You are in Control

http://www.nils.gr.jp

The students at NILS Japanese Language school go on a day trip to visit the Atomic Bomb museum in Nagasaki Prefecture. They had fun visiting a different prefecture, and learning about the history of Japan. The trip to the museum was followed by a picnic in the mark, souvenir shopping, and a scenic bus ride back to Fukuoka Prefecture.

Become fluent in Japanese! NILS is a Japanese Language School located in Fukuoka Prefecture, on the island of Kyushu, Japan. Learn Japanese in Japan! Approximately 200 students from China, India, Nepal, the United States, and Canada are currently enrolled in our programs. Short term and long term courses are available. For more information regarding courses, costs and deadlines, please visit: http://www.nils.gr.jp

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http://tinyurl.com/rocketjapan

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The fastest, easiest, and best way to learn Japanese today is the Rocket Japanese online language course.

Learn how to speak the japanese language fluently in under 8 weeks using the Rocket Japanese language training system.

After going through this online language training course, you will not need a japanese translator or dictionary. You will be able to speak Japanese like a native.

You will also learn the different Japanese characters and words : hiragana, katakana, kanji, and romaji

You will also learn Japanese writing.
Get the Japanese language training course here:
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http://tinyurl.com/rocketjapan

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Duration : 0:0:42

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This is a tribute our teacher (Alvin E. Dimaranan) & to all of our classmates that gave their very best in keeping their faith in finishing this course together.

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Japanese culture

It is well known that the Japanese are somewhat ceremonious in the way they carry out negotiations, from the initial meetings to the concluding stages. A foreigner, or ‘gaijin’, as the Japanese are wont to refer to westerners, may find Japanese culture and traditions so daunting that they may fight shy of pursuing the effort. Japanese culture enjoins a deep respect for elders, attention to detail and a commitment to spending time de-stressing after work.

Some of the important aspects of doing business with the Japanese include:

Pay serious attention to the business card

At the start of any business meeting, the Japanese conduct a formal exchange of business cards, which is referred to as ‘meishi kokan’. The one receiving it is expected to take the card in a most deferential manner with both hands, read it carefully, speaking aloud while doing so, and then place it in a cardholder or on the table in front of them, makeing a reference to it during the course of the subsequent proceedings. It is considered disrespectful to the giver, to simply put the card in one’s pocket upon receiving it.

Be Deferential to senior staff at the workplace

The Japanese value their elders for the wisdom and experience they provide to the organisation. It is therefore customary to always address the highest-ranking person present when making the opening remarks during a meeting. It is important never to openly disagree with him or her. When bowing – which is the Japanese form of greeting — one should always bow deepest to the senior most executive.

Avoid getting emotional

The Japanese believe in keeping their emotions in check, and abhor any display of emotion in the workplace. They speak in a low, measured tone, and will often close their eyes when paying close attention to a speaker which to the casual onlooker might appear to be a sign of boredom.

Make use of connections

It is important to establish your credentials through forming the right connections in Japan. As wsith any geography, it makes abundant business sense to be in the good books of those who are influential, as a way to gain entry into the right business circles. Business people often seek to arrange meetings with high-ranking officials to request their endorsement. This does not mean that merit is ignored, but that having the approval of a high-level official is a form of corroboration of the firm’s capability and commitment.

Important phrases

Japanese is the sixth most widely spoken language in the world, considering that over 99% percent of the country’s population speak the same language, although there are a number of dialects in different geographical areas. It is definitely advantageous to know a few commonly used phrases in Japanese when you are visiting the country. The following are some of them:

Hello: Konnichiwa

How are you? Ogenki desu ka?

Please: Onegai shimasu

Thank you: Domo arigatoo gozaimasu

You’re welcome: Doo itashimashite

Excuse me: Sumimasen desu ga

My name is: Watakushi no namae wa…..

I understand: Hai wakarimasu

I don’t understand: Lie, wakarimasen

Please wait: Shotto matte kudasai

Good bye: Sayoonara

Conclusion

Visitors to Japan for business or pleasure will find the Japanese customs to be fascinating and in many contexts definitely pleasing. For those seeking to do business, it is important to go with the tide as far as Japanese cultural beliefs and common practice are concerned, and to acquire at least a basic knowledge of the language, such as a dozen or so key phrases for everyday usage.

Alicia Taylor
http://www.articlesbase.com/business-opportunities-articles/getting-started-in-business-japanese-136518.html

Catching Up With The Japanese Language In An Online Course

http://EXLsite.com/japanese

One of the major superpowers in the industrial world is Japan. Business executives who want to learn the language can turn to a Japanese language online course to get started quickly and conveniently. A Japanese language online course is there for the taking at the click of the mouse.

There are many good Japanese tutors to give you language classes online. And Japanese language learning software allows you to complement what you are learning. A good Japanese dictionary can help you as well.

