Japan is Wherever You Are: 10 Ways to Turn Your Environment Japanese
We’ve previously discussed the importance of turning your environment as Japanese as possible. With very little money (far less than you might need for a typical class), you can turn wherever you live into a little Japan.
Even if you already live in Japan but your Japanese needs work, these suggestions will still work for you. If you’re like most expatriates on these islands, you may have turned your life into a little enclave of non-Japaneseness. I would like to show you how to turn that on its head.
Wherever you are, it is crucial that Japanese become the “official language” of your life. Japanese can’t be just this thing you visit for an hour a day, five days a week, and then go on with your “real” life the other 90% of the time. It has to be pounding at you 24/7; it has to be the 90%. I don’t know all the reasons why this works, but one that comes to mind is this: In life, whether it’s learning a language, losing weight, or waking up early we usually don’t fail at a major project because we’re lazy or stupid. We fail because we’re forgetful. We forget what thing it was that we were ultimately trying to do, especially if the road to that thing just seems painful; we get lost in the fog of effort and forget the joy that the mere thought of our destination can give us. Remember that what you are trying to do is to become your dream: you are trying to become indistinguishable from a native speaker of Japanese. If you don’t constantly hear native-spoken Japanese, then you might forget that; it might just seem like you’re trying to get through a mountain of gruntwork. On the other hand, if your eyes and ears are bombarded by things Japanese all the time, then you will always remember where this is leading—to fluency, not to Gruntwork Valhalla. That which you cannot now fathom (Japanese), you will one day fathom fully.
Learning in general is the birthright of human beings. We humans, relatively speaking, don’t have sharp teeth, big lungs or fast feet; instead, we have flexible minds. Language is so fundamental to our lives; it’s foundational — language is just the basics and it’s not “hard”; there’s nothing truly difficult about it; it takes time, but it’s not some intractable problem. Unfortunately, somewhere between boring classes, boring textbooks and boring teachers, we’ve forgotten that. In a sense, this site exists to remind you of your power to learn.
So, here is a list of about 10 things to do (and not do), in order to Japanize your environment.
1. Music: Japanese only
Put away the Avril Lavigne. Sell the CDs on EBay; give them to a Japanese friend who’s learning English. Whatever, just get rid of it. Delete the mp3s. Don’t “put aside” your non-Japanese music; that includes the Manu Chao; I don’t care if he sings in English, Spanish *and* French; it’s irrelevant. Destroy it. I know this is harsh, but it’s something you have to do. Why destroy it? Because if you don’t, you will listen to it in a moment of weakness or nostalgia (you’re all: “(sigh) I remember when I understood the lyrics in the songs I listened to, those were the days”); it could lead to weeks of regression, or even destroy your immersion program altogether. Replace it all with Japanese music: music by Japanese *in* Japanese. It’s best not to even “do it in stages”, just go cold turkey. Even if you have so little Japanese music that you have to keep repeating the same song, then that’s a good thing! Repetition is the mother of skill, remember? Let go of the non-Japanese bands; there are plenty of Japanese bands that have the sound and feel you’re looking for.
Not only should you exclude languages other than Japanese from your life, but you should actively include Japanese music with you wherever you go. If you don’t yet have a portable music player, acquire one, and where it around with you *everywhere*. If you are not in an important conversation with someone who does not speak Japanese, then you should be listening to your Japanese music.
2. Movies: Japanese only
Movies that are not in Japanese no longer exist to you. Now, fortunately, you can get Hollywood movies dubbed into Japanese at www.amazon.jp (be sure to check the item details, especially for movies more than 5-10 years old, since these may be Japanese-subtitled but not dubbed).
