My friend and I are both approaching our sixth year of studying Japanese. We each took 4 years in high school and continued in college. Textbook burnout happened fast, especially after we found such resources like the Tae Kim guide, and the Asahi Shinbun kids’ articles. This summer, we decided to take it to the next level. So, a few months ago, my friend and I put together a collection of news stories, commercials, anime, and dramas: probably a good 40 hours worth (not counting 200 episodes of Pokemon. There are no subtitles if we can help it. We planned out a TV schedule, rotate in and out news and episodes, and try to watch at least two hours a day of this. Weekends, we generally stay up an entire night at least one day; my study buddy can handle this, but I could not. I usually fall asleep around 4, still absorbing the language.

This is much more enjoyable that watching a shoddy quality broadcast of TV Tokyo through Keyhole TV or something like that. The high-quality picture combined with actual commercials makes it feel more “real.” Dialogue is clearer and the picture is easier to watch. Plus, sitting on a couch rather than a computer chair is much easier for long durations of time.

The most helpful part of this whole experiment is (and this is the trick here) that neither I nor my friend like drama, or anime, or variety shows at all. We both usually enjoy movies, but this means that we are paying attention to it. When watching some terrible actors in their 20s pretending to be high schoolers, we’re not focused on the story. That’s worthless. Instead, we’re absorbing pure, raw language. You get enough from the setting to figure out the context. And even if you do get hopelessly confused, which is really really rare, it’s only ten minutes til the next commercial break.

Now where exactly did we get all of this material? We got our short news bulletins from JapanProbe; they usually have 3-6 minute stories up a few times a day. These rarely got repeated, unless they were particularly interesting. There are always enough new entries for our purposes. Commercials usually came from YouTube, and these, of course, were played over many many times. Nicolas Cage’s Pachinko ads (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYkw-5htPw0) were usually run every commercial break.

Dramas and anime were usually watched in order, but like I said, we weren’t concerned with the plot, so sometimes we would run random episodes. We canceled one show and brought in another as a midseason replacement. The one constant we keep running is Pokemon, which runs in chronological order and at the end of every other hour. I remember enough of it from my childhood to generally know exactly what’s going on, while finding things that were cut out of the English version. Now, I’m sure anybody reading this knows where to get such material through not entirely legal (read: totally illegal) channels, so I won’t dwell on it.

All this TV has improved my speaking ability beyond what I could have imagined. My friend and I can ask questions about the plot, comment on commercials, and even make fun of the programs pretty much entirely in Japanese. It’s so much more enjoyable than sitting around with a pack of flash cards. Last week we even brought in a newbie to the fold. He only has a year of Japanese, so we’ll see how he turns out. This method is probably even more useful if you are a lunatic and only sleep two hours a night (like my study buddy), but even to the regular sleepers like myself it works marvels.

As for my product, as a lifelong Star Wars nerd I have to go with this: http://www.flutterscape.com/product/no/2295

That site is awesome! My advice is: Stick to one language. They taught us French in primary school, then I took Indonesian in High School for two years then we moved and my new school didn’t have Indonesian so I had to give up on learning a second language or I would have been too far behind :( I’d love to learn Japanese, I just have to find the time! I can count and have a few basics from leaning Aikido and Go but not enough to be of much practical use!

Great contest. I just want to share too! ^_^

I've just finished Level 4 in Spanish at the Instituto Cervantes. It's a good thing I happened to really enjoy it so I decided to put more effort to it. I started watching TvE (TV Espanol) even though half the time I was watching Sesame Street in Spanish. I also started translating my old poems into Spanish. Learning becomes fun.

My brother had two years formal education in Japanese before he left to work as a computer game programmer in Nara. But it was only after living there for 6 months did I notice an incredible improvement in his Japanese. He even picked up the local Kansai-ben as a result. He would also go to Magic tournaments twice a month to meet other people. As a result, he's more fluent that his other officemates who almost never go out of the house.

