Flamin' and Arcade Myself!

Let’s start by giving a good number of reasons why learning Japanese might be of interest to you.

** You may be about to travel to a Japanese speaking country

** You have an opportunity to occupationally train some colleagues who only speak Japanese

** You want basic Japanese for business reasons and want to become more valuable at your job by being bilingual

** You are a fan of Japanese animation films, video games, manga comics and want to want to enjoy them more fully without relying on subtitles

** You would like to read books, magazines, and web sites written in Japanese

** Enable you write to and email Japanese speaking people

** Feel more confident and comfortable around Japanese speaking people

** Allow you to get hired by a multi-national business firm and possibly even work and live in Japan

** Japanese fluency definitely stands out on a college/university application, resume or curriculum vitae

** Just enjoy the possibility of making tons of new Japanese friends

Besides that, it would be pretty impressive to be able to tell your family, friends, and members of the opposite sex that you “speak Japanese”.

Your goal should be to learn to read, speak, and understand modern Japanese. Obviously this can’t be done from just a book. One of the better proven ways of doing this with less effort is utilizing “picture learning”. This method appears to better lock the language into your brain. Some computerized courses feature this approach to build vocabulary in terms of understanding, speaking, reading, and writing Japanese. This system makes the whole process more fun and can have the student mastering hundreds of words in a matter of days. Make sure that whatever course you take covers both the Hiragana and Katakana Japanese alphabets. The better courses utilized a “game” type approach to reduce boredom, stimulate interest and improve speed of results.

Once you gain the competence in Japanese, you will open up many personal and business related opportunities. For example, the U.S.A. does more business with Japan than any other country. You will be a valuable employee if you speak the language of the customer. Japanese is among the top 10 languages on Earth and spoken by over 130 million people. “Speaks Japanese” looks great on a resume or curriculum vitae, no matter what your line of work.

In Japan especially, language has been grooved by culture. So as you study Japanese you also discover and learn more about their wonderful culture. Stepping outside your own culture and language will give you a fresh, new perspective. In addition, Japan has lots of great music that can be appreciated so much more because you can now understand it.Let’s start by giving a good number of reasons why learning Japanese might be of interest to you.

** You may be about to travel to a Japanese speaking country

** You have an opportunity to occupationally train some colleagues who only speak Japanese

** You want basic Japanese for business reasons and want to become more valuable at your job by being bilingual

** You are a fan of Japanese animation films, video games, manga comics and want to want to enjoy them more fully without relying on subtitles

** You would like to read books, magazines, and web sites written in Japanese

** Enable you write to and email Japanese speaking people

** Feel more confident and comfortable around Japanese speaking people

** Allow you to get hired by a multi-national business firm and possibly even work and live in Japan

** Japanese fluency definitely stands out on a college/university application, resume or curriculum vitae

** Just enjoy the possibility of making tons of new Japanese friends

Besides that, it would be pretty impressive to be able to tell your family, friends, and members of the opposite sex that you “speak Japanese”.

Your goal should be to learn to read, speak, and understand modern Japanese. Obviously this can’t be done from just a book. One of the better proven ways of doing this with less effort is utilizing “picture learning”. This method appears to better lock the language into your brain. Some computerized courses feature this approach to build vocabulary in terms of understanding, speaking, reading, and writing Japanese. This system makes the whole process more fun and can have the student mastering hundreds of words in a matter of days. Make sure that whatever course you take covers both the Hiragana and Katakana Japanese alphabets. The better courses utilized a “game” type approach to reduce boredom, stimulate interest and improve speed of results.

Once you gain the competence in Japanese, you will open up many personal and business related opportunities. For example, the U.S.A. does more business with Japan than any other country. You will be a valuable employee if you speak the language of the customer. Japanese is among the top 10 languages on Earth and spoken by over 130 million people. “Speaks Japanese” looks great on a resume or curriculum vitae, no matter what your line of work.

In Japan especially, language has been grooved by culture. So as you study Japanese you also discover and learn more about their wonderful culture. Stepping outside your own culture and language will give you a fresh, new perspective. In addition, Japan has lots of great music that can be appreciated so much more because you can now understand it.

For more information on learning japanese then just simply visit our site learn japanese.

