I wouldn’t be too surprised if you already know about this website but I highly recommend it to you if you are learning Japanese.

All Japanese All Time

I love AJATT! I’ll admit, I don’t actually practice it 24/7, but I do my best. I don’t think it’s for beginners, but once you have a little bit of skill and practice, picking up AJATT is great. Passive listening is one of the best things that a language student can do.

It’s the best way. Immersion in a language forces you to become fluent. I’m not sure I would agree with everything he writes on AJATT, but the basic premise is solid ^^

Yeah, no method will ever be 100% perfect for anyone except its creator. My favorite thing about AJATT is listening. I’m almost always listening to Japanese. News, stories, anything!

Fantastic Website Jorge san! Thanks for sharing – I especially loved the article below in the Life in Japan section. Very insightful, very powerful, very true! http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/top-10-reasons-why-expats-who-live-in-japan-dont-know-japanese

For those that don’t want to parse through blog the method works like this:

0. Believe you can do it.
1. Get the tools (SRS software like Anki, Mnemosyne, Mental Case, etc.)
2. Learn Kanji (Heisig’s Remembering the Kanji at 20~25 Kanji a day and you will complete 2200 in 3 months).
3. Learn Kana (This is a breeze right :D)
4. Study and read out loud 10,000 sentences in full Kanji (don’t memorize them, just learn them).

Steps 2, 3, and 4 should emply an SRS system. Step 2 should be done in 3 months and the rest in a year.

So according to his method you can learn Japanese by this Christmas if you start now.

Now let’s not waste time saying it will or won’t work, let’s just do it, who’s with me?

J

thanks for the info Jorge, looks nice!
and thanks for the summary!

Did you see the YouTube vid he’s added, with him having a conversation in Japanese? I’ve been hanging out for him to do that for ages – not because I’m a skeptic that needs ‘proof’, but for inspiration. And it is inspiring :D

I’m surprised no-one’s made a thread for it before, considering AJATTers penchant for taking over every language-related community on the internet! ; )

I stumbled on it last September, a couple of weeks into starting Japanese. It was a revelation. I followed the first few ‘steps’ religiously, but play around with different ideas a bit now. As Khatz says, it’s not a method so much as a bunch of ideas that worked for him.

I spend all of last night reading this blog. There’s a section where he organizes it so that it reads like a book. He has GREAT points, although some of them are a bit extreme. Here is a cool quote that I think everyone can either gain from or relate to.

“Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘Press On’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”

Yes he is genius.

@Laura C you are saying you followed his steps religiously and I plan to do so as well. What were your results? Do you know all Kanji already? Are you doing the 10,000 sentences now?

Cheers.

@Jorge: I know the meaning of all the kanji (RTK1) and the readings of the ones I’ve come across repeatedly through iKnow/Understanding Basic Japanese Grammar/tutoring/blogs/manga. My Anki sentences are sitting somewhere around the 1000 mark (can’t give you the exact number at the mo’ – I’m in the process of adding a truckload from UBJG!), so I guess I’m 10% of the way to Khatz’s target.

Considering I started AJATT in the last week of September, and only started on sentences in November, I reckon I’m doing okay. Not crazy-good like the hardcore guys on RevTK, but okay. I use the dictionary less and less every day (gotta switch to the monodic soon, seriously), I can pick up enough of the dialogue in a ドラマ to follow what’s going on, and the other day I found out about Sony’s restructure/downsizing by reading it in Japanese on the 読売新聞 website :D Oh, and I haven’t listened to a single song in English since September, and only heard TV in English in passing when I walk through my house (because I’m not rude enough to block out my family with my iPod all the time, sorry Khatz).

So yeah, the method works. How fast it works is directly proportional to how much time you put in. I can’t listen to Japanese audio at work, unfortunately, so there goes 7ish hours every day, but I do listen in the car, on my iPod at the gym, at home, when I’m out shopping…. Anyway, press on with the AJATT (how’s your RTK coming along?) – one day we’ll all pwn Japanese together ; )

@Monique: loveloveLOVE that quote! It’s been stuck up on the wall in the study at my place for years. My Dad used it to inspire my little sister towards her university entrance exams. Really inspiring : )

@:Laura C you are admirable! I hope I can do as good as you and then better!

I am just starting with the Kanji. I have like 120 down so far.

It was funny when I found this site because I had already been doing some of the things that he had mentioned, but just not to the same degree that he recommends. I actually started watching all Japanese dramas before I decided to learn Japanese. After I began I switched to all Japanese music, tv and anime. I do read manga, but in English, and then I’ll watch the anime related tot he manga in full Japanese, no subs, and understand (well infer rather) most of what is said. I though that since I wasn’t in Japan, this would be the only way to immerse myself.

