How I learn new Japanese vocabulary

Learning new vocabulary is not only essential but necessary if you intend to master a new language. Whether you are a beginner or if you're an advance level student, there will always be new vocabulary to learn.

I divide my learning stages into 7 days in order to ensure that I am able to retain the new vocabulary. I've learned that SRS apps such as Memrise and Mnemosyne are great if you want to learn to recognize 漢字 (or read) but if you want to be able to write, the classic pen and paper technique is the only thing that works best.

Learning Schedule:

Day 1
Select article / learning material.
Try reading the article with the help of a dictionary.
Create list of about 25-50 new vocabulary. (100 if you are ambitious.)
Learn (memorize) up to 50 new vocabulary words on Day 1.

Day 2
Review 25 words.
Use SRS app to decide which word to review.
Otherwise, read the list you've made.

Day 3
Review 25 words.
Learn up to 50 new words.

Day 4
Review 25 words.

Day 5
Review 25 words.
Finish learning remaining new words, if any.

Day 6
Review remaining words.
Try reading selected article / learning material without help.
Review words you were unsure of.

Day 7
Try reading selected article / learning material without help.
Review any word you are still unsure of.

Repeat with new learning material or continue reviewing for another 7 days.
Try to get new learning material every 1-2 weeks.

If you're ambitious and you chose to learn 100 new vocabulary a week, review 50 words at a time instead of 25.

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If you are even more ambitious you could try a 4-day regime:

Day 1
Select article / learning material.
Create new vocabulary list.
Learn all new vocabulary words.

Day 2
Review all new vocabulary words.

Day 3
Try reading selected article / learning material.
Review words you are unsure of.

Day 4
Try reading selected article / learning material without help.
Review words you are still unsure of.

Repeat with new material.

Feature Request: Copy Text to Clipboard

Looking through my past feature request post I found a solution to one of them. I found a keyboard shortcut that works with rikai-kun (for chrome) that lets me copy the words that pop up. Here's a list of all the keyboard shortcuts for rikai-kun. The copied entries are tab-separated so you can paste it directly into Excel or a text-based file to export to flash card software or applications.

Keyboard shortcuts when popup is visible

A	Alternate popup location
Y	Move popup location down
C	Copy to clipboard
D	Hide/show definitions
Shift/Enter	Switch dictionaries
B	Previous character
M	Next character
N	Next word

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Japanese Dictionary
jisho.org

I was using Weblio for translations but it has a lot of advertisements so loading the page takes too long. Jisho.org is a simpler site that loads faster. Kanji characters have furigana so you can read the example sentences or words you are looking up. The site also uses hash tags to help narrow down searches. You can even use them to call up specific word lists for studying.

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Japanese to English Translations
Linguee

Linguee comes up with common translations for words and this site also gives example paragraphs of how the words are used. You get the context in which the words are used.

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New link for Jim Breen's WWWJDIC EDict
wwwjdic word search

JLPT N1 Preparation Course (Memrise!)

Once you've passed JLPT N2, you're ready to speak to Japanese people, read signs, and be able to live a normal student life in Japan as a foreigner. Your Japanese isn't perfect but you get the gist of most conversations and you are able to build your own lexicon of Japanese vocabulary used only by you and those around you.

So, if you think you're ready to take on JLPT N1, you might have to think twice. I found out the hard way that the leap from N2 to N1 was massive! First of all, you will need to know 2000 漢字（かんじ・Chinese characters). That's twice the amount you were required to know in N2! Next is a list of advanced grammar patterns that you've never seen or heard of. It's almost impossible to learn them on your own without someone to explain them to you. Especially if you don't have a good grammar book.

Anyway.

The test consists of the following sections as far as I'm concerned: Vocabulary, Grammar, Reading Comprehension, and Listening. Since it's Japanese, vocabulary comes in two parts: recognition and recollection. Or being able to read the 漢字 and being able to recall the 漢字. The following online resources listed are what I intend to use to prepare myself for the JLPT N1 in July. The list I have compiled includes flash cards made with Memrise; an excellent SRS app that does what I expect flash cards to do. (I've vetted each deck to suit my learning style.) I'm using a drill book concurrently to keep track of my progress weekly.

