A student at The Bronx High School of Science, Wataru Takada is preparing for college applications. Though he has lived in the United States since he was 3 months old, Wataru Takada was born in Japan and learned the Japanese language to the point of verbal and written fluency. Here are some useful tips for those studying Japanese.
1. Learn about stroke order. While oddly written letters cause few issues in the English language, poor stroke order will affect how readers interpret your Japanese writing. For example, ending a stroke with a stop leads to a different interpretation than ending it with a swoosh for some Japanese characters. Spend time learning about stroke order and how it applies to different written characters.
2. Avoid using English language patterns. Japanese sentences follow several patterns and include a variety of situational phrases, meaning you may run into trouble if you attempt to memorize Japanese vocabulary and then apply it in the same way you would in English when speaking. Focus on memorizing sentence patterns rather than trying to fit Japanese words into an English sentence construct.
3. Engage in Japanese culture. Beyond being enjoyable, Japanese anime, manga, and songs can teach valuable slang phrases and sentence structures that help to naturalize your speech. Of course, you should split your focus between learning from such materials and examining more formal language.
