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So I haven’t written on language learning in a while. That doesn’t mean I’ve been doing nothing. In fact, I’ve been extremely focused. I put a halt on my SRS sentences. I put down the novel I was reading. I took a break from transcribing Fight Club. I stopped […]

If you’ve been paying close attention, then you know that I have an infant son. You may also know that I have a Japanese wife. Since my parents speak English, and my wife’s parents speak Japanese, our son will need to know both languages if he is going to be able to communicate […]

In case you haven’t noticed already, I added some new ad spaces in the right sidebar. Both are 125×125 spots and can be had for pennies. You don’t have to purchase them for a whole month either - you can grab the ad space for one day if you want to. If […]

Warning: This post may not be suitable for adults.
Today’s Word Of The Day is うんち (unchi). That’s Japanese for poop.
Last weekend, my wife and I went to the Confectionary Exposition in Himeji, and on the way back to the car we saw this sign:

Here is what the sign says:
Everybody come and play! Come […]

Today (May 5th) is Children’s Day in Japan, and that means today’s Word of the Day is 鯉幟 (koinobori). 鯉 (koi) means “carp” and 幟 (nobori) means something like “flag”, so 鯉幟 (koinobori) translates into English as “carp streamer“.

Japanese families (who have boys) put these carp streamers up to celebrate boys. 　My wife and […]

In the summer of last year, my wife told me (in Japanese) “We need to buy a magic bottle.”
“A what?”
“A magic bottle.”
“What on earth is a magic bottle? and why do we need to buy one?”
Magic Bottle
The word in question here is 魔法瓶 (mahou-bin). The first part 魔法 (mahou) means “magic”, as in […]

My wife and I went to see cherry blossoms at Himeji castle today. On the way back we ran across this awesome sign:

What a welcoming sign! The Japanese reads お急ぎの方ご利用下さい (o-isogi no kata go-riyou kudasai), which is hilarious in Japanese but translates a little awkwardly to something like “People in a hurry, please […]

I took a two week vacation to the States and I’m back now.   My infant son got to meet his paternal grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins for the first time.   Good times had by all.
I didn’t do any language study during my vacation, so I came home to a lot of due cards on Anki.  […]

One of my Swedish textbooks has a section at the beginning with useful websites for Swedish learners. A couple of these are Swedish newspapers and radio online. If you are studying Swedish, or know someone who is, you might want to check these out:

8sidor - http://8sidor.lattlast.se/ - 8sidor has daily news in Swedish. […]

Rmss over at Spanish Only has made a great post about how to roll your R. He gives you step-by-step instructions on how to go from zero to perfectly rolled Rs.
I tried it out yesterday during an hour-long jog and I was able to get up to step 2! It was quite exciting […]