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Don't just study Japanese, use it! 勉強だけでなく日本語は、使えば使うほど上手になるんです。

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Japanese Lessons

Review of Kyoto JALS – Great for Beginners, Not Advanced

Review of Kyoto JALS – Great for Beginners, Not Advanced

To put my situation in context: I have been studying Japanese for over 10 years. I have passed the JLPT N2, working on the N1 for about 6 months, and am a translator. The reason I wanted to study in

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Niffer September 3, 2018August 3, 2019 Japanese Lessons, Review, Visiting Japan Read more

Getting the Most out of Personal Japanese Lessons

Getting the Most out of Personal Japanese Lessons

From February 1st italki will be holding a New Year Language Challenge. This is simply just a matter of getting badges for completing a certain number of hours of lessons in the month. It’s a great way to motivate yourself

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Niffer January 29, 2018January 28, 2018 Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT), Japanese Lessons, Speaking Japanese Read more

The Best Way to Learn Japanese Particles

The Best Way to Learn Japanese Particles

Learning Japanese particles as a beginner is a MASSIVE pain in the butt! There are LOTS of guides online for how to use them, but they’re not very useful all the time. Sometimes the explanations are too complicated as they

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Niffer July 13, 2017August 25, 2017 Beginner Japanese, Japanese Grammar, Japanese Lessons, JLPT N5, Memrise, Teach Yourself Japanese Read more

How to Talk About Hobbies in Japanese

How to Talk About Hobbies in Japanese

Talking about hobbies is a great way to get to know someone when you first meet them! It’s also a good way to use and learn a lot of new verbs and interests in Japanese.   Talking about Hobbies in

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Niffer March 31, 2017February 26, 2018 Beginner Japanese, Japanese Lessons, Teach Yourself Japanese Read more

Learn Kansai-ben With Cats ①

Learn Kansai-ben With Cats ①

Ever wanted to learn more about the infamous Kansai dialect of Japan? From a Japanese person? Through the medium of cats? Well now you can learn Kansai-ben with cats!!! 関西弁にゃんこ (Kansai-ben Nyanko) is a fantastic book by Maki, a Japanese

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Niffer March 14, 2017June 16, 2017 Japanese Culture, Japanese Lessons, Japanese Phrases, Romaji Read more

Top 10 Japanese Language Android Apps

Top 10 Japanese Language Android Apps memrise

I’ve talked about some great apps for learning Japanese but that was years ago and technology has changed! I’ve been playing with a lot of apps recently and come across some goodies as well as re-discovered some classics. The following

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Niffer June 29, 2016December 14, 2017 Beginner Japanese, Intermediate Japanese, Japanese Lessons, Memrise, Review, Teach Yourself Japanese Read more

Best Japanese Study Resources

Best Japanese Study Resources

There are a lot of lists like this on the internet yet quite often I find they only list the most popular resources, not the best Japanese study resources. The following list are some of the best Japanese study resources

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Niffer April 17, 2016March 7, 2018 Advanced Japanese, Beginner Japanese, Intermediate Japanese, Japanese Lessons, Kanji, Learning Methods, Teach Yourself Japanese Read more

Review of NILS Language School Fukuoka

Review of NILS Language School Fukuoka

In 2013 I spent 6 months in Fukuoka studying at a private school called NILS. They provide lessons from 1 month to 2 years for a variety of levels at reasonable prices (compared to many language schools). I’ve had a few

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Niffer March 23, 2016May 17, 2018 Japanese Culture, Japanese Lessons, Visiting Japan Read more

The Importance of Using Japanese

The Importance of Using Japanese

Do you find that no matter how much you study, no matter how many days in a row, how many hours you spend a day or points you rack up with apps like Memrise, that you don’t feel like you’re

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Niffer February 25, 2016January 23, 2021 Japanese Lessons, Learning Methods, Motivation, Speaking Japanese, Teach Yourself Japanese, Visiting Japan Read more

Studying Japanese In Japan

Studying Japanese in Japan

One of the best experiences anyone can do is studying Japanese in Japan. It doesn’t matter if it’s for a week or two, a month, a year, or more. If you’re interested in learning Japanese and Japan then going to

