But now on to the actual post!

I may be mistaken, but I have the impression that my immersion world is showing first results. It seems to me that I understand more than ever before. Interestingly, English – or rather German in my case, is slowly fading. I listen to the phrases and I understand what I hear. Remember, though, that I am using material that I have listened to, read and understood at least once, before it has entered my immersion realm. But still, it is a step forward: I am understanding material that I am not translating.

I didn’t mention it before, but Japanese is my fourth language. I am fluent in German, French and English, but my mother tongue is German. Well actually, no, it’s not because both my parents talked to me in French, but I grew up in a German speaking area. Interestingly, I am learning Japanese through English, since all the good learning material is in English.

Saori has suggested I add reading material to my studies. I have been following her advice by adding Level 3 of the Graded Readers by White Rabbit Press. The readers come with a CD and full ふりがな (which is kind of useless when you have the CD). I tip-ex the furigana and read along while listening to the audio. I enjoy it very much. Thank you, Saori. I didn’t do much of it this week, because I had to travel by car a lot, but I can see it will be an interesting addition to my studies.

Good news: I found a Japanese woman, Makiko, who’s willing to work with me on this project. She  very much liked my idea of recording my progress every two months. She’s in Japan right now, but in 2 weeks she will be back and we’ll start our recording project.

Also, I asked her if she could read books to me so I can record them and she liked that idea. First thing I’ll do is have her read “Kitchen” by Banana Yoshimoto (キッチン、 吉本ばなな) to me. I will then read along with the recording, maybe first reading it in German once, so I know what it’s all about, and then concentrate on the original text and the recording. Really looking forward to that.

My results of the week. Immersion: 24h9m, Anki: 6h22m, Studies: 10h9m, Reading: 0h39m for a total of 41h18m.

Have a great week full of Japanese!

Speaking in Japanese is your chance to take on a whole new personality. Most people do this whether they do so with effort or subconsciously. If your Japanese is natural, when you speak Japanese, you will act differently. Why? Because the way to express yourself is different, the body language is different, and things you can and can’t say in Japanese are different.

Since you will be defining your new Japanese voice, the one thing you absolutely don’t want to do is speak in the same Japanese voice as your English voice. This includes a wide variety of areas that make up your voice such as pitch, depth, intonation, speed, and variation. I’ve met foreigners who sound exactly the same in both their native language and Japanese and I must say it is not a pretty sight. This is the worst thing you could possibly do. Regardless of how good your Japanese gets, if you make this error, you will sound bad. Old school chalk-board screeching bad.

Take this challenging opportunity to develop your Japanese personality. The best Japanese speakers I’ve met sound very different depending on whether they are speaking to me in Japanese or English.

What do you do? You already know the answer.

Stop. Don’t go run and try to record your own voice and see how it sounds in comparison to your English voice.  Analyzing your own voice is unpleasant, demotivating, and the benefits are questionable. You probably don’t even like how your own voice sounds in English, so how do you think it is going to sound to you in Japanese.

The real solution is to just keep immersing. Immerse yourself long enough and to the point that you can’t help but develop your new Japanese voice. It will come. It just will. Have faith. As I’ve discussed with speaking being the hardest skill to develop, your natural Japanese voice will take time.

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Photo by:  Michael Day

So of course the thing to do is take the good and leave the bad. Generate a deck full of Japanese sentences and media. Take from it only those sentences that are worth learning to you. Leave out the English translations and add your J-J definitions.

This is a bit of a long post, but stay with me to till the end, and you will have an incredibly new and impressive tool at your disposal.

How to create the deck

Collect the necessary software, video, and subtitle files.

You need three things to create a subs2srs deck:

Subs2srs and a windows installation to run it on

Download subs2srs here. There are full usage instructions here.

Unfortunately, subs2srs doesn’t run on a Mac, and while versions through 24.0 include linux support I couldn’t get it to work. But because subs2srs is used to create the deck rather than use it, you just need access to windows for enough time to process your stuff into anki decks.

A movie file

Subs2srs supports most movie file formats. You can convert a DVD to a file using the free/open source application Handbrake.

A subtitle file

The trickiest part with subs2srs is finding Japanese subtitles.  Here are sources I’ve found:

• kitsunekko.net: Anime subtitles
• D-Addicts: Drama subtitles
• Project Modelino: A few more miscellaneous subtitles

If you can’t find Japanese subtitles, and you are planning on entering phrases from a video source, you can use English subtitles for the timings. If you are lucky, this will line up reasonably well with the Japanese lines, and you’ll have images and audio to go with the phrases you enter.

Create the deck

The subs2srs page I linked above has pretty good instructions so I don’t feel the need to duplicate the information.  Except that making numbered instructional pictures is sort of fun so I’m going to include them anyway.

The one thing I do differently form the default subs2srs settings is the inclusion of context lines, which you can do in the context tab of the advanced subtitle options window.  Other things to be aware of is that it is often necessary to fiddle with the subtitle timing options, which I’ve marked with an asterisk, and take note of the information in the completed window which you’ll need for matching the fields up correctly when you import into anki.

Then create a deck in anki with a template that has all the fields you want; note that each context line is a separate field.  Choose import from the file menu to import the tsv file that subs2srs created, assign the fields as subs2srs created them.  Select all the cards in the browser and run the regenerate readings option in the actions menu.  Lastly, put the media folder in the appropriate place.

How to use the deck

I do not recommend reviewing an entire subs2srs deck, since most of the cards in it don’t meet the criteria of containing one or two new things you want to learn. Instead, use the deck as a source for sentences that you can move into your main deck.

