Learning Japanese is a long and arduous task but there are ways of learning the language an easier way. Especially when living in Japan.
Teach kids. If you can choose between teaching children and adults, choose children. They are doing the same thing you are – learning the basics of a foreign language. [...]
The latest edition of Kansai Time Out has a funny article about the Kanji Typo Contest
This is a contest where members of the public send in examples of kanji typos which happen when someone enters a word in hiragana, presses the space bar to change it into kanji yet chooses the wrong word or phrase.
The [...]
I’m trying to better myself by studying Japanese further past level three and I’ve come across a big hurdle.
When I studied for level three, all the grammar textbooks had English explanations. Now for level 2, every single textbook I can find has EVERYTHING in Japanese. This includes meanings and explanations.
This seems crazy to [...]
I got the results of the JLPT test I took in December. And I passed.
Writing/Vocabulary 63/100
Listening 74/100
Reading Grammar 163/200
I wrote about the tools I used to study JLPT before. I can’t recommend this book Japanese Language Proficiency Test: Grammar Exercises Level 3 highly enough. The practice exercises in it were harder than [...]
We get a lot of cold calls at our house here in Japan. Far more anyway than I ever did in England. On our phone, we can see what the number is and if we don’t recognise it or it’s a local number, Reiko will tell me to answer it.
I”ve covered this theme [...]
I just finished the JLPT Test Level and I`m pretty sure I passed it. I have a short term memory problem and so the listening part I found the hardest. If they`d have let you listen two times to each skit, I`d have been fine. Oh well.
There`s been a lot said about [...]
Good luck to all the fools like me doing the JLPT test tomorrow! Whatever level you’re doing, I hope you get the result you want.
Here`s a list of useful sites for anyone studying for the JLPT:
JLPT Kanji A resource to aid the learning of Japanese Kanji. Included in this site is a listing of the full Jouyou Kanji, classified into JLPT levels, with a lookup of vocabulary for each JLPT level. Including printable kanji lists (Example list), save kanji [...]
I`m applying for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test which takes place in December 3rd. I`m going for level 3 out of 4 which is advanced Beginner. After 2 years in Japan, you`d think I`d be better than that by now but I am naturally lazy.
It`s the level that one smug man who passed the [...]