Study plans and JLPT
Practical guides on speaking, grammar, pronunciation, listening, and study planning, written for learners who want to use Japanese in real life.
Study plans and JLPT · Page 9
Learn Japanese with J-Pop Songs: A Line-by-Line Study Routine
To learn Japanese with J-pop, take one song you love and work through it line by line: listen, read the lyrics with furigana, look up the words, then sing it until the line comes out without the page.
8 min readJapanese Kaomoji Guide: How to Read, Type and Use Faces Like (^_^)
Kaomoji are Japanese emoticons read upright rather than sideways, such as (^_^) for a smile and (T_T) for tears; the eyes carry the feeling, and people type them through their keyboard's conversion list in casual messages, never in business email.
12 min readJapanese Envelope Addressing: Where Every Line Goes, Front and Back
To address a Japanese envelope, write the postcode in the boxes at the top right, the address in a column down the right side, the recipient's name large in the centre with sama or onchū, and your own details on the back.
12 min readJapanese Symbols and Emoji: What Marks Made in Japan Mean
Most symbols from Japan stand for a Japanese word: 〒 is the post, ※ is kome-jirushi, a note mark, 〜 in a price means kara, from, and the emoji 🈹 and 🈚 are shop-sign kanji for discount and free.
12 min readManga Panel Reading Order: How to Read a Japanese Manga Page
Start every manga page at the top right: read the right-hand page before the left, each row of panels from right to left, the bubbles in each panel in the same order, and the vertical lines inside each bubble from right to left.
12 min readJapanese Writing: A Self-Introduction Paragraph for Forms, Profiles and Class
A written Japanese self-introduction is five or six polite desu and masu sentences in a fixed order: name, where you are from, what you do, one personal detail such as a hobby, and a closing yoroshiku onegai shimasu.
13 min readJapanese Writing a Postcard from Japan: Greetings, Openers and Closings
A Japanese postcard follows a simple four-line shape: a greeting with a seasonal touch, one or two lines about where you are and what you did, a wish for the reader, and a short closing with your name.
12 min readJapanese Writing a Review Online: Restaurants, Hotels and Products
A Japanese online review is short, written in the polite desu and masu style, opens with when and why you went, praises specifics, softens any criticism with a hedge, and closes with whether you would go again.
12 min readJapanese Writing a Social Media Post: Captions, Hashtags and Replies
A natural Japanese social media caption is short, written in casual plain form or soft polite form, drops the subject, ends with a light particle or emoji, and carries a few Japanese hashtags that describe the scene rather than the whole sentence.
12 min readJapanese Writing a Thank-You Email After an Interview: The O-rei Mail
The Japanese thank-you email after an interview, the o-rei mēru, is a short keigo message sent the same day or the next morning that names the interview, thanks the interviewer for their time, restates your interest in one or two lines and closes with a formal signature.
13 min readJapanese Writing Instructions and Recipes: Steps, Sequencing and Quantities
Japanese instructions are written as numbered steps in either the plain dictionary form or the polite masu form, linked by sequencing words such as mazu, tsugi ni and saigo ni, with quantities and times stated before the verb.
13 min readJLPT Grammar Question Types Explained: Form Selection, the Star and Text Grammar
From N3 to N1 the JLPT grammar section uses exactly three formats, form selection, sentence ordering with a star and text grammar, and each one rewards a different skill: recognising patterns, building sentences from chunks, and following an argument across a passage.
13 min readPractical guides
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