I recently had the chance to talk to an American living in Japan, who had mastered the Japanese language. He told me he first took some free language lessons online, but those didn’t clear up much so he followed a local language course in his home town. Slowly, he managed to build up his knowledge and eventually he learnt Japanese but as he told me, it was a long, hard process that almost drained him of his energies.
Since I noticed this is the case with more and more people that start learning Japanese, I decided to write up a small guide featuring a few fun ways to learning Japanese “organically” instead of following a strict, boring and oftentimes annoying step process.
Now I’m not a scientist, but I do know that when we have fun doing something, we automatically learn new information without even knowing it. Take a medieval themed PC game for example. While playing it and having fun, you’ll also be learning bits and pieces of history. The following Japanese fun learning methods are based on the same concept.
Fun Ways to Learn Japanese – Anime and Manga
Oftentimes these two terms are confused. Manga means “comic book” in Japanese, whereas the Anime refers to the animation of a Manga comic. Think about the X-men comics… they were “Manga” first (the actual comic books), after which they became Anime (the cartoons) and nowadays, they’re a movie series. Anyway, it doesn’t really matter what you call them, Anime and Manga are a good way to learn Japanese naturally and they’re quite fun to watch/read.
One particular advantage of Anime and Manga is that most of these comic books or cartoons have a limited word and phrase list in use. You’ll be amazed how quickly you can catch on to these basic words, so Anime can be used as a starting point to your Japanese learning process.
Fun Ways to Learn Japanese – Movies and Music
I’d rate movies a much better learning source than music, but hey, if you’re into Japanese music, why not use it as a helping hand in your learning process? Movies have the advantage of offering the audio-video combination which helps you understand what’s going on easier. They can also be subtitled in English, which can be a good or a bad thing, depending on the quality of the subtitles (however, since Japanese words often have extensions in English translations, subtitles can be more harmful than helpful).
One movie I found particularly interesting in this sense was “The Last Samurai” starring Tom Cruise. I won’t go about the movie’s plot, suffice to say that an American veteran finds himself trapped in a Japanese samurai settlement, learning their ways and learning how to speak Japanese. While the Japanese folk are teaching Tom Cruise some of their language, you’ll be picking it up as well.
Fun Ways to Learn Japanese – Flash Cards
Flashcards are well known to be a great way to learn a new language, but they’re even more useful when learning Japanese. Using flash cards to learn Japanese is fun and it will boost your vocabulary in no time. If you can’t find suitable flashcards on the Internet or in local stores, try making your own! Just cut up some cardboard in matching sizes, write an English word on one side and the Japanese translation on the other and practice with it. Try splitting the cards up in nouns, adjectives, verbs and so forth so they’re easier to handle. You can also try drawing up what the word on the flashcard illustrates and it doesn’t really matter how skilled you are in drawing: even a rough sketch or a silly stick figure will help your brain memorize words easier.
I didn’t add raw conversation in between these fun learning methods, simply because if you’re that far into the Japanese learning process as to be able to hold out a conversation, then you really don’t need the above mentioned methods. I found that learning Japanese, more so than any other language, is like a rolling snowball. The further down the hill the learning process is, the faster it goes and the bigger your knowledge base gets. Once you get started, it’s easy to become fluent in it. Just remember, learning Japanese is only as hard as you let it become.

There are many reasons why you must visit Japan and learn Japanese. It could be the thriving economy, gorgeous landscapes, ancient culture, or interesting people. If you still require persuasion, this list will definitely do the trick.

You can learn Japanese for many reasons. An ancient culture, a thriving economy, interesting people, and splendid landscapes are some of the things the Land of the Rising Sun boasts of. You’ll be hard pressed to pick your main reason, though this partial list will strive to persuade you; and if it doesn’t, then perhaps a hop to Japan will convince you. But first, the list.

Akira Kurosawa – Director Extraordinaire

You have missed the art of extraordinary director Akira Kurosawa if you have not seen Throne of Blood, Seven Samurai, Dreams, and Ran. With his attention to detail, beautiful landscapes, gripping stories, and climactic scenes, these movies are a must-see for the serious movie buff. Because these are all created in the director’s native language, you have to learn to speak Japanese in order to experience these movies’ timeless appeal.

