Hello Listener, You’ll want to know about these 3 new Japanese learning tools and features. They’re great for reviewing, motivation and progress and learning consistently with easy 1-minute lessons. One is an unofficial sneak peek. So what are they? The brand new Achievement Badges, the Daily Dose of Japanese and the Word Bank! And... if you want to master Japanese, unlock our proven learning system at 26% OFF and get a Bonus 6.5-hour Audiobook! In this month’s newsletter: 72 Hours Left! Click here to get 26% OFF + FREE 6.5-Hour Audiobook New Feature! Achievement Badges Now Available for Premium PLUS Sneak Peek: Save & Review Vocab with this Study Tool New! Easy 1-Minute Lessons with the Daily Dose of Japanese ... Show more

Hi there Listener, When you’re learning Japanese and want real progress...look for the consistent method. One that’s non-stop and keeps you going. What’s a good one? JapanesePod101 Lessons – free audio and video lessons, every week. In fact, a new season of lessons has started this month that you can grab. Anything else? Vocab lists, where you learn new words and phrases all the time. And don’t forget that our 29% OFF Summer of Japanese Sale ends Friday! In this month’s newsletter... Sale Ends Friday! Click Here to Get 29% OFF Basic or Premium! A New Season Has Started: New, Free, Weekly Japanese Lessons Free Feature Alert: Speak More Japanese With Word & Phrase Lists 1. Summer of Japanese Sale ends Friday! Get a... Show more

Hello Listener, The Summer of Japanese is in full swing at JapanesePod101. That means we’re helping thousands of people like you to learn Japanese this summer! Yes, we are helping to make your dream of learning Japanese easier and more affordable with a LIMITED TIME 29% OFF Basic and Premium. Up to $69.60 in savings! Click here to get a BIG 29% OFF! Ready to learn Japanese? During our Summer of Japanese Sale, you gain full access to our ENTIRE learning system – 370+ hours of Japanese audio and video lessons from real Japanese teachers, exclusive apps, plus loads of additional study tools and resources for just... $7.10/Month for Full Access to Our Premium Plan $2.84/Month for Full Access to Our Basic Plan But you... Show more

No matter how good you are, mistakes are inevitable, especially when you’ve just started learning Japanese. There’s nothing wrong with making mistakes, but who wants to be *THAT* foreigner who makes awkward mistakes when speaking to Japanese people? In this JapanesePod101 Blog post, we’ll give you a heads up so that you can be aware of common mistakes people make, which will make your Japanese language learning experience a lot easier. 1. Don’t Attach -san to Your Own Name! One of the first things English speakers learn in Japanese is the name suffixes used when addressing other people. The most common one is -san, which we attach to people’s names to show respect. -San corresponds with “Mr.” and “Mrs.” when referring to other... Show more

1. Schedule your time. One of the most important factors in keeping your motivation up is developing it into a habit. Whether it be 20 minutes or 3 hours, schedule time to study every day and stick to it. Regular exposure solidifies what you learn and keeps you progressing. To make sure you stick to your routine, a great idea is to build a schedule for your day and decide that every day/Monday/weekend, you study from 6pm to 8pm. Just remember that 30 minutes a day, every day, is better than a binge 8-hour study session at the end of the week (though it’s obviously better than nothing). 2. Learn a word a day with our great Word of the Day learning tool. Trying to learn everything at once and getting overwhelmed by the sheer number... Show more

Japanese anime is very popular around the world. So popular that many people decide to learn Japanese because of their love for their favorite anime shows. But one problem with learning Japanese through anime is the kind of Japanese you’ll absorb this way. The characters in anime live in their own universe, where everyone tends to use slang, casual language, informal pronouns and even made-up words. It’s very easy to spot people who learned Japanese exclusively through anime – you’ll see 20-year-old boys talking like 10-year-old kawaii girls, or 20-year-old girls talking like yakuza, for example! Needless to say, native Japanese speakers may not take them seriously! Despite this, it can actually be useful to incorporate anime into your... Show more

Today, we bring you another blog post from Motoko, JapanesePod101.com lesson creator, host and Office Party Planner! Motoko will be sharing more bilingual posts on our blog, so check back often and leave a comment! Hi everyone, Motoko here! In the beginning of summer this year, the Innovative Language staff went on a day trip. Today I’d like to talk about that. We chose peach-picking for fun, and soba-making so that everyone could try a traditional Japanese food! We made soba in a wonderful nihon-kaoku, a traditional type of Japanese house. Do you know what soba is? Soba is a famous type of noodle in Japan that is a greyish-brown color. It gets this color from a special type of flour called sobako that is used to make it. You dip the... Show more

As you learn more and more Japanese, you will come across the apparently confusing Japanese counting system as the numbers get more complex. This is due to Chinese influence, as the counting system in Japan comes from Chinese tradition, grouping larger numbers in "myriads" (every 10,000, unlike the Western way of grouping in thousands (1000). in Japanese, 乃rom 3 digits on, the numbers are counted as: 百 / "hyaku" /  "100" 千  / "sen" /  "1,000" 1万 /  "ichi-man"  /  "10,000" Numbers from 20 to 90 are ("digit")-jū Hundreds from 200 to 900 are "(digit)-hyaku" Thousands from 2000 to 9000 are "(digit)-sen" Tens of thousands from 10,000 to 90,000 are "(digit)-man" Keep in mind, that: If written in Arabic numerals, they... Show more

As you learn more about Japanese culture, we are sure that you will want to learn even more Japanese words and phrases! The way to experience Japan at its fullest is being able to communicate and make the best of your stay in this fascinating country. But sometimes we feel that time is short! However, did you know that you can use Japanese to learn more Japanese?  of course, you can ask for help, in Japanese! Remember to be polite at all times and use: すみません。 (  Sumimasen  ) "excuse me." We often use it to try to politely get someone's attention if we are about to say something or ask a question. 「 word 」 は日本語で何ですか。 (  wa Nihon-go de nan desu ka? ) "How do you say (word) in Japanese?" You can use this phrase... Show more

You may have noticed that Japanese sentences' word order are different from English. Yet, although it may sound odd to say "I Marge am", don't be discouraged about it, it is just a matter of learning Japanese sentence structure and soon it will become second nature. Remember that to Nihon-jin our word order for "My name is Marge" must be strange too! What is Nihon-jin? Nihon-jin is the way to say "Japanese person". in Japanese, to express nationality, you add the word for person, jin （ 人 ）to the name of a country. Let's take a look at some examples. 日本 (Nihon)  +  人 (jin )= 日本人  "Japanese person" in the same way: ア メリカ (Amerika) +  人 (jin )=  アメリカ人 (Amerika-jin)  "American person" イギリス (Igirisu)  + 人 (jin )= ... Show more