Konnichiy’all!
I hope your studying is going well! And if you took the JLPT a few weeks back, I hope you’ve had some nice time to rest and relax and maybe even actually enjoy Japanese again.
Today I’ve got another new study method to introduce. This one is geared towards practicing writing and expressing thoughts in Japanese. A lot of the time we get really caught up in studying all the vocabulary, grammar, and kanji that comes with Japanese, and everything just becomes example sentence after example sentence. We forget to make time to practice thinking for ourselves as well. So, one habit that I highly recommend everyone stacking into their study routine is…
A Japanese language diary!
Now, by diary I don’t mean that you need to write out all your deepest thoughts and feelings and spill your secrets in Japanese. I mean, you can do this. It would certainly be wonderful practice. But rather, I just mean keeping a journal or notebook where you write about your day in Japanese on a consistent basis.
A Simple Format for Your Japanese Diary
Language diary entries don't need to be anything special or lengthy. You can talk about where you went, who you saw, what you did or ate or watched or felt - anything is okay! Short and simple is absolutely fine. I recommend locking the habit down with just a couple sentences a day at first, rather than straining to write an essay each time.
The important part here is the word consistent. As always, our goal here is to build long term language habits that are easy, accessible, and meaningful. We don’t ever want studying to feel like too much of a chore.
Here’s the format that I used at first, and that I’ve also used with my students studying English:
Date (Day)
Weather. Sentence 1. Sentence 2.
So, for example:
12月14日（水曜日）
天気は晴れです。今日は朝ごはんにたまごやきを食べました。おいしかったです。
(Tenki wa hare desu. Kyou ha asagohan ni tamagoyaki wo tabemashita. Oishikattadesu.)
(The weather is sunny. Today I ate rolled omelets for breakfast. They were delicious!)
It’s as simple as that. And it’s scalable to any level. When I was first starting out and didn’t know many kanji, vocabulary, or verb tenses, it may have looked like this:
てんきがいいです。きょうはたまごやきをたべました。おいしい！
(Tenki ga ii desu. Kyou ha tamagoyaki wo tabemashita. Oishii!)
(The weather is nice. Today I ate rolled omelets. Delicious!
And at a higher level, it will start to sound more natural:
最近天気が暖かくなってきました。今日の朝ご飯に彼女が卵焼きを作ってくれたんです。美味しくて最高でした♡
(Saikin tenki ga atatakaku natte kimashita. Kyou no asagohan ni kanojo ga tamagoyaki wo tsukutte kuretandesu. Oishikutesaikoudeshita.)
Naturally, as your Japanese knowledge and speed increases, your entries will probably increase in length. It’s exciting to be able to express more complex thoughts! However, even once you’ve started branching into longer entries, you can always come back to this weather + 2 sentences format to maintain the writing habit on a busy day, or when you’re not feeling very motivated. Just like how you can save your Duolingo streak with a single lesson, just a sentence or two means you didn’t miss your writing habit for the day.
6 tips to make the most of your Japanese diary:
1. Write in polite Japanese
When I started writing my diary, the teacher who checked my entries had a rule that I had to write in polite language. That meant desu/masu form, all the time. I hated this rule. I wanted to practice casual Japanese too! I didn’t want to sound like a robot.
Oh my god, I am so grateful now. The fact is that no matter what your plans are with Japanese, you are going to need to use polite language a lot. For starters, any interactions that happen with staff at restaurants, izakaya, hotels, stores, etc., should happen in polite language. And yes, there is definitely a foreigner card for not using the correct level of politeness in your speech, but it can still be shocking and make someone come off as rude when that was never the intention. Even if you make Japanese friends or date Japanese people while living in Japan, you’ll start off using polite language with new people - just like you would at home.
Of course, I’m not saying you shouldn’t ever use or practice casual language. But whether you’re interested in traveling, studying, living, or working here, you should be able to speak politely first and foremost. Please don’t be the foreigner who speaks anime Japanese in Japan. In 99% of situations, it’s way more acceptable to speak too politely than it is to speak too casually here, especially if you’re young. So, I recommend practicing expressing your thoughts in polite Japanese, so that when it’s time to convey them to a Japanese person, you won’t accidentally let bad vibes slip off your tongue.
