Try FluentU for Free
sentence mining japanese
By jennywillettjennywillett Last updated:

Strike Gold with Sentence Mining in Japanese for Context-rich Learning

There’s no denying that becoming fluent in Japanese is a monumental task, one that takes time and determination to overcome, much like climbing Mt. Fuji.

What if we told you that there’s a way to learn Japanese faster?

All you have to do is dig through that mountain of learning instead of climbing over it.

Curious? Ready your pickaxe, because in this post we’re going to teach you how to study smarter and sentence mine your way to Japanese fluency!

Contents

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

What Is Sentence Mining and How Can It Help Me Learn Japanese?

Sentence mining was developed by two Polish men who became fluent in English before ever leaving their own country. You can read all about their journey on the Antimoon website.

Sentence mining revolves around learning whole sentences and their component parts together and in depth.

Rather than focusing on lists of isolated sentence parts, you learn words and grammar in their natural context.

There are several benefits to learning this way.

For one thing, you’re more likely to use the language naturally, rather than try to translate from your native language into Japanese (which risks making you sound like a translation app).

In addition, learning kanji readings as they’re used in vocabulary will allow you to learn the more common readings first, as they’ll naturally occur more often. This saves you time by emphasizing what you need to know the most. You can save rare or archaic readings for when you’ve mastered the everyday ones.

Learning kanji one by one in isolation, on the other hand, means you have to learn vocabulary and the phonetic readings of those kanji separately. While this may work for some learners, it can take much longer.

Most Japanese words, especially nouns, are written using several kanji together. Examples include even very basic words such as 少女 (しょうじょ) — girl, 動物 (どうぶつ) — animal, 学校 (がっこう) — school and, of course, 日本 (にほん) — Japan.

Learning the separate kanji isn’t as memorable or easy as learning them together—once you see 日本, for instance, you’ll never forget these kanji, making them easier to recognize in other contexts!

If you’re advanced enough to be consuming authentic Japanese content, it can be fun to try and watch or read for meaning. But it’s also important to master the finer points of grammar to be sure you’re expressing yourself clearly. Sentence mining can help you focus your studies and take a deeper, more involved look at the language used in your favorite manga, drama or light novel.

Finally, isolated learning carries with it the risk that you’ll neglect an aspect that you find less appealing, such as grammar rules, only to find later that you struggle without thorough knowledge of that topic. By using sentence mining, you can integrate your learning and avoid the pitfalls associated with learning in a compartmentalized way.

Japanese Sentence Mining Through SRS Programs

Sentence mining helps you learn:

And as if that weren’t enough, there are ways to get even more out of every minute spent learning, by working smarter instead of harder.

Using a Spaced Repetition System (SRS) to learn maximizes efficiency and optimizes your natural learning rhythm for the best retention possible.

SRS programs use an algorithm to show you words and phrases right when you’re about to forget them. This helps you cement knowledge in your long-term memory, as well as avoid wasting time reviewing items you already know well.

An SRS-based program like FluentU, which uses videos by native speakers, takes this even further by allowing you to master speaking and listening while working on reading and comprehension—all at the same time.

We’ll cover SRS options in more depth later in this post!

But first, let’s learn more about how to sentence mine in Japanese. Ready? Start digging!

Sentence Mining in Japanese for Context-rich Learning

How to Mine Sentences in Japanese

There are three basic steps to sentence mine effectively in Japanese:

1. Find sentences that contain examples of the concept you wish to learn (grammar, vocabulary or both). Sentences need to be accurate and natural to avoid wasting your efforts. We’ll discuss this in a bit!

2. Input these sentences into an SRS program or your preferred memorization method. BritvsJapan has a great video that goes over this in detail.

3. Study and review the sentences until you’ve mastered them. The goal is to understand all kanji, grammar and vocabulary as it’s used in the sentence.

Focus on Japanese-to-English translations first, adding English-to-Japanese cards if you need any (of problem words, for instance) once you have more knowledge under your belt.

