Tag Archives: 日本語

Podcasts: an essential tool for foreign language self-study

I’m not exaggerating when I say that Podcasts are one of the most important tools for self-study, especially for experienced students of Japanese who are living outside of Japan. I’m always surprised when I mention to people I listen to podcasts and they have no idea what that means, or have only a vague clue.… Read More »

Japanese Pitch Accent: It’s more important that you realize [beginner/intermediate]

There are many learning resources for Japanese that glaze over the language’s pitch accent, which differs greatly from English where emphasis (not using pitch) on a single syllable is used instead. For example, one of the first textbooks I studied from mentioned that the accent differs from region to region (this is true), so there… Read More »

Kanji: pictographic compounds [beginner / intermediate]

One of the misconceptions I had before I got deep into Japanese study was that Japanese kanji are ‘pictographic’, meaning that each character represents some type of picture that is visually similar to a real object. This is true to a certain extent, especially with some of the very simple characters. For example: Tree: 木… Read More »

Japanese learning pitfall: Don’t wait too long to learn hiragana! [Beginner]

ひらがな、よめますか? If I could go back to the time when I first began learning Japanese and change one thing, it would be to learn the hiragana alphabet as fast as possible, and avoid romaji (the romanized version of japanese script) like the plague. This is something I’ve seen expressed on other Japanese-learning web sites and… Read More »

Set your focus for effective foreign language learning

When taking a formal foreign language class, your main goal is simple – pass the class, and maybe even aim for a A. With self-study you have much more freedom to focus your energies into one or more areas. Sure, everybody wants to ‘become fluent’, but true fluency comes from a variety of interrelated skills.… Read More »

A new blog is born: *Self Taught Japanese* 「日本語学習ブログ登場」

The year is almost over, but I just couldn’t quite wait the few remaining weeks to 2014. Writing a blog about learning Japanese is something I have mulled over in my head for some time, but it’s recently reached a critical mass where I have so many ideas that I just have to get started.… Read More »