The learn2lingo blog

The team here at learn2lingo would like to send our thoughts and wishes to the people of Japan. With students and teachers all over the world, we really feel it when there is such a disaster.

Rinko’s lovely guest post about learning Japanese online last week mentioned some interesting words that the Japanese language borrows from English. It’s interesting that among those that the English language borrows from Japanese in return, one of the most commonly used is tsunami.

Tsunami literally means ‘harbour wave’ when translated into English and it was first used in English in the late 19th century*. It’s also used in a wide variety of other languages from Indonesian to Spanish.

Let’s hope that we can share as much in the relief efforts as we do in language and that people from all over the world will get out there to help our friends over in Japan.

NOTE: If you would like to help victims of the tsunami and earthquake, Mashable has put together this excellent guide of easy ways to help online.

*according to the Merriam Webster Dictionary

Hello, my name is Rinko. My home town is Nagoya in Japan. I am currently teaching Japanese to corporate and private groups in London and Brighton. I have also experience teaching English in Japan. I teach Japanese online with learn2lingo.

英語の勉強を始めようか迷っていますか？「子供の頃からの文法中心の授業のイメージが強く英語があまり好きではない。」「読んだり書いたりすることができても、聞いたり話したりすることが苦手。」「旅行の時だけでも、少し話せたらいいな。」「映画を字幕なしでみたい。」「仕事や受験のために必要。」と英語を学びたい理由は様々だと思います。
英語はご存知のとおり、日本語とは全く違った言語です。　しかし現在は多くの外来語がカタカナで表現され、それらの単語が日本語のように日々使われています。例えば、皆さんもよく知っている通り、電気機器（コンピューター、デジタルカメラ、ＤＶＤプレーヤー、マウス）や食べ物（チョコレート、チキン、スープ、パイナップル、ジュース）などの単語は私達のまわりで、たくさんの英語が使われています。そして、日本特有の言葉がそのまま英語になったものもあります。「マンガ、すし、酒、テリヤキ、オタク、アニメ、カラオケ、折り紙、津波、指圧」などが例に挙げられます。最近では「引きこもり」が英語として認定されていて、「もったいない」が世界環境問題の合言葉になっています。どちらの言葉も欧米では正確に表現できる言葉がなかったからだと考えられます。このような普段から聞いている共通の言葉が増えた英語を習うということは以前よりも非常に身近に感じられます。また、英語は他のヨーロッパの言語よりも比較的勉強しやすいと思います。スペイン語、フランス語、イタリア語などは英語よりも動詞の変化が多いです。そして　男性名詞、女性名詞などがあるので、私達日本人にとっては慣れるのに時間かかかります。しかし、これらのヨーロッパの言語も英語をマスターしてからの学習は優しく感じられるのではないでしょうか。
英語を勉強して、得ることはたくさんあります。①情報交換が日本だけではなく世界に広がる。最近はインターネットを通して、直接海外の人とコミュニケーションができるようになり、また多くの外国の人が日本に住んでいるので、会話をするチャンスが多くなってきています。②海外旅行がしやすくなる。英語を話さない国に旅行をしても、コミュニケーション手段は英語になることがほとんどです。③今までにはなかったネイティブスピーカーの持つ感覚がわかようになる。それによって話すことがもっと楽しくなります。④　映画、テレビ、音楽が聞き取れる。⑤　 資格がとりやすくなる。　⑥　ビジネスで役に立つ。毎日の生活で「英語を習ってよかった」と思える時が他にもたくさんあるでしょう。

英語を習得するのは難しい？と思っている人。外国の人が全然知らない日本語を勉強するのとは違って、ある程度日本人はアルファベットも読めますし、上記で触れたように耳慣れしている言葉が多いので、意外に身につきやすいランゲージです。英語を勉強するにあたって必要なことは“楽しく学ぶ”ことと“自信を持つ”ことだと思います。そのためには覚えた単語や文章を使って、出来る限り口に出す練習をすることです。口に出す練習は自分でＣＤを使ってもできますが、最近ではパソコンを使ってネイティブスピーカーと直接会話ができるオンラインレッスンもあります。授業料が低めですし、好きな時に好きなだけ勉強することもできます。パソコンとウェブカメラがあればご自宅以外での場所、出張や旅行先のホテル等、どこででもレッスンができます。忙しくて、英会話学校に通えない人でもレッスンを受けられるチャンスがあります。いつでもどこでもできるオンラインレッスンも１つの勉強方法として有効に使ってみてはいかがでしょうか。

面白い英語のフレーズ！

1) 朝飯前（とても簡単）
A piece of cake ：直訳 “ケーキ一切れ”
例）This examination is a piece of cake.
(この試験はとても簡単。)

2) 土砂降りの雨が降る
Raining cats and dogs. :直訳”猫と犬の雨降り ”
例）It’s raining cats and dogs all day.
(一日中土砂降りの雨がふっている。)

Hello, my name is Rinko Sakuma. My home town is Nagoya in Japan. I am currently teaching corporate and private groups in London and Brighton. I have also experience teaching English in Japan.