You can break sentences down into their component parts, making flashcards for each vocabulary item or grammar concept used in the sentence.

sentence mining japanese

Flashcards can be traditional, simply displaying the full sentence or its parts, or you can mix things up by turning sentences into fill-in-the-gap questions. This’ll push you further toward being able to independently produce the sentence or any of its component parts.

You can find additional helpful information from Antimoon about different options for utilizing SRS with full sentences.

How to Find Good Japanese Sentences to Mine

Not all Japanese sources will be equally useful for this technique. “One Piece” may be your favorite manga, but speaking like a pirate may prove less appealing when trying to ace a job interview.

Similarly, if your goal is to grow closer to Japanese relatives, learning only very formal business Japanese may come across as cold and distant. Match your source to your language-learning goals.

Accuracy is essential! Without it, you risk embedding mistakes into your Japanese without realizing and wasting a lot of time having to un-learn them later. This means that sources like Twitter or Facebook, where slang is widely used and nobody’s proofreading the posts, aren’t recommended as sources for this method.

Good sources use natural, modern, everyday Japanese with thematic vocabulary that’s relevant to you. To find a suitable source, decide on your goals then match your sentence sources to those goals, taking into account the politeness level, any gendered language used and how up-to-date the source is (to avoid picking up outdated turns of phrase).

Here are some excellent places for finding sentences to mine:

Gakuu is a database of sentences in Japanese and their English translations. It’s a wonderful free resource, though the sentences may in some instances be archaic or unnatural.

Get Greater Returns by Avoiding Furigana

To get the most out of your sentence mining, be sure to avoid using romaji (Roman letters) and furigana.

Furigana is hiragana or katakana written in small text above or beside a kanji to show you its phonetic reading. By using furigana, you’ll miss out on one of the greatest advantages of this technique! Remember that taking shortcuts around kanji learning will slow yourself down in the long run.

The Best SRS Resources for Sentence Mining

Anki

sentence mining japanese

Anki is a powerful learning tool for any subject. It’s free for the desktop and on Android, though it requires a costly app on iOS devices.

Download shared decks or create your own SRS cards using Anki’s many customization options.

If you’d rather not start from scratch, the program’s large community of users has a ton of resources available for Japanese learners of all levels. A good place to start is with a deck of Japanese core vocabulary or get straight into full sentences with a deck of sample common sentences.

Memrise

sentence mining japanese

This program offers a free platform with a cute user interface and easily searchable courses, many of which are created by the community. (Note that while you currently can’t search for user-made decks in the apps, you can add anything you’d like to learn to your profile through the website then access it through the apps.)

Memrise’s strength is in presenting vocabulary in a memorable context by using mnemonic devices to remember words. 

While you can’t edit the options and customize decks like with Anki, Memrise offers a more user-friendly experience as well as free apps on both Android and iOS.

You can start with pre-made courses like one that features 60 simple sentences or even a huge traveler’s phrasebook of 500 sentences (but try not to rely on the romaji!).

FluentU

fluentu-logo

FluentU is an online language immersion program that uses native Japanese content with interactive subtitles, which come in handy for sentence mining.

If there are any words you don’t recognize in the subtitles, you can click on them to view the definition and example sentences.

You can also add these new words to a custom SRS flashcard deck. These flashcards contain other helpful aids, such as audio pronunciation, images and related videos, giving you as much information as possible for your sentence mining exercises.

Further Information About Sentence Mining

Want even more information about this method of studying Japanese? Here are three recommended readings for curious learners:

 

Hi-ho, hi-ho, it’s off to mine we go!

Whatever resources you choose, give sentence mining a try. You might find that it helps you use your study time more efficiently.

You could be tunneling through that intimidating mountain of Japanese and making headway to the other side before you know it!

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

Enter your e-mail address to get your free PDF!

We hate SPAM and promise to keep your email address safe

Close