Sometimes, no matter how much you study Japanese, there are certain situations and phrases that will catch you off guard. You won’t know how to respond or you’ll have endure an embarassing situation. I’ve thought about a few scenarios and phrases that might be helpful for someone that is either living or thinking of going to Japan.
Time for something fun. I knew as soon as I saw the news about limited edition Super Mario Bros. gum, I just had to buy it. I showed the announcement to a friend of mine and he said that the gum was sold out at his nearby convenience store. I thought I would test my luck and go to one near me. I was in luck! Both the Mario and Luigi gum were in stock. Which one tasted the best?
I came across an article on Tofugu about the pros and cons of joining the JET program and wanted to complement that with a small outline and guide to the application process.
For those that don’t know, the JET Program is an organization for people to teach English in Japan. The first year I applied, I made it to the interview and ended up on a waiting list, but didn’t get a placement. The second year I applied, passed, and was placed in a high school in Japan where I worked as an ALT for 5 years. I gained valuable experience and wanted to share some tips with people who are considering JET.
This is part 2 of my Beginning Japanese series. Check out part 1, if you haven’t read that yet.
If by using the Dr. Moku app or Kana flash cards you learned Hiragana, that’s excellent. The next step would be to learn Katakana, but it is not necessary if you want to start seeing some basic sentences. I do recommend going back and learning Katakana once you start making progress in a textbook or app, so don’t forget!
Now that you have learned Hiragana, it’s time to apply that knowledge by diving into a textbook or learning vocabulary words. Here are some great Japanese resources for jumping in.
Ok, so you’ve decided that you’re going to sit down and try to wrap your mind around the Japanese language. Here’s what you need to know if you want to start beginning Japanese right away. If you’re starting from zero knowledge or even some, I hope this guide will be helpful in getting you started on your journey into Japanese!
Why couldn’t I have picked an easier language such as Spanish or French? Nope, it just had to be Japanese, one of the most time-consuming languages to learn for English speakers. Of course, just because a language is easy to learn doesn’t mean you should be studying it.
You have to have the motivation or something that drives you to want to become fluent or knowledgeable in that language. For me, it was Japanese. From a young age, I was playing games that were developed in Japan. As I grew older, I eventually started watching animation and reading comics that happened to also be from Japan. These were the things that motivated me to make the incredible journey.