Enter your name and email here to get your copy of the My  First Sentence Pack (2012~2013 Edition), with freebies and lifetime access to updates and extensions.

Once you enter your name and email, you’ll get an email with a password from the AJATT Library system. ¹

So, let’s review:

1. Scroll down
2. Enter your name and email addy
3. Check your email for a message from the “AJATT Library”
• Use the email addy you entered + the attached password to get into the AJATT Library
4. Enjoy your new MFSP and freebies forever!

PS: If you already have a library account, enter the same info as you did before and your library products will automatically be linked together.

Language is a martial art

On the surface, immersing in authentic, native materials hits you with a bit of a catch-22:

How are you supposed to learn anything when you don’t understand anything?
Isn’t this all just a waste of time?

Relax. The thing about language is that:

• At least in the beginning, it’s more physical than intellectual. It’s almost like training muscles. Like a martial art.
• The more you immerse, the more you will come to understand. You’ll find that your overall comprehension goes through these four or five clear stages (in order):
1. Gibberish
2. Distinguishable sounds ¹
3. Intermittent comprehensible phrases
4. Intermittent incomprehensible phrases ²
5. Full comprehension
• Very often, the context is the explanation.
• There is more to a language than just the words and their meaning. Language is much more like music than we generally presume. In real life, in real speech, prosody – the rhythm, stress, and intonation of speech — makes or breaks the game. Schools tend to ignore prosody, which is why people who learn languages at school suck. We’re going to do better than that.

Understanding and learning are not necessarily the same thing. If it helps, don’t think of yourself as learning stuff you don’t understand. Think of yourself as being “in prosody training”. Even though you can’t understand yet, you’re still learning: you’re learning prosody.

Also “listening” is a strong word to describe what’s going on. I prefer the term “hearing”, because the kind of “listening” we’re talking about is a very passive — coasting — process, punctuated by brief moments (sprints) of activity, moments of pedaling. Mostly all you need do is play Chinese, play Mandarin so you can hear it, so you can get used to it.

You don’t get good at something, you just get used to it.
You don’t learn a language. You get used to it.

I’ve always wanted to say “pleasure” like that, with a straight face.

What Is AJATT Plus?

It’s “AJATT” with “Plus” attached to it! What, I have to explain it to you? OK here we go…

Executive Summary: AJATT Plus =  Super Uber Cool Premium Version of AJATT = Forum +  AJATT Articles in Translated Into Japanese + Members-Only Benefits + Friends With Benefits .

To make all this work, AJATT Plus is subscription-based. This does a number of things:

• Pays for hookers and blow for Khatzumoto and Momoko, all at your expense. This is crucial. No hookers + no blow = . Not good, people.
• Forumwise, it acts as a conveniently simple barrier to people less intelligent than you, who would otherwise waste your time and flava.
• Other stuff. Like research about hookers and blow. I cannot overestimate the importance of the H&B.

Why AJATT Plus Sucks and You Should Stop Reading This Now and Never Look Back

• The name is stoopid
• You should know better than to take Japanese advice from random Kenyans on the Internet, I mean…come on, man…seriously.
• It’s too weird
• For the price of “AJATT Plus”, you could buy like at least two gallons of milk, even in Japan
  • Two gallons!
  • You then take this milk, put it on a high-sugar cereal, and BA-DA-BING! Happiness
  • Can “AJATT Plus” give you a sugar high?
  • Nooooo…
  • I mean, AJATT Plus is so bad, there are nested bullet-points about how bad it is
• AJATT products and services in general suck so hard that this one should just be called “AJATT Minus”
• Dude, what was this list even about?

So What’s In It, This “AJATT Plus”?

Here’s what you get:

• Access to AJATT Plus members-only AJATT forums (yes, forums), where you will:
  • Buy/sell/swap media
    • Save on shipping from Japan
    • Save on buying new books, DVDs, CDs, etc.
    • Make money on your used media and hardware that would otherwise go to waste
    • Put to good use media and hardware (dictionaries, etc.) that would otherwise go to waste
  • Work with other committed learners, encouraging and helping one other
  • Get cool tools, links and techniques
  • Save time spent finding and/or learning how to use cool tools, links and techniques
  • Share your techniques and experiences
  • Enjoy a safe, moderated, well-lit environment populated by polite, intelligent, good-looking, well-spoken, fun and mentally-stable human beings just like you.
  • Get your questions answered faster
• Access to AJATT Plus members-only Japanese translations of original AJATT articles (two per month).
  • Read aloud (for that audio-book feeling!)
  • Illustrated
  • Not just translated word-for-word, but “re-imagined” into Japanese to flow as if they always had been in Japanese.
  • Edited by native Japanese writers, to ensure you get the highest quality
  • With SRS packs [on selected articles only] to help you “chunk” those articles into little pieces to play winnable games on.
    • The SRS packs can also show you the multiple ways in which a single idea can be expressed.
• Get free copies and previews of AJATT products
• Get members-only discounts on AJATT products
• Get exclusive insider information on Khatzumoto’s l33t tactics and ground-level techniques, for free

Who’s It Even For, This “AJATT Plus”?

• You’ll benefit from the forums no matter what level you’re at.
• Even if you’re not learning Japanese, you’ll benefit from the forums just as you have from the AJATT Blog.
• If you’re a beginner, you’ll benefit from having other AJATT Plus members help you get your bearings and get started
• If you’re intermediate, the fact that the articles have both text and audio will be a good fit for you, especially since there are so few audiobooks in Japanese.
• If you’re advanced, well, the articles themselves will be fun, unique, quirky reading material for you.
• And finally, if you’re just looking for a simple monthly way to support AJATT …there’s always that. You like how I’m pushing this angle? Yeah.

What About People Not Learning Japanese?

Oh, you people . Just as with this blog, AJATT Plus will include a space for other languages as well.

Let Me In! Let Me Into This Exclusive Gated Community!

You can become a member of AJATT Plus in any of three simple ways:

Annual subscription
$89.95
(24¢ per day)

Six-month subscription
$49.95
(28¢ per day)

Monthly subscription
$9.95/month
(33¢ per day)

The Amazing AJATT Fo’ Shizzle 100% Refund Guarantee

Your happiness matters to me. I think about you every day . You can cancel your AJATT Plus membership at any time, and get a full refund on your immediate previous subscription payment. One word: “refund”, will suffice. So try it for a month and see how you feel. If you don’t like it, you can always cancel your subscription and get a refund.