Japanese Phonology: The Ins and Outs of Japanese Sounds Let me tell you a quick, personal story that I think underscores the importance of learning Japanese phonology or phonetics.…
The Complete Guide to Japanese Email Etiquette and Format “… I think that your Japanese is good enough to understand how you should address a professor. Please reword this …
The 17 Most Important Japanese Particles and How to Use Them Japanese particles are small words in hiragana that come after the words they modify, and they’re absolutely essential to becoming …
Kanji Mnemonics, or How to Learn Kanji by Picturing Grandma Doing a Headstand Nothing could’ve prepared you for this. Your grandmother, all 93 years of the woman, is balanced upside down on a …
Make Japanese Friends Online and Go Beyond Language Exchange I’ve known Vera for three years now—she’s one of my best friends and we Skype regularly. She also happens to …
How to Say “I Want” in Japanese, Explained with Ties It’s an unremarkable weekday evening and a salaryman is collapsed in the aisle of a dilapidated discount department store. He …
Build a Strong Japanese Core Vocabulary from Your First 100 to Beyond 6,000 Learning a new language involves learning lots of new words, and not all words are equal. Some are used differently …
Learn Japanese by Reading: 20+ Guided Reading Suggestions for Eager Students Have you ever had that experience where you understand every single kanji and vocabulary word but have no idea what …
How to Use the Volitional Form of Japanese (AKA the “Let’s” Form) The volitional form, or “let’s” form, was easily my favorite Japanese verb form to learn. It’s used to tell people …