1. Find the cards that contain sentences you want to learn. One way to do this do this is to search for things in the subs2srs deck when something you want to learn comes up while watching the episode or movie you ripped it from. My approach to manga or books is to read a chapter without interruption except for possibly quickly marking things the first time through, but to go back through it and stop for looking things up and making cards during subsequent times through; I think this would be a fine approach to an episode as well. But what I really like to do with a fresh subs2srs deck step through an episode line by line using anki’s cram feature in the tools menu–I understand more when I go through things slowly this way.  subs2srs has tagged everything ShowName_EpisodeNumber so you can use that to choose the whole episode. Select the “in order added” option to start from the beginning, or “since last modified” to start where you left off the last time. Since you’re not reviewing it, just pass everything. Mark (the star icon or ALT-M) the things you want to add to your regular review deck.
2. Export the marked cards into a temporary deck using the export option in the file menu; limit to tag “Marked.”  I use a tab-separated file instead of anki deck because then the cards count as new when I add them to my main deck, which puts them where I want in my new card queue.  Also it avoids an issue with editing models (never let a deck contain different versions of a model with the same name.)
3. Import the temporary deck into your main deck using the import item in the file menu.
4. Copy the media from the subs2srs deck’s media folder to into the media folder for your main deck.  Do this while the deck is closed, to avoid confusing the media database.  (You only need to do this once.  If you are short on space and don’t want to duplicate all the files, you can export to anki deck each time and copy over the media from the temporary deck’s media folder.)
5. Add your J-J definitions (or J-E if you’re still in that phase, but even in that case I recommend the J-E definitions format rather than the translation that sub2srs would provide if given a set of English subtitles.)

And now you should all be ready to go!
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Written by Cayenne

My first big change has already happened. I now realize that during my pre-JALUP phase my Japanese studies were indeed studies. It was work, worry, frustration, ego, ambition, and self-consciousness. It kind of reminded me of my school days many years ago.

Instead it should have been fun, laughter, enjoyment, fascination, love, interest, suspense, and playfulness. There is nothing wrong with ambition and studying, but fun and enjoyment should be at the very core of my studies. Nobody is forcing me to do anything. This is my free will. Why should I give myself a hard time? No wonder I quit so many times.

I feel it’s going in the right direction now. I trashed my old books, trashed the RTK Kanji that are not necessary, trashed the stuff I’m not interested in, and am going for the stuff that brings me enjoyment. I also trashed Core 2000 for the time being. Maybe I’ll get back to it, maybe not, but right now I’m not craving it. Let’s face it: I will never work in a Japanese company. I’m not that kind of guy. Why should I listen to office situations where a 部長 (section manager) tells a 会員 (employee) to make copies of some documents? What interests me in this situation? Nothing. And nobody will ever ask me to make copies. I’m my own boss.

For me the right thing now is Jpod 101. I find their lessons entertaining. The lengthy English explanations and discussions are rather boring at times, so I just import each lesson into Audacity and blast through it until I hear something that interests me.

I edit the dialog, deleting the noisy phone sounds, ambient intros and endings, and the constant spamming to visit their page. Sometimes I shorten the pauses between sentences (easily done with Audacity) and am left with hundreds of dialogs in polite and/or casual Japanese. They sound natural to me, and I enjoy listening to them. I drag and drop the audio recordings into my playlists and copy and paste the sentences I’m interested in from the lesson pdfs into Anki. It’s all become a routine, and I’m enjoying the process. There’s around 1000 lessons I can listen to, enough for the rest of the year.

I’ve been thinking about how to document my progress. I believe that listening to me speak on this series is important. I could tell you how much progress I was making (like the uber-ultra-super-learners from various J-forums), but without actual proof it would be boring and useless.

The best documentation is a video of me talking to a Japanese person, 1 on 1.

I will look for someone in my city and I will ask the person if she or he would be willing to chat with me on a video every two months. This would be the ultimate living proof of my capabilities and hopefully of my progress. I will tell the person to speak naturally as if she/he were talking to another Japanese person. I will try to understand and respond, and you will clearly see where I stand.

But for now I made a recording of me speaking and where I stand right now. I can clearly hear that my accent stinks, but nevertheless, I humbly present to you the status of my spoken Japanese. どうぞよろしくお願いします。May I never sound like this again:

Now that you’ve had your share of laughs at my expense, lets see what I did this week: Audio: 23h19m,  Movies: 3h15m,  Anki: 2h13m,  Studies: 6h23m for a total of 35h10m. I was traveling quite a bit and worked with groups of 80 youths, making it impossible to listen during work. However, when I traveled by car I listened to Japanese all the time.

I’ll try to do better next week. Not enough movies and not enough Anki just yet. The truth is, I’m hooked on the Sopranos and I have to finish it. I’m at season 5 of 6 and when this is finished, I will never watch a movie/drama in English again. The kind of passion I have had for the Sopranos is what I should have for Japanese movies. Unfortunately when you don’t understand it can be hard to get hooked. Sometimes I feel I will never understand . . .

This final stage test was a real pain to create, which is why it took so long. There were significant problems in its development:

Knowledge requirement in addition to Japanese

To test you on the upper levels requires knowledge of advanced topics. So if you are only 17 and taking this test, regardless of how good your Japanese is, there is a good chance you may not know the topics. Or it may be something you completely have no interest in. However the only way to test the higher levels is to hit on more complex fields.

I’m only in my low 70s

Yeah, I know, I’m not quite legendary yet. This means that I am creating a test that will go significantly higher than my own level. So the best thing I can do is use my own level as a gauge for the higher level blocks in figuring out how much I don’t understand of them.

