Hi! I created this website to help people who want to become fluent in Japanese. This is not a website for people who watch anime and read manga and want to be able to read and speak a little Japanese; here the goal is fluency, so most of the ideas focus on going the distance, rather than just learning a few thousand kanji and calling it quits.

What is fluency?

As the name of this site is “fluent Japanese,” I thought it might be useful to provide my definition of fluency.

To say it simply, fluency is being able to think completely within a single language, to the point where one can express all of one's thoughts naturally within one's head in that language. If you're truly fluent, nearly fully formed thoughts and ideas will spontaneously pop into your head in that language.

Of course, reaching this level is a lofty goal, but I know it's possible because I've met people who have reached that level, even if I haven't done so yet myself.

Another note: throughout this site, I use fluency to include literacy, two concepts which don't necessarily have to go together in the case of Japanese. However, my own interest in Japanese is primarily literary, and so most of my information on studying Japanese is focused on reading the language.

I also aim for graduate level understanding of the language. After all, there's a fantastic amount of intellectual stuff that can only be unlocked by understanding Japanese.

About Me

I moved to Japan from the United States in the fall of 2007. For two years, I taught English at a Japanese junior high school and studied Japanese on the side. I now work in software research developing tools to parse sentences in Japanese, English, and Chinese. Although I passed the 1kyuu in December of 2008, I continue to study Japanese every day and am writing a novel in Japanese. I created this site in order to exchange effective techniques with other serious students.

Contact Me

The easiest way to contact me is to use the forums, where you can questions or make comments about the site. You can register if you like, but if you want to remain anonymous, you don't have to register. However, please understand that to prevent spam, all anonymous posts will be held until I can insure that they are not, in fact, spam.

About the Site

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