Click the image below to go to the article from which I draw these examples from: ヨジジュクゴとは？ Kanji can be an intimidating part of Japanese. I think it is a big reason why a lot of people give up on Japanese. If you can’t consume the written word of a…
Article link:https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/94af3649323a03d2dfb09bd850600defeccd70c1 Video readthrough of the article with translation and explanation: 0点は厳しすぎ？小1「とめ、はね、はらい」で× 文科省の見解は 0点 is read as れいてん which you can read more about here. 習字のような「とめ、はね、はらい」ができていないと、漢字ドリルは全てやり直し。テストは0点―。小学1年の担任のこうした指導に対し、保護者から「厳しすぎる」という悩みが届いた。わが子の就学を前に、どこまで丁寧に字を書かせるべきか思案している保護者は多いはず。西日本新聞「あなたの特命取材班」がウェブサイトで意見を募ったところ、保護者や教育現場からさまざまな声が届いた。字体の指導は、どこまで厳格であるべきか。 小学1年の担任a たんにんせんせい is the homeroom/form teacher that you have generally in the morning before school actually starts in Japan. But たんにん also means to be…
Checking out Japanese language learning forums reveals some common trends. I often find myself analysing people’s entire personalities through their comments. I’m not entirely sure remote psychology is a thing but I do see certain attitudes and behaviours that are unlikely to be very helpful in your language learning journey….
One of the most common beginner questions I deal with is about kanji. But from experience, it it clear that even people who get to a relatively advanced level of kanji still don’t know basic things about kanji or study them really ineffectively. The treatment of kanji in most textbooks…
Tip: Look for the noun and then read backwards. One issue I see coming up a lot in my lessons is students struggling to understand ‘clauses’. I’m no linguist and there are many fancy ways to specifically talk about what exactly a clause is (and isn’t) but for the purposes…
There are so many options for learning Japanese or any language. The amount of choices can be overwhelming. As many beginners have found out, the early stages of language learning can be tough and it is easy to blame the methods, techniques or resources for the slow progress. So what…
I didn’t start my 10 month long exchange in Japan back in 2003 with ‘nothing’. At that point I had been through 4 years of primary school Japanese and 3 years of high school Japanese. After 7 years of Japanese study, where did I stand? I could basically read and…
This is a N4 grammar point that is often one of the trickier ones for people to get their head around. However it is so common in Japanese that you would do well to learn it as it will be used in a wide variety of circumstances, including all the…
At the beginner stage of learning a second language, often you find yourself much slower than everyone else. This is because you hear what someone says in Japanese, try and remember it, then go through each word individually, parse the grammar and then maybe end up with an understanding of…
What’s the difference between someone who is just good at speaking a second language, and being fluent/native? Maybe a hard distinction to draw sometimes but you know it when you see it. The Triple JJJ Hottest 100 #1 song from 2018 sums it up nicely. Features Let’s think about some…