Archive for 'How To Study'
Win an iPhone 3GS by Learning Japanese
Posted on 14. Jun, 2009 by koichi.
If you’re as blinded by Apple fandom as me, and you’re learning Japanese (good chance if you’re reading this), then now’s the time to act. Oh, and full disclosure, I’m an employee at the nice company giving away this iPhone, but doesn’t mean it’s not an awesome opportunity.
Unlimited Live Japanese Classes for $29 a Month
Over at my work at eduFire (which is a marketplace for live education over the Internet) we released a subscription program called SuperPass. For only $29 a month (you’re not going to find a better deal) you can take all kinds of unlimited classes which includes a lot of Japanese classes as well. (more…)
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Learn Japanese from Yoda
Posted on 20. Jan, 2009 by koichi.
No doubt, if you’ve taken Japanese lessons from me before, you probably have heard this “rant” before. The one about Star Wars and how it was “inspired” by a Japanese film, and Yoda (which is a Japanese name, by the way) is actually an old Samurai master who speaks with Japanese grammar. I use this as a jumping off point when teaching people about Japanese grammar, so I thought it would be fun to share it with all of you as well! (more…)
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39 Free Japanese Courses You Should Sign Up For Right Now
Posted on 03. Dec, 2008 by koichi.
Big news over at eduFire. I migggghhhttt have had something to do with it (wink wink, nudge nudge, Monty Python reference), but there’s a huge number of free live Japanese courses starting in the next few days. I counted 35, total, not including the courses from me I just put up (where up to 99 of you can join a course). Here’s a list of all the courses, along with an explanation of how these courses work. (more…)
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Top 10 Online Resources for Learning Japanese for Free
Posted on 21. Oct, 2008 by koichi.
I’m really proud and excited to announce Tofugu’s first annual “Top 10 Online Resources for Learning Japanese for Free” list, which includes an e-book that’s available for download at the end of the article. There’s also video down there for all you people who don’t like reading things!
Have you ever wondered what was out there in the tubes of the interwebs in terms of improving your Japanese? Honestly, a whole lot of junk. Some of that junk is mediocre, but most of it is pretty junky. I’ve sifted through all that and came up with a list of the best Japanese resources on the web. Granted, everything is just my opinion, but I think this is a really well rounded list that should have something (hopefully a few things) for everyone! If you’ve been a reader on Tofugu for a while now, you’ve probably seen some of these. Still there’s a lot of new stuff here, so please, dive in, and tell me what you think! (more…)
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Shiritori (しりとり): Japanese Vocab Saturday Timewaster
Posted on 04. Oct, 2008 by koichi.
I was reminded of this game over on the eduFire forums, where one of the tutors started a game up. What a great vocab game! I remember playing this a lot with my crazy little kancho-giving host brother, back in the day. Here’s how it works.
- One person starts with a word
- The next person takes the last letter (hiragana) from that word, and uses it to start the next word.
- Then it goes on and on and on until someone loses (more on that in a second).
(more…)
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How to Get Free Japanese Lessons (In more than one way!)
Posted on 23. Sep, 2008 by koichi.
So, as I promised (and a day late), here’s how you can get you fill of free Japanese lessons, right from your own home. There’s two ways to do it. The first way involves a contest (I’ll talk about this more a little later) and the second way just involves clicking around a new Youtube channel I’m a part of. Let’s go into more detail! (more…)
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EduFire Review: Learn Japanese (or any language) Online via Webcam with a Private Tutor
Posted on 28. Aug, 2008 by koichi.
First off, I love eduFire. It’s a great website with great people, a great interface, and a great mission: They want to make it easy for tutors to teach students a foreign language. Right now, there are forty-three languages being taught on eduFire (and that number is growing as tutors increase), including Arabic, English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Mandarin, Portuguese, Russian, and of course, Japanese. And yes, I am one of the forty-one Japanese tutors currently teaching on eduFire (but more on that later).
But, how does everything work? Everything’s pretty simple right now, and the eduFire staff are constantly making improvements to the site, mostly based on user suggestion. The site’s creators are very good about listening and responding to feedback, and their employees are very friendly (If you are a tutor, you will be contacted by Marco, who will join your lesson as a “student” and walk you through eduFire and answer your questions. Super cool Frood. (more…)
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Listen to Japanese Podcasts via iTunes
Posted on 21. Aug, 2008 by koichi.
Recently, I became a huge fan of podcasts. I thought they were a lot lamer than they really are, so I was surprised when I actually took a look at the Podcast section in iTunes. Now, I’m listening to NPR constantly, especially Car Talk, Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, and This American Life. This went on for a little while, then I realized that maybe it was possible to listen to Japanese podcasts as well. It would be great for passive Japanese listening practice, and even more importantly, it would be free. Still, in the past I had tried to download Japanese music from Japanese iTunes, and it denied me because I didn’t have a Japanese credit card (though later on we’ll talk about a way around this, according to one of our readers, at the end of the article). (more…)
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Learn Japanese NOW!
Posted on 01. Aug, 2008 by koichi.
Think of this post as an “inspirational” post…or something like that. Might be the opposite, depending on who you are.
Over the last five years or so, I feel like I’ve noticed an influx in “instant gratification textbooks.” Everyone is trying to claim that they can teach you Japanese faster. One book will say it can teach you Japanese in 12 very easy five minute lessons, another will say they can teach you everything you’d ever need to know in a week. I’ve even seen some that say “Learn Japanese now!” (more…)
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How to Study Japanese Over the Summer
Posted on 20. Jun, 2008 by koichi.
Well, it’s that time of year, isn’t it? Some of you are getting out of school for summer break and some of you haven’t had to go to school for decades. Some of you took Japanese classes at school, and some of you are self-taught. Either way, summer makes it really easy not to continue studying your Japanese (or anything, for that matter). I’ve thought through some tips to keep the study-love going during the lazy season. (more…)
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