よく「辞書を絶対使うな」と耳にするが、これは馬鹿馬鹿しいと言えば馬鹿馬鹿しい。辞書を使わずに一体どうやって言葉の意味を正確に理解すれば良いのだろうか？矢張り大事なのは、辞書を使うか使わないかではなく、辞書の使い方だ。文章を書きながら一々言葉を辞書で調べていると支離滅裂になり相手にうまく伝わらないだろう。詰まり、地獄への道同然だ。 昔から「言葉は最大の武器だ」という。本当にそうであれば、辞書を引くのは正に銃の引き金を引くのと同じことで、訓練をしなければならない。そこで言語学習者にとって辞書の役割は、ただ単語を教える事を超えて、取扱説明書の様に用例や「下に打ち消しの語を伴う」の様な注意などを通してその単語の用法を教える事も不可欠である。用例・注意などを満載した辞書は、まるで親友同然の宝物。 だから辞書は、「絶対使うな」なんて言葉に耳を貸さず、喜んで正しく使おう。何故かと言うと、永遠に頼る物ではなく寧ろ我々を解放する道具になる。辞書を座右の友にし頻繁に引き、引いた語の用例の意味を覚えよう。その用例をSRSに入力し復習しよう。すると、辞書に頼っていたからこそ徐々に頼る（引く）必要が減って行く。確かに時間が掛かるが、この手法の経験者として「価値はある」と確証する。辞書が無いと生きていけなかった私が、今では初めて見る単語の意味を調べず文脈から正確に推定できる様になったし、辞書を引く理由は殆どが好奇心からである。「絶対使うな」とのアドバイスに従っていれば恐らくここまで成長しなかっただろう。 Click here for English version .
How To Read Out The Things That Aren’t Written Explicitly In Japanese: Postal Addresses
by khatzumoto
One of my continuing sub-interests in Japanese has been how to read things that aren’t explicitly written in Japanese. These things are a part of the Japanese language, and there are widely accepted ways as to how to read them, but for whatever reason they’re so obvious or so unnecessary to write that everyone seems…
When Will I Get Good?
by khatzumoto
So, there you are. You’ve started learning Japanese. You’ve got your materials, you’re excited, you do your sentences. But you don’t feel that different from yesterday. You wonder, when are you going to get good? How do you know if you’re making progress? Short answer: You don’t. It’s kind of like growing taller. Oh, it’s…
Make Japanese Friends the Smart Way: MyLanguageExchange
by khatzumoto
This is super embarrassing to admit, but, when I was in college, I literally used to stalk East Asian(-looking) people; I’d even look through school phonebooks and other lists of names to find people from Japan. Before you call me an ethnically-biased stalker, remember that I effectively did it for you! I was like “I’m…
How To Score Yourself On Repetitions 2
by khatzumoto
This is a repeat of a previous post. I wasn’t happy with the wording the last time, it seemed unclear and difficult to understand. Truth be told, scoring repetitions requires some individual judgment, but much of it, I think, can be standardized. So here’s a second attempt at explaining how to score repetitions. Hopefully this…
The Immersion Environment: Rome wasn’t built in a day…But this isn’t Rome, so a week should totally do…
by khatzumoto
OK. Let’s talk more about your immersion environment for languages in general and Japanese in particular. From what I hear, this self-immersion thing is a bit of lifestyle change that some people have trouble with. And I can see why, so here are some tips on how to make the transition smoother. This is going…