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Niffer August 19, 2015May 17, 2018 Japanese Culture, Japanese Lessons, Visiting Japan Read more

Anime & Manga Japanese Greetings

Anime & Manga Japanese Greetings

“Tadaima~ I’m Home~” You may have noticed how certain phrases crop up a lot in anime, but do you know what they’re saying and do you know exactly what they mean? This post looks at these common phrases used in

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Niffer March 5, 2015January 18, 2018 Anime Japanese, Beginner Japanese, Japanese Lessons, Japanese Phrases, Reading Japanese Manga Read more

Beginners Japanese Grammar 2

Hello everyone! A little announcement as I’ve just made my Japanese Grammar 2 course on Memrise public! This is the second of a series of grammar courses for beginners, covering all the grammar points (except particles) for JLPT N4 level

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Niffer October 19, 2014March 27, 2017 Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT), Japanese Lessons, JLPT N4, Memrise Read more

Using YouTube to Learn Japanese

Learning Japanese from textbooks and articles on the internet are great but sometimes your brain isn’t taking in the words and you need a change of pace. Watching and anime or dramas is good to give your brain something different

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Niffer July 30, 2014April 12, 2016 Beginner Japanese, Japanese Lessons, Learning Methods Read more

Japanese Sign Language – 手話

If you’d like to try something different but keep learning Japanese I strongly recommend shuwa (しゅわ・手話), Japanese sign language. I’ve found learning Japanese sign language to be a really enjoyable experience, not only because it’s fun to learn something new

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Niffer June 26, 2014November 10, 2017 Advanced Japanese, Beginner Japanese, Intermediate Japanese, Japanese Lessons, Japanese Sign Language Read more

Telephone Calls in Japanese

I find that in the day and age where we use email and texting all the time, using the phone can be a daunting experience. Even worse if it’s in another language! The first time I talked on the phone

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Niffer June 19, 2014March 28, 2017 Advanced Japanese, Intermediate Japanese, Japanese Lessons, Speaking Japanese Read more

Business Japanese – Keigo II – Kenjougo

“I find it really difficult to remember keigo.” (To recap from the previous post on Keigo) Keigo 敬語 literally means “respectful language” and is used in formal situations (but mostly business). If you are studying Japanese at university you will go

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Niffer May 14, 2014December 26, 2016 Advanced Japanese, Business Japanese, Intermediate Japanese, Japanese Lessons Read more

An Introduction to Japanese Verbs – “masu” Form

An Introduction to Japanese Verbs – “masu” Form

A lot of Japanese grammar is based in it’s verbs which when conjugated (changed into a different form) can give a very different meaning to the sentence.   The Basics of Japanese Verbs – “masu”* Form *Pronounced “mass” rather than

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Niffer May 8, 2014February 27, 2018 Beginner Japanese, Japanese Grammar, Japanese Lessons, Romaji, Teach Yourself Japanese Read more

Japanese Counters

Japanese Counters

“How do you know when to use what counter?” You may or may not have noticed that in Japanese there are no ‘masculine’ or ‘feminine’ words like some European languages have. You may or may not have noticed that it’s

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Niffer April 23, 2014February 26, 2018 Beginner Japanese, Japanese Lessons, Memrise Read more

Giving and Receiving in Japanese

Giving and Receiving in Japanese

-Guest Post from Wana10- Hello! Niffer asked if I’d write a post for J-talk and I decided why the heck not. But what to talk about? Let’s focus today on a very important bit of Japanese grammar that seems to give

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Niffer April 16, 2014February 27, 2018 Beginner Japanese, Guest Post, Intermediate Japanese, Japanese Grammar, Japanese Lessons Read more

Restaurant Japanese – Essential Japanese for Visiting Japan

Restaurant Japanese – Essential Japanese for Visiting Japan

When you go visit Japan you are most likely to eat out in a restaurant at least once at some point during your visit. So here are some tips on ordering, understanding the server and some general restaurant vocabulary that