Don’t use your significant other as an excuse. “But we have to spend time together”, you say. Bollocks. Take a walk together and hold hands, but make sure to be listening to Japanese music on your portable player; come on, let’s be honest, you don’t really want to hear what they have to say anyhow 
(joking)! And don’t let your friends or family make fun of you or browbeat you into going along to see the latest mindless flick with them. Don’t let them tell you that you “have to unplug sometimes”; they’re full of crap; they’re only saying that to get you to go along. Don’t let them tell you “you can do it later”. Will they be there for you when your Japanese sucks because you didn’t practice because you were always “going to do it later”? Do your friends know Japanese fluently? Probably not. Because if they did, they would understand why you need to do what you need to do, and they wouldn’t try to dissuade you from it. If they do know Japanese fluently, then they should know better than to attempt to strip you away from the very thing that got them fluent: constant practice.
Be strong. Your friends and family will make fun of you for a while, but just hold on. In the short-term, they may not seem to like you unless you do what they want. But it in the long run, they’ll respect you more than if you’d just given in to their pressure. They may say horrible things to you: “Do you think you’re better than us? Do you value the advice of random people on the Internet more than that of your real world friends and family? Do you think you’re Japanese or something?” to which you may reply under your breath: “actually, I do”.
3. TV: Japanese only
Unless you live in an area with a large Japanese community, there may not be Japanese TV available. But you never know. Check with your local cable/satellite provider. Failing live TV, even if there’s only a small Japanese community, there may be a Japanese store in your area. More likely than not, that store sells/rents tapes of Japanese television, complete with commercials. You want to patronize that store and buy some tapes. Failing that, there’s always Ebay, YouTube and even (shudder) BitTorrent.
One of the cool things about Japanese TV is some of the most popular American TV shows (and even some of the good ones) are dubbed in Japanese, including 24, Monk, CSI (all cities), Friends, Full House (the worst show in human history) and many more.
Whatever your sources, get some Japanese TV arrangement going, and have it playing constantly. Like me, you may not even watch TV. But when it comes to Japanese, and only Japanese, you have the permission to be a couch potato. Or a couch carrot: lighter and leaner than a potato, but still a bit vegetative.
4. Radio: Japanese only
Again, unless you live in an area with a large Japanese community, there may not be Japanese radio available. Not a problem. That’s what the Internet is for. Sometimes, running Japanese TV could be distracting for you. But you can listen to radio and podcasts while you cook. Get some (ask me if you want to know specific places).
In the case of both TV and radio, don’t worry if you can’t understand it all. The point initially is not for you to get everything that’s going on. The point is for you to have it turned on, and playing. At first, you probably won’t understand a single word. Then you’ll start picking up single words. Then you’ll start picking up sentences. Then you’ll start picking up scenes. After some time, you’ll be able to watch and understand it all. It may take a while (many months), but stay patient and let the bright colors, shiny objects and detergent commercials entertain you.
5. Computer/Internet: Japanese only
Do it. Do it now. As far as possible, only visit Japanese websites. Need to check your favorite website? Check the Japanese version instead. Need to check the news? No, you don’t ;). In addition to original Japanese websites, there are Japanese-language versions of several of the most popular English webpages, including Yahoo, Wired, CNN and Slashdot.
What operating system do you use? Better get the Japanese version.
What’s your browser’s homepage? Better make it a Japanese one.
Tip: enter a JapaneseURL into the box on http://www.hiragana.jp/, and it will add kana pronunciation aids (furigana) to the kanji.
6. Friends: Japanese only
OK, this is as harsh as they get, but you’re going to need to work on your social circle. I’m not saying that you should kick out non-Japanese-speaking people from your life, but you should definitely surround yourself with Japanese speakers.
Sometimes you can’t always be with your real-life Japanese friends, so when you’re alone, your Japanese friends are the singers and actors you watch and listen to.
7. Walls: Japanese only
What is on the walls around you? You need some Japanese posters and signs. If you’re in the kanji-studying phase, then there’s this cool poster of all 2000 odd General Use Kanji; at $24 it isn’t cheap, but in the spirit of “discipline is remembering what you want”, I think it’s a valuable reminder. I had one on my wall. You could also make your own poster by filling in each kanji you acquire. Whatever you do, Japanese the walls of your home.
