Learning Japanese in a year_ Manga-style explanation! - Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips — Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips

7/29/2019 Learning Japanese in a year_ Manga-style explanation! - Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips

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Learning Japanese in a year: Manga-styleexplanation!

| 89 comments | Category: guest post,particular languages

Todays guest post is fromMars Dorian who writes over atI luv Empire which is his online comic and

project to make the world a more epic place. Mars is German and we hung out while I was living in

Berlin (and talked together in German of course).

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This post shares his Japanese learning story and strategy presented in his Japanese Manga-like

drawing style with himself as the main character! Its over to you Mars!

1) Since my early childhood, I was OBSESSED with Japanese culture. I loved the animation, the food and

everything that came from that odd, little country on the other side of the globe. I knew in my guts that I was

DEFINITELY going to go there someday. It was only a matter of time.

2) Then in my early twenties, when I was in Australia, it came to me: I was living with Japanese peeps in China

town, and I said to myself: Hell Im going to Japan next and Im going to dominate this language in less than

a year!

I knew this was going to be a tough challenge, but I have a passion thats strong enough to melt the moon, and

the focus of a Terminator hunting down his target. And you know what? I did indeed succeed in this mad quest.


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This is how I did it:

3) Total immersion:

Since I was going to live in Australia for almost a year, I had to bring Japan to ME. And that meant buying

Japanese books, listening to Japanese music, eating Sushi, consuming Japanese cartoons and animationhell,

even getting a Japanese girlfriend. I completely surrounded myself with my target language, in order to get the

MAXIMUM input.

Lesson: Do the same. Bring your target language into your daily life. Change the language settings of your

browser and mp3 player, eat that food, watch online videosyour imagination is the only limit here!

Join almost 1/2 million


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4) When it came to actually learning, I focused almost exclusively on the 1000 most used words in Japanese. It

turns out that if you understand the 1000 most used words, you understand about 80% of daily conversations.

This brings many advantages: First, you understand your target language much sooner, and as a sweet side

effect, youll raise your self-confidence which results in better language learning!

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monthly

readers!

Contact Me

Coaching and Consultation
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5) Fake it till you make it.

Often said, but works like magic in real life. Its a well-known psychological trick that if you ask yourself What

would (insert person here) do?, you begin to act like them.

Thats why I pretended to be a Japanese at times, mimicking their gestures and speaking flow. Its amazing how

powerful it worked my pronunciation improved dramatically!

And remember: its a learning aid. Its not about going crazy and being someone you are not
http://www.fluentin3months.com/fake-it/


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6) Have redonculous fun.

You may say this is obvious, but its NOT. Many times I learned the language when I was in a bad mood and

just didnt feel like it, and as a result I didnt learn much!

Being in a good state DRAMATICALLY increases your receptiveness the better you feel the better you learn

So, make sure you get into kick-ass mode before you learn hell, dance like a monkey on fire if that helps you.

But do it in your target language


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Well said Mars! Dance like a monkey on fire, but do it in the target language Check out more of Mars great

comics on I Luv Empire, and leave your comments below about his tips on this post!

***********************

Enter your email in the top right of the site to subscribe to the Language Hacking League e-mail list for way more

tips sent directly to your inbox!

If you enjoyed this post, you will love my TEDx talk! You can get much better details of how I recommend

learning a language if you watch it here.

This article was written by Benny Lewis

Comments: If you liked this post or have anything to say, please leave a comment! I love reading them

Just keep in mind that Ill delete any rude, trolling, spammy, irrelevant or way off-topic comments. Also,

use your REAL name, not a brand or business one, and dont link to your site in the comments unless its

relevant to this post.

If you have a general language learning question, please ask itin the forums. Otherwise please use the

search tool on the right for any other question not related to this post.

How to Learn 2,000 Kanji in 3 Months: Mission Possible (Very similar post)

What makes learning Polish so easy? (Very similar post)

How to speak French like a Quebecker - Le qubcois en 10 leons (Very similar post)

How ditching perfectionism helped me speak Spanish all evening for the first time (Quite a similar

post)

Handcrafted audio for remembering what you learn (Quite a similar post)
http://www.fluentin3months.com/handcrafted/http://www.fluentin3months.com/ditch-perfectionism/http://www.fluentin3months.com/quebec-french/http://www.fluentin3months.com/polish/http://www.fluentin3months.com/2k-kanji/http://www.fluentin3months.com/forum/http://www.fluentin3months.com/about/http://speakfromday1.com/tedxhttp://iluvempire.com/


8/18

Multilingual San Francisco: Susanna takes on Spanish, Italian & Russian; Benny interviews

Brazilians in Portuguese [video] (RANDOM - Somewhat similar post)

35 comments

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OldestOldest CommunityCommunity ShareShare

Mars Dorian

thanx for the opportunity Benny.

I hope your community gets fun & inspiration out of this graphical post.