Very few people will make it to the top tier levels

I have only personally met a few other foreigners who were over 65. I have occasionally seen a few select foreigners on TV who passed above the 80s. I have never seen or heard anyone in the 90s, though I’m sure they exist (for example, the few foreigners who have passed the Japanese Bar Exam)

Now before you start saying to yourself “foreigners will never achieve this level” or “the level doesn’t really exist,” remember the different world we are living in now. Yes, Japanese used to be the seemingly impossible to progress language even just 20-30 years ago. I believe with the incredible nonstop immersion access that the internet provides to foreigners, all the powerful new online tools, apps, equipment, and methods, the newer generation of Japanese learners (that’s you guys) has the ability to produce a lot more people that will start hitting the 70s, the 80s, the 90s, and yes, even the legendary 99. You are treading on new grounds where no foreigners have ever been before. Then again, I also think that most Japanese learners’ ultimate goal is only to reach somewhere in the range of 65(fluent) to 80 (native), and that is fine too. I may eventually stop there as well.

Levels 90 and 99 are combined

The difference between the top two tiers is near impossible for me to test to any great accuracy. The only real distinction that I make on the level guide is that at level 90 you can passively engage in the supreme peaks of the language, and in 99, you can actually reproduce those peaks. But in reality, all levels 90+ require a test of output. Since this test only covers passive reading, the best solution I can come up with is to provide 5 incredibly complex comprehension lines.

In order to figure out your level if you are taking this block:

1. Understand 80% of 3 out of 5 = passing level 90. Anything less, adjust your level between 80 and 90 depending on what percentage you understood (similar to the earlier levels).
2. Understand 85% of between 3 and 4 of the 5 = In between level 90 and 99.
2. Understand 90% of 4 out of 5 = passing level 99.

You might have expected 100% of 5 out of 5, but that’s just not realistic. You’re only human. You can’t know everything.

The Level 90/99 block is classical literature

This is by far the most difficult Japanese, as most Japanese themselves can’t understand it, and the best way to test these levels. However, these level blocks will be skewed if you actively study classic literature in your earlier levels. Just because you are level 50, doesn’t mean you can’t start studying classical literature. So adjust accordingly if you fall under this class of learners (which for some reason I doubt is very common).

The final stage is significantly more subjective than the previous 2 stages

As some of you have pointed out in the comments at stage 2, you may know all the words and grammar, yet not understand the lines. This test is no different, and it is really your ability to assess (and be honest with) yourself. However, I guarantee that on these levels, you will not know all the words and grammar.

And for fun to all of you just browsing this post even though you fell under a much earlier level

Go through these levels as well, and get a glimpse into the complexities of the sacred grounds of Japanese. What percentage did you understand? Leave it in the comments!

Important Reminders

- You still need 90% of 2 out of 3 comprehension lines to pass (except for block 90/99 as noted above)
- In the comments, if you fall anywhere over level 50+, leave your 1) test results level, 2) how long you have been studying Japanese for (both length of time and frequency), and 3) what method(s) you are using.
- I’m not perfect and make an occasional error. The sites where I took the material from also make errors. If you spot something that you know to be wrong in a comprehension line, please step up and let me know so I can fix it.

Get ready to enter the hardest Japanese test you will ever take in your life.

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Level 65: Fluent

1.  2010年12月、スーダンはあわや内戦の危機を迎えていた。政府は南部の地域に対して、独立の是非をめぐる国民投票を約束したが、オマル・アル・バシール大統領は南部の油田を手放すつもりはなかった。双方の言い分が隔たっていくなか、コロラド州ロングモントにある民間のサテライト・イメージ（衛星画像）企業「DigitalGlobe」が軍部の動きを追い、戦争の兆しを監視し始めた。映像は国連の援助を受けた俳優のジョージ・クルーニーが率いる団体「サテライト・センチネル・プロジェクト」へと逐一送られた。この人道的プロジェクトはスーダンの平和促進のために衛星写真を利用し、不要な戦闘を未然に防ぐことを目指した。結果は上々だった。スーダン南部は投票の結果無事に分離独立を果たし、内戦は起こらずに済んだ。

2001年以来利用されている自社衛星の使われ方として、これはほんのわずか一例にすぎない。現在、軌道上にはさらに2つの衛星が回っている。これは地上にある50cm以上の物体を明瞭に映し出し、かつ8つの色帯を捉えることができる（人間の眼は3つしか識別できない）。5つの色帯は、例えばある場所の特定の植生を、あるいは深海を映し出すために使用される。

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2. 米証券取引委員会 (SEC) はハリウッドの複数の映画制作会社に対し、中国政府当局者とのやりとりに関する質問状を送った。消息筋が明らかにした。質問は予備的なもので、海外腐敗行為防止法に関連したものとみられている。SECスポークスマンはコメントを控えた。ハリウッドにとって、中国は新たな映画市場としても資金調達先としてもますます重要になっている。政府の報告によると、年間興行収入は2015年までに50億ドル（約4000億円）に達する見通し。昨年は21億ドル、ほんの5年前には5億2800万ドルだった。

中国での映画配給は、国営の中国電影集団（チャイナ・フィルム・グループ）と華夏電影発行有限責任公司がほぼ独占する状態が続いている。同国政府は映画館に対し、上映中の作品の代わりに他の作品を上映するよう命じることができる。例えば10年には、ジェームズ・キャメロン監督の「アバター」2次元（2D）版の代わりに、国が資金拠出した孔子の映画を上映するよう命じた。

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3. 多機能情報端末「ｉＰａｄ（アイパッド）」の中国での商標権をめぐり、中国工商行政管理総局の付双建副局長は２４日の記者会見で、「商標法の規定上、合法的な登録者は依然として『唯冠』だ」と述べ、中国のＩＴ機器メーカー「唯冠科技」が商標権を保有しているとの見解を示した。

