Learning Japanese through Immersion in Japan
I wrote an entire book about a new method to learn Japanese — the same way that young children in America are learning Spanish and English at the same time — through commingling this new language with the language you are already familiar with. Sure, languages are not word-for-word replacements of each other, and that may seem to limit the Kopf method to vocabulary building.
But that’s not the case!
I introduce small, light, recognizable concepts that are similar to drop-in word replacements, such as introducing Japanese’s particle “no” as frequently being a substitute for “ ‘s”, making a noun possessive. Follow along as I bring you with me on my journey to Japan, to explore some of the fun, amazing places I get to experience on my adventures. But of course we don’t stop there! Along the way learn Japanese words in a way that feels natural, so these words actually stick with you. I, Ryan Kopf, founded a company that organizes seven major Japanese culture festivals every single year. As part of that, I get to travel to Japan yearly for business, learning the culture and meeting fantastic people. My journeys in Japan see some of the coolest stuff that others never explore.
Here’s a preview that let’s you know what I am going to be writing about.
Let me begin with a simple discovery.
Anime subtitles are not a Rosetta Stone-type elixir for native English speakers. Trust me, if they were, I would have a career that Edward Seidensticker himself would envy.
However, there is hope. My fellow anime diehards can find solace by exposing the one major similarity between the Japanese and English languages…
…they both are spoken by human beings. Meaning, if you can summon Porunga using Dende’s native Namekian tongue, you can also learn Japanese.
On the other hand, Japanese may appear to be the actual extraterrestrial language; at least, to my bilingual peers who speak English and Namekian.
For example, take the sentence, “Watashi wa eel desu.” If you learned textbook Japanese in a school setting, you were probably taught that “X wa Y desu” means “X is Y.” This sentence would appear to mean, “I am an eel.”
However, it actually means “As for me, the eel,” which is something you actually say when ordering at a restaurant.
Learning by memorizing doesn’t work.
The entire premise of my book is that trying to learn a language through simple memorization does not work nearly as effectively as learning through immersion.
That’s the same practice held by language schools, professionals, and tutors around the world. When you step into a Japanese classroom, they will immediately start immersing you in the language, and require you to ask your questions in Japanese and really get you to practice the language. Why? Because immersion works!
Why does immersion work? It works by helping your brain form connections. You connect the language you are learning with the questions you ask and the answers you receive. Your brain makes small, subtle connections between these things.
But also — immersion sucks!
Why immersion alone doesn’t work.
Language immersion by itself does not work for the first 5–10% of learning a language, because you need to get the basics first. That’s the reason I wrote my book like I did!
I created anime events and other technology. My name is Ryan, and I hope you enjoy what I’ve written!