9

WC

I would add a couple things to the list:

Have a way to know you are progressing. I do this by having a series of books and video

that are too hard for me yet. Every once in a while, if I start to doubt my progress, I open

them up and see how muchbetter I can read them. It has never yet failedto cheer me up.

Don't ever give up. Take vacations, but don't quit. So long as you continue to study, even if

you only average a few minutes a day, you will continue improving. I know this because

my average is somewhere close to that. At 4 years, I can read a lot of manga, some novels,

talk to natives (haltingly... need to practice more!) and I even watchedSpace Battleship

amato the other day in Japanese, with Japanese subtitles.

I don't live in Japan and the only practice I get is what I bring to myself. It can be done.

You just have to try. And not even very hard.

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Mars Dorian >

Nice man, you are on a MISSION !

Winners never quit, quitters never win ;)Thanx for sharing your experiences here !

2

DrD

Where do you find the top 1000 most commonly used words in Nihongo??

11 1

roy | roymarvelous.com

Great article Mars & Benny. Love the art and the advice! Okay, now to learn some more

Latvian. I've been here for 1.5 weeks and I only know 5 words :S

Mars Dorian >

haha, 5 words Roy ?

I know you can do better ;)

1

Tergiversator_Maximus >

Technically that was six words.

dylan freeman >

Spend 20 minutes and you'll double that.

Eri

Sounds like you were hardcore even before you decided to learn the language! I somewhat

was as well because I pretty much only listened to Japanese music @.@ The only thing is

that a person like you, who loves Japan and isn't afraid to show it, is often labeled a

'weeaboo' by other people. I often don't tell anime fans that I'm learning Japanese becausethis is what'll happen. They'll just say 'pfff weeaboo, you'll never actually learn it'. They

automatically assume that the only reason you're learning Japanese is to watch anime or

read manga. And while I will admit that was my initial reasons, I now have a very close

Japanese friend who I want to converse with more in Japanese than in English.

So like, did you ever have trouble with this? I'm sure everyone at some point has

encountered someone telling them they wn't succeed, but these people are just monsters. I

wouldn't want to end up on the weeaboo stories tumblr with an exaggerated story about how

I was trying to convince everyone I know Japanese if I just tell someone I'm trying to learn
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10/18

.

4

Katie Senn >

I'm not Mars, but you should definitely keep going for it! Anyone who judges you

like that so quickly definitely has not had enough time to figure out whether that's

true of you or not. Don't give up on something that's important to you. I believe you

can do it. And whatever reasons you have for learning a language, if they motivateyou to do so, are valid. (Y ou don't strike me as being weeaboo in the least, btw)

Wherever your passions begin to take hold, keep going! Everyone's gotta start

somewhere, and you've already expanded your reasons beyond what they were when

you started. Why turn down a chance to do something that makes you happy and

could enrich your life in surprising ways because of a few idiots?

2

Tomos Burton

>

I briefly had that happen to me a long time ago. And I was just making

ouTube poops of Kamen Rider Kabuto, which isn't even that weaboo-ish. I

also used to be on JapanForum, where they thought that word was

acceptable, but if anyone say made an AMV they said it was ''unethical''. I wa

also once accused of lying about having been there. Needless to say I don't go

on there any more. Yeah, I think people that use that word are nothing more

than internet trolls.

Cannovan

Hey Mars

Sounds a bit like the AJATT method - apart from the 1000 most used words in Japanese, but

I like the sound of that.....

Love the images

Mars Dorian >

eah, I got heavily influenced by that.

It's a great system.

1

Midlife Singlemum

I admire your single-minded determination. The first requirement when approaching a new

language is to have the right motivation. This was a big part of your success i think.
http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#comment-242746990http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#comment-242668307http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#comment-242718093http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#comment-242668307http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#comment-243557844http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#comment-943466428http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#comment-242620153http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#comment-243557844http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#


11/18

Cannovan

Mars - can you recommend a website that provides a list of the 1000 most common japanes

words? Possibly with kanji/hiragana/katakana - pronunciation - english translation

KB >

Google 'Japanese Core 2000'. It's the list most people seem to use. If you use Anki

(SRS software) you can also find it in the 'shared decks' list.

1

Mars Dorian >

yeah, download the free flashcard system Anki http://ankisrs.net/

From there, you can download many free language decks (including those 1000-

2000 Japanese words)

2

Chris

Love the artwork and the message.

I think a lot of us get stuck on learning only from books when theres much better and much

more fun materials around. Book work is too serious, especially if its text books. A languag

is more than a text book! I blame school for this.

I love the idea of pretending to be native. Benny did this too when he first got to Turkey. I

havent tried this but it sounds like a lot of fun and a great excuse for people watching.

ou dead-on about getting yourself in the right mood for learning. I think Malcolm

Gladwall calls this priming. I do it occasionally when Im going for a Dutch session I

picture bright orange blood going round my body and then Im wearing a Dutch football and

I score a cracking goal because Im Dutch 100%. I should do this more often as I do feel

much better afterwards.

