Immersion: Tools I use

I realized I have never shared what I use to immerse myself in Japanese.
I thought it'd be fun to share that, and hopefully you might find something useful here.

iTouch Apps

I am very much addicted to my iTouch. 

It's a pocket-computer for me.

I'm never without it.

I also changed the language setting to Japanese.

Before I even get out of bed I listen to Daily Audio Bible Japan. (Free)

Each day a chapter of the Bible is read. The female reader is relaxing to listen to.

(I'm very picky about voices when it comes to podcasts). I don't understand much of what is being read, but I'm sure a higher level learner will know from where they are reading. They say it in the beginning and if you have a Japanese Bible you can read a long. Each podcast is less than 10 minutes.

Now there is a Daily Audio Bible by the same team in English. But they do not read the same passage as the Japanese version. There's also a Proverbs podcast and I hope that they'll make one in Japanese also. 

A podcast I like to listen to before bed is one called Japanese Classical Literature at Bedtime. (Free) This one also has a nice female voice. This one I would say is advanced. I have no clue what is going on. It is good nonetheless. If you like classical literature I recommend this podcast.

I have no idea how I found this one, nor how to pronounce the title. This one comes with a free book and other stories available for purchase. Again, a nice soft voice to listen to. The text appears on screen as she reads. It's good practice to improve reading speed and see how the sentences would be read. You can skip to a certain page, pause and come back, or have no sound. 

The books you own are archived and you can select to see the written text as a whole. You can see by who and when it was written. The story that comes along free with the app is a very old and famous work. 

I have not bought any other books on the app yet, but I plan to in the future. I enjoy reading a long.

This is probably the most popular app for Japanese. (free) Kotoba is a electric dictionary. One thing I really like is that it does not need wi-fi. You can:

Search in dictionary either in romanji or kanji, see the stroke order of kanji, example sentences, conjugation in either formal or informal, look up kanji by school grade or JLPT level, and save words into custom folders. 

This is SO much better than traditional dictionaries!

 

On-line sources

Before using anki I used Asahi kanji. I still like using this to test myself. There is also an iTouch app for this. N5 is free on the app but then you have to buy the rest. The website is completely free. 

I love using this site to read stories. Some of the stories have a recording so you can listen and read along. Great for comprehension and improve reading speed. The recordings are also downloadable so you can carry it along with you.

Erin's Challenge is great. It is a free program that was once a paid material. It has skits with the dialog written, review questions, manga, and a lot more things. It is a nice interactive course. If I didn't have Genki this would be my main tool.

I follow a lot of blogs, but I focus on two main ones: JALUP and Tofugu. JALUP is more of a guide blog. It has many good entries that help clear up the muddle and difficulties of learning Japanese. Tofugu has many entries on different topics, and the tips for improving on how to learn Japanese are helpful.

I like reading Rachel's site for motivation and seeing how another immersion method learner is learning. 

I read this Japanese blog for entertainment on a topic I enjoy.

Recently I am in a 小グループ on google+ that meets once a month. We are all Japanese learners and are slowly trying to make our group be fully in Japanese. 

Skype is another great tool if you have friends in Japan, YouTubers, or mixi buddies.

When I'm on the computer I use Denshi Jisho as my online dictionary. When I want to know what a kanji means or how to pronounce it, I use Rikaikun. You simply scroll over the word and it will show you the meaning and how to read it. My social network sites are all in Japanese.

Desktop

I think there is enough information out there about Anki. So I will simply say it is a great tool.

I've recently bought 30 day eBook from Tofugu which I hope will help me with my studies.

I love using Evernote to organize helpful information I've found online for Japanese. Tofugu has a good article about this here.

Out and about

Rachel suggested to me the idea of making CDs of episodes of dramas or anime to listen to when on the commute. It is enjoyable and a challenge. This helps to really focus on the dialog instead of subtitles or the action on screen.

I keep a little memo that I take to work. I write down vocabulary I want to learn and keep it with me at all times. 

When I feel like learning Japanese through video games I play My Japanese Coach. I think it's a nice leisure way to study.When I want to focus on writing Kanji I like to use 美文字トレーニング. I also have a children's calligraphy set if I feel like going old-school. 

That is pretty much it. I was thinking of doing what books I use and shows I own in a separate post with video. Would you guys be interested in seeing that? Would YouTubers I follow be interesting too? I'd do it sometime in May.

 I hope this post was helpful.

Let me know what podcast, apps, sites, blogs, and games you use. I'd really like to know! 




I do not lay claim to any of the images used.