8. Food: Japanese only
The Japanese restaurants I know of are expensive. Maybe you can visit them only once in a while. You could also visit Japanese food shops, buy the ingredients, and cook your own food. You don’t know how to use the ingredients? Just ask the shopkeepers (or your friends) about what to cook.
Also, whatever kind of food you eat, eat it with chopsticks. I started using only chopsticks years before going to Japan. Don’t be intimidated, they aren’t hard to use. Plus, you can almost eat anything solid with chopsticks: rice, cake, ice-cream. So use them! Again, you may earn the ridicule of those around you, but just grin and bear it. Since moving to Japan, it’s dawned on me that the chopsticks thing wasn’t just a psychological tool and it wasn’t just for getting attention. It really is a social skill; outside of Japan, they may be rare, but in Japan everything comes with chopsticks; you need to know how to use them.
9. Floor and Furniture: Japanese only
This is similar to the chopsticks suggestion. Again, before moving to Japan, I thought I was just being kitsch by doing this, but it turns out (again) that in addition to reminding you of your goal (Japanese fluency) this is actually an important social skill. Japan very much remains a floor-centered society.
Use Japanese-style furnishing in your home. You don’t necessarily need to go out and buy new furniture to do this, and even if you do, it needn’t be expensive. All you need is a low table (zataku, 座卓) to sit at. Low enough that you can sit on the floor with a cushion (seiza, 正座) and use it.
You should also sleep on the floor on a futon; if you don’t have one, you can lay down a duvet/comforter and sleep on that. Anyway, the point is: sleep and work close to the ground. Outside of offices, almost everything in Japan is low, close to the ground (private homes, restaurants, etc.) You’d do well to get used to it sooner rather than later. If you’ve been working high off the ground until now, this may take some getting used to, but the more you do it, the easier it gets. The task doesn’t change; you do.
10. Brain/Thoughts: Japanese only
Last but not least, your brain. You probably have thoughts and some of them might be in words and those words might be in a language that is not Japanese. Well, that won’t do. My method for changing the language of thought, the “inner monologue” if you will, was to carry around a Japanese dictionary (electronic) with me. Whenever I was walking, if I had a non-Japanese thought, I would look up the words in a dictionary, and then re-think the thought in Japanese instead. I now have an inner monologue mostly in Japanese, except when I’m speaking or writing English. Don’t feel silly — it’s worth it. Surrounding yourself with Japanese should eventually Japanize your thoughts anyway, but this forces it to happen sooner.
Anyway, as always, go out and have fun doing Japanese! Take control of what goes into your brain, and your brain will reward you handsomely.
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All Japanese All The Time Dot Com: How to Learn Japanese. On your own, having fun and to fluency » Are You a Three-Day Monk? said,
April 10, 2007 @ 11:26 pm
[…] You are not a 三日坊主. No Japanese learning monsoons followed by Japanese droughts for you. You study (play) Japanese every day. You have a minimum fixed number of new kanji or sentences that you learn on a daily basis. You have a minimum fixed number of old kanji or sentences that you review on a daily basis. Maybe it’s 50 new and 100 reviews. Maybe 30 new and 100 reviews. Whatever. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that you make daily, quantifiable progress. And of course, when you’re not actively playing (studying) Japanese, you have your environment backing you up. […]
Alec said,
May 23, 2007 @ 8:00 pm
Wow. For me, it’s a little extreme, but I admire your perseverence when you started out. Now you’re reaping the rewards!
Out of curiosity, now that you’re living in Japan and considerably fluent, have you started listening to English-language music and watching American films again? Or are you still in a completely Japanese environment at home and why?
(Great site by the way; I’m trialling the sentence method at the moment to see how it works for me.)
khatzumoto said,
May 23, 2007 @ 8:42 pm
Hey Alec,
Crap, I just realized that the most recent post kind of repeats this one…oh well, sorry about that!
