Category Archives: Musings

Miscellaneous thoughts on studying Japanese.

Learning Kanji Without Kanji

Posted on April 14, 2011 by Micah Cowan

A credible reason for why learning new kanji is generally a much easier proposition for native Japanese, has been rolling around in my head for a while. As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, when a Westerner encounters an unfamiliar kanji character, there’s … Continue reading →

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Towards a System for Learning to Read Japanese

Posted on June 13, 2010 by Micah Cowan

Learning Japanese through reading practice can be very frustrating (probably a familiar theme by now). Instead of simply learning just new vocabulary or new characters, you’re often trying to learn new characters, new radical/sub-component characters that made up the character … Continue reading →

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Resources That Gave Me A Leg Up In Japanese

Posted on June 10, 2010 by Micah Cowan

As I mentioned before (here and here), learning Japanese can be very frustrating. Here are some resources that I found to be better-than-average at helping me find the next footing. Many of them have unique qualities that made them enormously … Continue reading →

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Why Learning Japanese Can Be Frustrating, Part Two

Posted on June 3, 2009 by Micah Cowan

This is part two of a series on the frustrations of learning the Japanese language. The foregoing assumes you’ve already read part one (though you should be able to get along without it: it’ll just start somewhat abruptly). Learning Through … Continue reading →

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Why Learning Japanese Can Be Frustrating

Posted on April 17, 2009 by Micah Cowan

I’ve always been fascinated by the study of foreign languages. This fascination probably sprang from a childhood love of codes and ciphers. The languages I was most fascinated with were those with beautiful and exotic writing systems. If I had … Continue reading →

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