2. Find the frequency and entry length that works for you
I gave a weather + 2 sentences/day recommendation above, but the truth is that I’ve actually used a slightly different format for about two years now. I had Japanese lessons with a volunteer teacher twice a week when I was living in the Kansai region, and my diary was my homework. I work very well with deadlines, so having the twice a week deadline meant I built the habit of writing my diary twice a week. To make up for the lower frequency, I wrote slightly longer entries, about 5-7 sentences per entry. It was really easy to stack the habit of writing my diary entries at lunch before my lesson. So, find the frequency and length that will play to your strengths and fit easily into your schedule.
3. Choose your focus and format
If you want to learn to write Japanese, I definitely recommend a written diary in a notebook or journal. As you build your writing habit, the most important and commonly used kanji for you personally will become muscle memory. There’s a ton of benefit beyond just learning to write as well - your hand is connected to your mind, and you’ll remember the readings and meanings of kanji and words more clearly by writing them down yourself.
That being said, many people these days don’t bother learning to write Japanese. I do have to say, even living in Japan I barely ever need to write in Japanese. Though I can’t speak for working in an actual Japanese company, as far as daily life goes, just knowing how to read and type is definitely enough to get by these days. Japanese people themselves are also forgetting how to write a lot of more complex kanji as we shift to using more and more technology in our lives.
So, if you’d rather only focus on learning how to express your thoughts in Japanese, then a typed diary in a Google document might be the way to go. It’s way easier to access, and therefore do, since most of us have our phones all the time. The choice is up to you and your language learning goals!
4. Don’t write the same thing every day
This is probably common sense for someone learning a language because of internal motivation, but my Japanese students are very guilty of submitting a full week of English diaries that all say “The weather is sunny. Today I ate curry/stew/a hamburger/corn. It was delicious.” Now, they’re probably all really wonderful at saying that their lunch was great, but I’m not sure that the diary homework benefitted them much outside of that.
For best results, mix and match the vocabulary and grammar you know to express lots of different ideas and opinions. It’s more fun this way, and you’ll learn a lot of stuff along the way without having to open a textbook.
5. Read it back to yourself out loud to check for mistakes
This was something I didn’t do for a long time because I had a teacher reading it for me, but I wish I had been doing it all along. Oftentimes when we’re writing fast we forget words, make small mistakes, or throw out something awkward or incorrect, even in our mother tongues. Naturally, it’s going to happen in Japanese too, probably to a greater extent.
More often than you’d expect, you can sense when something’s off just by reading it over one more time. Speaking aloud also lets you know if it sounds off for some reason, such as strange wording or a grammar mistake. (Actually, I’d recommend this strategy for editing any English writing as well, to be honest!)
Beyond this, reading your entries back to yourself provides nice reading practice and review of any of the new words you’ve looked up and learned while writing, as well as rare speaking practice of more than a sentence at a time.
6. If you fall off the horse, just get back on
As with any habit, study or otherwise, sometimes life gets in the way of consistency. To be honest, when I moved and my daily routine changed so much, I stopped writing my diary for a time as well. But even if you miss a day or a week or a month or a year, what’s important with is just picking it up again and getting back on track. Don’t bite off more than you can chew, stick to the weather and 2-sentence structure for as long as you need to, and build (and rebuild) habits at your own pace. I promise the effort pays off over time.
Well, that’s it for your Japanese diary! As always, good luck with your studies and I hope you find this method to be useful!
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読でくれてありがとうございます！
P.S. I’m planning to put together a Japanese diary circle with weekly deadlines to help with motivation. Ideally, I’d like for it to be a space where we can share diary entries, questions, and support each other in the learning process. I’ll be polling soon about frequency and potential platforms to use on my Twitter, so please give me a follow and vote!