School Romance Novel 放課後美術室 (After School Art Room)
放課後美術室 (After School Art Room) by 麻沢 奏 (Asazawa Kana) Genre: fiction, romance, coming of age Great for: Lower-Intermediate and above (JLPT N3+) Length: 309 pages Amazon Japan: 放課後美術室（麻沢 奏）…
How to Remember Japanese Vocabulary
Remembering new words can be difficult. Remembering new words in an entirely different language, can be an even greater challenge. Not to mention that Japanese is notorious for being a…
Language Learning Tips from a Polyglot Conference
I attended the Polyglot Conference 2019 in Fukuoka, Japan this last weekend. All the workshops and presentations were held by polyglots, people who know multiple languages. As a bilingual (and…
Hacks for Reading Japanese Novels
I recently shared on Twitter how I had just finished reading a novel and felt inspired to write something useful about it. The following are a few hacks I’ve developed/picked…
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…
Quality Japanese Self Study Techniques
The majority of Japanese Talk articles focus on “Tips & Tricks” to study Japanese. These focus on study methods for improving speaking or reading, or studying in general if you’re…
Why You MUST Read in Japanese
When I started learning Japanese I drilled vocabulary, grammar and kanji. In my young mind language = words. For many years that was all I focused on, figuring that listening…
How to Use Manga to Study Japanese
A lot of us study Japanese because we want to be able to understand anime without subtitles or read manga in Japanese. Being able to do either of these is…