Going Gung-ho – November 2009

Where did the time go? It’s been over a month since I last posted, and I’ll tell you where I’ve been. Right here on the computer! Since the 19th of October 2009, I’ve spent 89 hours studying Japanese. Some of you may know nanowrimo – an event which takes part in November where you attempt to write 50,000 words in a month. My goal of November was something...

Japanese With Ease with Assimil

Rate this book: (2 votes, average: 4.50 out of 5)  Loading ... Assimil is different from other texts in that the bulk of it is dialogues which you listen along to with the provided CDs. While it does have explanations, called “まとめ　－　Revision and Notes”, a grammar enthusiast will be wanting more. The idea is to learn through assimilation. While it doesn’t...

Making the Most of Japan

I just discovered this month’s Japan Blog Matsuri and decided to take part at the last moment! This month’s topic is: “How I Resolve to Make the Most of My Stay in Japan” Well, unfortunately I’m not in Japan any more. I was there for two weeks in November. But before I went I promised myself that I would not wimp out… I WOULD communicate in Japanese. This may not be...

How Fluent Am I After 18 Months?

On All Japanese All The Time, Khatzumoto has posted about how much he knew after 18 months of learning Japanese. I am comming up right now to the 18 month period, and while I don’t know nearly as much as Khatzumoto knew, I am very pleased with my progress. I know more than what is in Genki I. Way back when, Genki was the original material that I bought to learn Japanese. This time last...

Is Nihongo Right For You?

According to How-To-Learn-Any-Language.com, Japanese is one of the hardest languages an English speaking person can learn. Not only does it have a difficult writing system, the grammar is vastly different to English and most of the words are completely alien sounding. Compared to other languages you could be learning, Japanese is quite difficult. However, that being said, with a bit (or perhaps...