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Niffer April 12, 2014May 17, 2018 Cooking and Food, Japanese Culture, Japanese Lessons, Japanese Phrases, Visiting Japan Read more

Being Sick in Japan

Being Sick in Japan

There was no post this week on Wednesday because I was ill. Which although meant I spent the week getting over some kind of cold bug, it also reminded me of the importance of being able to talk to people

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Niffer March 28, 2014May 17, 2018 Japanese Culture, Japanese Lessons, Speaking Japanese, Visiting Japan Read more

Business Japanese – Keigo I – Sonkeigo

“I find it really difficult to remember keigo.”  Keigo 敬語 literally means “respectful language” and is used in formal situations (but mostly business). If you are studying Japanese at university you will go over this. So this entry is to help

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Niffer March 19, 2014December 26, 2016 Advanced Japanese, Business Japanese, Intermediate Japanese, Japanese Lessons Read more

J-Talk Online Memrise Courses

So in the last few weeks I came across the flashcard program Memrise. I’d heard about it before but never really checked it out. It had been so long since I’d used AnkiDroid that I decided to try it out, and it

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Niffer February 19, 2014December 28, 2017 Advanced Japanese, Beginner Japanese, Intermediate Japanese, Japanese Lessons, Learning Methods, Memrise Read more

Japanese Signs – Essential Japanese for Visiting Japan

Japanese Signs – Essential Japanese for Visiting Japan

In a previous post Essential Japanese for Visiting Japan I explained about phrases that would be essential for visiting Japan. Especially if you were staying with a Japanese family. So this post is about signs you’ll see around Japan, especially

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Niffer February 5, 2014May 17, 2018 Advanced Japanese, Beginner Japanese, Intermediate Japanese, Japanese Culture, Japanese Lessons, Kanji, Visiting Japan Read more

Family in Japanese 家族

Family in Japanese 家族

  As I suggested in Grouping Topics for Easy Learning, one for the easiest things to learn is family. What’s great with vocabulary for family is that you can combine it with other topics to create sentences to make it easier

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Niffer January 29, 2014February 26, 2018 Beginner Japanese, Japanese Grammar, Japanese Lessons Read more

Cooking Japanese II – Practice With Recipes

“I want to be able to read Japanese cook books and online recipes!” Ever wanted to be able to cook Japanese food? Ever wanted to be able to read Japanese cook books? I certainly have. I love cooking Japanese food.

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Niffer January 15, 2014March 28, 2017 Advanced Japanese, Cooking and Food, Intermediate Japanese, Japanese Lessons Read more

Cooking Japanese I – Customs and Vocabulary

“I want to be able to read Japanese cook books and online recipes!” Ever wanted to be able to cook Japanese food? Ever wanted to be able to read Japanese cook books? I certainly have. I love cooking Japanese food.

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Niffer January 8, 2014May 27, 2017 Beginner Japanese, Cooking and Food, Intermediate Japanese, Japanese Culture, Japanese Lessons, Learning Methods Read more

Emails and Letters in Japanese

Have a penpal, Japanese friend, old host family or co-worker you want to e-mail in Japanese? This guide should be a great reference to impress your Japanese friends. That is, at first at least, but you can also use it

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Niffer December 4, 2013March 28, 2017 Advanced Japanese, Intermediate Japanese, Japanese Lessons, Japanese Phrases Read more

Essential Japanese for Visiting Japan

Essential Japanese for Visiting Japan

“I’m going to Japan but I don’t know much Japanese”   This is great Japanese for if you’re studying in Japan and/or doing homestay. Well first thing’s first, try and learn the hiragana and katakana. I try to have all

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Niffer November 20, 2013May 17, 2018 Beginner Japanese, Intermediate Japanese, Japanese Lessons, Japanese Phrases, Visiting Japan Read more

Anime Talk – Vocabulary Found in Anime

Anime Talk – Vocabulary Found in Anime

I mentioned in a previous post how you can use anime and manga to practice Japanese. This is a vocabulary list of some of the most common words and phrases found in certain animes. If you learn these before you

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Niffer November 13, 2013January 18, 2018 Anime Japanese, Beginner Japanese, Japanese Lessons Read more
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