中国政府が見解を明らかにするのは初めてだ。米アップルは昨年、商標権所有の確認を求めた１審で敗訴し、現在、広東省の高裁で控訴審の審理が進められている。唯冠は各地の商工当局にアイパッドの販売の差し止めを申請している。付副局長は「高裁の審理が終了したら、法に従って処理する」と述べ、高裁の審理を待つ考えを示した。

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Level 80: Native

1. 加圧水型原子炉の特徴：一次冷却系と二次冷却系という分離された冷却系を有する原子炉では、放射性物質を一次冷却系に閉じこめることが出来る為、沸騰水型原子炉 (BWR) のようにタービン建屋を遮蔽する必要が無く、タービン・復水器が汚染されにくいため保守時の安全性でも有利である。ただ、蒸気発生器という沸騰水型原子炉にはない複雑に配管がからみ合った熱交換器や必然的に増えるポンプや配管類の保守性や安全性は別に考慮されるべきである。実際に蒸気発生器のトラブルは過去に頻発しており、近年は事故があまり起こらないのは保守担当者の労力に拠っている。

沸騰水型原子炉でもほぼ同様だが、加圧水の炉心出口温度を上げることでより高い熱効率を得ることが出来るが、主に燃料棒の金属被覆ジルコニウムの温度に対する脆弱性の問題で、あまり高温にすることが出来ない為に、火力発電所では常識となった超臨界水を熱媒体として使用することは出来ない。沸騰水型原子炉では加圧水型原子炉に比べ、二つの冷却系間における熱交換ロスがないので経済性では優位といえる。

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3. 捻挫とは文字通り関節を「捻り挫く（ねじりくじく）」事をいい、骨と骨を繋ぐ可動部関節周辺部位の損傷、関節を包む関節包や骨と骨を繋ぐ靭帯及び軟部組織（内臓･骨以外の総称）を損傷した状態を指す。関節に、生理的可動許容範囲を超えた動きが強要される為、関節周囲の組織の損傷は大なり小なり必ず起こる。多くは損傷に連動して患部に痛みや腫脹、熱感等の炎症を引き起こす。また、理論上、関節がある部位なら場所を限定せず全身に起こりうるが、現実的には起きやすい関節、おこりにくい関節はある。ぎっくり腰やムチウチの一部は、それぞれ腰椎・頚椎捻挫を起こした状態である。（大半は、関節ではなく単なる筋肉の障害の場合が多く、捻挫とは言わない）

また、捻挫と同じく、関節に許容範囲を超えた動きが与えられた為におきる損傷として、脱臼亜脱臼がある。それぞれ、捻挫：骨の位置関係に異常がない（関節面が完全に接触をたもっている）、亜脱臼：関節面が一部接触を保っている、脱臼：関節面の接触が全く失われている、という違いがある。 脱臼・亜脱臼を整復した後の症状は、重度の捻挫と変わりない為、交通事故や労働災害など金銭が絡む補償の問題から、しばしば1次診察医療機関と2次診察医療機関の間で論争を引き起こしている。

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4.  日本国民は、正当に選挙された国会における代表者を通じて行動し、われらとわれらの子孫のために、諸国民との協和による成果と、わが国全土にわたつて自由のもたらす恵沢を確保し、政府の行為によつて再び戦争の惨禍が起ることのないやうにすることを決意し、ここに主権が国民に存することを宣言し、この憲法を確定する。そもそも国政は、国民の厳粛な信託によるものてあつて、その権威は国民に由来し、その権力は国民の代表者がこれを行使し、その福利は国民がこれを享受する。これは人類普遍の原理であり、この憲法は、かかる原理に基くものである。われらは、これに反する一切の憲法、法令及び詔勅を排除する。

日本国民は、恒久の平和を念願し、人間相互の関係を支配する崇高な理想を深く自覚するのであつて、平和を愛する諸国民の公正と信義に信頼して、われらの安全と生存を保持しようと決意した。われらは、平和を維持し、専制と隷従、圧迫と偏狭を地上から永遠に除去しようと努めてゐる国際社会において、名誉ある地位を占めたいと思ふ。われらは、全世界の国民が、ひとしく恐怖と欠乏から免かれ、平和のうちに生存する権利を有することを確認する。

われらは、いづれの国家も、自国のことのみに専念して他国を無視してはならないのであつて、政治道徳の法則は、普遍的なものであり、この法則に従ふことは、自国の主権を維持し、他国と対等関係に立たうとする各国の責務であると信ずる。

日本国民は、国家の名誉にかけ、全力をあげてこの崇高な理想と目的を達成することを誓ふ。

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Level 90/99: Master

1. 禪師いはく、然らばたん気は生れ附ではござらぬ。何とぞしたときの縁に依て、ひよつとそなたが出かすわひの。何した時も、我でかさぬに、どこにたんきが有るものぞ。そなたが身の贔負故に、むかふのものにとりあふて、我がおもわくを立たがつて、そなたが出かして置て、それを生れつきといふは、なんだいを親にいひかくる大不孝の人といふもので御座るわひの。人々皆親のうみ附てたもつたは、佛心ひとつで、よのものはひとつもうみ附はしませぬわひの。しかるに一切迷ひは我身のひいきゆへに、我出かしてそれを生まれつきと思ふは、おろかな事で御座るわひの。我でかさぬに短気がどこにあらふぞいの。

