One of the tools I use to study Japanese is an interactive CD-ROM called Rosetta Stone. It’s a unique and intuitive approach to learning a language. What they have done is created an environment similar to that of a child. With pictures, sound and letters the language is presented and absorbed bit by bit.

The name “Rosetta Stone” might be misleading. This is not about translation or comparison of any sort between different languages. Here I only learn Japanese in Japanese. This way of making a clean cut from other languages makes my brain much more focused on only the Japanese.

Everything is about pictures. The first pictures are simple. The CD shows you a picture of a dog as you hear the Japanese word for dog. Then a cat, an onward from there. Pretty soon there are more advanced examples that you can handle with no problem. First there is “The cat” then “The cat is running” then “The man’s cat is running”.

The questions are presented as pictures where you are supposed to chose the right one. As you get better the combinations gets more complicated, using more of the words that you have learned. For example you are shown four pictures that show “The man’s cat is running”, “The woman’s cat is sitting”, “The boy’s dog is playing” and “The man’s horse is jumping”.

With this system there is no studying in the traditional sense. It’s more like a game. Probably very similar to what goes on in the mind of a child as they learn a language. To do one module takes about an hour. It is demanding in terms of concentration so I only do on module at a time.

To use Rosetta Stone there is first a program to be installed on your computer (works for PC and Mac). Then the different language modules are on CD-ROMs that must be inserted for it to work. I usually chose the option “guided exercise” where I go through a module with questions both as picture or sound first. The answer is always given by choosing between one of four pictures.

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