Learning Japanese is a really rewarding experience. It’s so exciting to get the learning process underway and begin to be able to understand the language and communicate using it. But learning Japanese comes with its challenges and you can find yourself stuck at times. It’s not always easy to know why you have ended up…
There is a myth that immersion is the only way to learn Japanese, that is to say, unless you are living in Japan, you won’t be able to learn Japanese. But all that is really required to learn Japanese, or any other language, is access to native media and native speakers. The internet offers a…
If you have been learning Japanese for a while you have probably noticed that unfinished sentences are used quite often. It might seem odd to just leave a sentence unfinished, as this is not common in English, but in Japanese unfinished sentences serve an important role in smooth communication. They are a reflection of Japanese…
It is very common in Japanese to encounter unfinished sentences that end in けど (kedo). In English, kedo is often translated as ‘but’, ‘though’ and ‘however’. Although it may seem odd to leave a sentence unfinished ending with the word ‘but’, doing so serves an important role in smooth communication in Japanese and is a…
In Japanese sentences where reasons and causes are being expressed, you’ll find sentences that end in ですから (desukara) and からです (karadesu). Although they mean the same thing, there are two situations which distinguish the use of one from the other. ですから (desukara) connects a subordinate clause to a main clause and functions like “because”. からです…
In Japanese, unfinished sentences ending with から (kara) are common. In these cases, からis used like a sentence final particle like よ (yo) or ね (ne), and it can convey a surprising number of meanings. A whole paper was written on the topic by Hiroyuki Shirakawa of Hiroshima University titled “Unfinished Sentences with Kara [1]”….
Unfinished sentences that end in に and へ are encountered quite frequently in Japanese. For example, these types of sentences can be found in advertisements, warning signs, song lyrics, greetings… It can sometimes be hard to decipher the meaning without knowing what follows after the particle に or へbut bearing the following in mind will…
When learning Japanese, and especially if you are living in Japan, you will likely encounter unfinished sentences that end in を. For example, they are often seen in advertisements. The unfinished nature of these types of sentences is not that common in English, so they can sometimes be difficult to understand without the missing part…
There are many ways to go about learning a foreign language such as Japanese, with the main options being seeking a private tutor, attending classes, and self-study. But it is hard to know which to choose, elements such as time, money and effectiveness of the option need to be examined. But in terms of the…