Francesca Rex-Horoi 
Asking someone for a service or favour is never complete without saying ‘please’ and in Japanese, ‘please’ is usually translated as either onegaishimasu or kudasai. But what’s the difference between these two words and are there more? Yes, there are many words for ‘please’ in Japanese and as always, context is king! Saying ‘please’ in … Read more
Almost everyone knows how to say ‘thank you’ in Japanese using the word arigatou but as you probably guessed, there are many other ways to express gratitude! Japan is a country with a long history of hierarchy and many layers of social etiquette which means we end up with many Japanese words for ‘thank you’, … Read more
So you’ve decided to learn Japanese but rather than joining a language school or taking some classes you want to do it on your own! Can you learn Japanese by yourself? Of course you can, and there are many people who have already done it (including me!) If you have an internet connection and a … Read more
As the only language on Earth that combines 3 writing systems at once, it’s no wonder Japanese gets a reputation for being a difficult language! So how hard is it to learn Japanese anyway? Writing systems aside, the pronunciation is easy for most! Japanese has just half as many sounds as English. Compared to many … Read more
There are tons of sources out there that can give you a number in hours, days, months or years for how long it takes to learn Japanese. If you’ve googled it, you’ve probably seen anything from 90 days to 5 years! While it’s definitely possible to learn some Japanese in 90 days, how do some … Read more
Close friend, best friend, childhood friend, BFF – we describe our friendships in English using adjectives before the word ‘friend’. We can also use other words for people we know from work and school, such as colleague, acquaintance, peer, and so on. So it should come as no surprise that Japanese has more than one … Read more
The first thing you need to know about saying ‘you‘ in Japanese is that… you probably shouldn’t say it! Anata (あなた) is the direct translation of ‘you‘ but it’s rarely used by native speakers and sounds offensive if not used correctly. If you really need to say it, the unspoken rule of how to say … Read more
Chances are you already know that watashi means ‘I’ in Japanese. We hate to break it you but… there are more than 10 other ways to say ‘I‘. Yikes! We’ve decided to help you out by writing an entire article on how to say I in Japanese. Just like Japanese honorifics, deciding how to say … Read more