How do you read Japanese food and nutrition labels? Imagine you’re shopping in Japan and suddenly you’re bombarded with food labeling words and information you can’t read. You take out your phone to translate the images, and sometimes it’s right and other times it’s…hardly comprehensible.  It might be scary to navigate the food aisles of […]

Japanese honorifics are suffixes or prefixes used to show respect or familiarity when addressing other people. How do you use them?

Did you know that Japan has a rainy season called tsuyu (梅雨)? Typically lasting from early June to mid-July, this season brings frequent and often unpredictable showers or even rain that lasts all day. During this humid, soggy time, carrying an umbrella becomes an essential part of daily life. While it’s not typhoon season (yet), […]

Learn how many hours of study it will take you to pass each level of the JLPT. This illustrated guide compares how many hours of Japanese study per JLPT level. Did you know that it takes just as long to pass the N2 as it does to become a certified public accountant in the US?

Studying for the JLPT N4 usually means two things: scribbling down flashcards for new kanji and flipping through loads of vocabulary. That is because to pass the N4, you’ll need to put in around 550 to 1,000 study hours and learn about 1,500 vocabulary words, including everything from the N5 level. But what exactly is […]

Discover smart strategies, top resources, and study tips to prepare for the JLPT and boost your chances of passing any level from N5 to N1.

Japanese proverbs, or ことわざ (kotowaza), are a great way to spice up and improve your language skills with more figurative speech. Exploring outside the typical methods of memorizing kanji and vocabulary, kotowaza can teach you how to use more nuanced phrases.  Plus, they can help you dive deeper into Japanese culture. Kotowaza paint a picture […]

After mastering hiragana, one of the three Japanese writing systems, the natural next step is to learn katakana, the second Japanese syllabary. Commonly used to write loanwords, katakana represent the same set of sounds as hiragana, but they look completely different. Katakana characters are typically boxier and more geometric, with sharp corners, in contrast to […]