Thanks again for the message

Mars Dorian >

haha, luv the Dutch immersion - you should do it more often it's truly helpful if done

on a consistant basis.

And yeah, I don't read that many text books - it was more a full media assault on all

on my senses. Really make it FUN for you to learn that language.

Everything that's feels like a drag won't help you get better - the more fun the faster

you learn.

N Huuquy
http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#comment-244158876http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#comment-243570297http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#comment-244611432http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#comment-243570297http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://ankisrs.net/http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#comment-242835725http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#comment-243849898http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#comment-242835725http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#comment-243056637http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#comment-242835725http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#


12/18

o ay am so uc y us ecause a rea e ey o ge e new anguage rap y rom

Mars. Thank you very much. I wish I knew it sooner.

Thank you.

Mars Dorian >

don't worry - it's never too late ;)

Patrick Taylor

Very fun article. I 'm gonna share with others. Immersion learning is ideal, but it isn't easy,

that's for sure.

Crno Srce

Nice drawings!

Immersion works a lot better when you're either single, or your partner speaks your target

language. My wife gets annoyed sometimes if I listen to German radio through my

headphones! I suspect there aren't many partners who would be keen on total immersion if

they weren't involved as well. My advice - try this approach before you get in a long-term

relationship!

One other note is just that perhaps the "top 1000 words" idea works better for some

languages than others. As an example, I once downloaded a list of the 1000 most frequent

German words, and quickly realised that it may not be that useful :-) I did know all the very

basic words, so that's one reason, but also, on a purely lexical basis "der" appears with high

frequency, as does "zu", but you can't just look them up and then say "ahah! now I know

these words, therefore I understand the sentence!". Also, there is a well noted inverse

relationship between word-frequency and semantic contribution to a sentence, which means

you might have fantastic recognition of 80% of the vocabulary, and still have absolutely no

idea of what is being discussed. Still, it's a bad idea for a place to start off with building a

vocabulary...

2 1

Crno Srce >

Sorry - correction. That last sentence should be "Still, it's NOT a bad idea for a place

to start..."

oops...

1

Cstroh31

ou're amazing...and motivating. Great Japan page! thanks for sharing your adventures
http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#comment-245566057http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#comment-244739884http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#comment-245676556http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#comment-244739884http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#comment-244665030http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#comment-244158876http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#comment-244609737http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#


13/18

an your grea eas

:)

Andrew

Fantastic article, I completely agree with you about the total immersion bit and especially on

focusing on the most frequently used words when you're first starting out (as you said,

learning those in the first couple of weeks will help IMMENSELY because it allows you toimmediately understand most of what you hear, a huge confidence boost and springboard to

learning that other 20%) and have actually written up something about that (it uses Spanish

as the example but applies to all languages) and included an awesome study and frequency

list for anyone interested: How Many Words Do You Need to Know in Spanish (or any other

foreign language)? And WHICH Words Should You Be Learning?

Hope you find that helpful, and congrats on your success, Japanese is high on my list of

languages to learn, I've actually studied it a bit already and think I'm going to go back to it

after I learn French (which is next, I'm still working on Spanish at the moment).

Cheers,

Andrew

1

Jose Villarroel

I love this post. I 'm currently studying Japanese with a text book that seems to be really

good, it's named NIHONGO: JAPANESE FOR HISPANIC SPEAKERS.

Jos Villarroel

Oh, I forgot to say that I'm a languages enthusiast too. I am a native Spanish speaker,

advanced english, intermediate Italian and currently studying Japanese as I said before.

Lisa/Ri//

Quite possibly the best summarized version of how to learn Japanese EVER. I completely

agree with all of the above... and I'm glad he added the disclaimer (re pretending to be

Japanese) about not being creepy, just a learning aid. Made my laugh. ^^)/

Lucien Splinter

Hi Mars,

I really loved this post! I'm learning to be a teacher of Japanese yoga, and I have a number

of Japanese teachers. It definitely helps if you mentally try to put yourself into their frame of

mind. Also, I totally agree on learning way better when you're in a good mood, and laugh a

lot. Not only do you learn faster, but you're being a more enjoyable person to be with, which
http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#comment-259774246http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#comment-248191146http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#comment-247406306http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#comment-247405205http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://howlearnspanish.com/2010/08/how-many-words-do-you-need-to-know/http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#comment-246016445http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#http://www.fluentin3months.com/japanese-in-a-year/#


14/18

triggers others to help you more.

Benny, thanks for sharing this with us,

Lucien

Konichiwa!

Loved this! One thing though, and I could be so very wrong and sound so very stupid, but...

on the "Total immersion" slide, on the shirt i think it might be wrong 0_0. Isn't it supposedto be I


15/18

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