Japanese Online Lessons using SKYPE

Why taking notes by hand is more efficient than typing?

January 24, 2018

Which do you prefer, hand writing notes or typing on a computer keyboard when learning something new?

Possibly, those who like typing insist that we can type significantly faster than writing and that it allows us to do more, like engaging in online activities.

Nevertheless, a couple of studies prove that we learn better when we take notes by hand than when we type on a keyboard. Why is writing down notes with a pen more efficient than typing?

Scientifically speaking, writing in longhand is important because it stimulates a parts of the brain “RAS”(= the Reticular Activating System) that typing simply doesn’t. The RAS acts as a filter for everything your brain needs to process information, giving more attention to the stuff you are currently focused on.

Dr. Virginia Berninger, who studies reading and writing systems and their relationship to learning processes, says the difference between handwriting and typing: the act of handwriting is engaging the brain more actively by using our hands to form the letters and connect them. Typing, on the other hand, involves just selecting letters by pressing identical-looking keys.

Of course, whether the pen or the keyboard depends on your personal experience and comfort with these tools. As a compromise, perhaps stylus-friendly tablet PCs or digital pens may help us learning something better.

Reference：

http://lifehacker.com/5738093/why-you-learn-more-effectively-by

Giving Excellent Presentations in Japan (Don’t Imitate Steve Jobs!)

November 27, 2017

In a lecture on presentations being given the other day to advanced foreign learners of Japanese, there was a student who imitated Steve Job’s presentation style, but the Japanese people attending gave him a low evaluation.

So, let’s take a look at some important points that non-Japanese people need to know when giving a presentation in Japanese.

Learn the orthodox Japanese style well

When giving presentation in Japanese, there will probably be people in the audience who do not understand English very well.

Japanese people of this type are not used to presentations of the type Steve Jobs would give.

Actually, most Japanese people are used to a very simple style like that in this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1dNSkGuCeg

Polish your presentation until you get it right

Advanced Japanese speakers should aim to give a perfect presentation just like a Japanese person.

Ideally, the presentation should be logical, informative, and easy for Japanese people to understand. Mid-level Japanese speakers should think of ways to compensate for their incomplete knowledge of Japanese.

First, try to gain the good will of your company.

To accomplish this, we recommend that you convey the disadvantages of products and services in addition to the advantages.

The reason is that honestly stating disadvantages in a frank appeal can easily gain the trust of Japanese people.

Practice your presentation

Make a video of your presentation and review it.

If you don’t have a video camera, use a ?Bandicam.

http://www.bandicam.com/main.php?from=jp

Get feedback from two Japanese people

You should ask your Japanese teacher about the accuracy of your Japanese.Particularly make sure that your particles and sentence ending expressions are correct.You should also ask the opinion of a business person regarding the content.

Good luck on your presentation!

How to get free Japanese audio examples?

November 21, 2017

“There is no audio example of the text that I want to read” is one of the problems foreigners often faced in self-studying Japanese. In this article, we will teach you how to solve this problem.

There are numerous audio materials that can be used for listening practices, such as textbooks attached with CDs and free YouTube movies. However, these are not the text that I want to read.

Japanese learners had no choice but to ask native Japanese like a Japanese instructor to read out the text.

Now, everyone can get audio examples of any text for free by using speech synthesis software.

Please visit the following site. (This page is only available in Japanese.)

http://voicetext.jp/

1. Choose a language
2. Choose a voice actor
3. Fill in the text you want to read out

The above three steps will help you get your own audio examples.

You can create your own text as below, it would be useful for practicing Japanese in various business settings such as interviews and presentations.

「大連のシステム会社でスマートフォンのソフトウェア開発に携わっておりました。」

“I have been engaged in software development for smartphones in a system company in Dalian.”

「本日はプレゼンの機会を頂き、誠にありがとうございます。当社の新商品をご紹介させて頂きます。」

“Thank you very much for the opportunity to make this presentation today, I will introduce our new products.”

「Keikoさん、僕と結婚して下さい。必ずあなたを幸せにします。」

“Keiko-san, please marry me! I will make you happy forever.”

Such private conversations are also okay.

Audio examples made by speech synthesis software are not perfect because it is mechanical sound, but I think it is sufficiently useful for self-studying.

Please try it!