Learning a language through translation and song
I was skeptical at first at how well my new technique for continuing my learning of Japanese would work out. But, I'm actually surprised at the progress. I've heard a number of arguments both for and against. And I think for Japanese that at least one of the arguments against is moot. And I also think the specifics of my approach lend a lot. So let's start...
A common recommendation was to take Japanese news sites or Manga or magazines or something you're interested and start translating. And while I think there would be benefits to that approach as well I think there are also considerable drawbacks. Especially at my stage. I've only just started learning kanji and I want to REALLY learn them. But all of the medium above are largely of a nature that they are only fun to consume once. And when you're starting from basically zero Kanji knowledge, there are simply too many new ones to learn per article/book/etc... so you're relegating yourself to be able to read them only.
And sure, that is probably fine for many people. And, after a time, the number of new Kanji vs. known Kanji per article will go down. But, I also think you can get into a trap this way of focusing more on the translation rather than the actual pronunciation simply owing to the overwhelming influx of Kanji you'll experience. For instance, you might learn to read ιΆ¨ as "wind" rather than "kaze". Which is fine if you're A) only ever reading material where the word is spelled in Kanji and B) the word never comes up in casual conversation. But, even point A isn't guaranteed. For common Kanji they are almost always shown in Kanji. But, since the Japanese often learn the words before the Kanji, there are many places where even common words might be displayed in Hiragana instead.
I want to point out... I'm sure a lot of this is specific to people learning Japanese. Almost all Kanji have AT LEAST 2 readings along with potential euphony induced variations.
As for arguments against listening or using music too much. I think a lot of the arguments stem from 2 basic points. Firstly, enunciation is often different in song, and songs often break grammatical rules. The first point is largely moot for Japanese though. Their language is structured upon a rigid set of syllables. As a result... I regularly find words I've learned in song which I'm able to pick up in conversation in anime or elsewhere. The syllabic rigidity means it doesn't matter if it is sung or spoken, you can generally get the right pronunciation without much effort.
The second point about grammatical structure... totally valid. BUT... if you know this ahead of time it mitigates damage. And, it doesn't offset the benefits enough to worry about it (in my opinion). Firstly, I find songs can often feature a single verb conjugated in multiple forms which is great because it is also very memorable medium. They also tend to use period appropriate figures of speech, etc... and while they can drift into esoteric or poetic words and phrases, most of the language is quite common.
Songs also break the issues with other formats. I can listen to same group of songs hundreds of times over. The words stick. If I encounter a word I've learned properly from a song, I can often replay that verse of the song in my head to figure out context/meaning if it isn't something that I automatically know.
And that is what I'm seeing with Anki. Words that stumped me in the past, which I later learned in a song I breeze through now, but other words without that context which I haven't seen in a similar amount of time and struggled just as hard with are totally lost to me. And the ones I know... I know. Automatically. Including Kanji, meaning, and all readings I've encountered.
My pace won't blow anyone's mind. But, on this activity, I spend half an hour to an hour tops each day (when I choose too) and I grow my vocabulary by 4-10 Kanji a day. Now, I'm not saying those numbers would scale up if I spent more time. I'm also not committing ALL possible English meanings or all readings. But, I still think it is impressive.
So, what is my technique?
I start by getting the lyrics in Japanese with Kanji.
I then either get them also in Hiragana/Katakana or translate them thusly.
I then listen through the song a few times and try to follow along in Japanese. Some times I find errors in the lyrics this way. I also get used to the song a bit.
Then, I translate the song, line by line into English between my current knowledge and a translation tool and dictionaries. I don't just run it through a translate app though and write it down. I take not of any new word, it's Kanji and meaning, and I come up with my own translation. I may come back to a particular line several times editing it and my notes as well.
Once I've gotten through the entire song like this, I'll start at the beginning and a line or verse at a time research any new Kanji or readings. Practice writing out the Kanji and writing out the entire song as far as I've gotten so far. In this way, singing along as I go and ensuring I still know what every word means. So I'm getting some solid repetition in, and I'm not forgetting the Kanji, their meaning or their reading within the given context.
It is slow, and laborious. I use a note book in One Note for each song, with a different page for notes, Kanji, Hiragana and English translations. But, slow seems like an unfair statement. Even at 4 a day with a half hour to an hour I would bang out over 1000 Kanji in a year (of course, assuming I could songs with enough unique Kanji to do so). Even when you factor in that I'm not covering every meaning or reading, that still works out to a faster pace than they teach in Japan.
TOTALLY not implying the pace will keep up. And, along with flashcards and other apps, I'm really not even getting to this every other day, let alone daily.
My thoughts however are, I'll probably do this through something like 5-20 songs. By then, I hope to have 100+ kanji under my belt and a better understanding of the language. At that point I might turn to children's books or Manga until I get up to 500+ Kanji. Then maybe switch to newspapers, and lastly to books.
The idea being, while Kanji is totally new to me, I want a medium where even if I have to learn a lot of new material all at once, it should be an environment where I can tolerate the amount of repetition required to safely absorb all of them before I abandon it. As my knowledge of Kanji grows, something like a Manga or short story won't contain so many new Kanji that I can't keep up. And once I can assimilate those, I can move onto something aimed at a broader audience, like news. Until finally I feel safe diving into a complete book.
Disclosure: I also watch anime every few nights. Just about anything. In fact, some of the worst anime are the best for beginners learning the language. This happens to generally work out because the more infantile it is, to me the worse it is, but being aimed at a younger audience, the language is a lot easier to absorb. I also use AnkiDroid with a few different decks and Memrise. I completed Human Japanese 1 and am part way through Human Japanese 2. For giggles I'm learning English for Japanese speakers in Duolingo until they release Japanese for English speakers. And I have book on the topic at home as well. So, this isn't a sole resource for me learning the language by any means AT ALL.