I still have a primarily Japanese environment at home. I’ve been speaking English with my spouse (aka Momoko), but we’ve been mixing it with Japanese the more she learns. She understands a lot now. We watch lots of Japanese-dubbed American shows together.
My Japanese is fluent, but it’s not native-level yet. I want to get it to the stage where I use it unconsciously and perfectly: saying exactly the right thing in exactly the right way at exactly the right time, with little or no effort. It is getting there; lately I find myself having the right word just pop into my head before I even have the chance to “look for it”–if that makes sense–the whole action is getting to a subconscious level in that I almost don’t quite know how the word gets there.
Nevertheless, I do find myself needing to consciously prepare for specialist situations–particularly of the legal, medical and business kind–being a computer geek, I used to pretend that the law, medical science and business simply did not exist ;). So, anyway, before getting our cat, I (needed to) read lots of animal material to learn veterinary things like “neuter” and “viscous discharge from the eyes”. Finally, I also pay close attention to people who are good at explaining concepts, in order to use simpler verbiage in my own explanations (run a search on this site for “SJWs”)…since I used to be a bit over-technical.
Dumbing down and smartening up at the same time…I guess this is all what you might call “polish”. Japanese, like any human language is wide and deep. There’s more to see than can ever be seen, etc. I firmly believe that anyone can get good at it, but there will always be more; words and concepts are always being invented. So, my motto is: “lifelong learning, but not lifelong sucking”.
Oh and another thing–some people in Japan, especially in areas with not a lot of foreigners, just aren’t used to meeting foreigners, and may assume that you’re illiterate, stupid or both, apparently regardless of how well you speak. Clearly my reaction to it is immature, but I sometimes feel the desire to metaphorically beat such people over the head using some lavish demonstration of vocabulary or kanji, so I keep expanding my knowledge for that reason as well–to shut people up…puerile, I know. But, man, when you ask for a form of some kind, and the form lady responds with a question like “but, can you read?” or, “but, wait–can you write your own address?”…I should probably be rising above it, but it really, REALLY, *REALLY* gets on my nerves. “No, form lady. I came here alone and unlettered and then magically asked you for a form that I can neither read nor complete using big words that I could not understand. The book in my hand is for show; I merely cast my eyes over it in motions mimicking comprehension, and I may or may not have been holding it upside-down. Who knows? After all, this is no ordinary language, it’s ‘Japanese’, which means that no one but a pure yokel like you will ever have more than a snowball’s chance in Okinawa of understanding it, will they? Then again, as you’ve demonstrated, gormlessness has no nationality.”
Now, the great majority of people in Japan are wonderful and they are not going to make ludicrously inappropriate inquiries as to your level of basic social education, so rest easy. I’m just a petty, petty, small-minded, petty man, Alec. And so I choose to get upset over the few people who do.
&$&%ing form lady.
khatzumoto said,
May 23, 2007 @ 9:40 pm
>For me, it’s a little extreme,
It was extreme for me, too :)! But what can one say–drastic actions lead to drastic results. Also, if you’re like most people, you probably grew up in one country in one culture speaking one language, or at least having a primary country, a primary culture and a primary language. Whether you knew or not (and you probably didn’t), you were pretty darn focussed. What I’m suggesting, then, is that we take that focus we had in our childhood, and combine it with our adult knowledge and experience.
The combination of a childlike, single-minded determination, and the raw knowledge and experience of an adult, can be pretty staggering. I’m not saying adults are better than children; they just have an advantage. Children have to learn it all from scratch. As an adult, you have much more conceptual background to draw from.
Anyway, have fun!
Alec said,
May 25, 2007 @ 2:39 am
Thanks, Khatzumoto. You’re right; especially with languages there is no end to learning. I don’t know every word/proverb/idiom in the English language and I’ve been speaking it all my life!
