[BACK]
by
Kirk Masden
Download this audio file (right-click or Option-click)
Input is Key
If you want to learn a language, you need to get used to it. I think the Japanese expression "narau yori narero" is good advice. Studying grammar may be helpful at times but, in Japan, grammar is often overemphasized while students do not have sufficient opportunities to get used to English. Textbooks are too thin and students don't get to hear natural English often enough.
One very important way to get used English is to find "input" that one is interested in and can enjoy. By input, I mean either texts that you can read or spoken language that you can listen to. This class is called Gaisho Kodoku so it is natural that we should read in this class. I think, though, that our study will be more effective if we can find materials that we can both read and listen to.
Find materials that are not too hard
In order to get used to English, it is better to read materials that are not too difficult. If you have to look up a word or two on every line, you are probably reading something that is too hard for you. It's good to find materials that you can read fairly easily without a dictionary. Of course, learning new words and expressions that come up in the story or article that you are reading is important, but if there are too many words that you have to learn all at once, it is difficult to get used to English.
It's not necessary to look up every word that you don't know
When you come across a word that you don't know, you may not need to look it up in a dictionary. Sometimes you will be able to guess at the meaning of the word from the context. In that case you probably don't need to look it up. Even if you do decided that you would like to look the word up in a dictionary to be sure about its meaning, it's a good idea to think about how it is being used in what you are reading and see if you can guess at its meaning. Sometimes, it may not be necessary for you to look up a word even though you are not sure of its meaning. If you are fairly sure that you understand the meaning of the sentence or paragraph you are reading, you probably don't need to stop and look up the word unless you are very curious about its meaning.
When you do look up a word think about the context
When you look up a word in a dictionary, you will often find several different meanings. It's not necessary to learn all of the meanings the word can have. Rather, you should try to figure out which of these meanings fits the context in which you found the word. Here, too, it is important that the material you are reading not be too difficult for you; if the material you are reading is too hard for you, you will have trouble determining whether a particular meaning you found in a dictionary fits the context or not.
Remember the context, not the dictionary definition
The best way to get used to English words is to remember how they were used in materials you read or listened to. For example, if a new word comes up when you are reading a story, you should try to remember the situation in which the word was used and the phrase or sentence it was used in. If you can do this, you probably will not need to try to recall the definition you found in your dictionary. All you need to do is recall what was happening in the story and how the word was used in that context. If you can see a picture of what was happening in your mind's eye and recall how the word was used, it will be easy for you to understand and remember the meaning of the word.
In this class, you will keep a record of new words that you learn. You should always include the phrase or sentence in which the word was used. It may also be a good idea to include a note or two about the context, though this is not absolutely necessary. If you include Japanese words or definitions that you found in a dictionary, you should only include words or definitions that fit the context in which that word is being used at the time.
Words are like friends
When you meet someone for the first time you may learn their name and a thing or two about them, but you cannot get to know them well in one short meeting. The more often you meet a friend and the more time you spend together, the more you learn about him or her. Accordingly, there are some people that you "know" because you have met them once or twice, but do not know well. Other people you know very well because you have spent a lot of time with them. "Knowing" a word is like this. To get to know a word well, you need to "meet" it in many different situations. If you meet it many times (in many different stories or articles) you gradually get used to it and learn how it is usually used. Over time, you may also learn about less common ways in which the word is used. The knowledge you develop in this way is very practical and very valuable. Meeting a word in many different contexts helps you get accustomed to it (that is, get used to it). When you have become accustomed to a word, you can use it with confidence.
Simply memorizing definitions in a dictionary does not allow you to get used to the word you are studying. Unfortunately, however, many English classes in Japan ask you to memorize dictionary definitions or Japanese translations and do not encourage you to get used to words in the manner that I have described above. I believe that this is one of the most serious problems with English education in Japan today.
Why memorizing Japanese equivalents does not work
Memorizing Japanese equivalents for English words does not work well for two reasons. First, if you only memorize that, for example, "dog" means "inu" you are not learning how to use the word. If, on the other had, you learn a simple sentence like "We have a dog" you have learned something important about how to use the word. A person who has learned the sentence "We have a dog" can use that phrase, for example, to talk about a pet when he or she meets an English speaker. If someone has only learned that "dog" means "inu" the person is likely to become confused and unable to continue when trying to translate the phrase "inu o katteiru" into English.
The second reason that memorizing Japanese equivalents does not work is that there are very few cases when any Japanese word is completely "equivalent" to (that is, the same in meaning as) an English word. In other words, English words and Japanese words are almost never completely the same. "Dog" and "inu," for example, refer to the same animal but have different nuances. In English, people say "work like a dog" to mean "work very hard" but I don't think the word "inu" is used this way in Japanese. Conversely, Japanese has expressions like "makeinu" or "inujini" but English expressions that are close to these in meaning do not refer to dogs.
If you learn words in context as you read or listen to many different materials, you will gradually come to know them well. Over time, you will begin to see how various English terms are similar to Japanese words and expressions you know but not identical. It is this kind of deep understanding of English words that we are striving to achieve in this class.
[BACK]