I was just surprised to find out how polarizing the notion of using songs to learn a language was.
A common recommendation was to take Japanese news sites or Manga or magazines or something you're interested and start translating. And while I think there would be benefits to that approach as well I think there are also considerable drawbacks. Especially at my stage. I've only just started learning kanji and I want to REALLY learn them. But all of the medium above are largely of a nature that they are only fun to consume once. And when you're starting from basically zero Kanji knowledge, there are simply too many new ones to learn per article/book/etc... so you're relegating yourself to be able to read them only.
And sure, that is probably fine for many people. And, after a time, the number of new Kanji vs. known Kanji per article will go down. But, I also think you can get into a trap this way of focusing more on the translation rather than the actual pronunciation simply owing to the overwhelming influx of Kanji you'll experience. For instance, you might learn to read ιΆ¨ as "wind" rather than "kaze". Which is fine if you're A) only ever reading material where the word is spelled in Kanji and B) the word never comes up in casual conversation. But, even point A isn't guaranteed. For common Kanji they are almost always shown in Kanji. But, since the Japanese often learn the words before the Kanji, there are many places where even common words might be displayed in Hiragana instead.
I want to point out... I'm sure a lot of this is specific to people learning Japanese. Almost all Kanji have AT LEAST 2 readings along with potential euphony induced variations.
As for arguments against listening or using music too much. I think a lot of the arguments stem from 2 basic points. Firstly, enunciation is often different in song, and songs often break grammatical rules. The first point is largely moot for Japanese though. Their language is structured upon a rigid set of syllables. As a result... I regularly find words I've learned in song which I'm able to pick up in conversation in anime or elsewhere. The syllabic rigidity means it doesn't matter if it is sung or spoken, you can generally get the right pronunciation without much effort.
The second point about grammatical structure... totally valid. BUT... if you know this ahead of time it mitigates damage. And, it doesn't offset the benefits enough to worry about it (in my opinion). Firstly, I find songs can often feature a single verb conjugated in multiple forms which is great because it is also very memorable medium. They also tend to use period appropriate figures of speech, etc... and while they can drift into esoteric or poetic words and phrases, most of the language is quite common.
Songs also break the issues with other formats. I can listen to same group of songs hundreds of times over. The words stick. If I encounter a word I've learned properly from a song, I can often replay that verse of the song in my head to figure out context/meaning if it isn't something that I automatically know.
And that is what I'm seeing with Anki. Words that stumped me in the past, which I later learned in a song I breeze through now, but other words without that context which I haven't seen in a similar amount of time and struggled just as hard with are totally lost to me. And the ones I know... I know. Automatically. Including Kanji, meaning, and all readings I've encountered.
My pace won't blow anyone's mind. But, on this activity, I spend half an hour to an hour tops each day (when I choose too) and I grow my vocabulary by 4-10 Kanji a day. Now, I'm not saying those numbers would scale up if I spent more time. I'm also not committing ALL possible English meanings or all readings. But, I still think it is impressive.
So, what is my technique?
I start by getting the lyrics in Japanese with Kanji.
I then either get them also in Hiragana/Katakana or translate them thusly.
I then listen through the song a few times and try to follow along in Japanese. Some times I find errors in the lyrics this way. I also get used to the song a bit.
Then, I translate the song, line by line into English between my current knowledge and a translation tool and dictionaries. I don't just run it through a translate app though and write it down. I take not of any new word, it's Kanji and meaning, and I come up with my own translation. I may come back to a particular line several times editing it and my notes as well.
Once I've gotten through the entire song like this, I'll start at the beginning and a line or verse at a time research any new Kanji or readings. Practice writing out the Kanji and writing out the entire song as far as I've gotten so far. In this way, singing along as I go and ensuring I still know what every word means. So I'm getting some solid repetition in, and I'm not forgetting the Kanji, their meaning or their reading within the given context.
It is slow, and laborious. I use a note book in One Note for each song, with a different page for notes, Kanji, Hiragana and English translations. But, slow seems like an unfair statement. Even at 4 a day with a half hour to an hour I would bang out over 1000 Kanji in a year (of course, assuming I could songs with enough unique Kanji to do so). Even when you factor in that I'm not covering every meaning or reading, that still works out to a faster pace than they teach in Japan.
TOTALLY not implying the pace will keep up. And, along with flashcards and other apps, I'm really not even getting to this every other day, let alone daily.
My thoughts however are, I'll probably do this through something like 5-20 songs. By then, I hope to have 100+ kanji under my belt and a better understanding of the language. At that point I might turn to children's books or Manga until I get up to 500+ Kanji. Then maybe switch to newspapers, and lastly to books.
The idea being, while Kanji is totally new to me, I want a medium where even if I have to learn a lot of new material all at once, it should be an environment where I can tolerate the amount of repetition required to safely absorb all of them before I abandon it. As my knowledge of Kanji grows, something like a Manga or short story won't contain so many new Kanji that I can't keep up. And once I can assimilate those, I can move onto something aimed at a broader audience, like news. Until finally I feel safe diving into a complete book.
Disclosure: I also watch anime every few nights. Just about anything. In fact, some of the worst anime are the best for beginners learning the language. This happens to generally work out because the more infantile it is, to me the worse it is, but being aimed at a younger audience, the language is a lot easier to absorb. I also use AnkiDroid with a few different decks and Memrise. I completed Human Japanese 1 and am part way through Human Japanese 2. For giggles I'm learning English for Japanese speakers in Duolingo until they release Japanese for English speakers. And I have book on the topic at home as well. So, this isn't a sole resource for me learning the language by any means AT ALL.
I was just surprised to find out how polarizing the notion of using songs to learn a language was.
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