Duolingo is probably one of the most popular language-learning apps out there. It’s definitely a wonderful app, and I mostly used it for learning Swahili before I went to work in Tanzania. I had actually never used it much for Japanese before, since initially the course was aimed at beginners. However, I was surprised when…
ZenPlus: Delivering Authentic Products from Japanese Stores to Your Front Door
Japan is facing a paradox of commerce. On the one hand, from mochi to manga, there’s more international demand for Japanese products than ever before. On the other hand, many of the shops and businesses that produce and distribute beloved Japanese goods are facing an existential threat. Japan’s rapidly declining population means an ever-shrinking customer…
How to Stay with a Japanese Host Family
If you’re going to Japan for study or travel, you may want to consider staying with a Japanese host family. Staying with a host family can be a wonderfully immersive way to learn more about Japanese culture and share your own. However, it might not be for everyone. Having lived with three host families before,…
The 2 Anki Add-ons All Japanese Learners Should Use
We at Kokoro Media have written about Anki quite a bit. It is one of the most popular spaced-repetition flashcard apps out there and practically made for learning Japanese. (Even the name comes from Japanese: 暗記 anki means “memorize”!) Anki is the only flashcard app I have used extensively and stuck with. One of the…
Reading in Japanese: How to Boost Motivation and Increase Literacy
As much as I emphasize the importance of using flash cards to learn Japanese, by the time you achieve an intermediate level of literacy you’ll want to start reading native material. Transitioning from textbook reading exercises to the same books, magazines, and manga that native Japanese people read is intimidating. Selecting reading material that’s too…
Tokyo Not for You? Try a Smaller Metropolis
I’ve lived in three different cities in Japan, and to be honest with you, Tokyo has been by far my least favorite. Do I think Tokyo is a bad city? Of course not. However, I do think it has a conditionality to enjoy it–more on this later. On the other hand, I have enjoyed more…
Voice of Cards: One of the Best Video Games to Help You Learn Japanese
If you’ve ever attempted to play your favorite video games in Japanese, you know how frustrating the experience can be. Massive 60-hour role-playing epics from the Final Fantasy series can obliterate your motivation once you realize just how long it would take to get through them in Japanese. Other games may be simpler, but they…
The Best Online Dictionaries for Japanese Learners
Whether you are a new learner of the Japanese language or already at an advanced level, a good dictionary (or dictionaries) is a must! We have come a long way from paper dictionaries and portable electronic dictionaries. Now, many of us use dictionaries online, on our web browsers, e-reader and tablets, Nintendo DS, or computer…
Want to Work in a Japanese NGO? Read This.
Are you interested in getting a job or an internship at a Japanese NGO? While there are a lot of similarities with NGO work in other countries, there are also aspects that are very Japanese. I worked for one year at a human rights NGO in Tokyo and am here to share my experience with…
The Real Reason Most American Cars Haven’t Gained Traction in Japan
When I was earning my MBA in the mid-2000s, not a day went by when I wasn’t pouring over a case study. As a car enthusiast, the business vignettes from automotive-industry case studies were naturally the most memorable. These cases are where I first learned that, up until the mid-1990s, most American cars sold in…