which is short for shāpupen no shin, or the lead of a mechanical pencil. Many acronyms represented in romaji also appear in written Japanese, particularly in advertising and print media. For example GW stands for Golden Week (ゴールデンウィーク), a holiday period in early May. More examples of these types of Japanese abbreviations and contracted words can be found at Wikipedia.

Now that you have a good idea of the kinds of abbreviations to expect, read the short story below and see how many you can recognise. Once you have read the story practice the vocabulary on the smart.fm list. We'll be taking a much closer look at using these abbreviations in the live video lesson on eduFire - Fast Track to Fluency.

A brief account of the life of an Eikaiwa dreamer.

When John left his マスコミ job in ロス for the bright lights of Tokyo he knew he'd have to teach English for a while before he could live his dream of being がいタレ on Japanese テレビ.

Living in Tokyo wasn't too bad, his アパート was small but it was an lively neighbourhood with plenty of characters at the local パブ to share a laugh with over a beer or two.

John didn't have a girlfriend, but there was a cute デパガ who worked in the エーブイ section of the nearby デパート. He never had a lot of money so the thought of asking her on a date when all he could afford was a ファミレス was sometimes too much to bear.

Most weekends he sat at home and tapped out a drum master rhythm on a second hand playstation. When the タタコン broke John was devastated so he decided to catch the train into Akihabara find a ゲーセン.

Akihabara wasn't his favourite place in Tokyo, with a high concentration of ロリコン guys chasing コスプレ and teenagers dressed as ポケモン. But it did have a couple of good book stores and デジカメ shops.

When John got tired of walking he found a ネットカフェー and decided to strike up chat session with someone on twitter. He always felt a little uncomfortable because he could never be sure if they were ネカマ or not. This Japanese life might take a little longer to get used to than he first thought.

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]

Book Review: 13 Secrets for Speaking Fluent Japanese - Introduction

13 Secret Techniques to Put You on the Fast Track to Fluency in Japanese

Back in January of 2009 I explored how Japanese Loanwords were an integral part of the Japanese language and then again in May after reading this Amazon review criticising an excessive reliance on them in Giles Murray's book of techniques for improving fluency in Japanese. I'm not about to revisit that debate, but I do think it is worthwhile exploring some of the concepts that are presented in the book 13 Secrets to Speaking Fluent Japanese. Why? Everyone needs some good advice about how to learn a language and I've found this particular book very helpful. It has some very good ideas that may just help you breakthrough to greater fluency in Japanese.


How the Boys from Podunk "Went Native" by Okinawa Soba, on Flickr

When I first showed "13 Secrets" to a Japanese colleague she quipped, "it's in English!" implying that you can't learn Japanese by reading books in English. In a sense she's right, no amount of talking about Japanese in English is going to help you speak Japanese. However, there are many things you can pick up about learning a second language from those that have gone there before you. Like how to describe things without knowing the names for them, thinking like a reverse dictionary. Or by expanding your vocabulary through the use of a mental "synonym generator". There are plenty of worthwhile language hacks here to put into practice.

The techniques described encourage you to think outside the box, and although they can be put into practice at any stage of learning, the book is probably best suited to students that have reached a few sticking points in their language learning. Putting a few of these "mental filters" in place, and learning to see language learning as more of a game can help you break through those plateaus.

The secrets are less secrets and more tactics that any experienced language learner might employ during their learning effort. I know, I've done the road testing! Giles Murray has taken hints from his observations of successful non-native learners and Japanese kids, two groups who use their creativity to overcome hurdles in their language acquisition. Are you the kind of learner who "judges everything by one criterion, 'will this improve my Japanese or not?'". If so then this book might have something to offer.

Over the next 12 weeks or so we are going to explore each chapter in detail and hopefully uncover some language learning techniques you hadn't thought of before. If you want more practice of some of these techniques, join us on the Fast Track to Fluency, a live online video class on eduFire. Wether you are a beginner or an advanced student of Japanese, there'll be something you can use right 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]

Weekly Links 28 June 2009

All moved into to new digs this week. A bit more of a commute to work, but more space and a small garden. Now I can start the worm farm I've always dreamed of.

• A Few Simple Ideas for New Language Learners
  An approach to language learning that needs further attention if you are self directed and motivated. These pages are 10 years old now, but still have a lot to offer. I'm glad I went looking for them again, I thought they'd been pulled.
  
  
• Standby Blog Topics in Japan
  If you've ever wanted to know what most people blog about in Japan, Ken from What Japan Thinks has translated some demographic data from goo Research. I don't feel so bad about talking about worms now.
  
  
• IF... The Adventures of a Gaijin in Tokyo
  This YouTube adaptation of manga by Tadashi Nomura of Tezuka Productions is featured in Giles Murray's 13 Secrets for Speaking Fluent Japanese.
  
  
• Michael Jackson on a Japanese Commercial
  Can't end the week without at least a small tribute to MJ. In this CM for a scooter Wacko Jacko shares his message of love.