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 154
Japanese Vowels Are Purer Than Yours
Japanese has five vowels and they are all easier than yours, which is precisely why they are hard.
6 min readJapanese Consonants That Learners Merge Together
Japanese consonants are mostly familiar, which is why the handful that are not slip past unnoticed for years.
6 min readJapanese Pitch Accent Across a Whole Sentence
You learned the pitch pattern of each word, and in a sentence none of them behave the way the dictionary said.
6 min readSaying English Loanwords the Japanese Way
You said a word you have known your whole life and nobody understood it, because in Japanese it is a different word now.
6 min readPronouncing Japanese Names and Places Correctly
Getting somebody's name wrong is the one pronunciation error that is genuinely worth apologising for.
6 min readWhy Fast Japanese Sounds Like One Long Word
You know every word in the sentence and you still could not find where one ended and the next began.
6 min readFixing Japanese Rhythm With a Metronome
Japanese rhythm is the single biggest thing standing between you and being easily understood, and it is trainable with a free app and ten minutes a day.
6 min readHow Long Does It Take to Fix Japanese Pronunciation?
Pronunciation changes on a different timescale from vocabulary, which is why it feels like it is not changing at all.
6 min readBuilding Japanese Flashcards From Your Own Mistakes
The best vocabulary list you will ever have is the one made of words you needed and could not find.
7 min readWhen You Catch Every Japanese Word but Miss the Meaning
You recognised every word, you could write them all down, and you still have no idea what was said.
7 min readFollowing a Japanese Conversation Between Other People
One-to-one Japanese is fine and a table of four is impossible, and the difference is not your level.
7 min readDoes Passive Japanese Listening Actually Work?
You have had Japanese playing in the background for six months and your listening has not moved, which is not surprising.
6 min readPractical guides
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