Often language learners will wonder how long it takes them to master, or at least become fluent in a foreign language, especially when deciding whether to start studying a language or not. And from the point of view of time management, to a certain extent that is a logical thing to want to know. A… Read More »
Here on Self Taught Japanese I write about not only learning Japanese language and culture, but sometimes I also like to take a step back and write about the act of learning itself. In this post, I want to cover what I feel is one of the biggest pitfalls of learning a language (or anything… Read More »
This is my translation of the 6th and final part of Kenji Miyazawa’s famous story “Matasaburo of the Wind”, which happens to be the same story referred to in the song “Matasaburo” by the rock band Yorushika.
I’m proud to announce the first full audiobook produced by Arigatai Books: “Fast Forward Japan” that contains stories by Juza Unno, an important figure in Japanese science fiction.
Around two years ago I reviewed the first season of the Netflix drama “Alice in Borderland” (with the Japanese title 今際の国のアリス, “imawa no kuni no arisu), which you can find here. It was quite a wait for the second season, but when it finally came out I couldn’t help but watch. Fortunately, it was definately… Read More »
These days, with so many other responsibilities (and hobbies) I find it hard to make time to sit down for a PC game for any length of time. Part of the reason is that playing games a few minutes at a time is just not as satisfying as those hours-long sessions that I could do… Read More »
When learning a foreign language, it’s important to learn a little bit about a lot of things: words, expressions, culture, etc. But it’s also important to learn a lot about a few things, namely those things that occur frequently in daily life. This post, falling in the latter category, is about an expression you are… Read More »
As we learn a foreign language, we gradually improve our vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation, and at the same time gain other more abstract skills that help us understand and communicate better. Often these things happen subconsciously, but you can also learn these types of skills explicitly and try to apply them to your daily language… Read More »
English-speakers tend to quickly pick up on the large number of words in Japanese that come from English (something I’ve written a few articles about). However, there are many loanwords in Japanese that originate from other languages such as Portuguese, Dutch, French, and German. It so happens that I have started studying German a little… Read More »
Arigatai Books has released a set of everyday items on the theme of “Arigatai” (appreciation) with colorful logs based on sacred geometry, now available for sale on Zazzle.