A lot of people misunderstand Japan and think that it’s this place where everybody acts the same, does the same things, and all speak the language. While Japan is no India (which has over 20 recognized languages), there’s more to the language than just regular ol’ Japanese. As I saw on Reddit earlier this week, [...]
One of the weirdest things about Japanese is that nobody really knows where it comes from. The languages spoken in Japan aren’t related to any other language on earth. Obviously the written language (i.e. kanji) pulls a lot from Chinese, but where the spoken language comes from is more or less a complete mystery for [...]
There are two words in the English language that can stop you dead in your tracks: burn out. No matter how much you love something, there’s always the risk of doing too much too quickly and getting sick and tired of it. This is especially true when learning a language (like Japanese), which can seem [...]
If you’re learning Japanese, one of the first things you do is learn what your name is in Japanese. It’s great because it personalizes the language and gives you an identity in Japanese. But sometimes there’s a little confusion about how to write your name in Japanese. Let’s look at the right and wrong way [...]
When you’re listening to Japanese, does it ever sound extremely fast to you? Perhaps around 21% faster? Well, you’ll be happy to know that a few smart people (Pellegrino, Coupé, and Marsico) did a study on this and more, showing that Japanese speech really is faster. It’s really quite interesting and it may even help [...]
At one point or another in learning anything, we will frequently reach a plateau in our ability. This intermediate plateau, or “okay plateau” is where many people tend to get the most discouraged with their studies and believe it to be too much work to conquer this level. This plateau is probably the most important [...]
It’s no secret that Japan and Hawaii have a special relationship. There are a ton of people with Japanese ancestry living in Hawaii, it’s common vacation destination for many Japanese (my Japanese relatives took their honeymoon in Hawaii), and there’s lots of Japanese elements in Hawaiian culture. Spam musubi, anybody? But Japan’s impact on Hawaii [...]
