Introduction to Japanese Writing: Hiragana Group 3: S (さしすせそ)

Did you miss our introduction to Hiragana?  If so, you can go back and read it here. The consonant for this column is S, so all five members of this group will be S followed by one of the five vowels, in order. さ [SA] し [SHI] す [SU] せ [SE] そ [SO] Of note … Continue reading Introduction to Japanese Writing: Hiragana Group 3: S (さしすせそ)

Introduction to Japanese Writing: Hiragana Group 2: K (かきくけこ)

Did you miss our introduction to Hiragana?  If so, you can go back and read it here. Now that we’ve learned our first five kana, it’s time to move on to the next column!  The consonant for this column is K, so all five members of this group will be K followed by one of … Continue reading Introduction to Japanese Writing: Hiragana Group 2: K (かきくけこ)

Introduction to Japanese Writing: Hiragana Group 1: Vowels (あいうえお)

Did you miss our introduction to Hiragana?  If so, you can go back and read it here. In this lesson we will be looking at first five Hiragana characters on the Kana Chart.  Going down the first column on the left-hand side, we see the following characters, in order: あ [A] い [I] う [U] … Continue reading Introduction to Japanese Writing: Hiragana Group 1: Vowels (あいうえお)

Introduction to Japanese Writing: Hiragana Basics

The Japanese written language is a fascinating thing. The first thing many people think of when they hear someone mention Japanese is Kanji—the Chinese characters that are easy to spot within most written Japanese.  “Why can’t they just spell things out!” some people exclaim, sometimes pointing out how written languages have advanced since the days … Continue reading Introduction to Japanese Writing: Hiragana Basics

New lesson coming soon

Hey there!

Apologies for the delay getting the latest lesson out.  It’s been in a bit of drafting hell as I’ve worked to figure out what to include and how to present certain elements of it.  I’m probably going to switch gears and get a writing lesson up in the next couple days so that there’s something and will use the time while covering writing basics to finish the introduction to verbs lesson.

Thanks for your patience!

New Lesson Coming Soon!

Hello, readers!

I apologize for the lack of an update last week.  I moved a little over a week ago, and have been busy with getting my office set back up.  The good news is that we’re almost there!  I’ve got a new lesson introducing Japanese adjectives that is about 90% drafted, but I decided that I want to polish it just a bit further before putting it out there.  As such, it will be going up Wednesday instead of Tuesday this week.  That said, I’ve got plenty of things prepped to ensure that we stay on track for the next several weeks from here.

I’ve also got a special surprise to enhance the lessons that I’ll try and debut with this week’s lesson as well.

Thanks for continuing to follow the blog!

Japanese Grammar Fundamentals: Demonstrative Words

In Japanese there are several sets of very useful words which are used for directing the focus of a sentence (referred to as demonstrative words).  One of the key features of demonstrative words in Japanese is that the perspective is determined by the first syllable in the word.  For this reason, these words are also … Continue reading Japanese Grammar Fundamentals: Demonstrative Words

Beginner’s Japanese Meetup

If you are located near Fredericksburg, Virginia, I’m going to be starting a monthly in-person beginning Japanese group class located at the Starbucks in Westwood Plaza, off of Route 3.  The class is free to the public, and will be held on the 3rd Thursday of each month, starting this week, January 16th.

No previous experience with the Japanese language is required!