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 167
Japanese School and Study Vocabulary
School Japanese is a small, closed vocabulary that repeats every single day, which makes it one of the fastest sets a learner can finish. This guide covers the words a student hears in class and the words a parent meets in a school letter.
16 min readJapanese Tech and Computer Vocabulary You Will Use
Half of Japanese tech vocabulary is English wearing a katakana coat, and the other half is a short list of kanji words that appear on every settings screen. Learn both and a Japanese phone stops fighting you.
14 min readHearing Japanese Numbers at Natural Speed
You can count to a thousand and still miss the total at a till. Spoken numbers change shape, group in fours, and arrive faster than anything else in the sentence, so hearing them is a separate skill from knowing them.
14 min readThe Japanese Alphabet: What It Actually Is
People search for the Japanese alphabet and find something better organised than they expected. Japanese writes syllables, not letters, and the chart they sit in is a grid you can learn in a week.
14 min readHow to Write Your Name in Japanese Katakana
Your name in katakana is not something you look up in a list, it is something you build. Learn the conversion habits once and you can write any name, including ones nobody has written before.
13 min readHow to Say I Love You in Japanese: Suki, Daisuki, Aishiteru
There is no single Japanese sentence that maps onto I love you. The honest answer is that suki desu does most of the work English gives to those three words, and aishiteru is almost never said out loud.
13 min readJapanese Proverbs and What They Really Mean
Japanese proverbs are short, vivid and almost universally recognised, which makes them tempting to quote. The useful skill is knowing which ones people actually say out loud, and when saying one makes you sound thoughtful rather than odd.
17 min readJapanese Idioms Built on the Body, Animals, and Nature
Japanese conversation is full of short fixed images: the ears hurt, the horses match, the load leaves the shoulders. Learn the common ones and a whole layer of ordinary speech opens up.
18 min readTe-Kuru and Te-Iku: Movement, Change, and Time in Japanese
Kuru and iku attached to a te-form do two very different jobs. One is about direction in space, the other about direction in time, and both decide how natural a simple sentence sounds.
17 min readYou ni, You ni Naru, and You ni Suru Explained
Yō ni is one short phrase doing four different jobs, which is why it feels slippery long after you have met it. Sort the jobs once and you gain the most useful sentence a learner owns: the one that says what you can finally do.
13 min readShika, Dake, Bakari, and Mo: Japanese Focus Particles
Dake and shika both translate as only, yet swapping one for the other changes the feeling of your sentence and, in shika's case, forces the verb into the negative. Focus particles are where politeness and attitude live.
12 min readReading Japanese Signs, Notices, and Warnings
The first kanji most people actually need are not on a textbook list. They are on a door, a platform board, or a shelf label, and they have to be read in about two seconds.
13 min readPractical guides
Turn Japanese knowledge into speaking confidence
Practice with Unihongo's AI Sensei in an immersive 3D classroom, with roleplay missions, pronunciation coaching, useful feedback, and learning games that build your vocabulary while you play.