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 177
Nado, Toka, and Ya: Listing Things Loosely in Japanese
Japanese draws a clear line between a list that is finished and a list that is only a sample. Getting that line right is what makes your speech sound relaxed instead of recited.
14 min readHou-Ren-Sou: Reporting and Consulting in a Japanese Workplace
In many Japanese workplaces, solving a problem quietly on your own is not read as competence. It is read as a gap in the reporting chain, and the language that closes that gap is short, fixed, and learnable.
16 min readQuitting a Job in Japanese: Notice, Letter, and Last Day
Resigning in Japanese is a sequence of set conversations, each with its own opening line. Knowing the shape of that sequence turns a stressful few weeks into something you can rehearse.
18 min readLearning Japanese as a Vietnamese Speaker: Advantages and Traps
If your first language is Vietnamese, you arrive at Japanese with thousands of familiar word roots and a handful of habits that pull in the wrong direction. This guide sorts one from the other.
17 min readLearning Japanese as a Chinese Speaker: Kanji Head Start
If Chinese is your first language, you can read a Japanese street before you can say a Japanese sentence. That gap between reading and speaking is the whole story of your first year, and this guide is about closing it.
18 min readLearning Japanese as a Korean Speaker: The Closest Neighbour
If Korean is your first language, Japanese grammar will feel like a familiar house with the furniture moved. The real work is in the sounds, the kanji, and the details of politeness that look the same but are not.
16 min readLearning Japanese as an Indonesian or Malay Speaker
If you grew up speaking Indonesian or Malay, Japanese sounds are mostly already in your mouth. The work is in the timing, the verb endings, and a writing system that will take longer than everything else combined.
15 min readLearning Japanese as a Thai Speaker: Sounds and Politeness
If your first language is Thai, you already choose your words by who is listening, and that instinct is the best thing you bring to Japanese. This guide shows where it helps, where Thai sounds pull you off course, and how to spend your first month speaking.
19 min readLearning Japanese as a Filipino Speaker
If your first language is Filipino, Japanese sounds are closer to your mouth than most learners can hope for, and the politeness habit you learned with po and opo has a direct use. This guide shows what to borrow, what to unlearn, and how to spend your first month speaking.
19 min readLearning Japanese as a Spanish Speaker: Easy Sounds, New Grammar
If Spanish is your first language, most Japanese sounds are already in your mouth. The work is in the length of vowels, the order of the sentence, and the script.
14 min readLearning Japanese as a Portuguese Speaker
If Portuguese is your first language, you already own a handful of Japanese words and most of its sounds. The work is in the grammar that runs backwards, the kanji, and a short list of sounds your ear has been trained to ignore.
16 min readLearning Japanese as a Hindi Speaker: A Familiar Word Order
If Hindi is your first language, Japanese sentence structure will feel oddly familiar from the first lesson. The real work is in the sounds and the scripts, and this guide shows you where to spend your effort.
14 min readPractical guides
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