Tag Archives: fluent

Short essay: Thoughts on learning to speak and write in a foreign language… naturally

When learning a foreign language, I think we all tend to go through stages. First, we may have a mild (or major) interest in the culture of a foreign country, and begin to pick up a few words here or there in that country’s native language. In the case of Japanese, it might be a few… Read More »

How I learned to read in Japanese, and retain Kanji

Recently a fellow blogger asked me about what study methods I used to study Kanji of retention, so I thought I would write a post about what methods I used to learn to read, including how I learned Kanji. When talking about study methods, it is difficult to state conclusively that a certain way is best… Read More »

Spoken language vs written language

When learning a foreign language, it’s usually assumed that in addition to spoken language studies (listening and speaking) there will be a focus placed on written language (reading and writing). At first you might think the only difference is learning characters vs sounds, but there is much more involved. As a result there are some differences in… Read More »

Survey: What is your level of advancement in Japanese?

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 »

A few pitfalls when using Japanese

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 »

Connecting ideas in Japanese: a high-level guide

When learning a foreign language, one first studies basic sentence order and practices building simple sentences with subject/verb. Once there is some comfortability with that, the next step is learning how to connect ideas either within or between sentences. This allows expression of more complex ideas and one step closer to fluency. Those who speak… Read More »

The long road to fluent reading ability in Japanese and some pointers to help on the way

The other day I heard from someone that they were having difficulty learning to read Japanese, such that they had to re-read passages several times over to fully grasp the meaning, and generally had trouble thinking in Japanese when reading. This is a difficult problem indeed, one I have faced for many years myself. I have… Read More »

Programming Podcast – a fresh look at Japanese conversation between everyday people

A common theme of this blog (as well as my personal studies) is how to experience “real” Japanese in all its forms, without actually living in Japan. By “real”, I mean not just watching Anime or reading Manga, but rather experiencing Japanese that an everyday person would be using.  Focusing on too many fantasy-oriented resources won’t… Read More »

Japanese aizuchi (相づち), the glue that holds conversation together

In the flow of a conversation, there are many times when we will make a brief interjection such as “oh really?” or “is that so?” in response to something the other party said. These are typically not used to express any deep meaning, but rather simply to indicate that we are listening and understanding what… Read More »

Omitting subjects and other words in Japanese [Intermediate]

One aspect of Japanese grammar that is easy to overlook is the omission of subjects and other words which would normally be included in English. If you’re not careful about subject omission you can end up with grammatically “correct”  sentences that sound awkward. Let’s start with a simple example: When I got home, my television… Read More »