Being really into the grammar aspect of languages, when I first began studying Japanese I read any grammar-related book I could get my hands on. Particles, little words that pack a great deal of meaning, are integral to Japanese and also alot of fun to learn. Usually one starts with something simple like “を” (‘wo’,… Read More »
I’d like to wish a Happy New Year to everyone and best of luck with whatever foreign language(s) you are studying, if any. I’m always curious to learn more about those who read my blog, and it helps me customize the content to fit my audience. With that, I’ve created a poll that focuses on… Read More »
When reading in a foreign language we are not yet fluent in, our brain is struggling to do a great deal of things simultaneously. We’re desperately trying to grasp the overall meaning of the passage at hand, while looking up individual word meanings and pronunciations. We are also trying to think in terms of grammar… Read More »
It’s hard to believe, but I started this blog on WordPress exactly a year ago, on Dec 1, 2013. Although there were some periods where I didn’t write very often, overall I managed 170 posts, which translates to almost one every two days. Given my busy schedule I’m still amazed I found the time to… Read More »
For those studying a foreign language, you should make it one of your top priorities to practice speaking as much as possible, whether that means making friends with native speakers, speaking to random people over Skype, or talking a conversation skills class. But no matter how good your conversation is, there will a great deal of… Read More »
In this article I’d like to discuss a few things to watch out when learning Japanese, most of which were something I struggled with personally. The first is when talking about meeting someone in Japanese. If you aren’t careful, you might first think “I want to see you tonight” and then translate this as “今晩、君を見たい” which… Read More »
One thing that makes learning a foreign language satisfying is when you learn something that can be applied to many different areas – effectively multiplying the productivity of your study efforts. One such area is prefixes and suffixes, where knowledge of a certain word helps you guess the meaning of new words. When studying Japanese… Read More »
When creating my language learning website Language on Track, I wanted to add some other features in addition to goal tracking to really make it a nice set of tools to help study foreign languages. The one part of LOT that I likely spent the most time on and am the most proud of is… Read More »
お互い (“otagai”) is a Japanese word which is a little tricky to translate into English directly, but roughly means something along the lines of “each other’s”, “one other’s” or “mutual”. A common expression which uses this phrase is the following: お互い頑張りましょう Let’s each try our best Notice that this is a little different than “一緒に (issho… Read More »
One of the great things about studying a foreign language is there are so many different ways to study it apart from boring textbook work. Whether it’s striking up a conversation with your waiter in a foreign language, making a penpal from a country of interest, or attempting to read a magazine in a foreign… Read More »