Japanese learning blog
Practical guides on speaking, grammar, pronunciation, listening, and study planning, written for learners who want to use Japanese in real life.
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Learning Japanese as a Finnish Speaker
Finnish gives you both of the length contrasts Japanese depends on, plus an agglutinative grammar, which is close to the best preparation available.
7 min readLearning Japanese as a German Speaker
German already sends the verb to the end of a subordinate clause, which means the hardest thing about Japanese word order is something you do every day.
7 min readLearning Japanese as a French Speaker
French gives every syllable roughly equal weight, which is closer to Japanese rhythm than most European languages manage.
7 min readLearning Japanese as a Hungarian Speaker
Hungarian builds words the way Japanese does, by attaching pieces in sequence, and it already distinguishes long from short vowels.
6 min readLearning Japanese as a Czech Speaker
Czech already writes long vowels differently from short ones, which means you are listening for the contrast Japanese depends on.
6 min readLearning Japanese as a Polish Speaker
Polish gives you the idea that a noun carries its own role marker, which is most of what Japanese particles are.
6 min readLearning Japanese as a Ukrainian Speaker
Ukrainian gives you case marking, no articles, and unstressed vowels that keep more of their value than in some neighbouring languages.
6 min readLearning Japanese as a Dutch Speaker
Dutch already sends the verb to the end of a subordinate clause, so the operation Japanese asks for is one you perform daily.
6 min readLearning Japanese as a Romanian Speaker
Romanian already attaches a grammatical marker to the end of a noun, which is more preparation for Japanese particles than most European languages offer.
6 min readJapanese for Working in a Convenience Store
A konbini shift is the same twelve sentences repeated four hundred times, which makes it the most learnable job in Japan.
6 min readJapanese for Waiting Tables in Japan
Front-of-house Japanese is almost entirely fixed phrases, and the hard part is hearing the order back over a noisy room.
6 min readJapanese for Warehouse and Logistics Work
Warehouse Japanese is mostly numbers, and getting a number wrong is the one mistake that costs real money.
5 min readPractical guides
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