Self Taught Japanese survey: What do you want from this blog?
This is a quick survey asking about what sort of content you would like to see from this site (more articles about Japanese grammar or culture, etc.)
Japanese grammar: Unpacking complex verb tenses
In this article I take a Japanese sentence containing a word conjugated in several tenses and analyze the various parts.
Japanese learner, is the JLPT right for you?
Studying for the JLPT is a frequent goal for Japanese learners, and for sure has its merits. But I feel that there are some significant drawbacks as well that I will talk about in this article, and recommend for everyone to think hard about whether it is the right thing for them.
Japanese grammar: Summary of common verb tenses
In this article I give a basic summary of the ten primary verb tenses in Japanese grammar, along with a few example sentences.
Japanese vocabulary list: AI-related terms
The field of AI (more specifically generative AI) has seen amazing advances in the last few years, and AI is fast becoming a large part of many areas of our lives, including work, home, and even entertainment. While I cannot predict the exact time scale, it seems likely these types of technologies will continue to… Read More »
The dangers of using AI to learn Japanese grammar: a case of hallucinating ChatGPT
In this post I talked about the results of my review of using ChatGPT for explaining Japanese grammar, focusing on a particularly concerning case of a hallucination about particles.
Japanese grammar: Using the desu/masu form mid-sentence
Japanese has a fairly complex set of ways to express politeness, but in terms of verbs there are two primary forms, the regular form and the polite form. The regular form includes the regular non-past or dictionary form, for example 食べる [taberu]. Other forms like the te-form (食べて [tabete]) are also considered to be non-polite.… Read More »
Travel Report: Vancouver, Canada (looking for Japanese stuff)
Recently I went on a family trip to Canada for a weekend, and while Japanese-related stuff wasn’t the primary focus, there was an element of that so I thought I would put a little travelogue here about it. From Portland it’s “only” a five or six hour drive. I guess the “only” part depends on… Read More »
Japanese restaurant review: “Ikimono Ramen” (in Portland)
I was in downtown Portland with my family and looking for some ramen, so we decided to try a relatively new ramen place called “ikimono Ramen”. Just judging from the name, already the place gave me a bad feeling (the name means “living thing” by the way, not sure what that means in this context),… Read More »
A warning on using ChatGPT and other AI technologies for foreign language learning
After seeing how a student of Japanese was using ChatGPT to write a daily journal, I decided to put down some of my thoughts on using ChatGPT and other AI tools for Japanese learning.