Do you ever feel like all your time and effort studying your target language hasn’t amounted to much? Ever feel frustrated with your progress? Well, join the club! Once you pass the intermediate threshold, it gets harder to judge your growth in the language. You are entering what I refer to as intermediate fatigue. It’s …
It all adds up! (Or how to master a foreign language) Read More »
I recently bought the Wisdom 2 iOS app because I had heard good things about the previous version and found a great deal for it on the iTunes store (Apparently it has been reduced to $11.99 from around $30 until the end of this month). I have been using the dictionary for the last couple of weeks and …
App Review: The Wisdom 2 English-Japanese Dictionary Read More »
After several false starts, I have finally begun to learn Korean seriously. During lunch breaks, I have been listening to Pimsleur Korean to ease myself into a daily study regime. Pimsleur isn’t perfect by any means. As I wrote before about Pimsleur Japanese in my Japanese books post, the lessons in the third series got …
EDIT: The situation has greatly improved since this post. Please read this update on how to find good Japanese content for the Kindle. Happy New Year everyone! I don’t know about you, but the New Year has got me motivated to get back to studying languages and reading more Japanese. I also plan to take …
The Kindle Paperwhite: A godsend for Japanese learners (if you’re in Japan) Read More »
1. Chinese Breeze This is a great choice for those starting out reading Chinese. The Chinese Breeze Graded Reader Series was recommended by one of our users in response to our best Chinese books post and I have to say that I am really impressed with it so far. It is published by the Peking …
The first book I ever bought for learning Japanese was a kanji book. This was long before I had visited Japan or knew any Japanese. Little did I know that my long battle with learning the kanji had just begun. To the beginner, there is something intimidating about the prospect of learning these characters. To many, …
This is the first post in several about how to learn a different language on your own. Is it possible to learn “difficult” languages like Japanese or Chinese by self-study alone? Absolutely. We did it and so can you! This post tells you why determined self-study beats language courses every time. I arrived in Japan …
How to learn a different language with self-study Read More »
Hello all, Recently I got back into the kanji study so I’m reviewing them all (again) using the famous Kanji In Context book. So I made an Anki file to study from so I figured I would release it to all you guys who might also find it useful. I added it to my “Files” …
Continuing the book collecting obsession into my Chinese studies, I have amassed around 20 books and courses in Chinese over the past 3 years. Of the ones I’ve purchased, borrowed, or been recommended by friends studying in China and Taiwan, here are what I can say are quality and useful to others. Modern Mandarin Chinese …
