Language

Introduction Learning a language as a non-native speaker is different from learning your native language. The learning process is different, the pacing is different, the type of vocabulary learned in what order is also different. A major problem (and deterrent) for learning a new language is how languages are taught. In the case of Japanese, […]

Introduction If you are new to studying Japanese, or have been studying the language for a short while, you might have come across the name Jim Breen at some point. Even if you don’t recognize the name right away, chances are you have seen this name before. Many Japanese-English dictionaries use the entries from the […]

Introduction Having an interest in learning the Japanese language is great and all, but how do you ACTUALLY get started? Given the fact that you need to learn Hiragana, Katakana, sentence structure, vocabulary words, kanji and more, it can be a daunting task. This is really a catch 22, if you don’t start somewhere, you […]

Introduction If you are new to learning Japanese, you may have noticed a curious element to the language itself. There are no spaces. Of course, if you are familiar with other languages such as Chinese or Burmese the lack of spaces between the words would be nothing new. However, for speakers of languages which do […]

Hiragana and Katakana can be considered to be the basic building blocks of the Japanese language. While Kanji  (Borrowed Chinese characters) does have a huge role in Japanese writing, all of the words that any Kanji character can represent can be shown using Hiragana or Katakana. What’s the difference? Hiragana tends to be used for […]