一切の迷ひも皆是とおなじ事で、我まよわぬに、まよひはありはありはしませぬわひの。それをみなあやまつて、生れ附でもなき物を、我欲で迷ひ、気ぐせで、我出かして居ながら、生れ附とおもふゆへに、一切事に附てまよはずに、得居ませぬわひの。何ほど迷ひがたつとければ、一佛心にかえて迷ひますぞいの。みな一佛心の尊ひ事をしれば、迷ひたまふてもまよはぬがほとけ、迷はぬがさとりで、外にほとけになりやうはござらぬわひの。身どもがいふことをそばへよつて、とつくり能のみこんで、きかしゃれ

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2. 世の儒者は師を信じ、古を是とする癖がある。聖賢の言はみな深い省察から出た言葉であるとして、疑をさしはさもうとしない。そもそも聖賢が慎重な用意のもとに筆を執って書いたものでも、ことごとくが真実であるとは保証できね。いわんや卒然と吐かれた言葉においておや。……古人の才は今人の才にひかならず、今日のいわゆる英傑は古のいわゆる聖・神に当る。されば孔門の七十子が聖神にして、市場その比を見ずと称せられるのも、もし、かりに孔子という師が今日の人であったとすると、現代の学者でもみな顔淵・閔子騫の徒ということになるのである

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3.  隴西の李徴は博學才穎、天寶の末年、若くして名を虎榜に連ね、ついで江南尉に補せられたが、性狷介、自ら恃む所頗る厚く、賎吏に甘んずるを潔しとしなかった。

人生は、一分を減省すれば、便ち一分を超脱す。如し交遊を減ずれば便ち紛擾を免れ、言語を減ずれば、便ち愆尤寡く、思慮を減ずれば、便ち精神を耗せず、聡明を減ずれば、則ち混沌完す。彼の日に減ずるを求めずして、日に増すを求むるは、真に此の生を桎梏するかな。

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4. 参禅は須すべからく祖師の関を透とおるべし。妙悟は心路を窮めて絶せんことを要す。祖関透らず心路絶せずんば、尽ことごとく是れ依草附木えそうふぼくの精霊せいれいならん。且しばらく道え、如何いかんが是れ祖師の関。只ただ者この一箇の無字、乃すなわち宗門の一関なり。遂に之れを目なずけて禅宗無門関と曰いう。透得過とうとくかする者は、但ただ親しく趙洲に見まみえるのみに非あらず。便すなわち歴代の祖師と手を把とって共に行き、眉毛厮びもうあいい結んで同一眼どういっげんに見、同一耳どういっにに聞く可べし。豈あに慶快けいかいならざらんや。透関を要する底てい有ること莫なしや。三六〇の骨節、八万四千の毫竅ごきょうも将もって、通身に箇この疑団を起こして箇の無の字に参ぜよ。昼夜提撕ていぜいして、虚無きょむの会えを作なすこと莫なかれ、有無うむの会えを作すこと莫れ。箇の熱鉄丸ねつてつがんを呑了どんりょうするが如くに相い似て、吐けども又吐き出さず。従前の悪知悪覚を蕩尽とうじんして、久々に純熟して自然じねんに内外打成一片ならば、啞子の夢を得るが如く、只た自知することを許す。驀然まくねんとして打發だはつせば、天を驚かし地を動ぜん。関かん将軍の太刀を奪い得て手に入るるが如く、仏に逢うては仏ぶつを殺し、祖に逢うては祖を殺し、生死岩頭しようじがんとうに於いて大自在を得、六道四生ろくどうししょうの中に向かって遊戯三昧ゆげざんまいならん。且しばらく作麼生さもさんか提撕ていぜいせん。平生へいぜいの気力を尽くして箇この無の字を挙こせよ。若もし間断けんだんせずんば、好はなはだ法燭の一点すれば便ち著つくに似ん

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5.

陽気陶々たる初夏の候　草木莽々として茂るに
ひとり懐いを傷め永く哀しみ　汨然流されて南にゆけり
幽邃なること気遠きばかり　はなはだ静寂にしてまた清浄
心結ばれて鬱屈するは　憂いに遭うて長く窮すればなり
情をいたわり志を明らめ　冤の罪に屈してみずから抑う
方木を削って円となさんも　われいまだもとの態を変えず
初本の道を改むるは　君子の恥ずるところ
規画明らかに墨縄しるく　古法を修めて意図変わりなし
心直く資性厚きは　大人の美とするところ
巧匠も思うて削らずば　誰か尺度の正しきを知らん
あやの模様も幽きに処けば　矇そう奏してあやなしとなし
離婁微かに睇眄ていべんすれば　瞽者は以て明無しとなす
党人は白を指して黒と言い　上を倒さまにして下となす
鳳凰は伏籠の中に捕われ　鶏雉は大空を翔り舞う
玉と石とを混同し　一概にしてこれを量る
かの党人の鄙にして妬なる　ああわが善とするところを知らず
重き積荷の多きに堪えれど　身は陥りて事の済るなし
瑾・瑜の美玉懐に抱けど　窮して示す人ぞなき
村里の犬の群れて吠ゆるは　その怪しむを吠ゆるなり
俊秀を誹り英傑を疑うは　もとより凡人の態のみ
あや実質身に通ずれど　われの異彩を人の知るなく
材木積み重ねたるごとさわにあれど　わが才能を知る人ぞなき
仁を累ね義を襲ね　謹厚、徳をゆたかにせしも
重華（帝舜）に逢うことなくんば　誰かわが従容の心を知らん
古来聖君、賢臣と並ばざるあり　その何故なるやを知らず
湯禹聖王のこと久遠　茫漠思慕を寄するも如何せん
この恨みを止めこの怒りを改め　心を抑えてみずからつとむ
暗き世に遭うて節を移さず　後の世に法られんと願うのみ
行きゆきて宿場を離り　昧々として日まさに暮れなんとす
賦して憂思をのべ悲愁を楽しむは　やがて果つべき命の限りにこそ
乱に言う、
ああ浩々たる元湘の水　分れ流れて水声汨たり
長き路は暗くさびしく　前途遠くはてしなし
吟詠絶ゆることなく悲傷し　嘆き永うして慷慨するも
世すでに吾を知ることなく　これを人に説くにまた術なし
忠信の情を懐き敦厚の質を抱けど　ひとりわが是非をただすなく
伯楽すでにあらざれば　駿馬も力を量るに由なし
人は資質を天に享けて生まれ　おのおの志に安んずるところあり
心を定めてこれを堅持するや　われまた何を畏れん
死の避くべからざるを知って　願わくは命を惜しむことなけん
明らかに世の君子に告ぐ　われ将に節に死して法を示さん