There's no other way around it. If you don't use it, it disappears. Same principle applies in Medicine: stroke patients need physical therapy to exercise the nerves and the muscles to that it doesn't atrophy. :) Practice, practice, practice.

While you might think it is helpful but most the time ,

Comparing the language your learning to your native language is more confusing than helpful.

I've found that it is easier to just accept that something means something, than to sit there and wonder why.
Find somebody native in the language your trying to learn, and if they don't mind ask them loads of questions XD
I wish I could write more but that's the only advice I can think of besides “Stick with it”

Oh and my choice is the Rilakkuma Pancake Pan
Rilakkuma Pancake Pan
http://www.flutterscape.com/product/no/544

The best thing about the it-is-what-it-is revelation is that you start noticing weird crap that doesn't make sense about your native language, too.

I learnt a lot of english (I'm spanish) just by listening music. Everybody likes music, so the point is finding the lyrics from a song of your taste, and then try to translate it. The more you do it, the less you have to look in the dictionary.
Also, when I was little, my father, my sister and I played Zelda Ocarina of Time in english, and I had to translate a lot of phrases written in english to my family, so they could continue the game. That also helped me learning. I think, If you find a hobby you like (for example: music, videogames, films, tv series, etc) and try to do it in a foreign language, you learn with less effort.

My advice for learning a language is that you must practice every day, it is very difficult to learn a language and it takes a lot of time to focus so you must practice every day! I also suggest watching the language just hearing it can help you pick up small words, and if you are learning Japanese it means you should watch lots of awesome anime or Japanese horror! I also really enjoyed reading even it was hard short stories/folk lore in that language. I did this for my Spanish class and you get kind of interested, you want to know what the characters are talking about. And one short story we read totally reminded me of Lupin the third.

I think the ” It's just a stupid funny USB without its function as a USB.” will get the most likes on facebook! It's pretty hilarious!

luckysluna(at)yahoo(dot)com

Aside from reading books, the best way to learn a language is to practice it. Hours of burying your head in textbooks won't work if you will not use the language. Think using the language you are learning, for example Japanese, and at write at least a one-paragraph composition a day. It will also be helpful if you will watch Japanese television programs subbed in English and Japanese because this will not only enhance your vocabulary, it will also help you learn the correct pronunciation, diction, accentuation, etc.
Also, listen and sing along to Japanese music. Look for the lyrics in Kanji, Romanji and the English translation.
Another technique that you can use is to name everything you see around you in Japanese. This is very helpful especially if you are just a beginner.

I can't say that I have the best insight because I am studying Japanese by myself at home, and have only been doing so for 4 months. But the best attribute that helps me learn faster and that works for me is… passion. Cheesy answer, maybe, but definitely true for my personal situation.

I wasn't interested in Japan before moving there for a couple of years (following the hubby who was there for his job) but while there I completely fell in love with Japan and Japanese people, and my interest went from one extreme to another. For a number of reasons that are not really relevant for the purpose of this answer, I wasn't able to learn much Japanese while living there. Moved to the UK recently, and found myself really missing Japan. Because my interest is not only still there, but is also growing, I read a lot about Japan (love your website and read it regularly!), joined Mixi, and eventually decided that even if I wasn't living in Japan anymore, it wasn't too late to pursue a passion. So I started learning Japanese.

I have a pretty demanding job, but I dedicate at least 30 minutes a day, every day, to studying. This is my commitment to myself and one that is easy for me to have, because it is not forced on me. I do it willingly.

I would say that while other things are certainly extremely helpful in learning a language (whether it be natural aptitude, dedication, practice, time, access to effective tools, etc.), passion is really the driving factor for me. There are no Japanese people around where I live, no Japanese classes that are offered within reasonable driving distance, I have very little free time on my hands, my brain is not the sponge it once was (getting old sucks!) and chances are I'll likely never live in Japan again (sad face). There is really no good reason why I should spend my time learning Japanese other than the fact that it truly interests me and makes me happy. This not only helps me make time for it, I'm convinced I'm also learning faster and retaining better because of it.

