How do you learn a language? The same way you learned to walk... one step at a time. There are no magic shoes (no matter what the shoe shop assistant may tell you). There is no substitute for being brave enough to take a step, achieving a little, soon...

"Christmas Kitty" by Tavallai The supermarket shelves have been stacked with mince pies for months, the carol muzak is beginning to wear out, and the decorations have been in the mall so long nobody notices them any more. It must be time for...

Koichi Recently Koichi over at Tofugu listed his top ten online tools for studying Japanese. His list includes some great old favourites, and some fab new sites I had never encountered. There are detailed explanations for why each site is on...

"Prime Minister Gordon Brown meets President Hu of China" by Foreign & Commonwealth Office On Sunday, the Foreign Affairs Committee published a report entitled "Global Security: Japan and Korea". The report has been produced to address concerns...

"日本語の試験を勉強する時" by Wesley Oostvogels. Since the beginning of October my language study time has been spent typing up Pimsleur notes. With such a backlog, working on them alongside other study was prolonging the exercise. It's...