Japaneseexplorer

Learning Plateau: How To Resume Progress In Your Japanese

When taking up a new skill, it is inevitable to notice a plateau in progress or ability and feel like there is no getting past being at an “intermediate” level. Undoubtedly, staying at this stage for a long time can be highly discouraging and puts many people off from continuing with their studies. However, this

Essential Tips To Keep Pace With Your Japanese Classes

When deciding to take a Japanese lesson in Singapore, it is important to know that your school will generally be fast, medium, or slow with its pacing. This leads to one of the most overlooked challenges students face when getting started: finding that their course’s pace falls in either extreme. Still, everyone learns differently, and

Chinese Characters In Japanese: What Exactly Is Kanji?

Kanji, one of Japan’s three writing systems, is a set of characters derived from ancient Chinese characters, dating back over 2,000 years. Recognised as the oldest and most intricate writing system in Japan, Kanji is an essential component of the Japanese language, used alongside two other writing systems. What makes Kanji different? The characters used

Honorifics in Japanese: How To Address Different People

It is no secret that Japanese culture and traditions place a strong emphasis on politeness and social hierarchy, which is evident in their widespread use of honorifics. These linguistic nuances play a vital role in maintaining respect and courtesy across various social contexts. By modifying verbs and pronouns, honorifics convey politeness and humility, embodying essential

4 Business Japanese Phrases Every Professional Must Learn

Are you interested in working for a Japanese company in the future? Or do you have plans to go to Japan someday and start your own business there? If your answer is yes, then perhaps you should start to learn Japanese online! Specifically, you should begin acquainting yourself with the fundamentals of business-level Japanese. When

How Long Does It Take For A Beginner To Learn Japanese?

Japanese is considered one of the hardest languages to learn, especially for English speakers. This is mainly because the Japanese language has three separate writing systems, a complex hierarchy of politeness, and a sentence structure that is quite opposite to English. With all these factors combined, it comes as no surprise that a lot of

Take A Break From the Books: 5 Fresh Ways to Study Japanese

Variety is essential to keep any routine from becoming stale, repetitive, and uninteresting, which are sentiments that can jeopardise endeavours like learning a second language. As such, shaking things up occasionally can do wonders in keeping us motivated or, at the very least, drive away those feelings of ennui that can hamper our productivity. When

Navigate Japanese Netspeak Better By Learning These 4 Terms

The Japanese are fond of abbreviating words so much that once a word gets popular enough, you can expect its abbreviated equivalent will soon make the rounds in the Japanese online space. That is how supermarket became suupaa (スーパー) and McDonald’s became makku (マック). While English loan words are the ones that usually get this

Skip The Translation: How To Truly Understand Japanese

Students in their early days of taking Japanese classes in Singapore will undoubtedly make quick progress to the point that they can understand simple sentences in a matter of days or weeks. However, there is an important distinction to note here in that this understanding is more often than not just translating. You may ask,

Learning Japanese: Should You Prioritise Study Or Immersion?

People enrolled in Japanese classes in Singapore know they have only so much time in a day to progress with their language learning. As such, they must choose wisely where they distribute their hours between the three primary ways of learning Japanese: study, immersion, and engagement. Naturally, you’d want to have all three per day