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****Note****:
- Do not read the comments until you’ve taken the test, as they contain spoilers to the answers
- I’ll be happy to answer any questions you have about how you did, but first read through all the comments and responses I gave to others, as your question will probably already be answered.
- I probably can’t answer your questions about the level 90/99 block, because to be honest, I don’t understand most of it.
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Photo by: Marc Veraart

The first thing I’ve noticed is that immersion is not a given. Even if it’s “passive” you have to work for it. You have to put in the hours, develop a habit, making every single minute count, or you’ll never make it past 3 hours. I thought it would be easier – well it’s not. You have to really want it, or it just won’t happen.

There are 24 hours in a day. Subtract 8 hours of sleep (wishful thinking!) and 3 hours of social interaction for family, meetings, and friends. This leaves me with 13 potential hours of immersion, if I listen to Japanese while working and try to keep listening with one ear bud in while talking to people. Finally, subtract 2 hours of active studying – leaves a max of 11 hours of immersion a day, if I really go for it. That’s why I’m using the WorkLog app.

When you start a diet, first thing you have to do is write down everything you eat. It’s an anti-BS process. Find out where you really stand. In my case find out how long I really immerse, how much I really study. Not just wishful thinking. That way I can find out where my weak points are and adjust. Once the habit is solid I believe I can take it more easy, but for now I have to be strict.

I definitively have to get used to this and it’s not that simple. Sometimes my brain just wants silence, especially considering that both my 3 year old son and my wife have a tendency to be on the loud side – not mentioning my mother in law who lives in the same house . . . Should I follow my need for quiet or should I ignore it? Will I get used to the constant talk or will it annoy me after a while?

How about you? How’s your immersion going? Does it get on your nerves sometimes?

Let me talk about my 4 iPod shuffles: Red means short time memory. Green is for long time memory, Yellow is in the middle. Blue is uncategorized random material for fun – anything goes.

The playlists are dynamic and change almost every day. R contains no more than 15 minutes of material. These are the sentences or audio clips I just learned. When I listen to them continuously for an hour, they are played to me 4 to 8 times each. Once I know them well, they move up to Y which contains 30 to 60 minutes of material so I hear each phrase 1 to 2 times an hour. Once I know that material really well it moves to G, which is filled to it’s maximum capacity, enough for about 30 hours of speech.

Why do I use this method instead of a regular iPod? I have the iPods clipped to my jeans, I grab my headphones and hit play. That’s it. No scrolling, no fumbling, no searching for playlists, no wondering what I should listen to. I pick a color and immerse, end of story.

My immersion is one single click away. I like that.

I have three pairs of headphones:  AKG K 430, Ultimate Ears and the regular iPod headphones from which I cut off one earbud. The AKG and UE both have great audio quality and they shield off outside noise, which enables me to listen to low sound levels. I don’t want to be deaf when I finally understand what people say . . . The “half headphone” is good for keeping a low profile. Wear a hoodie and you can listen to Japanese without anyone noticing.

It’s entertaining to being able to listen to Japanese whenever a real life conversation is less than exciting. I’m already able to go multitasking – I can listen to and interact with my wife, friends, sales clerk, and listen to Japanese at the same time – a very useful feature. And it sort of makes me feel special. I live in my own “secret world” while still interacting with the outside world: I hang out with Natsuko, Kiyoe and Ichiro while chatting with Thomas, Fred and Susan.

I had a very busy week. I managed to do 48h 54m of Japanese. Immersion: 31h 29m, Anki: 5h, active studying: 10h 25m, and drama: 2h.

Dramas definitively need more attention. And as you can tell from these numbers, I’m nowhere near the available 11 hrs a day.

ココ

We all lament not having enough free time to study as much Japanese as we would like, but isn’t it better if time spent at your job–time you have to spend to survive–can support your Japanese study as well? Out of all the Japanese jobs you can spend doing in Japan to improve your Japanese, I believe the most abundant and most overlooked is the humble part-time job.

You heard me. We’re talking minimum wage, no experience necessary, “I thought I’d quit doing this after highschool” jobs. Receptionist, cashier, salesperson, delivery guy, dishwasher, burger flipper, you name it. This probably sounds like crazy talk; why go all the way to Japan to do a job any Japanese native out of highschool could do better than you? My only answer is the speak from experience: your Japanese will explode.

After a rocky two and a half years in the English-teaching business, I was hovering around a Level 10, stagnating in Japanese and incredibly frustrated. After swearing off eikaiwa, I was faced with the big question: what now? Money started to get tight and, in a desperate pinch, I cobbled together a  履歴書(りれきしょ – a Japanese resume), grabbed a copy of TownWork and started answering ads. After just a few shaky phone calls, I got an interview, and soon I was working at a new branch of an udon shop…and having the time of my life!