Learning Japanese helps me keep in touch with my Japanese friends, make new friends on Mixi, and access a lot of information about Japan that I formally was not able to access, either because it's in Japanese or because I wasn't able to interact with as many Japanese people. Knowing a language gives insights on the culture that you wouldn't get if you didn't understand the language.

I have a long road ahead but as I (slowly) make progress, every e-mail I exchange in Japanese, every Japanese children's book I read, every little opportunity I have to use what I'm learning, is like a small victory for me. It's my motivation and the best advice I can give — develop a passion for the country and the culture surrounding the language you are studying. Try to talk to native people. Read about the traditions and history. See if there is anything that “clicks” with you. Once you find that interest, the drive to study will come naturally, and even if you don't have the right tools at your fingertips, you'll find ways to continue learning and progressing.

Wow. The best way to learn a foreign language is by *total immersion*… living in the country where the language is spoken… going out every day and interacting with the signs, the people, the culture… this is how to gain the quickest understanding of the language.

If not that, then it’s good to have friends from that country/culture who can speak, read, and write the language to help you with your practice.

If not that, then it’s good to have areas near where you live where immigrants from the country of the language you want to learn are common. You can visit Japan-town, or China-town or the Russian area or the Italian area or the Filipino area… and by visiting the markets, the bookstores, and the other establishments in these areas, you can pick up a sense of the language.

If all else fails, you can get phrase books and text books at your local bookstore (or through online booksellers). Be sure to get those that are accompanied by cassette or CD or MP3 audio recordings so you can get the sounds of the language right. Without the audio, you language learning will be severely hindered–particularly because sometimes the books don’t explain well how various characters in the language should sound in certain words and in certain sentences. Also make sure that you have the audio of both male and female speakers–in many languages there is a major difference between how different sexes will speak the language –both in choice of words and in how the words are said.

I’ve covered more of this here: http://www.squidoo.com/foreign_language_learning

I’ve studied Japanese for 6 years (and have been to Japan 5 times — with subsequent visits to areas that speak Japanese as well… plus, I’ve worked with Japanese companies). I’ve also studied Russian for a year and a half, Spanish for a year, and Mandarin Chinese for a semester. Each language has its own particular quirks and differences that make learning it a unique experience.

And. … it would be fun to have some of the Transformers from the Flutterscape. Hard to decide on one.

私のアドバイスは使うこと、話すこと。私がNZに滞在していた時は、周りに日本語を話す人がほとんどいなかったから、下手な英語で毎日友達や、仕事の仲間と話した。日本語を話しても通じない環境だったから、どんな時でも伝わるように努力したし、必死だったな～＾＾でも今は日本にいるから、あまり英語を話す機会がないし、英語を話さなくても生活できる環境だから、NZにいた頃に比べると、全然だめだけど、、、＾＾；　あと、人に教えるつもりで学ぶととても身につくって言われているけど、本当にその通りだと思う。自分が得た知識を人に話す事は、自分の頭の中で整理ができて、さらに理解できるようになる。声に出して発言することは、記憶するためにもいいことだと思う。

Here's my entry for the giveaway =)
http://shoujikishindoi.blogspot.com/2010/08/my-…

i went to japan as a singer last dec2006 since it was my first time to travel to japan, i dont know anything, as in anything, from their culture, and especially speaking, reading and communicating. it was so hard for me that time, i spent my first whole week crying, and wishing to come back to the philippines, for i felt i dont belong there, but my friend encourage me and so as my manager to learn the japanese language, everyday they teach us how to write, im proud to say i learn to write hiragana and katakana in one day ^__^, i may also say that the easiest way to learn how to speak japanese fluently is to practice yourself talking to japanese, it is much easoer to learn, plus you are building friendship with them at the same time. now im always looking forward to go back there, i miss japan so much, the people, food and all.

