In the last few years there have been quite a few tools coming out to help students learn Japanese. One of my favorites is Rikaichan. Rikaichan is an add-on for Firefox that will give you the readings and definitions for Japanese characters when you mouse over them. It is a great tool for anyone learning Japanese or for someone who wants to read a Japanese...

I have written about Rikaichan before and how it is one of my favorite tools for reading and learning Japanese. It allows even a someone with a basic understanding of Japanese to read like a pro. Well, for all those who use Google’s chrome, a port has been made called Rikaikun. Since the current release of Chrome doesn’t handle plugins you will need to...

When it comes to learning Japanese, pride is the enemy. The more pride you have the slower your progress learning Japanese will be. The main reason for this is that pride limits your ability to learn new Japanese material and ask lots of questions. It usually gets worse the higher your level of Japanese goes. The higher someone’s level gets the more...

When it comes to studying it is easy to be lazy. It’s both easy to skip study sessions and to only study half-heatedly. Obviously both of these are counter-productive to learning Japanese. Since advanced Japanese grammar is based on the basics, you need to study often to keep them fresh in your mind. I have found that the best way to break bad habits is to...

The brains ability to tune out various sounds and distractions is very helpful when you are trying to focus on something. However, it becomes a problem when your brain tunes out the thing you are trying to focus on. When it comes to learning Japanese, your brain can be quite lazy. Training your brain to recognize Japanese (rather than ignore it) will help you learn...