But I don’t know much kanji yet. Since reading this site, I started RTK (yesterday actually).

@ Laura C/ Jorge do you recommend adding kanji into the SRS of should I just stick with sentences that contain the kanji and the kanji with be learned by default?

For everyone who is learning, just starting to learn or thinking about learning, a very important thing that he stresses is that learning doesn’t = pain. Learning can be fun and passive. Don’t learn new vocab and just memorize the words. Repetition is key, the words/phrases will be memorized eventually. Don’t force it!

Ganbatte ne

@Monique I would say that Laura C is the expert here but I would just recommend something simpler, try Khatzumoto’s method to the letter.

And to review your kanji using RTK this is the best: http://kanji.koohii.com/

Hahaha, me? Expert? 嘘！でも、Jorgeさんありがとう＾＾

@Monique: we-ell, depends what you mean by ‘adding’ them in. I had an RTK deck in Anki (pre-made, available on the Anki website) with the kanji on the front and the (English) meaning on the back, which I used while I was going through RTK1. Reviewing The Kanji (same link that Jorge posted) has a workable SRS built in. The difference between that and Anki is when you make a mistake – Anki will make you do it again till you get it right, where RevTK will give you a list of links to the ‘story’ page for the ones you got wrong, so that you can re-study them. Choose whichever you like more. In the end, they both work.

IMHO (and it’s just that – don’t do anything just because I, or anyone else here, tells you to!), while you’re going through RTK, focus on learning the kanji meanings before jumping into sentences. I reckon it helps you with retaining what you learn when you do go into full sentence mode. Like 意見 (opinion) means more to me now that I know that it’s idea + see/view, and 去年 is gone + year.

Either way, just keep doing your thing, keep having fun, and sooner or later it’ll come, right? :D I just finished the third ep of メイちゃんの執事 – fun + learning + immersion = win!

がんばってね！

I would love to go on a japanese self immersion study like this, if anyone is game to be study partners or anything. Maybe I can be ready for a proficiency test by next cycle!

i’ll try that site…^^

Yes, Japanese is like the most learned language on Edufire, Simply because all the Manga’s And anime’s are Done in Japanese, Expessially Naruto! xD

oooh ive been doing this for a while now, you totally learn alot! 8D

whoa, wish i had seen this website ages ago! i’m defo going to start looking into this sort of learning method. i only just found places where i can watch streaming japanese television so that’s a good start. my main problem with that is that here in new zealand isps enforce a monthly limit on how much data i can transfer and i only get allocated 25GB per month which is practically nothing…especially when i share that with 4 others…..will give it my best though….(edufire classes hit my data cap pretty hard as it is)

so it sounds great to me in principle, but does it really work? I don’t mean if you apply yourself really hard and try to master the material everyday – I believe in that. but I know that if I play stuff in the background, whether it’s Japanese TV shows or radio, I’ll just tune out after a while and only notice the intonation patterns, etc., kind of like how I ignore song lyrics….
he (khatzu) says that output comes naturally after tons of input, but is that really the case? I mean Japanese babies get feedback all the time on whether their pronunciation or grammar is correct…. how can you become proficient simply by passive immersion?

I had bumped into this site a while back when I was a Japanese student, and I have to say it is pretty inspirational.
Considering that I’m a serious student of Mandarin Chinese now, I still have to learn thousands of characters, so I can still connect with the basic concept the author explains, but differently.

I DO have to agree with Tammy, however. I strongly believe that one won’t be able to completely master a language by simply listening to Japanese. Sure, you can try translating in your mind, but how far can that get you? While it’s a fantastic idea in theory, I think it’d be best to spend that time studying earnestly. Don’t cram your brain, but study, you know? I, myself, listen to songs in Mandarin all the time, so I can relate, but that’ll only get me as far as getting used to hearing the pronunciation and trying to imitate it. Of course, I’ll be able to point out a few words I may know, but in the long run, it’s rather passive.
Now, when you’re forced to speak ONLY the language you’re studying is when this method really pays off. I’ve been to Na Na’s classes (as I’m sure many of you have), and she conducts in PURE Japanese (except for the occasional explanation, haha). It’s immersion like THAT in which you’re expected to listen to Japanese, comprehend every word being spoken, and then respond that’ll be a lot of help in the long run.
While I agree behind the theory (and it apparently worked for the author), try to find ways to have you communicate in the language you’re learning as opposed to just listening.

Well. Those are my two cents, at least. In the end, it’s all up to each of us. Good luck with your studies, guys. ^-
<3