WB002: NHK's News Web EASY

I came across the word "polyglot" in a YouTube video.

According to dictionary.com, "polyglot" is derived from the greek word polýglōttos, which means "many-tongued".

"Polyglot" (n) is a person who can speak many languages.

I grew up in Malaysia learning three languages (English, Mandarin and Bahasa Melayu). English is my native language and I have a "can survive"-level of fluency in the latter two languages.

This does not make me a polyglot.

Back to the crux of this article: I am now learning Japanese and on a journey to discover and acquire interesting ways to learn this language.

I think I learn quicker by continuous immersion, rather than by rules (rules only get you so far in life, right?).

Case in point: I did not understand Mandarin (apart from my name) when I first started Chinese school. I eventually picked up the language as it was the only way I could communicate with other students (and pass my exams).

Further case in point: colourful Chinese vocabulary were not part of the school curriculum, but I (easily) picked them up.

This brings me to a recent discovery: NHK's¹ News Web EASY (Japanese: やさしい日本語で書いたニュース) platform, which is free to access and use.

News Web EASY has simplified summaries of current, real-life news articles that would otherwise be too difficult for beginners to understand.

I find news content more enjoyable to read, as compared to textbook articles.

The platform has useful features like audio recordings of articles (to practise listening); a toggle to highlight names of people, countries and corporations; and a Kanji (漢字) toggle to hide/display Hiragana (平仮名) characters.

New vocabulary I don't understand gets written into my notebook (along with their meaning).

(Side note: do you find it easier to remember things when you've write them down?)

So far, News Web EASY is something I'd happily consume regularly.

The first news article I learned was "お札のデザインが新しくなった", loosely translated into "Banknote designs have been updated".

The article reported the release of the new 10,000 Yen, 5,000 Yen and 1,000 Yen designs, along with rising fraud cases whose victims are older folks (お年寄り).

My goal is to consume one News Web EASY article per week.

--Ends

¹ NHK is Japan's public broadcasting corporation. It is an English abbreviation of Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai 日本放送協会 (English translation: Japan Broadcasting Corporation).
日本 (noun)：Japan
放送 (noun)(する-verb)：Broadcasting, announcement, program
協会 (noun): Corporation