There’s now a new way to watch Japanese TV shows if you’re not in Japan. I recently heard about this thing called jibtv from TokyoCooney (check out his YouTube channel) and thought it would be a good thing to share. You can tune in to the jibtv streaming internet channel to watch a variety of Japanese programs. They have a pretty wide variety of shows that are educational and enterta...

It’s said that there are about 50,000 kanji in existence. Thank god we only need to know a thousand or two of those! Does that make you feel any better? Probably not. Learning the kanji is the hardest part about Japanese. I think it’s even more difficult than learning them for Chinese since Japanese places multiple pronunciations on each character. It’s like twice or three times ...

Everyone learning Japanese and Chinese should watch more cartoons and TV dramas! Normally I would never suggest that to anybody, since the first thing that comes to mind are pea-brain couch potatoes watching soaps, but we’re trying to learn some difficult languages here! Also, I’m talking about some quality programs. Some good Chinese & Japanese anime, movies, and dramas. You can ...

This is the first of many book reviews I’ll do in the My Zousho series. Zousho (蔵書、ぞうしょ) means library or book collection. I’m going to take you through every book in my library that I’ve used to learn Japanese. I think these books will give you some good ideas and direction for learning. If you follow my path for learning Japanese you will definitely learn a lot in a short...

Here are two more great tools to help you learn Japanese. As long as you use Firefox as your internet browser, you will find these tools to be really handy and convenient. They’ll help you save time and create a more passive learning experience. The first tool is Rikaichan. Rikaichan is a firefox add-on that translates Japanese to English. Just hover the mouse on top of a word, and a popup a...

I’m glad you’ve decided to follow my advice and start using a spaced repetition system (SRS). Remember that this is a very simple concept that everyone can be successful with. Just put in the small amount of time to set up your SRS and dedicate some time to using it every day. If you still haven’t read Part 1, then please do that before continuing. First thing you need to do is download some...

It’s simple. The best tool to quickly and efficiently learn a language is to use an SRS system, or “spaced repetition system”. You might be thinking something like “why didn’t my middle school French teacher ever talk about SRS back then?” It’s not a traditional method for language learning. That’s why you never heard about it back then. An SRS is so simple though that you’ll pro...

If you’re serious about learning to speak your new language then get ready to throw out all your old English music and replace it with that of your language of study. All free, all the time! Who would have thought it would be so easy? You don’t even have to spend a penny! I’ve never spent my money on iTunes or other similar services for music, and I honestly don’t feel bad ...

One of the best things you can do for yourself when learning a new language is to always have a dictionary ready. Don’t let yourself get stopped in the middle of reading something to go find your paper dictionary or to flip through your bookmarks to find your online one. At least when you’re at home or at the office, keep your dictionary ready at all times. I recommend consistently kee...

How many times have you heard someone say,  “I’d really like to learn a new language someday”, but never make the effort to actually learn it? It might be their dream to learn a new language, but if they never discipline themselves to take the journey they will definitely fail. The biggest obstacle to learning any language, or anything else for that matter, is forcing yourself t...