Increasing Your Written Output Through Twitter
Most of what consists of your studying has probably been input. You read Japanese. You listen to Japanese. Read, listen, read listen, read listen. So you start increasing output. You read cards out loud. You develop your inner monologue. You sing to your favorite songs. You mimick and shadow. You talk to people.
I want to add one more. One that is quick, easy, and provides immediate results.
Twitter.
This simple way of outputting (practicing writing) is so easy:
1. Your output is short and very easy to write. One sentence. Maybe even one word. And you’re done. No big challenge or time sink.
2. You can write what you know. No need to go beyond your abilities creating bad habits. Write what you can.
3. People respond to you, and that makes you happy.
4. If you don’t know how to start a sentence, copy others. With Twitter, you can start to get the hang of how people respond to other people’s tweets. Copy them. Add in or change a word, but use their structure. If you want to respond to a tweet, see what the list of people have said that have already responded to that tweet.
I think picture tweets are the easiest way to start, as it is simple to look at a picture and respond to that picture.
Let’s take an example:
Assuming you can’t think of the proper way to respond here, look at some of the first responses from others
You’re getting the keywords here that you can use. 巨人 (giant/titan), 嘘 (fake, lie), 骨(bones), でかい (large). You can simply copy others’ phrases and slightly arrange them.
骨がでかい! (The bones are large) or 巨人の骨! (A titan’s bones!)
All I did was take their keywords and made my own phrase. Many authors will respond to your tweets and you can have some fun.
Now go output.
About giants and bones and other stuff.
Founder of Jalup. iOS Software Engineer. Former attorney, translator, and interpreter. Still watching 月曜から夜ふかし weekly since 2013.
ニコニコ is also a great place to do this kind of simplistic output, I feel. Particularly if you’re watching a long series of videos, you start to get a feel for how people react and what some of them will say, as a lot of people will make similar comments on any given situation. You feel more like part of a big audience that way when you throw your own variation into the ring.
Great addition. The only thing to watch out for are when there are too many comments on the screen at the same time.
I really want to try the whole Twitter thing for Japanese. Trouble is I never got into it, even in English. I need to figure out the very basics first – like a good handle >_>
Love the idea, though :)
That’s the weird thing… Everyone who I tell I use twitter is like… “Twitter? I never got into that.”
But it’s so different when you’re in the Japanese community. Lots of Japanese people use Twitter. It’s a good way to stay connected and involved.
So I definitely recommend it!
Plus, you can do Tadoku (readmod.com) if you have a twitter account! Coming up with a name is always the hardest part <(^_^).
It’s pretty simple to set up and get used to. Definitely give it a try!