“Wow, that’s huge!”
I remember thinking this when I saw a cicada for the first time in the countryside of Japan. It was a hot summer day in the mountains of Nagano, and I was poking this dead cicada to …
Author Archive | brandonchin
Asking for Directions in Japanese: Find Your Way to Fluency with These 35+ Words and Phrases
It was a cold night in Hiroshima and I was lost.
I had embarked on my first international trip by myself at the green age of 19 a few days prior.
Now, I was on the wrong bus in the …
Spring into Fluency with the 4 Seasons in Japanese
Summer has hit Japan and I can feel my insides boiling already.
The summers here (especially in Kyushu, the southernmost island) are famously humid. They’re uncomfortable, to say the least.
But, they’re also helpful. Let me show you why!…
Learn Japanese 21st Century Style: 4 Viral Japanese Memes That’ll Boost Your Fluency
The internet: It has the power to make silly videos go viral, to spread celebrity gossip within a matter of minutes and lets us chat with people on the other side of the world.
Whether you’ve realized it or not, …
The 5 Elements in Japanese: What They Mean and Where to Find Them
“You’re rooted, Brandon.”
A friend from Switzerland told me this one day. She was telling me how I reminded her of solid earth and trees. To her, I was grounded and stable.
Have you ever heard a natural element being …
