Japanese casual and polite language varies greatly in relationships depending on how well people know each other and whether each party agrees to be treated in the way they are.

The conjunctive particle けど is interchangeable with the particle が and has a similar meaning to the English word “but” or “even though”. However, Japanese people like to put けど (kedo) at the end of sentences to sound less confrontational and polite.

You’ve probably heard of the Japanese word kawaii, which means lovely, charming, cute and adorable. but what is the kawaii culture, and how does one become kawaii? How do you use かわいい?

Although JLPT is the de facto standard, it’s only held twice a year. This got us thinking: what are the other alternatives to officially prove our Japanese?

Loan words in Japanese, or gairaigo(外来語), are words borrowed from foreign countries other than China — but not all of them come from English.

So while it sounds weird, here’s why you should trust Peppa Pig more than anime subs to soak in more Japanese knowledge.

The bee buzzes. The cat meows. Think pow! Or bam! Those are onomatopoeia. In Japanese, there are 4,500 of them.

How do you stay in the know when most news and blogs are written in Japanese? Check out 5 “kind Japanese” websites for beginners.