Studying Japanese in 2021… How far we’ve come from studying Japanese in 1899. Or in 1999. No one says they wish they could study like it used to be. With all the super advanced tools, the unlimited and instant access to everything Japanese, you have it made. This is the age of studying Japanese (or any foreign language). But does it sometimes feel like it … Continue reading →
Ever read a blog, forum, or some other social media where someone was sharing their success story to learning Japanese? They shared their methods and techniques, and told you how you can do it too! You just got a front seat to survivorship bias. And it’s something important to know when you get stuck and wonder “why can’t I do it when everyone else can.” … Continue reading →
The worst thing just happened. You failed the JLPT. As if that wasn’t bad enough, you failed it in the worst way possible – by 1 point. That’s one question. One mistaken circle sealed your fate. One baby misstep turns a year of happiness into a year of frustration and regret. There’s no getting around it: it feels horrible. But there are some things you … Continue reading →
Ever heard this wise advice before? The ultimate self-reflecting test to find out if you will ever make any sense out of this crazy language. If you don’t love something, and aren’t passionate enough, you’ll never get good at it. If you hate the studying, you really don’t like it enough. You don’t truly want it. Yeah, that’s not right at all… It sounds right. … Continue reading →
You’ve probably accepted by now that you are going to fail, multiple times, as you move forward learning Japanese. But how you fail changes all the time. There is a never-ending supply of failure variety. I think it’s useful to look at the way you fail (die) in video games, because it creates a nice parallel to failing at Japanese. Here’s a major list of … Continue reading →
Adam, you’ve gone soft. You used to be hardcore. You’d tell people they must learn all the kanji first. You’d tell people they must create their own flash cards. You’d tell people they must immerse as much as possible every moment of every day. You’d tell people that if they did this, they too could become fluent in less than 3 years. What happened to … Continue reading →
I don’t get it. Japanese has a habit of making me say this more times than I can remember. Things go smoothly until they don’t. It’s easy until it’s hard. When I first learned about the “give” and “receive” verbs (もらう, くれる, and あげる), I thought “how bad could they be?” Who knew that they would be a thorn in my side long after I … Continue reading →
I studied Japanese. I got good. I got fluent. Because of this, when I talk with Japanese people who don’t know me, I often get an inevitable 4-question barrage which I don’t particularly like answering. Here are those 4 questions and what to expect. 4. Why can you speak Japanese? Umm… because I studied it? I ponder for a second whether this is rude. I … Continue reading →