In three months of working in the restaurant industry in Japan, my skills experienced more growth than they had through my entire two-and-a-half-year English-teaching career, for several reasons:

1. Sink or swim

In an English-teaching job, or most other circumstances in Japan, the amount of Japanese you need to use is very limited. English instructions are plastered everywhere, most important buildings have at least one English-speaking staff member in them, and when that doesn’t help, gestures and pidgin Japanese usually suffice.

Not so with a job where you are expected to speak to Japanese people on a moment’s notice. You’re interacting with customers and you need to communicate quickly, efficiently and politely. If you can’t do that, or make yourself able to do that, you don’t have a job. When a job and income are on the line, it suddenly makes going out of your way to get better at Japanese a high priority.

2. Talking to new Japanese people every day boosts confidence

That said, it’s not actually that difficult to stop sinking and start swimming, because you’ll have countless opportunities to use your Japanese and get better. Not only are you interacting with Japanese coworkers in an immersion environment, but talking to hundreds of customers a day really takes the intimidation out of initiating conversation. You don’t hum and haw and worry about what you’re going to say because you’ve done this hundreds of times before. You skip the worrying and gain the ability to just talk. It doesn’t matter if you’re starting out with canned phrases like “何のお待ちでしょうか?” and “1万円でよろしいですか?” because the confidence you gain talking to people carries over into conversations that go off the rails.

3. Immersion environment

Groups of people rarely come into a restaurant to eat in silence, so working in a restaurant is a great way to hear countless snippets of real conversation. You might not get to hear full conversations, but you can treat it like channel-surfing through the radio, and you’ll hear a lot of casual Japanese and phrases. The same could be said of a part-time job anywhere else (except perhaps a library). In public places, people talk, and you can take advantage of that.

4 Background-noise-boosted listening abilities

Restaurants are noisy. Customers jabber, dishwashers hum, kitchen timers go off, dishes get stacked, and the staff members yell things to each other. When someone gives you instructions or a customer asks a question, being able to cut through all the background humming and hear the speaker clearly is a vital skill. As with all things, practice makes perfect, and using your Japanese in such a noisy environment every work day will supercharge your listening ability. All the conversations you’re having also build your ability to anticipate what is being said in Japanese and let your brain fill in the blanks when you really can’t hear the words clearly, something you do in your native language without even realizing it.

So if you’re tired of the English teaching gauntlet and want your Japanese to really start shining, don’t be afraid to take the leap into a Japanese part-time job! It might not be the most glamorous work you’ll do in your life, but the valuable Japanese experience you gain will more than make up for that.

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Written by: Heather
Photo by: P. Papadimitriou

The second year of my BA Japanese Studies had a lot of downs, and I never felt like I was improving much. So when my university offered a six-week summer school program in Tokyo for a limited number of third year students to be, I jumped at the chance to at least maintain my skills over the long summer holiday (and to visit Japan, of course). It almost seemed too good to be true, as the program was largely financed by our university (except for a relatively small fee due to the expensive yen, transport in Tokyo, food, and other expenses).

After a nerve-wracking selection procedure (not to mention finals), I was one of the lucky thirty to get into the program. We stayed in a Weekly Mansion near Ikebukuro, and our school was located in Shibuya, about a fifteen-minute (uphill) walk from the station. After the lovely people at the Japan-Netherlands Institute helped us getting our commuter passes, we were all set to start classes at the Naganuma School.

Every morning my two best friends and I would get up before 6:30 and leave for the station by 7. We took two trains to Shibuya and on the way to school stopped by a convenience store to get breakfast. We arrived at the school at 8:15, leaving us with enough time to review our kanji and eat our breakfast before class started at 9. By leaving as early as we did we were able to avoid the worst part of rush hour, except for the few times one of us overslept, in which case: yikes.

Even though we all successfully completed the second year language classes of our university, and theoretically our Japanese language skills were more or less the same, the school still divided us up into three classes according to level (we had to take a test and do a short interview upon arrival at the school). So when the bell chimed at 9 (yes, this bell), we all went our separate ways until 12:30, when classes were over.

The classes were varied and taught by four different teachers, but there was one thing we did every day: 5-minute kanji quizzes (reading and writing) and text classes. Every day the teacher would give us a number of kanji to study by the next day. Usually there were around ten to fifteen words we had to study and the teacher selected these kanji from whatever text we were reading at the moment. These texts varied from Murakami Haruki to manga to the rarely ever discussed phenomena of konkatsu and shoushikoureika.*

Our text classes would usually consist of repetition from the last day (students reading part of the text out loud as natural as possible, and explaining in Japanese what the excerpt was about), explanation of vocabulary and grammar of a new part of the text and practicing conversations using the grammar we were just taught. There was a lot of repetition. So especially when we were reading one of the less intellectually challenging texts (like a text about a boy who is absolutely DYING to see a particular kind of shrimp) we all felt a little… bored. However, when the difficulty level of the texts went up it was definitely nice to leave the classroom feeling like you really understood every single detail about a text.

To be continued in part 2: Other kinds of classes, why I thought my language school experience was really awesome and why I think you should (or shouldn’t) attend a language school in Japan!

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*Sarcasm. I’ve actually yet to meet a Japanese language teacher who doesn’t think that texts about konkatsu and shoushikoureika are the best texts EVER when you’re learning Japanese.

Written by: Linniea

1. Putting someone who is going through exactly what you are at this moment in the spotlight.

While I felt I’ve tried to be there for all of you to get you past what I have been through so we can eventually stand as level equals, it’s been a long time since I’ve experienced the earlier levels. So having adventurers who are right there on the same battlefield with you acting as a guide can provide assistance in ways that I may not be able to.

