I just visited Japan for the third time in my life. In 2016, after spending about 18 months studying Japanese to encourage my son who was taking classes in middle and high…
Category: Learning to speak Japanese
From Honolulu to Tokyo – A transit guide for the transit clueless
In going from Honolulu to Tokyo, one of my bigger travel worries, other than the language barrier, was the transit barrier. Regarding mass transit, I spent a number of years both living…
Traveling Tokyo by Smartphone
US Smartphone Coverage in Japan If you’re currently on either T-mobile or Sprint’s phone plan, you’re in luck. For most plans, both companies offer free text and 2g basic data roaming in…
My One-Year Foreign Language Test in Japanese
I give myself a low B- Earlier, I had written about why I thought world language in high school was a questionable endeavor. To prove my point, I spent an entire year…
Learning Japanese in Hawaii: what is working
Niu Valley Middle School has a world language core requirement, either Mandarin Chinese or Japanese. Once that language is selected, if your child goes on to Kaiser, they must continue in that…
You Can’t Know What You Don’t Know: How it Applies to Learning a Foreign Language
The more I work at trying to learn Japanese, the more I think that schools shouldn’t make world language mandatory. It’s not that I’m not progressing; I am. In fact, more so…
It’s Too Bad Niu Valley Middle Only Teaches Japanese and Mandarin
Yesterday my husband lamented the lack of choice in Niu Valley Middle School’s world language curriculum. “It’s too bad they only teach Japanese and Chinese,” he said. Underlying his sentiment, was the…
Bargain Karuta and other tips for learning written Japanese in Hawaii
I’m in heaven. Today I stopped by at Don Quixote on Kaheka Street and discovered that Book Off used bookstore has opened inside the supermarket. I bought a set of Karuta from…
Typing in Japanese – What you didn’t learn 30 years ago at Manoa Language School
In order to type Japanese characters on an English keyboard, you’ll need to install language packs. The link below will guide you through the steps for either a Macintosh (Apple Computer) or…