Learn Japanese your way with a TakeLessons expert

Having trouble figuring out the stroke order for Japanese characters? Whether you're using hiragana, katakana, or kanji, these tips from Japanese teacher Karou N. will help you learn the correct stroke order for Japanese characters... There are three types of characters in the Japanese language: hiragana, katakana, and kanji. Hiragana is used for basic writing. Katakana looks similar to hiragana, but is slightly different in function. Kanji was originally invented in ancient China from

It's important to be able to express yourself in any language, and learning to express yourself in Japanese can help you communicate more effectively with native Japanese speakers. Here, Washington, DC language teacher Taro T. teaches you some words, phrases, and Japanese vocabulary to express your emotions...  Japanese culture is what anthropologist Edward T. Hall might call a high-context culture. In a high-context culture, you don't have to say much in order to be understood. When som

When learning to speak Japanese, you’ll come across suffixes used to address people called “honorifics.” Japanese honorifics are an important way to convey respect, formality, and friendship to those you interact with. Both formal and informal honorifics are common in Japanese, which is why every speaker needs to get the basic suffixes down. To an English speaker, the concept of honorifics may seem new, but the fact is, we already use terms, such as Miss, Mr., and Dr. as prefixes. But