The best stash to have for learning Japanese

September 16, 2023

In a previous newsletter, we talked about how in order to learn Japanese, we need 3 core things:

A comprehensive learning-focused resource
A stash of native materials/ways to get lots of natural exposure to the language
Consistency and patience

We covered #1 there (make sure your resource covers everything you need) so let’s talk about #2 in this email.

Native Materials

Having a stash of native materials is huge for learning.

Wait, Ty, what’s a native material??

Oh, right. Sorry.

A native material is any piece of media designed for a native speaker of your target language. It’s not something directed at learners.

Specifically, video games, books, manga, TV shows, anime, etc. in Japanese are all native materials.

Something that is not a native material would be a grammar dictionary, study resource, Youtube channel designed to teach learners of Japanese, and so on.

This isn't to say that things designed for learners are bad.

However, a comprehensive learning-focused resource is enough to fill the study-department needs.

After that, it's often better to go out and experience Japanese in the wild after you finish up your core studies to help increase the width of your Japanese studies, as discussed in this article.

This will look a bit different depending on your interests, though.

For example, someone who wants to learn Japanese to play video games all the time (like I did) will be experiencing a different kind of Japanese vs someone who wants to read books, someone who just wants to make friends, someone who wants to watch Japanese YouTubers, and so on.

Our core comprehensive learning-focused resource can get us the tools to understand, but we also need to actually go and do what we want to do with the language if we want to get truly proficient in our goals.

I don't know about you, but I don't want to be really good at reading grammar resources. I want to be good at reading interesting books, playing video games, and talking to friends.

That's why I tend to spend my extra study time with native materials and not diving too deep into extra learning-focused resources. (Personally, NativShark is the only learning-focused resource I use anymore on a consistent basis.)

Why use native materials?

Along with what I talked about above, perhaps you're the same as me and you want to just study forever. But when we study too much in a given day, our retention really starts to plummet.

This is where native materials come in.

They let you review what you already know in new contexts, teach you new words, and expose you to the appropriate Japanese for a situation.

This is great because most learners, myself included, tend to struggle the most not with vocab, but knowing which vocab to use when.

We can build up our understanding by going out and making mental notes of what words we see, who is speaking them, and in what medium we're seeing it in by experiencing lots of native materials.

By the way, native materials are generally best used after you complete your core studies for the day.

Here's the button in case you haven't gotten to them today~

→ → Study Now ← ←

When should I start?

We encourage NativShark students to start pretty early on. You can start whenever you want, but around Milestone 6 is generally where it's possible to begin getting a foothold.

Don’t worry about understanding every little sentence. Get the general gist of things and keep moving.

The further on in your studies, the less effort it becomes, and you can begin to break sentences down more thanks to progressing through your core studies.

Then eventually, you'll be breezing your way through stuff without thinking about it. It's just time^^

What native materials are right for me?

We have a native materials list with suggestions of what to study based on what Milestone you're at in NativShark ^^

If you don't see what you're interested in there, you can also ask in the community about what native materials might be best for you when you’re starting.

I generally recommend starting with what you're interested in the most. It helps if you've already done it before, or it's part of your normal routine to do.

Using myself as an example, I played Animal Crossing a lot at the beginning because I knew how to play that game even without reading it.

Since I was familiar with what the characters should be saying, I could just focus on understanding the Japanese I was seeing and not how to play the game or such.

In short, don't be afraid to start! And don't be afraid to swap to something else and come back later if something is a bit too tough.

Keep in mind that any amount per day is a victory as well.

When I started reading books, I would read a single sentence a day and slowly read more and more until a page a day was possible. Now I just read without really thinking about that ^^

That's the power of showing up

We'll talk about this more when we explain #3 on the list of things we need to learn Japanese.

Happy studies and remember to have fun with native materials!

Since sending this newsletter, we have written an extensive guide on how to study using native materials.

We've also made a plan on how to use them for passing the JLPT.

Weekly writing prompt:

You're at HARD・OFF looking for a CRT TV to play your retro games on, but can't find one. You go up to a store clerk and ask…

Post your responses here and let's talk about them!

Feel free to ask for help if you want to say something specific as well. Both myself and other students will be in there offering advice and help~

Here's one of the responses to last week's prompt where we were telling our friend that we were going to Fukuoka soon:

Great job! I also gave feedback about it and how to make that sentence more natural here if anyone is interested in learning more.

Feel free to request future writing prompt topics here.

Some cool Japanese

Behold, the bane of my existence: ちらし (flyers)

95% of my mail is ちらし.

Thankfully where I just moved to has a trash can specifically for ちらし which says チラシ専用せんよう (for flyers only) on it, so I just throw them all away in that instead of needing to bring them into my apartment to throw them away.

I have seen people with a sticker that says no ちらし as well. I need to get me one of those...

If the above Japanese is too difficult for you, all you need to do is keep hitting the Study Now button, and you'll understand it when you get there. Especially when using a study resource like NativShark, you'll be fine as long as you show up as much as you can. This vocab flashcard comes from Phase Two, Unit 310.

NativShark goodie bag

The content team released 4 new Phase Three Units this week 😎

Really starting to dig into some cultural stuff!

I know I didn't learn about クレヨンしんちゃん until I actually moved here, but it's something that everyone here knows and will reference.

New Phase Three Units

New Podcasts Episodes:

The Konnichiwa Podcast

Harmless Episode Title - Spotify

Happy studies,
Ty