Sentence method is going well. In my Japanese final yesterday I was thrilled to be able to use one of my sentences in my writing. (I know memorising sentences isn’t part of the game but this is one sentence that I just have stuck in my head.) On writing to an imaginary host family, I said I wanted to “sit on top of Mt Fuji and look at the night sky because looking up at the Milky Way is said to teach the mysteries of the universe”. Pretentious, I know. But advanced enough to merit an A I believe! Haha.
ModishMinuet said,
October 1, 2007 @ 4:52 am
“4. Radio: Japanese only
Again, unless you live in an area with a large Japanese community, there may not be Japanese radio available. Not a problem. That’s what the Internet is for. Sometimes, running Japanese TV could be distracting for you. But you can listen to radio and podcasts while you cook. Get some (ask me if you want to know specific places).”
Ok, so you might have this up somewhere on your site, but let me tell you, it’s HARD finding old posts on your site sometimes (I’m one of those “follow a link that has another link that has another link and OH! this is interesting!” type of people, so sometimes, I forget where I started and what the name of that interesting post or article I read before was-But I digress) SO, I’m going to go on and ask, because it’s been bothering me: HOW DO YOU GET THE RESOURCES??
It might seem simple to find a website with online radio or tv shows, or even just definitions, but for me, I NEVER can find what I’m looking for on the internet. I can’t ever find music (alright, that might be my fault: but my friends always find free downloads!!), and I definitely can say that I cannot find Japanese radio that works.
This was a little bit of ranting, I suppose, and therefore unnecessary for asking where I can find good Japanese radio, but this is a major mental brick wall for me when it comes to trying to learn anything, especially when it comes to languages (which is why I’m going to thank you right now for putting up the names of all those music artists in your other post, because it really helped!!!) So yeah…Sorry for getting so off topic again, but could you please say some good sites for that kind of thing?
Going Broke to Learn a Language | Biesnecker.com said,
October 5, 2007 @ 4:22 pm
[…] teaching approaches, but it seems like an awful lot of money for an inferior version of the immersion environment that you can create on your own. I wonder how much of the popularity of language schools in China […]
Rob said,
October 18, 2007 @ 11:36 pm
Hi Khatzumoto,
Thank you for your site. I’ve been looking for a method like this for years, so I was excited when I stumbled onto your site to say the least. I was wondering what your thoughts are concerning changing your “inner monologue” to Japanese. My thinking is doing this too early might be damaging in the same way as trying to speak or write before taking in enough correct input.
I mean even if you have a dictionary with you to look up the words, the sentence you form in your head may or may not be correct. Any thoughts on this?
khatzumoto said,
October 18, 2007 @ 11:44 pm
@Rob
Interesting point. You may be right.
I guess I never personally had that problem, but…
I mean…it is an inner monologue and you will never share it with anyone, so it needn’t be that neat and tidy? I mean, mine is a stream of “video”, emotions, pictures and words anyway, and all fragmented. So, thought doesn’t seem to have to be as organized as speech or writing, but that might just be me.
Also, the dictionary (hopefully) provides some guidance through good examples.
There are also friends to ask. Oh, and at one point, I paid close attention to works such as Gantz (the manga version), which had very good (realistic) examples of inner monologue.
Sidd said,
October 25, 2007 @ 4:24 pm
Rad method! A double thumbs up to j00
But if I only visit Japanese websites, I won’t be able to come back here anymore….
khatzumoto said,
October 26, 2007 @ 7:07 am
I know
— but that’s part of the deal, Sidd!
Jimmy said,
December 2, 2007 @ 10:02 pm
“What operating system do you use? Better get the Japanese version.”
When you installed a Japanese browser, did you have to get a Japanese keyboard as well? I want to install a Japanese browser on my laptop, but I don’t want my computer to stop working!
khatzumoto said,
December 2, 2007 @ 10:04 pm
>but I don’t want my computer to stop working!
It won’t. You don’t need a Japanese keyboard, you can use all your current hardware.