Catching Up With The Japanese Language In An Online Course
http://EXLsite.com/japanese

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Technorati Tags: business, class, course, dictionary, industry, japan, japanese, language, learning, manga, online, software

You may need to learn the Japanese language because you are traveling to Japan and want to become familiar with popular Japanese words and phrases. Or you might have taken a class to learn Japanese years before and are now looking for a refresher course. Perhaps you have a great interest in learning to speak Japanese simply because you love the Japanese language.

Whatever the reasons you desire to learn to speak Japanese, you will want to be sure to keep the following advice in mind.

There are many aspects of the Japanese language that you might be considering learning. If you are interested in learning essential Japanese words and phrases to get through a few conversations with those who speak Japanese fluently, then beginning with the basics is the best place to start.

Learn popular words and phrases such as “hello”, “how are you?” and “thank you” first. Then practice using them in your daily conversations with those who speak Japanese. If you do not know anyone who speaks Japanese, keep practicing and speaking your words and phrases daily anyway – practice makes perfect.

If you want to learn Japanese so that you can better understand Japanese etiquette and culture, it is probably best to immerse yourself in conversational Japanese language studies. Learning Japanese this way can be beneficial because you will understand the body language, intonation and communication styles of those who speak Japanese fluently.

Listen to conversational audio, observe fluent speakers interacting with each other, and even try to watch and comprehend Japanese news or other real-life Japanese shows on TV. When listening to others speak Japanese, you still want to try to pick up on basic Japanese words and phrases. However, in learning conversational Japanese, it would be to your advantage to focus on situational phrases and even Japanese slang or expressions as well.

Understanding and using these types of colloquialisms is what helps you to become fluent in the Japanese language. Instead of focusing on basic phrases like “hello” and “good morning”, you will want to focus on how to begin interactions by asking questions like “what is your name?” or “what do you do for a living?”. Japanese etiquette plays a role in conversation, so take notice of the phrases and intonations that younger people use when speaking to their elders or that employees use to speak to their superiors.

It can be very difficult learning a new language. You want to try your best to stay motivated. When learning the Japanese language, you are not only learning to speak new words, you are also learning to read and interpret a different type of writing. Languages such as French and Spanish contain the same letters as the English language, but used in slightly different ways. The Japanese language will be a totally new way of reading and writing for you.

Do not be afraid of making mistakes with reading, writing or speaking Japanese, instead try to learn from your mistakes. Record yourself while you practice speaking Japanese so that you are aware of your mistakes in pronunciation and intonation. Being able to identify your weaknesses as you learn Japanese is the best way to improve.

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http://www.articlesbase.com/education-articles/some-advice-when-learning-to-speak-japanese-59670.html

As with any practice that doesn’t necessarily has a “one way” of being done, language learning has a few common mistakes that apply to most, if not all the available learning methods out there. Whether you’re studying using a free online course, through educational games, translated texts, flashcards or any other method, you’re bound to find one of these mistakes if what you’re using is not of good quality.

1. Learning the new language like a science

The language learning process is by no means comparable to say, learning a particular science or learning a profession. Language learning is a skill and like all skills, sheer, raw information gurgling won’t do the trick. This is a very common mistake that is especially hard to avoid in written language learning methods such as courses, online lessons and the likes. It’s very tempting for the writers of these materials to simply divide the language in big chunks and feed it to you with a large spoon: “here’s the grammar” “here’s the spelling” “here’s the vocabulary”. This will get you nowhere, or if it will indeed have any effect, you will take the longest route to get to it.

2. Taking large breaks

I’m feeling metaphorical today, so let me compare the language learning process to a huge furnace. If you want to light this huge furnace you’ll need to constantly feed it firewood and as you do so, you’ll see the fire growing bigger and bigger. Now, stop the process and the fire will go out and you’ll have to put an almost equally hard effort to get it back on. It’s the same with language learning. Once you get into it and you start getting the hang of it, a large break from studying or practicing could be a killer. Detach yourself completely from the learning and practicing and you’ll find yourself having to bring in a new load of firewood.

3. Learning too fast

There’s a factor that I like to call “learning anxiety” that usually affects persons trying to study a language because of a personal or professional need (your wife’s Japanese, your new business partner is French, your son is Dutch, stuff like that). This phenomenon happens when you’re in a rush to get basic grip on a language and you skip through some of the essential steps too fast. You go in studying grammar without a basic vocabulary, you get into advanced terms before even knowing the basic ones and so forth. This may indeed allow you to understand and make yourself understood in a conversation, but overall, you will take more time correcting your wrongfully learnt concepts than it would have taken you if you had studied them correctly in the first place.

4. Using solely “theoretical” learning methods

This issue could be a problem with 9 out of 10 learning processes, but the language learning one is even more acute. Whether you could pull it off perfectly in say, physics, if you only used theoretical learning all the time and you were suddenly faced with a real, practical problem, with language learning you’re bound to look a fool. Theoretical language learning will hardly form any accurate pronunciation skills and whenever you’ll be faced with an actual conversation in that language, you just won’t be able to express all that theoretical information you stored up.

