How can I improve my Japanese vocabulary, grammar, and listening skills?


I consider myself at a lower intermediate level. I want to improve my Japanese
vocabulary and grammar in order to expand my reading and speaking skills. I
know enough Japanese to get around and have a small conversation. However,
reading grammar books is not cutting it and I dont feel like making flash
cards from index cards with vocabulary to memorize (though if it's necessary,
I will).

Eventually, I would love to take the JLPT. For now, the only thing that is
helping me a little bit is listening to music in Japanese and looking over the
lyrics. I came to the point to replace the lyrics from romaji to kana and
kanji. I sometimes try to read news articles in Japanese as well. "Thinking"
in Japanese grammar certainly helps a lot. Somehow, if I listen to music and
repeat the lyrics over and over again to myself, I begin to know their
meaning. When I was a kid, I know realize the meaning of Japanese children's
songs I've been singing.

What do you suggest?

PS: as a funny note, upon waking up one morning, I was thinking of this person
I really like(ed) and somehow, my mind said 「I miss your 事」because I could not
find any other way to express this feeling in English (or my native language).

Thank you!!




To get better at Japanese as a whole, you need to practice every aspect of the
language on a regular basis. That means reading, writing, listening, speaking,
AND knowing under what situations/conditions certain things are appropriate
and inappropriate (this often gets left out of study guides). No point in
systematically learniing keigo if you aren't also taught that it can actually
be inappropriate to use at certain times, for instance. For example, overusing
keigo with people that are on your "inside" circle of people (family, friends)
can actually come across as patronizing or insulting. Anyway, I'll go ahead
and tell you what I do, and you can maybe see if it works for you.

First thing to know is that Japan loooooves qualification tests. There are
qualification tests for pretty much every aspect of life, professional and
personal. I totally would not be surprised if there is a test for measuring
how well you can wash dishes or do laundry. I personally really like this
system, and I focus my overall goals around qualification tests. I don't
believe, however, that the JLPT is an accurate measure of skill, which is why
I think it's also a mistake to solely study just for one qualification test. I
just use qualification tests as an overall goal marker. One thing to know as
well is that you need at least JLPT Level 2 before any serious Japanese
company with a Japanese environment will consider you, if your goal is
employment in Japan that isn't English teaching.

There are three Japanese language tests that are very relative and very
important:

  * Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT), which you already mentioned
  * Kanji Proficiency Test
  * Business Japanese Proficiency Test (BJT)

What you choose as a goal marker should depend on what your overall goals are.
If you just want to get a job in Japan, you can safely focus on just JLPT and
BJT, skipping the kanji test all together (that doesn't mean you can skip
studying kanji, though!). If you want to study the language as a whole for
personal enrichment/knowledge, you can focus on the JLPT and the kanji test,
skipping the BJT all together (that doesn't mean you can skip keigo, though!).

My personal method of study is pretty lifeless, but it works for me.
Basically, I just pick one qualification test (say, Kanji Level 4, or JLPT
Level 1), I pick up a book or two on JUST that topic, and work through it,
cover to cover, no excuses, no burning out.

Then to supplement that as I'm going through it, I read one Japanese news
article per day. But as I read it, I also copy it by hand into a notebook,
even the stuff that I understand. This is particularly helpful in just keeping
writing skill up, since you rarely need to actually write kanji by hand
anymore. I also go through the article, and without any self-deception or
cutting myself any slack, ask myself, "do I understand this sentence 100%,
including all grammar, vocabulary, and kanji?" The answer is quite often,
"no." Even if I "get the idea" or understand it 99%, there's most often at
least some kanji that I know the on-yomi for, but not the kun-yomi, for
example. So I ruthlessly then make flash cards for every single element that I
didn't know, whether it be a grammar point, or just one kanji.

For me, flash cards are key. Primarily because by MAKING the cards myself, I
end up researching and writing out the content I didn't know, and by just
doing that, I pretty much memorize it before I even have to actually use the
flash card.

Listening and speaking with Japanese people is the best way to get your
listening and speaking practice in. The key that most people screw up, is they
don't stop a conversation when the other person says something they don't
understand. Nodding your head and smiling is a huge mistake. If the other
person says something you don't get, don't make an assumption that "it
probably means this or that," stop the person right there and say, "sorry,
what does that word mean?" I've never met any Japanese person who isn't happy
to help out.

However, if there's not always a Japanese person around to practice with,
Japanese TV is your best friend. Not only is it super entertaining because
it's so whacky, most TV shows are like an hour or less, so you can watch the
same thing several times to fill in the blanks without burning out. The key is
to watch the same thing more than once, and to imitate what you hear, keeping
the inflections and tones intact. Works best if you're alone, so you don't get
embarrassed.

So I do the above, consistently, every day, mixing things up until I finish
the book for the test that I'm aiming to pass. By that point, I can pass the
test with flying colors, and I learned a whole bunch of other stuff along the
way including new speech patterns and new vocabulary.

Like I said, this all totally depends on personal preference and how you
learn. The key to any method of learning though I think, that I see time and
time again, and that I'm sometimes guilty of as well, is self-deception. Don't
study for the sake of getting to the end of a chapter so you can stop
studying. You have to really want to be studying. You also can't use excuses
to not study, like "oh I have a cold today, I'm just going to take it easy
today," because then you start doing stuff like that, and eventually you find
excuses to work yourself down to like one or two days a week, and then
eventually you just stop, saying you'll come back to it soon, but never do.
The key is consistency, not letting up, and being hard on yourself.

