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Learn Japanese Verbs and Adjectives Using Memory Mnemonics

by Ryan McDonald

157 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #03-0788; ISBN 1-4120-0419-5; US$16.99, C$22.99, EUR14.99, £9.99

Learn Japanese verbs and adjectives fast and remember them longer using memory triggers.

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about the book      about the author      sample excerpt      catalogue info

About the Book Learning any second language is difficult, but Japanese has to be one of the more difficult ones to master. On top of the 3 writing systems, one of which has almost 2,000 characters, you still have all the regular components of a language such as verbs, adjectives, nouns, and grammar. There are several books available now that teach you how to learn the vast Japanese writing systems. There are equally as many books that teach grammar and verb conjugation. But there are few, if any, books that teach fast ways to learn the actual verbs and adjectives. Learning Japanese Verbs and Adjectives Using Memory Mnemonics uses a creative approach to learning words fast, and more importantly, remembering them longer. Memory mnemonics, or triggers, are used to remind your brain where it just recorded some piece of information. Most people can learn most anything fast, but they have trouble with recollection. This book uses triggers that sound like the verb and the meaning. For example, the verb for "to disturb or corrupt" is "midas". How can you remember this and differentiate it from the hundreds of other verbs. Using a memory trigger can make it easier to learn faster and remember longer. One trigger could be to think of King Midas. He was so corrupt with greed he turned everything to gold. So you can remember midas as corrupt King Midas. Learning Japanese Verbs and Adjectives Using Memory Mnemonics contains triggers for 350 verbs and 126 adjectives. Then as a bonus there are trigger suggestions for an additional 102 verbs, that's over 450 verbs. Using this book you can quickly learn Japanese verbs and adjectives and nearly double your communication skill in a very short time.

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About the Author Ryan McDonald was born in Atlanta, Georgia. He has worked with computers and publishing for years. He attended Georgia Southern University and graduated with a Printing Management degree. After finally getting sick of the corporate 8-5 life, he packed his bags and moved overseas. When he's not at a computer, he enjoys playing frisbee golf, traveling, snowboarding, and studying Japanese (obviously). He is currently living in Japan teaching English in High School.

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Sample Excerpt

Introduction

There are a few purposes in this book. The main one is to help you learn Japanese faster. I believe memory mnemonics will do just that. Verbs are a crucial stage in learning any foreign language, and once you get a firm grasp of them your skills noticably improve. The second reason is to show you how to use mnemonics to learn anything faster. I don't expect you to use only my suggestions, but I hope they will be a launch pad for your own. The third reason is I already had the mnemonics documented when I realized there were no other books like this on the market. I used them to learn Japanese verbs, adjectives, and vocabulary and feel others can benefit from the idea as well.

Once I really decided on using mnemonics for learning verbs I was able to learn several hundred in just days. Using mnemonics and a few other techniques I was able to learn faster, and more importantly retain them permanently. I have learned several verbs I never use, but when I flip through my flash cards months after learning and never using them, I still instantly remember most all the verbs. There are a few that I could think of no decent, or even remote mnemonics for. You might be able to see one right away. If so, please contact me and I'll make a change in the next revision of the book, and give you credit.

I am no brain specialist in any way so any opinion I give in this book is merely based on my experience and is only my opinion. However, whether or not they are true, some of my answers do make sense and will help explain the use of mnemonics.

The first thing to keep in mind about mnemonics is they can and should be silly or stupid. Unfortunately some of the best ones are not appropriate to be printed in this book, as they deal with foul language, sex, or obscure references to things only I would understand. The reason for this is the best mnemonic should be the first thing you think of when you say the word. Most of the mnemonics, or triggers, in this book are the first things that came to mind, though some had to be edited for publication.

The second thing to know is you need to be creative and be able to think abstractly. Let's take the Japanese verb "midasu" for example. It means "to disturb or corrupt". For some triggers I use a play on words based on the Japanese pronunciation, for others I use an English word buried in the word. Initially for "midasu" I tried to sound it out and alter the Japanese sound. It is pronounced "me dah sue" so I played with "me dad sued","my dad sued", and "me does two" but nothing really fit. Then I looked at the word in English and saw midas, as in King Midas, and instantly thought, "King Midas was corrupt with greed" therefore Midasu means "to corrupt, or to disturb".

Another thing to know about triggers and mnemonics is, at least in this book, sometimes I mispronounce the Japanese on purpose to make it sound different. Quite often I use poor grammar to get two sounds closer to each other such as "how she do" (in the race) to sound like "hashiru" which means "to run". I might say "me saw you" instead of "I saw you". Here is a different example, the verb "okoru" means "to get angry". This one took me a while, then I thought of how it almost sounds in English, "I'll call you" and I remembered how angry girls get when guys say "I'll call you" but never do. So in this example I said "Okoru" fast a few times and heard it almost sound different. I made the "o" into "I'll" and the "ko" into "call" and the "ru" into "you". It's a stretch, but I have never forgotten it and I doubt you will.

Why do triggers work?

The way I understand my brain is that I have an instant photographic memory. However, I can never remember anything (I never load the film, I know I know). In certain situations I do remember things after seeing them once, but other times I have to practice over and over. What I think happens is my brain instantly makes a written record of whatever it's trying to learn. However, after that it sometimes forgets where it put the record, or how it filed it. Maybe it filed meeting a new person under "Things I did Thursday" or "Guys who look like Santa Claus" instead of "New people I met". It needs a trigger to remind it where it stored it.

