Japanese Language Tips

Admin Note: I've listed a few of my ideas about how to keep up on your Japanese language skills or to help you prepare for a trip back to Japan. If you have other ideas or experiences you'd like to share, Contact Us.

Index:
TV Broadcasts via Internet 
 
 
 
 
 

Commercial TV Broadcasts from Japan:

My latest iteration of keeping up with my Japanese is free - Stream live TV Broadcasts. On the screenshot below, you can see the networks/stations available listed in the left-side column. Click just below the AQ on the upper left for Japanese TV, then on the broadcast of your choice. Though you may not understand much of especially news broadcasts, I find it gets my ears and mind reacquainted with Japanese. I sometimes look up words I hear repeated in a news story, for instance.

a screen shot of a live Japanese news broadcast
Conference Talks
RMs can easily choose talks from conference sessions in Japanese. Click on the language icon in the upper right hand and switch from English to 日本語, which usually appears at the bottom of the list. 

Podcast

If you listen to podcasts, why not add The Konnichiwa Podcast. You can subscribe for your smartphone, or listen to episodes online. Each podcast lasts about 15 minutes and is a half-English, half-Japanese conversation between three individuals living in Japan about a current topic in Japan (Dan (American), Yurie (日本人) and My (Dutch/日本人ancestry). Follow up note: these stopped in Nov 2023 but continue to live via konipo.com landing page, where you should see links to Spotify, Instagram and Patreon.

 

Dictionary Apps

My favorie iPhone app is Imi wa?, which unfortunately, I understand it is not available for Android smart phones. You can key in English or Japanese Ro-maji and get a translation as well as sentence examples. Both kanji and hiragana appear.

an iPhone screenshot of "Imi wa?" app - search result for keying in either "tsuyu" in Ro-maji or "rainy season" in English.
 

Scripture App - Japanese LDS Quad

Sendai RM and frequent Japan traveler Rob Carlson suggested a bilingual Japanese-English app for LDS standard works. You can toggle to show both languages or only the Japanese. There is furigana for all kanji. It is called Japanese LDS Quad and is available free in both the Google Play and Apple App Stores. I downloaded the iPhone version and found the "All Features Pass" full version costs reasonable $4.99. Rob reports that in the Android App 'all features' is free. Thanks, Rob! Here are some iPhone screen shots:

 

Translation Apps

Google Translate is great both on your computer or on a smartphone. Here's a screenshot of the PC interface - Select the desired languages. I typed in the English and Japanese appears on the right (both kanji and ro-maji). If you press the speaker icon at the bottom of the translation, the phrase is voiced for you, or if you're composing an email in Japanese, you can click on the copy icon and paste the Kanji into your email. Conversely, if you are sent an email in Japanese that you need help on, copy and paste into the left side; English translation appears on the right.

The smartphone Google Translate app is similar and great for travel. Rather than keying in the English, you can click on the microphone to dictate what you want to say (or have your Japanese friend/taxi driver talk). The translation result will appear in print or clicking on the speaker icon, the result is voiced for you. Amazing.