Tag Archives: listening

Can one increase conversation fluency in Japanese without a language partner?

I recently got a question from one of my readers about how to increase conversation fluency in Japanese (会話力) without having someone to actually practice with. I don’t mean to dodge the question, but in all honesty without a conversation partner (話し相手)it is very difficult to reach any level of fluency. Before I go into my suggestions for… Read More »

Japanese podcast review: “Oogiri Corner”

In a previous post I’ve talked about the NHK Japanese podcasts, which are freely available online for a variety of programs. I’ve jumped around listening to a few of these, but lately have really gotten into one called “Oogiri corner” (大喜利コーナー)that is billed as “The earliest in Japan” (日本一早い) and is part of the “Suppin”… Read More »

Foreign language learning – use it or loose it (listening vs speaking)

I think I’ve touched on this point in another blog post some time back, but it’s such an important thing I decided to revisit it. When studying a foreign language, it’s natural to have a bias towards listening/reading over speaking/writing. This is not only because the latter is generally much more difficult, but because if you aren’t… Read More »