Learn Japanese FAQ

Q: Love your website Richard and your teaching techniques. Thank you for making it so affordable!
My question is this: I work for a fitness gym specifically for women (there’s one somewhere in Japan). Yesterday one of my co-workers signed up two Japanese women who don’t speak very little English. Because of the Toyota Plant in our area, we have a large population of Japanese people. Anyway, I want to help them get the best exercise experience they can get. What would be some useful phrases I could use to help them with this? Also, are fitness gyms popular in Japan like they are here in the U.S.? – Amy

A: Hi Amy, glad you like the site!

Fitness gyms are quite popular in Japan, but nowhere near as in the US or Korea.  Everyone still seems to be really in shape though, even after all the gorgeous cakes we have here!

For the language then I’d say just learn a few greetings and things.  Many of the fitness terms used in Japan are in katakana, i.e. English words spoken with a Japanese accent.

Having said that you might want to have a look at my Classroom Japanese page.  It’s designed for English or Japanese teachers, but many of the words can be used by all teachers – or even students!

Q: Hi richard, Genki Japan helped me a lot with learning japanese! Thanks!  But here’s my question:
I learned that Japan has 3 types of symbols.  Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji.   But when do you use which type of symbol? -  Tinke

A: Hi Tinke, thank you for the nice words!  Here’s the general rule of thumb:

Use kanji whenever you can.

Use hiragana if you don’t know the kanji or if there isn’t one.

Use katakana for words that come from countries other than Japan or China.

That’s  basically it!  In practice though the best thing is just to read lots of Japanese and you’ll naturally learn when to use which ones in just the same why you naturally know when to use “i” or “I” or “twelve” or “12″!

Be genki,

Richard

Q: Can the japanese read romaji? – Nadia

A: Good question!  The answer is yes.  And no.  Yes because everyone has learnt it at school.  But no because quite a few people have forgotten it (or learnt one of the systems that aren’t popular outside Japan) and mainly because it’s just a real pain and really slow to read Japanese in romaji!

With kanji you can just look at a word and instantly know the meaning, but with romaji you have to sound it out then hopefully guess at the correct meaning.   So although you find street signs and company names in romaji, you hardly ever see any real Japanese written in Romaji!

Q: Richard:

which I read as Music and Games (this is from Amazon.jp by the way.  I was looking at your camera on Amazon.com and someone mentioned it’s a lot cheaper at Amazon.jp but all the menus are in Japanese).

Any help?  Thanks!

A:  Hi Daniel.

The small tsu ッ is an exception if that it doesn’t make a sound, it just means “take a small break”  so with ミュージック　you just put a small tiny pause between the ジ　and the ク　Again it’s one of those things you pick up naturally with lots of listening practice.

The other small kana are pronounced much the same as the bigger ones, but are blending with the previous sound.  So ミュ　isn’t pronounced “mu” and then “yu”,  you blend them together to make myu.  Pretty easy really!

I’ve just got a new camera ( a Panasonic GH1) so found this Japanese garden to video for you!

Q: Firstly, I just want to state how helpful your site has been to me! I find learning Japanese on my own isn’t as hard as i initially thought it would be, because you’re site is so helpful!

I really want to move to Japan, because i love their culture. It inspires me. I’m soon to graduate from high school, and I am thinking of pursuing a career in the aesthetics field, such as a make-up artist, massage therapist, hair stylist, etc. If i went there on my own degree with this credentials, how hard would it be for me to find a job? Thanks for your time! -  Larissa

A: Hi Larissa,  unless you spoke really good Japanese or were super talented, I think it would probably be a bit tough to find a job in a normal company in Japan.  You know what I’d do,  you know those girls on youtube who get famous doing make up on camera?  Well, I’d do your own videos with your own original make up designs, but… present them in Japanese!  Then if you got popular I bet you’d have the TV inviting you over and  you never know where that would lead!

Be genki,

Richard

Q:  In regards to the Katakana chart, you say it is easy to learn and will help you with reading menus or small things in Japanese. This would be true if one knew what the word meant in English, correct?   I appreciate you taking your time in creating a website designed to help others. I find it very useful.   -  Kaitlyn

A: Hi Kaitlyn.  What a very good question!  With regards hiragana, you are absolutely correct you’d have to know what the word means in English for the hiragana to make any sense.  But this is the beauty with katakana, because especially with menus it’s totally possible to guess at the meaning!  For example if you can read パスタ　as “pa su ta” then you can probably guess that it means “pasta” or if you can read サラダ　as “sa ra da”  with a bit of practice you can probably guess it means “salad”.   Hence why I totally recommend learning Katakana before Hiragana if you’ll actually be visiting Japan!

Q:  This could be an error in my own part, but so far, I’ve stumbled across two different words for the same thing in Japanese. Such as, in one list, I have found the word for caterpillar to be “kemushi” where in another it’s “imomushi” How do I tell if they’re right and which to use? -  Sami

A:  Hi Sami.  First of all don’t worry too much.  When you learn any language there are always words that sometimes overlap or sometimes can’t be translated.  For example what’s the difference between “couch” or “sofa” or “living room” or “lounge”.    In this case I think imomushi is one type of caterpillar.  But actually the English word caterpillar isn’t a very accurate word anyway!  So just as with everything else, simply listen to lots of Japanese and you’ll soon instinctively figure out which words to use in which circumstance.   And if you are talking you just use one word, see if the reaction is what you expect, and if not try the other word!  That’s how babies learn and that’s the same technique that people who speak many languages use to get really good!

Be genki,

Richard

Q: I love your pages, but there is one thing I think you could do to make it MUCH better.  On your 1-20 video, you show the words you are saying in English.  This helps me with the pronunciation.  On other videos, you only show the words in Japanese, which I don’t know how to pronunciate.   If you were to have the words in both english and japanese, that would be most helpful.  thanks!  -  Keith

A: Hi Keith.  I can understand your frustration with this, it can often seem much easier to read the English letters.  I also know I would get many more visitors if I used them more.  But….  although it might seem that it is helping you with the pronunciation, all it is doing is making you pronounce the Japanese with an English accent.  You won’t be able to tell the difference yourself but  if you pronounce the words as they are written in English you will have a lot of difficulty being understood.  I see it all the time with people saying something that is just slightly off, but it’s totally incomprehensible for  a Japanese person who doesn’t know English (i.e. nearly everyone!)

So what to do?  Just listen to the songs!  Eventually you’ll find them sticking in your head, then you can watch the video and link the Japanese symbol to the correct sound.   This way you’ll hace the correct pronunciation and will be understood!   I promise you this will make a huge, huge difference with your learning.   Just as with anything a little extra pain at the beginning will bring much bigger rewards at the end!

Be genki,

Richard

Q: Hello,
I love the way you have made little songs for certain subjets. I was wondering, I have an I pod touch. Can i also download it to it?  Thanks -  Elena

A: Hi Elena,  yes everything works perfectly on the ipod touch.   You can either watch the videos free on Youtube or you can buy the download pack to use offline!

Be genki,

Richard