Rakubiki is so jam-packed with features you’ll never be able to use them all. The DS + Rakubiki Jiten combo is much cheaper than ANY electronic dictionary and also plays more Zelda games. There’s no reason not to get it.

I am about to start my third year (fifth semester) of Japanese; I’ve also studied Chinese, Spanish, Scots Gaelic, a tiny squinch of French. In addition to taking Advanced Japanese this semester, I’ll also be studying Beginning Russian and Italian–I’d also like to study Korean independently.

Obviously there’s no “best” way to study languages–it all depends on you and your language learning style. It also depends on the language. And on what resources you have available to you (if you don’t have the time or money to fly to Japan and go total-immersion, that’s obviously not a viable option for learning the language.) Let’s take a closer look:

YOU AND YOUR STYLE:
Some people have to study constantly and aren’t able to retain information as effectively as others. Some people skim the chapter and seem to know all the rules and vocabulary by heart (We loathe and envy those people). The most important thing, in my opinion, is finding the key to your own memory.

For some people, flashcards are great; personally, I don’t have the patience to make them up or to remember to practice with them. When I learn kanji/han-tzu, I find that the best way to remember them is to write them over and over. When I first studied Chinese, I had to copy even simple han-tzu dozens and dozens of times. However, the more you learn, the easier it gets. Look for patterns; invent visual mnemonics; DEFINITELY familiarize yourself with radicals so you can recognize them. For example, if you know that a lot of words about time have the sun radical in them, when you’re trying to remember, say, toki (ji, time), if you know that it begins with the sun radical, it’s a lot easier to remember the rest of it as well. Conversely, if you come across a brand new character, sometimes you are able to say, “Well, it has this particular radical… and I have context for it… I bet it means something like…” Being able to make an educated guess is a great achievement.

I don’t really recommend listening to music (artistic license can cause weirdness), but I DO recommend watching movies, dramas, television, or anime, and/or listening to radio or podcasts. You’re not going to learn much in the way of vocabulary (you may pick up a few oft-repeated phrases, especially if you watch shonen sports animes–”Masaka! Sugoi!”) but one benefit that you WILL receive is that you will familiarize your ear to the sounds of the language. When I first began watching anime, it sounded like an unbroken string of gibberish; within two years, I was able to recognize breaks between words and sentences without ever stepping foot into a classroom or doing any independent study. It was something that just happened by developing my ear for it. (You also pick up a lot of habitual or ritual gestures and the like.)

Probably the biggest influence on my language learning was studying how infants and toddlers acquire their native language. How do they do it? Obviously, they don’t have flashcards or critical reasoning skills; their advantage lies in something that cannot be replicated–the basic structure of the brain at birth and the exponential growth it goes through during the first eight to ten years of life. We simply can’t compete with that. But we can take it as a good example; when you learn a language, have the attitude of learning like a child learns: Be positive about it, be curious, ask questions. Don’t be afraid of making mistakes. Ask yourself the sort of questions that a child would ask, then answer them. “What’s this called? Enpitsu. What do you call this color? Akai. Why is the sky blue? Shiranai, ne!” Words are more important than grammar or syntax. Think of how a two-year-old converses (single words or short phrases, yet is somehow still able to make him/herself understood. “Milk!” “Mama!” “NO.”) This isn’t an excuse to stop studying and practicing your grammar, but it is a tip on where your priorities should lie–it’s worthless to know how to ask where the bathroom is if you don’t know which word meant bathroom (and if you can’t immediately think of fifteen more vocabulary words to ask where various other important things in your life are located). WORDS, not grammatical structures, are the building blocks of language.

The more you know about yourself and the ways that you learn, the easier it will be to tailor your study to your own needs, goals, and habits.

