Japanese learning blog
Practical guides on speaking, grammar, pronunciation, listening, and study planning, written for learners who want to use Japanese in real life.
All articles · Page 141
Te mo in Japanese: Even If, Even Though and No Matter What
Even if it rains, I will go. No matter how much I study, I forget. Japanese builds both sentences from the te form plus one small particle.
7 min readMō vs Mada: Already, Still, Not Yet and No Longer in Japanese
Have you eaten yet? Answering that question correctly in Japanese depends on one word, one verb form and a rule that trips up almost every learner once.
6 min readNi tsuite, Ni yotte, Ni taishite and Ni totte in Japanese
About, depending on, towards, from my point of view: Japanese says each of these with ni plus a verb that has frozen into a particle, and each has its own job.
7 min readDeshō and Darō: Probably, Right? and I Wonder in Japanese
The weather forecast says deshō, a friend says deshō? with a rising voice, and a character in a novel thinks darō. Same word family, three different jobs.
7 min readUchi ni in Japanese: While You Still Can, and Before It Changes
Eat it while it is warm. Let us go home before it gets dark. I started to understand while I was listening. All three sentences use the same two words in Japanese.
7 min readJapanese Words With No English Equivalent, and How to Use Them
Most untranslatable Japanese words translate perfectly well in a sentence. What they lack is a single English word, and some of the most famous ones are words Japanese speakers rarely say.
7 min readEnglish Words That Came From Japanese, and What They Mean There
You already know dozens of Japanese words. The catch is that several of them mean something slightly different in Japan, and almost all of them sound different.
6 min readAnime Japanese Words: What They Mean and Which Are Safe to Use
Most anime words are real Japanese. The problem is not the vocabulary but the volume, the tone and who the character is talking to.
6 min readJapanese Tongue Twisters (Hayakuchi Kotoba) for Pronunciation
Japanese announcers and actors warm up with tongue twisters. For learners, they are a precise, fun way to train the exact sounds that make an accent hard to follow.
7 min readCan You Live in Japan Without Speaking Japanese? An Honest Answer
Yes, many people live in Japan with very little Japanese. The honest part of the answer is what it costs them, and where it stops working.
6 min readLearning Japanese With ADHD: Study Habits That Actually Stick
Advice written for steady, patient learners often fails people with ADHD. A study system that works with how your attention actually behaves will beat one that relies on willpower.
6 min readLearning Japanese as an Introvert: Speaking Without Burning Out
Most speaking advice sounds like it was written by extroverts: go to meetups, talk to strangers, say yes to everything. There is a quieter route that works just as well.
5 min readPractical guides
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