This week's post is going to be rather general and not even specific to learning Japanese. It doesn't mean it won't be helpful, though! I'm going to examine a few of my favorite tips for building good study habits. If you want to learn Japanese, you really must study and you must do it consistently. That's the problem many at-home learners, including myself, have: the discipline to study on a consistent basis. Let's look over a few of the most popular ways of keeping yourself motivated and organized in your studies, shall we? Set goals – Setting a goal for yourself, such as “I will have __ number of lessons done by the end of the week,” is an excellent way to motivate. It gives you something specific to work towards. If you don't... Show more

Welcome to another addition of Benkyou Blog! So, you've been studying through JapanesePod101, but you think you're ready to add a little extra something to your routine. If you feel you've got a decent mastery of basic Japanese, there are a few ways you can add snippets of Japanese popular culture to your routine that will build your exposure to the language. Building exposure through music, television, and other forms of media is a great way of helping you learn Japanese. Case in point: me! Before I went to Japan, I was obsessed with Japanese pop music. It's all I listened to. GLAY and Utada Hikaru dominated the airspace in my bedroom. I was also your typical anime nerd (though not anymore – remember, this was when I was in 8th - 9th... Show more

Hello again! Welcome once again to Benkyō Blog. I was thinking back to when I first started studying Japanese, and I recalled a technique I used for memorizing some hiragana and katakana. I saw some of them like pictures or symbols of something else. These little picture devices helped me to remember what was what. Here are a few examples of what I came up with. While looking at my examples, think to yourself: what is it that I see? It's like looking at clouds and describing what animal they look like. One person might see a duck, and another person might see a stegosaurus. Don't just take my examples because they aren't yours. Make up your own and they'll really stick! コ　- This little guy is the katakana for “ko”. To me, I see a... Show more

Youkoso! Welcome to the first “real” edition of Benkyou Blog. Gather 'round everyone, it's story time. I'm going to tell you a little personal story about when I was a high school exchange student in Japan. I am a very self-conscious person. I find I'm comparing myself to others often. So, when I and my fellow exchange students would get together for various functions, I was constantly comparing my Japanese to theirs. At first, I was proud of myself. I had the best pronunciation and least accent of anyone else in the group, and considering I'd had no formal Japanese education, I wasn't half bad. Midway through our ten month stay, things were a little different. I arrived at our little meeting for the Osaka exchange students and their... Show more

So, you've listened to the podcasts. You've looked at the lessons. You've tried to memorize the grammar and vocabulary. Still having problems? Looking for some tips on studying Japanese? Looking for someone to relate to so that you don't feel like the only one struggling to learn this difficult language? Hello everyone. My name is Janna, and I'm here to introduce to you my new blog series, “Benkyo Blog", that will be the new addition to the JapanesePod101 blog. My job is simple: to make sure that you, the JapanesePod101 listeners, don't feel alone. I have been studying Japanese for years, and much of that time was spent in self-study. I went to Japan in 2004, my sophomore/junior year in high school, as an exchange student. While there,... Show more

Someone asked on a recent post at Japanesepod101.com what なつこ先生's name was in 漢字. I said that it was 夏子. I'm pretty sure it's 夏子, in all of the early PDFs, she is listed as 夏子. Almost all Japanese people have 漢字 names, and all family names are 漢字. The last time I went to Japan, I was quite fluent with my 漢字 from my Chinese study, but I still found common Japanese names very interesting. Whenever I'd go into any shop, I'd make a point of reading the various workers' namecards. I found the names fascinating. To someone used to dry, uninteresting Chinese names, Japanese names are a breath of fresh air. They sound like they were made up by hippie parents. Take 夏子 for example (the name, not the lady!) The first character is 'summer', the... Show more

Some of us don't get the opportunity to use what we learn in Japanesepod101.com lessons; Japanese speakers just aren't everywhere. But there is one avenue that we can take advantage of, one which is often overlooked. Our teachers mention it in almost every podcast. It's the message board. In case you haven't noticed, there is a separate message board for every individual lesson at the Japanesepod101.com website. It is where users can post anything. Recently, I have made a conscious decision to post something every day. It wasn't easy at first, but it's getting easier and easier. One of my first problems was not a language problem, but what to post. But once you get your creative side working, it gets easier gradually. Also, after... Show more

Poking around youtube, as I am often of wont to do, I came across ピタゴラスイッチ1, a kids TV show. The main demographic of ピ・ス seems to be Japanese first graders, which suits me fine, as my Japanese is at about that level. I found a series called 「なにしてるの？」2 Each short clip is only a minute or so, and I have learnt something from every single one. In each one, three boys are seen in a playground. One notices an adult doing really weird exercises, and is heard to remark 「何してる」3. Eventually one succumbs to the others' badgering of 「聞いて来いよ」4, wanders over and asks 「おじさん、何やってるの？」5 He explains the weird procedure he is going through, and a clip explains it a bit better. I discovered the verb which 愛香6 explained to me as the verb 'to spray', a... Show more

Daniel here. Reporting for JapanesePod101.com. お花見 (おはなみ), or cherry blossom viewing is one of the more pleasant seasonal traditions in Japan. The flowers are stunningly beautiful and change the landscape much like snow can in Winter. People wait in anticipation for their arrival, and the news forecasts 満開 (まんかい • full-bloom) predictions like they do coming rainfall and rising temperatures. In addition to their beauty, 桜 (さくら) are short-lived. Almost as soon as they bloom, wind, rain, and budding leaves conspire to force the lovely pedals off their branches. Just as quickly as they achieve their full majesty, they depart and make way for Spring. As a side note, this phenomenon is very apropos for Japanese culture which seems to... Show more

As part of my ongoing immersion into all things Japanese, I have bought a Wi console, made by company Nintendo. If you didn't know already, Nintendo is one of the biggest manufacturers of video games in the world. The Wii is their latest machine, and it has an interesting interface method: instead of pressing buttons with your fingers, you hold two controllers, or リモコン and wave them around in front of your TV. You really have to try it to understand it; the feeling of having two controllers in your hands and frantically flailing them about makes the whole experience much more enjoyable. I'm currently battling my way through a game called Rayman Raving Rabbids. In it, a group of crazy ラビッツ　try to take over the world, and challenge... Show more