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VOCABULARY (Memrise)

Phase I (Must complete to pass, at least)
JLPT N1 2000 Vocabulary Words

Tanos N1 Vocabulary (non-cumulative list; alphabetical order)
Tanos N1 Vocabulary (non-cumulative, random order)

(Drill Book Supplement)
Verbs, Na-Adj, Nouns
Adjectives
Nouns
Wago Verbs
Combined Verbs
Combined Words
Difficult Readings

語彙まとめドリル。新日本語５００問。
文字まとめドリル。新日本語５００問。
文法まとめドリル。新日本語５００問。

Phase II (To get a better grade)
JLPT N1 Comprehensive
JLPT N1 Kanji
JLPT N1 Revision
JLPT N1 Vocabulary (1)
JLPT N1 Vocabulary (2)

Phase III (If you have the time)
JLPT N1 Vocab and Readings
N1 Vocabulary
完全マスター漢字N1 (1)
完全マスター漢字N1 (2)

Phase IV (After you're done with JLPT) - not so much for preparation but if you have the time why not? xD
読み方が同じになる漢字
日本語の小説

http://m.nestle.jp/recipe/from1/cook/scene/cut 料理に用語辞典

Japan's Prefectures
Complete Japanese Keigo
Japanese Cooking and Ingredients

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GRAMMAR
JLPT N1 Resources
JLPT N1 Grammar Usage
Old JLPT Level 1 Grammar Guide

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READING COMPREHENSION
Free N1 Quizzes
Fun Reading Materials
Reading Practice

JLPT Practice Test (free trial)

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LISTENING
JLPT Official Practice Workbook
Shadowing Practice (Core Sentences)
Shadowing Practice (Full List)

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EXTRA
A Guide to Japanese Grammar - Tae Kim

This is just something extra if you're interested in learning Japanese. This flash card deck should be used with the source website (Tae Kim's Japanese Grammar Guide), which is an excellent starting point for learning Japanese as a beginner.

耳から覚える日本語能力試験

I finally found out where my previous Japanese language school got their material from. The material was straightforward. It explained the sentence structure and grammar rules and had example sentences to support them.

「耳から覚える日本語能力試験」はその本のタイトルです。

Loosely translated, I suppose the title would be "Learning by Ear, Japanese Language Proficiency Test".

Guess this will be what I'll use to study~~

Feature Request: Automatically Save Web Content

Maybe it already exists, maybe it's just a worthless dream, but I really hope that there's an app or software for this.

I'm an amateur translator who can only translate Japanese to English or Mandarin to English. Because I'm an amateur I often have to look up words in dictionaries to check if my translation was correct. While this isn't difficult, with many awesome online dictionaries available, I would like to actually be able to save the results I found. For future reference.

Why would that be important?

Well, I love learning new languages and increasing my vocabulary would be a lot easier if I can just remember the words I just learnt. The problem is, in order to do that, I have to constantly copy and paste words from the dictionary result into another document before I can process the words. (I create CSV and TXT files to import into flashcard programs such as AnyMemo or Mnemosyne.)

So I would love it if there's a program out there that would help me download the dictionary results I found into a text file or something.

That reminds me, if there's a software that can automatically insert the exact date and time when I open a file or start typing or start... something, that would be great! (Even if I have to click a button or list the actions to trigger this function I would still want it.)

Haven't found anything useful online but maybe I will. (I forgot I used to use this blog to track good websites.)

Useful Japanese Sites

It's been a long time. Two whole years! I haven't seen this site for TWO whole years!

Anyway :)

Found a list of useful Japanese sites and thought I could share should anyone wish to find them:

Yamasa Institute - Online Kanji Dictionary for Kanji Stroke Order


You may search for the desired kanji either by:

+ typing in the kanji / copy + pasting the kanji into the search box +

+ searching for the Japanese word and clicking on the kanji in question +

+ searching for the Japanese translation of the English word and clicking on the desired kanji +

+ refer to the JLPT kanji list (old list) +

Jim Breen's WWWJDIC

Site for text glossing. It translates a sentence or a paragraph to the most likely meaning (usually accurate, some discretion may be necessary).

Space ALC

An English-Japanese translator. Best used with Jim Breen's WWWJDIC - Text/Word Glossing site. Actually, a lot of Japanese-related sites are best used with Jim Breen's WWWJDIC.

Weblio Honyaku
+ Japanese-English dictionary +