I will be happy to guide you in your Japanese studies whether you are a complete beginner or seasoned learner; please find me on learn2lingo for a one to one online Japanese lesson.

So you want to learn Japanese online and join the 130 million people around the world who speak this beautiful and complex language? Japanese is unique in its development being distinguished by a complex set of rules and structures that mirrors the hierarchical nature of Japanese society through the ages. This means that there are several “honorific” forms which indicate not only status but other subtleties defining the relationship between the speaker and the listener. It also has three ways of writing “scripts”; Hiragana ひらがな, Katakana カタカナ and Kanji 漢字. Hiragana and Katakana are syllabic scripts as opposed to Kanji which are derived from Chinese characters.

Sounds complicated? Well actually learning Japanese can be easier than you think as Japanese contains many “loan words” literally borrowed from other languages. Although many come from Asian roots there are hundreds of words you will instantly recognise as being French, German and English. These words are most commonly written in the Katana script: バイク(Baiku=Bike) パソコン (Pasoconfiltered=Personal computer) アルバイト (Arbaito , from the German Arbeit/work= part time job) This means that when you start to study Japanese you already have a fairly large starting vocabulary! Japanese is easy to pronounce having only five pure vowel sounds. Once you have mastered the syllabic alphabet of Hiragana you will be able to pronounce most Japanese words with little difficulty. In addition to this, Japanese grammar has no dedicated future tense, often using Present forms to indicate future events. One less structure to worry about! The grammar is also easy to understand but is very different from English; In Japanese, the sentence should end with a verb. The simple sentence structure is [Subject] [Object] [Verb].

Japanese unlike most western languages, has an extensive grammatical system to express politeness and formality. Most relationships are not equal in Japanese society. The differences in social position are determined by a variety of factors including job, age, experience, or even psychological state (e.g., a person asking a favour tends to do so politely). The person in the lower position is expected to use a polite form of speech, whereas the other might use a more plain form. Strangers will also speak to each other politely. Japanese children rarely use polite speech until they are teens, at which point they are expected to begin speaking in a more adult manner. It is difficult for a learner to understand these cultural elements of the language without guidance from a native speaking trainer so why not find one on learn2lingo!

And finally some interesting phrases to try!

１. A piece of cake
朝飯前（asameshi mae) :literally meaning ” before breakfast”
E.g. Kono test wa asameshimae.
(This test is a piece of cake.)

2. I’ve heard of it a thousand times.
耳にたこができる (mimi ni tako ga dekiru)：letelly meaning” I get enough calluses on my ears”
E.g. Kono hanashi wa mimi ni tako ga dekiru hodo kiita.
(I ‘ve heard of this story a thousand times.)

It’s a common myth that reading childrens’ books in another language is a good way to develop your language skills. The idea is that because they are written for children, the vocabulary and grammar used will be really simple and easy to understand.

Let’s look at an example of this from the first line of Beatrix Potter’s famous book The Tale of The Flopsy Bunnies:

It is said that the effect of eating too much lettuce is “soporific.”

‘Soporific’ clearly isn’t the kind of simple vocabulary you would expect to encounter as a beginner in a new language. The sentence structures used in these books are complex too, and the plots, which are obviously aimed at children, will have a ’soporific’ effect on even the most diligent adult learner.

So, how can kids’ books be useful to an adult learner? Comics are a good start. They are written in a style similar to spoken language and the pictures provide a context to help you guess the meaning of words without needing to keep looking back at your dictionary.

You can even use comics to practise writing. Just take a comic strip, blank out the dialogue and write your own. You could translate a comic strip from your own language into the one you are learning. You could even draw your own little cartoons to practise new words or phrases.

Translating nursery rhymes you learnt as a kid into your new language or even learning a few new ones is another good way to remember basic vocabulary. The reason these songs have survived so long is that they are really catchy so using their melodies is a perfect way to help you remember all those new words.

Another great resource you can borrow from your children is TV shows. Most modern kids’ TV is designed to have some kind of educational content. When you’re a beginner in a new language, watching Dora the Explorer counting her magic stars or singing along with Oscar the Grouch on Sesame street is a certain way to fix numbers, colours and the letters of the alphabet in your mind in your new language. It’s fun, too – a perfect way to relieve stress after a busy day.

The most important thing adult learners can learn from children, though, is to approach learning with a natural curiosity and not being afraid of making mistakes. This can be a little difficult in a large class full of people but in a private online lesson, you can make all the mistakes you want with no fear of embarrassment. Perfect for recapturing your inner-child.

Today’s image is by Alejandro Heredia.