Japanese Anime

Obviously, Japanese anime isn’t for everyone. When you are used to animations by Pixar and Disney, anime’s attributes like the onomatopoeic typography, speech bubbles, and over-the-top physical attributes can be strange. However, it does have engaging storylines and fantastical creatures. You will have a good reason to study Japanese with Naruto and Dragon Ball Z.

Chindogu, A Japanese Art

Japan boasts of various art forms such as the tea ceremony, ikebana, and origami, but none is as interesting as chindogu. This art form is all about inventing inconvenient gadgets for regular use, but with the most noble intentions. In fact, these inventions only ever bring on the laughs as an achievement.

Maybe you’re interested in a tissue dispenser atop your head as a hay fever hat? Or perhaps a noodle-eater hairguard to keep away hair from your bowl of ramen? You might be able to transform these chindogu items into profitable items if you speak to the inventor; thus, why you must study Japanese. Strange things like these actually occur.

Japanese Food

From sushi to wasabi, Japanese food is a delight to the senses. It might seem very easy and very pure on the surface, but the creation and presentation involve much effort and a perfectionist’s attention to detail. To speed up the process of learning how to cook like the Japanese, you should study Japanese! After all, you want to learn Japanese cooking, not annoy your chef-mentor with running questions on what anko and umeshu are.

Japanese Fashion

Japan’s outlandish street fashion can’t be topped, even by New York. You will enjoy the avant garde costumes donned by Tokyo’s young people like Ganguros, Lolitas, Bosozoku, and Kogals.

If you still need reasons why you must study Japanese, consider that Japan is the fastest rising economy in the world and they’re the third largest Internet users. These should wake you up to the business opportunities Japan has to offer!

Japanese Animation or Anime is one of the most beloved kinds of cartoons all over the world. These are basically cartoons that are based on Japanese Manga series, or comics that were brought to life by being animated. If you want to learn to draw Japanese Animation, here are the things that you should know.

They Are Based On Manga

One thing that you should remember when drawing Japanese Animation is that they are based Manga. Thus, the style of drawing would be pretty be pretty much the same, only that they are moving for the animated version. Here are some things that you should take note in drawing this style of cartoons.

Characters Have Wild Hairstyles

If you observe characters in this kind of genre, you’ll see that they usually have wild hairdos. More often, male characters have long hair. In fact, there are some shows that sometimes men are mistaken to be women because of their long tresses. Their hair colors are also wild too. You can see pink and green haired characters. The style of their hair could be very extreme also. Often times, their hair would be sticking up and out to different directions.

When drawing hair, all you have to do is draw them into clumps that would stand as hair strands. For female characters, ponytails, headbands, pigtails and loose hairstyles are common. For men that have long hair, loose let down hair is also in fashion along with ponytails. Bangs are also in for both sexes.

The General Male

Most male characters would be muscular. A lot of them are depicted to be warriors of some sort. A lot of them are also lean and tall. It is normal for you to see blue or even pink colored hair male characters. However, this doesn’t really mean that they are gay.

The General Female

Most female characters are depicted to have slim bodies and long legs. These features are also emphasized by the type of clothing that females wear. More often they wear clothing that shows off their long legs, especially if the setting of the story is in the modern times. The breasts are also prominent. Women also have sharper chins and snub noses.

Little People?

Do not be surprised if you get to see characters that look like little people. These are called “Chibi’s”. These are basically distorted versions of characters. Although proportion is a rule when drawing, Chibis are intended to have a distorted proportion. This is done to achieve a ‘cuteness’ factor. This type of drawing is usually applied for child-like characters. They have big heads, small bodies, big eyes and no nose.

Villains For villains, characters are usually drawn to be more realistic. There is more shading to make their faces look scarier and the lines used are more crooked than smooth and straight. You could usually find them in the form of mafia’s or gangs. Big bosses are also usually not seen. Body parts such as hands, feet or a mouth smoking a tobacco are the commonly used images whenever the big boss is focused on.

Cute Vs. Macho

For cute Anime’s the drawings are often simplistic with huge eyes and a lot of hearts and touches of pink. However, for macho type of Anime’s, the characters have more details and are rendered to be more realistic.