2. Being directly featured on JALUP for an extended period of time will be a constant infusion of motivation and will hopefully make it hard for Coco to fail.

Coco is setting out on an adventure with quite a difficult start as he will explain below. However, every week he will be chronicling various points of his travels that will be beneficial to you. He will be watched by the JALUP community and there will be pressure. Pressure that will make it difficult for him to act lazy, feel like taking it easy, or just dropping out. Japanese learners will be following him, cheering him on to succeed, and be working virtually side by side with him.

I’ve mentioned on the JALUP alliance recruitment page that there is a lot of competition out there with the abundance of Japanese language learning blogs. Since most of these “Japanese language experience diary” blogs have difficulty to ever really work up enough steam to get a real following, it is easy to close up shop, not update for weeks, months, or years, and just get out of the Japanese business all together, turning Japanese studies into something that you’ll do “every once in a while for fun.” I know this is most of your worst nightmare. You came here to topple the Japanese language with a fervent intensity never seen before. So my question is what would happen to those Japanese diary bloggers if they had hundreds or thousands of visitors a week following them?

3. This acts as a real-time testimonial to the JALUP method

While I don’t think I need to prove to you that the JALUP method works, if you have any lingering doubts in your mind (probably caused by web forums bashing the immersion method), seeing someone quickly level up right before your eyes is the best proof anyone could possibly offer.

Remember, this is all still experimental.

This means depending on how well you the readers enjoy the series and find it useful, it will be continued. To be fair to both Coco and JALUP, there is also no guarantee that things will work out. The appropriate quote here to sum up what I want to say is “life happens while you are making plans.” Anything serious could happen that could prevent Coco from continuing, so please don’t hold this against him, or the JALUP method.

As with all experimental ideas, being generous with leaving comments on his posts is important. Tell Coco what you want him to include and what you don’t care about. Make sure that he knows that people are counting on him to continue. Don’t let him give up.

Finally, as I mentioned that this is a new series, I may consider taking on another adventurer if there is anyone else who is interested in joining and doing the same thing. However this is quite different from being an alliance member and requires a powerful commitment. This is someone who is going to dedicate everything in his power to accomplish something great.

Now that I’ve almost taken up half the post here, I should probably let him talk. From the next post on it will be just him.  Let’s let Coco introduce his journey himself. And juts an interesting side note, but all photos posted in the series are taken personally by Coco, and he’s got some real skills, so it’s a little added bonus to look forward to.
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Welcome to my journey. This is a new series where I will fully use Adshap’s method until I reach “fluency” and will write here once a week, every Sunday, keeping you posted on my progress. I will do this for as long as it takes.

I am 53 years old, married, my wife is 28 years old and I have a 3 year old son. I am a freelance musician and photographer, travel a lot, work odd hours, take care of my son 50% of the time, suffer from a chronic lack of sleep, live in a rather small place with my family, work at home when I’m not traveling, don’t live in Japan, and am always short of money.

This makes me the worst candidate imaginable to learn a new language.

In other words – if I can do it, you can do it – and if I can do it, then the JALUP method really works.

I’ve had a love/hate relationship with Japanese for years. My pattern was: study - frustration – stop – s-f-s-s-f-s in an endless loop. This lovely pattern has brought me to level 15 where I’ve been stuck ever since. How about that.

This is going to change as of today. I am sick and tired of not understanding and feeling low about my Japanese, so I decided to do something about it and follow Adshap’s walkthrough, adapting it to my lifestyle and style of learning, and using material that interests me.

The first step was preparing my gear for immersion. I’ve read most of JALUP, which I discovered 2 weeks ago, so I am fairly familiar with his concept. I’ve chosen the Japanese material to start my sentence input phase, and I am now well acquainted with Anki.

Popular language exchange websites like italki

Joining a website like this, for the average immersion method learner, actually slows down the learning process.

Pro: Journal entries corrected, ability to find a tutor, groups that focus on your target language
Pro: Natives are more willing to communicate
Con: Everything is an exchange
Con: Output over input
Con: The input you’ll be getting is mostly from those who aren’t native speakers

Keeping your immersion environment pure with Ameba

Use a website like Ameba, which was made for Japanese native speakers. This is a social network that features blogging, vlogging, an mmorpg called ピグ, communities with forums, a twitter-like interface called なう and other features. Anyone can sign up for Ameba, regardless of one’s email or country of origin (unlike Mixi).

Pro: Various features such as groups, mmorpg (chatting, leveling up, collecting), blogging, etc.
Pro: Input over output
Pro: No burden for an equal exchange
Con: Japanese will be more shy around English speakers
Con: No one will correct your output

Even a beginner can start with a Japanese-only website with the use of a dictionary to help with the registration process.

Choosing an immersion-bridge website

For those who are too nervous to start with a Japanese website, my recommendation is to make a bridge via twitter. Start with switching twitter into Japanese. Unless there is a major layout change, you should be able to remember how to use the website by button memory. There’s a huge community of Japanese speakers on twitter that you can start following and communicating with.

Pro: Control over input/output ratio
Pro: Because it is an international site, Japanese are more willing to communicate, and often appreciate that you know their language
Pro: Beginner friendly
Pro: Limited word count, which means simpler sentences
Con: Limited features
Con: Not completely Japanese

When it comes to using twitter, you have full control of your Japanese/English ratio. While some of it will be unavoidable (such as following friends who tweet in English), you can make the choice to avoid following English speakers that aren’t necessary to follow (such as celebrities and news organizations) and choose instead to follow the Japanese counterpart.

So what websites have you used successfully to obtain a better immersion world?