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Use Mixi.jp to improve your Japanese (and make some friends, too!)

9. January 2008

Mixi.jp is Japan’s number one social networking site, much like America’s Myspace or Facebook. To get in, you have to be invited by someone who is already a member, which thankfully helps to make Mixi a lot less sketchy than Myspace (though I guess that doesn’t take much effort). I’ll be giving out invitations for [...]

Resolutions for Learning Better Japanese in 2008

1. January 2008

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The New Year is a great time to break disgusting habits and set impossible resolutions…at least, it’s a great time to try to do those things. Most people come out from the rubble a couple of weeks later still smoking, drinking, or using Japanese words in English sentences, but everyone at least gets a little [...]

The Secret to Learning Japanese! Amazing!

18. December 2007

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Finally! Someone has come out with a strategy for learning Japanese that is easy, simple, and not all that hard. I don’t know why I didn’t come up with this before…oh wait, I did. Learning Japanese shouldn’t be a complicated thing. People often think that it is, and overcomplicated things for themselves. Granted, learning another [...]

Erotic Weather Channels…yes, that’s plural

11. November 2007

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If you take a look at the sunny days, and you happen to be able to read katakana, you’ll notice that they spell out the word エロ (ero), which, if you do read katakana, you’ll know notice means “erotic.” Considering they were showing eight different locations, as well as the weather for each of [...]

How to not talk like a Japanese Transvestite (or a boy/girl)

1. October 2007

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Learning to speak Japanese doesn’t get any easier. Right when you think honorifics make sense (which will never happen), you suddenly realize you’re not speaking like your own gender, which is usually a big surprise because nobody tells you about this for a really long time. So here I am, telling you that you need [...]

Putting the “hu” in Tofugu

14. September 2007

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I recently had a discussion with my friend Max about the nuances of Japanese pronunciation (maybe not so recently; it was when I was back home in Hawaii). One of the more interesting things we talked about was the fact that, in Japanese, there’s no “f” sound. This is a result of the fact [...]

Advanced Japanese II: “At the Same Time” Grammar

12. September 2007

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The other day I stumbled across of a list of “at the same time” grammar points in one of my Japanese text books. I’m studying for the Japanese Proficiency Test, ikkyu level, so all the Japanese I’m learning now either appears only in writing or is used by pompous bastards (sometimes). Still, I thought [...]

Beginning Japanese III: Taking Steps

27. August 2007

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Surprisingly, learning Japanese really is like going up stairs in a wheelchair, possibly sans the ninja. I get so many emails of people asking me why their Japanese isn’t getting any better. Here’s how these emails usually go: Hey Koichi, I’ve been studying Japanese for a few years now. I take classes, I talk with Japanese [...]

Studying Japanese with a Nintendo DS

2. August 2007

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When you’re not saving the Mushroom Kingdom from blood-thirsty turtles, you can use your uneducational Nintendo DS to study, improve, and practice your Japanese. There are several “games” out there to help you. Of course, there are several electronic dictionaries out there that do similar things, and it seems like everyone has them. I’m here [...]

Advanced Japanese I: Transitive? Intransitive? Confusing? Yes.

28. July 2007

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When learning Japanese, you can get by for a few years without worrying about transitive and intransitive verbs. As things start making sense, though, you’ll begin noticing that there are verbs that sound and look similar, but have very slightly meanings. Some common ones are: 始める vs 始まる (to begin vs. began) 起こす vs 起きる (wake up [...]