5. Using the “all work no play” technique

It’s well known that anything you learn while relaxing or having fun, you learn with more ease and the information you store this way is longer lasting and can be used more effectively. You’ll be amazed by the amount of language learning techniques out there that don’t take advantage of this and instead, tend to follow the more rigorous path. Sure, playing vocabulary games, using flashcards, completing quizzes or whatever you could deem as “fun learning” won’t be as fast or intense as the rigid methods, but you get the above mentioned effects and you lose the risk of getting learning fatigue.

6. Learning monotony

Although last in our list, this is by far the most common mistake that you will find with online language courses and even with language center practical lessons and courses. Language learning is a long, arduous process, make no mistake about it. I don’t care what those “Learn Spanish in 2 weeks” course books say, it just can’t be done in such a short time span. Or well, if you consider grasping the complicated inner-workings of phrases like “Hello, how are you today?” in Spanish having “learnt” a language, then so be it. Anyway, the point is that in this long and arduous process, we tend to get bored, we tend to lose the initial enthusiasm when we realize that “hey, this isn’t as fun as I thought, it’s actually hard work”. Lesson monotony does not help this and it’s the main reason most people simply quit a course instead of putting up with it.

To avoid learning monotony, try to mix up your learning methods as much as possible. Use translated texts, use audio tapes, engage in conversations with friends, teachers or other students, watch media in that particular language if available, play educational games, use flashcards, use the dictionary to improve your vocabulary, do ANYTHING you have to do, just don’t let learning boredom overcome you, because trust me when I say this, it’s a foreign language killer in way too many cases.

Michael Gabrikow
http://www.articlesbase.com/education-articles/6-common-mistakes-made-in-language-learning-98184.html

http://www.learn-japanese-kanji-hiragana-katakana.com (Learn Japanese Lessons for Real Communication)

Learn Japanese language online – today’s Japanese language lesson is to learn 2 different ways to say your family members. An example given in this video is to “how to say my grandfather and your grandfather” in Japanese.

This is a part of the Online Japanese language video lesson, which you can learn Japanese language on video and can also download it to your ipod.

If you are intersted in this course, please visit our website by typing “Online Japanese Video Lesson” at any search engine, or simply click the following link.

http://www.learn-japanese-kanji-hiragana-katakana.com/

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The Japanese language is considered by many to be easy to learn. Whether you wish to speak Japanese for personal reasons like travel or for professional reasons, it is important for you to consider that learning Japanese etiquette is as important as learning commonly used words and phrases. Why is it that learning to speak Japanese is relatively easy? To begin with, there are only 5 vowel sounds: ·A is voiced as “ah,” or the way English speakers pronounce the a in “la;” ·I is pronounced as the English e in words like “need” and “tea;” ·U is vocalized in much the same way as “oo” in words like “cool” and “soon;” ·E is spoken with the same sound of the first e in the word “letter” and the e in “set;” ·O is expressed as it is in the word “told.” Knowing how each of the vowels sounds phonetically makes speaking the Japanese words less difficult. In addition, the Japanese language is less complicated than many others because nouns are not tied to gender or number – the same word is used for one tree or many trees – and verb remains the same regardless of the subject. Unlike English, Spanish and French (and other Latin-based languages) in which you must learn different ways to conjugate the verb based on the subject, when learning Japanese, the verb will be either past tense or the present tense (ongoing actions or the suggestion of what may happen in the future are expressed with the present tense verb). While pronunciations can be simple once you know how the vowels are spoken, and nouns and verbs are relatively easy as well, one way in which you may stumble with the language is word order. While in English sentences are typically in a subject – verb – object format, in Japanese they are presented in the order of subject – object – verb. Of course, just as we have prepositions in English, there are a number of articles in Japanese. One article used often is “ka,” which is used at the end of the sentence to ask a question (which is important because the question mark does not exist in Japanese). Though challenges like punctuation exist in the written language, learning to speak and understand Japanese can be accomplished. There are many resources available online, books and flashcards, as well as computer software. By finding the one that will be most beneficial to you and practicing often, you will surely be able to learn the language. Once you have learned the language, and even while you are learning, it is important to keep etiquette in mind because how you act has as much of an impact on how you are received as the words you use to express yourself. Make sure that you keep the following in mind: ·Unless you are very familiar with the person you are talking with, you should avoid using casual phrasings; ·Avoid being loud to get someone’s attention. It is better to wave or to approach them with a bow and then speak; ·Use a quiet tone when speaking; ·Be cautious with your body language as much of the communication that takes place is unspoken; ·Always show respect for the person with whom you are speaking. By maintaining respect for the people and cultural etiquette – you will find that beginning to communicate in Japanese is simple and, in time, you will become quite good at it. Blank http://www.articlesbase.com/education-articles/speaking-japanese-learning-the-language-and-the-cultural-etiquette-63565.html

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