So in essence we all have photographic memories, we just have trouble with recollection. Triggers help remind our brain where it stored some piece of information. Triggers help our brains recollect where it stored some data earlier. It is already there, but where is it stored. Once in college I made a %100 on a Geology test about the different geological periods of history. The teacher thought I cheated since I never payed attention in class, so I wrote them all out, in order, right in front of him.

Obviously I used triggers for that, although I used a different type. I used a minimizing type of trigger for that. That's where you take the first letters of a list, even an ordered list, and make a sentence. So take for example the Mesozoic period which consisted of, in reverse order, the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous periods. For this I would remember, "me Tri Ju Cr" and come up with a visual image of me trying to jump a crater. I did this for the entire geological period, each with it's own little silly visual image. The visual image is the real key, your brain loves visual images, they are easy to recall, especially if they are vivid and exaggerated and far-fetched.

How to fully utilize memory triggers

Even when using triggers the need for repetition still exist, however, triggers allow us to learn without as much constant repeating. When I learn a new word I repeat the word, the trigger, and then the meaning a few times. When I repeat them I really focus and put all my energy into visualizing the trigger. For the example with midasu, I see King Midas dancing around turning things to gold. The image is vivid and clear so my brain has an easy time remembering it.

Before all this I write the words out on note cards. I only had a few cards so I would write the Japanese verb in the upper left corner and then the meaning on the opposite side. Then I did the same on the other side of the card in the diagonal corner. This way I could fit two words and their meanings on each card.

I found it better to study in little spurts rather than one long intense session. There's a thing called "Active Rehearsal" where your brain will continually practice things it's learning even after you stop studying. I would take the cards with me everywhere and spend about 15-30 minutes flipping through the cards while repeating the word, the trigger, and the meaning. The whole time I'm thinking of each visual mental trigger. Then I wouldn't think about them at all for a few hours. The next time I had a little free time, I would repeat the process.

Eventually, some of the triggers would really stick and others would need more work. I would separate the cards into really know and need more work. After that I would focus more on the need more work and review the already know stack less frequently. Eventually I find myself reviewing the already know stack over and over again and creating new cards for the need more work stack, since I know all the others.

Trigger phases

There are a few phases of learning using triggers and unfortunately there is a sense of false hope early on when using triggers. However, if you know it's there and develop creative triggers, then this false hope can easily be overcome. The false hope occurs when you reach the point when you can fly through the cards spitting out the answers faster than you can actually flip through the cards, but then you flip them over and try to reverse quiz yourself and you find you have trouble. At this point you start to feel cheated because you think you don't really know the material, but moments earlier you had felt like a master.

That's because you put the triggers on the Japanese verb, not the English meaning. When you read the verb you instantly think of the trigger and that reminds you of the meaning. So now you need to read the meaning and think of the trigger in context. If the meaning is "to corrupt, or disturb" then you would have to remember King Midas was corrupt. This takes a bit or practice. That's why it's best to think of simple, yet vivid triggers. The shorter the better. Long drawn out sentences and remote triggers make it difficult to remember. Always visualize the triggers in your head over and over.

Once you can jump between the Japanese verbs and the English meanings, then you need to have a 2nd person quiz you. This really reminds your brain where the meanings are stored. You actually can start to remember words by how they are written on the notecard, so this helps finalize the trigger and memory location in your head. The final test is to use them seamlessly in conversation. When your brain thinks "corrupt" and instantly says "midasu", then you've learned it.

Although this seems like a lot of steps, you will retain the meanings longer and learn them quicker than if you used the old write, write, write, and then write again method.

What this book is not

There are already many excellent books that focus on verb conjugations and auxilaries, so I will not cover that. There's no need to compete with the other books about this subject, but there is a need to help students learn content faster.

Book Style

This book is not written in the standard Japanese kana order, because it is designed more for the beginner. It is arranged first by verb rank, which I concluded as the first 125 verbs you should learn to aid in learning other aspects of the language. Then the second group of 190 which will greatly enhance your ability, and finally an additional 35 which have good triggers, but are not necessarily used in daily conversations. Within each group, the verbs are arranged alphabetically in romaji.

After the 350 verb triggers are listed I wrote some initial thoughts on adjectives. I included 126 common adjectives and also wrote my first impression on a trigger. They may not be the best, but they will give you an idea of where to go. As an after thought right before publication, I wrote down 100 more verbs and listed some small triggers for them as well. There are about 30 type 1 & 2 verbs and about 70 katakana verbs and group 3 (suru) verbs.

Also for the long "o" sound, a double oo was used rather than the overlined style. This shouldn't be a problem if you know this going into it.

Sample Exercises

#32 Hashiru - to run
How'd she do in the marathon she ran?

#50 Kekkon Suru - to get married
After they got married they put the wedding cake on the table.

#76 Nomu - to drink
No more drinking for you.

#101 Suu - to suck in, inhale, smoke
You suck in while smoking or breathing.

#159 Handan Suru - to judge
The judge will hand down a verdict soon.

# 231 Nagasu - to float
The boat had no gas and could only float.

#315 Zangyoo Suru - to work overtime
Zank you for working overtime.

Adjectives

Tsumaranai - boring
Tomorrow night will be boring.

Chikai - near
Two facial features near eachother? Cheek, eye.

Asai - shallow
He let out a sigh, because the pool was too shallow to swim.

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Catalogue Information

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