How to Increase my Japanese Vocabulary?

Thousands of building blocks known as words add to the essence of each language, i.e. vocabulary. A native Japanese adult has a lexicon of about 40,000 words by the time he graduates! To learn the Japanese language effectively, a learner needs to possess knowledge of a minimum of 3,000 – 5,000 words most commonly used in Japanese conversations to fluently speak the language and a minimum of 20,000 – 30,000 words, just to be able to read a newspaper! That’s a lot of words to keep in mind. So any time you could save in that process would be extremely beneficial. Even a 10% reduction in study time could result in months of study time saved. The time you could be spending on something far more important than memorising and creating mnemonics. Drill books designed specifically for specific levels of the test are excellent resources for this purpose. These books have been condensed so that they only cover the essentials.

Read a lot of relevant literature 

Yes, we agree there isn’t much reliable literature online but its not impossible to find one if you set your heart on to it. Reading from a reliable source will help you build correct words and improve your vocabulary,

Listen to Japanese news.

Chances are you will find appropriate pronunciations and multiple correct words and phrases to learn from a channel broadcasted internationally!

Listen to authentic Japanese audio from trustworthy online resources. 

Audiobooks, audio clips online, Japanese, music playlists, podcasts, all would prove to be valuable resources to gather from a world full of vocabulary! Learners could have a quick look at Japanese Pod 101.

Learn with the flashcard apps  

Spaced Repetition Systems, or SRS, are systems designed to benefit learners by reminding them of information that may have been learnt some time back. They are extremely efficient at loading a lot of information into your head in the shortest amount of time. Anki and Memrise are very popular apps that do this, including many others that have similar systems as well. You could either practice with the existing decks or create an absolutely new one to suit your needs.

Write a journal or a diary

In order to make your Japanese language learning more meaningful, I suggest learners of the Japanese language write down all new words they come across in the day-to-day conversation, as spoken by different Japanese speakers, so as to be able to enrich their vocabulary and build their first conversation. Studies have shown that this can be a highly effective way of learning vocabulary as students tend to score better and are able to recall the words more easily.

Listen to authentic Japanese audio from trustworthy online resources 

Audiobooks, Audio clips online, Japanese Youtube videos, Japanese Dramas, Music playlists, Movies online, all would prove to be valuable resources to gather from a world full of vocabulary!

Learn with a Teacher

Learning with the teacher is another great way is probably the best way not only to learn the Japanese language but also to enrich your vocabulary with the right words. Teachers not only help you write a word correctly, but they also help you pronounce the word correctly and use it at the right place in a sentence for correct context. Apart from this they also correct you when you are going wrong and give you feedback when you are improving.

Learn Japanese Vocabulary through Social Media

Besides LINE, Twitter is one of the most popular social media sites in Japan and is a great way to learn Japanese vocabulary. You will get introduced to words you hadn’t even thought of to add to your vocabulary list. 

Seek actively

There is no alternative to seeking to learn. Seek new literature, even if it means reading children’s storybooks, look for new Japanese Dramas, Movies, explore the internet and look for reliable resources that can help you with new vocabulary.

Yomichan/ Rikaikun

Download and use the following two extensions on your browser: Rikaikun and Yomichan. Once installed, a mouse over the Japanese words will lead to meaning and vice versa. If you use Mozilla Firefox, the equivalent to Rikaikun is a download called Rikaichan and Yomichan has the same name for Mozilla.

Japanese, like French, German, and Spanish, is not widely taught or studied. Learning Japanese will increase your professional worth. When you study Japanese, you will have less competition in several industries such as business, social sciences, humanities, technology, science, media, and tourism.

There’s an amazing new way to learn Japanese! Want to see what everyone’s talking about!

Click here.