Why I Created this Blog

Put simply: I feel very strongly that the methods typically used to teach Japanese are fundamentally wrong.

Most Japanese people will tell you that their language is very difficult. This appears to be bound up in some sort of pride - as if having a mother tongue that was easy to learn would somehow be embarrassing. So it must be very gratifying to see so many gaijin (Japanese for foreigner - I'll use this word a lot) seem to have so much trouble with it.

The truth is, Japanese is actually very easy to learn... if you know how. And the irony is that it's the elegance and gorgeous structure of the language that makes it easy - and that is something I think Japanese people should be proud of!

If beginners are having trouble with Japanese, it's no wonder. The techniques normally used to teach it are so backward that I believe they actually make it difficult to improve. This is not simply saying that the usual teaching method is inefficient, I'm saying that it actually blocks progress, obscuring the learner from seeing the patterns needed to take their Japanese to the next level.

After years of watching clever people around me struggle to crack the code, and ranting to anyone who would listen to my ideas, I decided to start writing it down.

And here it is. I hope this helps someone.