Jimmy said,
December 2, 2007 @ 10:30 pm
How do you switch between writing systems when you’re typing?
khatzumoto said,
December 2, 2007 @ 10:32 pm
It’s called an IME (input method editor); there’s lots of info on it online. You can even start using one before you get a Japanese OS.
Immersion « GATTSU said,
December 17, 2007 @ 5:53 pm
[…] this list came from here. The more I read of Khatzumoto-san’s site, the more I see I have to do to get where I’m […]
Dave said,
December 27, 2007 @ 7:27 pm
One question. Where do you get the stuff you list out and mention here, especially that kanji poster you mentioned? I did a look on j-list and google and I haven’t found any poster that comes close to what you describe (only a few posters that have some Kanji upon them, usually phrases and sentences). Any help on where to go to shop would be appreciated!
khatzumoto said,
December 27, 2007 @ 7:30 pm
kanji poster
http://www.rolomail.com/cgi-bin/sanadd.pl?3-1-136-joyohome-USD
All Japanese All The Time Dot Com: How to Learn Japanese. On your own, having fun and to fluency » One Kanji Poster to Rule them All, One Kanji Poster to Bind Them, One Kanji Poster to View them All, and into the Mind Grind Them said,
February 28, 2008 @ 12:01 pm
[…] previously discussed Japanizing your environment, and part of that Japanization involves covering your walls with kanji. The kanji posters I had on […]
Chantelle said,
March 7, 2008 @ 6:08 am
WOW!This is so helpful.Although I couldn’t do everything I could do some of it and it has helped me out with Japanese alot!Thanks!!!!!!!!!
Tony said,
June 25, 2008 @ 9:52 am
Hi
Just wondering how many Kanjis do you know? It is said that there is no shortcut to learn kanjis and it takes an average Japanese or Chinese person several years to learn them…
And one need to know 1000(or maybe 2000) kanjis to pass level 1 of the Japanese proficiency language test.
Thanks
Tony
khatzumoto said,
June 25, 2008 @ 10:12 am
4500 plus…coming on 5000 soon. This isn’t a result of “talent” or “good”/”photographic” memory, just systematic mnemonics combined with electronically calculated spaced repetitions.
>it takes an average Japanese or Chinese person several years to learn them…
their current methods suck
Perhaps one might more accurately say: it takes an[yone]…several years to learn them, using sucky methods.
Anonymous said,
July 6, 2008 @ 7:51 am
You are fucking insane. Only Japanese thoughts, friends, and tastes in everything? That is like saying to abandon everything about yourself and create a new identity.There are so many things wrong with that, I cant even list them all.
Anonymous of /jp/ said,
August 11, 2008 @ 12:18 am
> You are fucking insane.
Aren’t we all!
Ricardo said,
August 12, 2008 @ 6:33 pm
I speak both Spanish and English would this hinder or couse some slowing in me learning japanese…….couse i REALLY want to learn and im dumb for not doing it years ago. Ive been watching anime for ever…so yeah im tired of subtitles and tired of seeing manga that i cant read, its time i face this challenge face first!, so is there hope for me?.
~ said,
August 18, 2008 @ 12:14 pm
Yeah, I’m trying to do the “immersion” at home type thing. My email is the japanese version, my computer is set in Japanese, my drawn-on-the-whiteboard-calendar is in Japanese… I’ve only been listening to Japanese music for as long as I can remember, because I like it. THe thing is, I’m a student… still in high school. I’m only being taught in English, I have to do homework in English, and worst of all, I have to do math over the summer being explained to me over the internet in English, and since I have procrastinated a lot (like I am right now, along with everything else I’ve been doing in the summer… only studying Japanese, haha) I’m on a really tight limit for my stuff. Since I don’t have that much time for hard-core studying every day, how do you suggest I fit passive Japanese learning in my everyday lifestyle? Thanks in advance~
PS: Maybe I’m weird, but my entire stream of thought is in words. I think only in words, unless I’m thinking of a specific image/event. I’d need a pretty big dictionary.