ABOUT THE LANGUAGE (Things to Study OTHER Than Vocab):
Obviously, you’re going to study in different ways for different languages. If you learn Japanese, don’t waste six hours a day practicing verb conjugation. Japanese is an INCREDIBLY logical language with very few exceptions to its rules. Therefore, learn the rules, learn how to apply them, practice as often as you need to, and move on with your life. The important things to practice in Japanese are not the important things to practice in Chinese–when I studied Chinese, I spent most of my time learning to read and write han-tzu characters; Chinese does not conjugate ANYTHING. However, when I studied Spanish (and probably when I study Italian in the future), I spent quite a bit of time with verb conjugations, but absolutely no time at all with the writing system (duh, Latin alphabet). Russian is going to be a whole ‘nother kettle of fish entirely, and I have no idea what I will be focusing on most (probably case agreement endings; also, I hear prepositions are weird).
Identify which part of the language is most important to the language (other than vocab, because vocab should always be your #1 priority).

It’s also important to choose a language that you enjoy, for whatever reason. I adore Japanese because of how logical it is and how it just MAKES SENSE (unlike English, which makes NO SENSE AT ALL). I prefer Italian over Spanish because it sounds prettier. Enjoying (or even loving) a language DEFINITELY helps motivate you, but remember to have other factors involved, because love isn’t always consistent.

(PS. Loving all over the Potechi no Te. I think it would be useful for many things besides potato chips~)

My best advice is to really learn that nation/language’s history and culture. For me, learning about Japanese history helps me to get an understanding of the origins of certain aspects of the language. For example, I found out that the reason why the Japanese language uses 3 “alphabets” is because they started with Kanji, Kana came from Kanji (but couldn’t work without it), so now they use all 3. Also, if you can understand a Nation’s culture, it can help you to understand modern variations of the language. That’s my piece of advice :D

These are a few strategies I’ve taken to memorize my Kanji:

1. I love doodling. Each time I try to remember a Kanji I end up drawing something funny to help me memorize. Sometimes I relate those drawings to one pronunciation of the word. Which makes me think, I’ll probably start doodling on my cat to remind me of the Kanji ‘Neko’!

2. I follow Japanese Language twitter. I get Kanji updates on my phone and it helps me recall the Kanjis I’ve learnt before. Everyday before I sleep I try to recall all my Kanjis. Guess you ain’t going anywhere with no discipline.

3. I also listen to some Japanese podcasts on the way to work. It really helps with my listening skills and authentic conversations. Suddenly a Hello Kitty mp3 looks to tempting. http://www.flutterscape.com/product/no/1511

Happy learning a new language! Ganbatte!

ps: The flutterscape product that gets my vote for the most likes would probably be the taiyaki cap:
http://www.flutterscape.com/product/no/3675

I believe when learning a new language you need full dedication. Not to just attempt to learn the language for a week then quit it because it’s to difficult. The reason it may be difficult at first is obvisouly because your a new learner! But there are MANY ways you can begin to learn a new languge!!! Listening to Recordings and Tapes of say English to Japanese will most certainly help you with learning Japanese! Usually being surrounded by people who speak the language you’re trying to learn will help, but if not possible asking others who are interested in learning the language you want to learn to study the language with you! Reading books, Watching TV, and Listening to music in the new language you’re learning will be very helpful! Practicing everyday is a habit you will need to make! Practicing for only 10 minutes each week won’t be enough time! Full dedication is needed for learning a new language! Getting family members to learn the lanuage with you may help, so you’re not studying alone and getting bored! When I needed to learn Japanese terms I wrote down the japanese word on a flashcard with the pronunciation under it and I taped it to the objects that the words meant. and whenever I passed by or saw that object with the flashcard on it I would say the japanese word outloud and in less then 2 weeks I could say almost every piece of furniture in my house! All of this is a big help in helping learn a new language I believe!

Go and live in the country

Use Textfugu! =D And Smart.fm…!
Get the basics down first (hiragana and katakana) and move on from there…! =)
Besides.. textfugu is awesome… ;)