About this blog

So, you've run into this weird blog called "Easy Breezy Japanesey." First of all, congratulations! You're now pretty awesome. And now you probably want to know what exactly this is and what it can do for you, right? Of course you do.

What is this blog?

This blog is anyone's guide to self-study Japanese. If you have ever tried to teach yourself Japanese, you probably have found that it's one of the most difficult things you've ever tried to do. It doesn't have to be that way! The hardest part of learning Japanese on your own is the abundance of resources (both good and bad...) available to you. In other words, it's just all about knowing where to start and where to go.

I tried to study Japanese on my own for a while, eventually went to school for Japanese, and then continued my studies on my own. I learned a lot about studying Japanese in school, but these tools and resources aren't available to everyone.

If I had known back then what I know now, I would have been able to become fluent in Japanese without ever stepping foot in a classroom or hiring a private tutor or anything like that. I'm not saying that classrooms and teachers are bad; they're wonderful! I'm just saying that there are people who can't get a class or a teacher where they are right now, but those people still want to learn Japanese.

Luckily, it's really not as hard as it looks. I don't have a PhD in Japanese. I'm not a Japanese professor. I'm just a regular guy who went to school and studied on my own and played a crapton of Japanese games on my computer and Playstation. And I was able to learn to speak fluent Japanese!

Certainly I don't have the credentials to write in academic journals or publish elaborate books that people will actually take seriously. But not everyone who can speak Japanese is a Japanese professor who publishes professional works. And that means that there are plenty of "regular" people out there who know how to learn Japanese. I want to share my experience and knowledge and help others learn to speak, read, write, and understand Japanese.

This blog is not going to be full of Japanese lessons, but rather is going to be like a mentor to those learning Japanese on their own. I want to help point you to all the resources I've learned about and give you tips on how to think, study, and learn in the best way you can. I will try to cover everything you need to get started in self-study, get a good foundation in the language, and eventually learn to teach yourself Japanese.

Why are you doing this?

With the recent tragic disaster in Japan, I've been in contact with friends and colleagues living or staying in the country, or just ones who want to help. I've been reminded of one of the most important benefits of speaking Japanese: simply the ability to communicate. Looking at how the recent events in Japan have shaken the rest of the world, I'm reminded of the connected world we live in today -- a world in which communication is vital and important! I think that anyone should be able to learn to communicate in the ways they want, and anyone should be able to learn Japanese.

 As I said, I'm just a regular guy, and I learned how to do it. I think it's important for people to share their experiences and help others in any way they can. I have a BA in Japanese. I can't write a textbook or teach a class. But I do have plenty of years studying Japanese both in school and on my own; I have experience teaching -- including tutoring and giving private lessons in Japanese; I have a passion for linguistics, languages, studying, and teaching; and I have a computer, internet access, and a blogger account. Because of all of that, I feel I'm more than qualified to help you on the long road ahead of you... the road of self-study that will eventually lead to Japanese fluency. :)

And I know a lot of resources you find are going to try to teach you everything from beginning to end, or they'll only give you really basic information, or they'll be so full of technical words or jargon that you'll have no idea what the hell is going on. Learning Japanese can be overwhelming when you see all the stuff out there on the internet and in your public library telling you how to learn. This blog is going to be a friendly, casual, and common-language guide to help you puzzle all that out and figure out what's going on.

Who is this blog for?

My first answer to this is everyone. I want to be clear that I am very confident that anyone can learn Japanese. Yes, it doesn't matter if you're old and stupid (sadly, that's a common excuse...); you can do it.

Secondly, I want to point out that this blog is dedicated to those who have decided to try to teach themselves self-study. It's mainly for those of you who can't take lessons or classes but still strive to learn the language.

Lastly, I want to say that this blog can still be a great resource to people studying formally. Even when you're in a class with teachers and a textbook, you can still

In other words, if you're trying to learn Japanese, I can help you. :)

What's up with the name?

I originally named my blogger account "easybreezy," as I wanted to write a variety of blogs using my life experiences to help other people. One thing I've discovered in my life is that anything can be easy if you know how to make it easy. I truly believe that anyone can do anything they want. Since one of the biggest passions in my life is language, and my favorite languages to study are Japanese and Korean, and for the reasons above, my first blog ended up being one about learning Japanese.

When I was in high school, I got really interested in Japanese pop music. At the time, Utada Hikaru had just become a big sensation in Japan, and her music was really popular. I was listening to her a lot at the time, and when she decided to release an album in the United States, I was pretty stoked! 

If you know about it, there was a particular line in one of the songs she used to promote the album that said "You're easy-breezy, and I'm Japanesey." I remember a lot of people were really upset about that line because they thought it sounded stupid. Actually, I thought it sounded pretty stupid myself. I even wrote her a letter and said "Please change the lyrics to your song. It sounds really bad." (hahaha)

Since then, I've listened to that song so much that it's really grown on me. And as I studied Japanese language and culture more, the line actually started to... make a little sense to me, in a way. I can't really describe it. But being that I love that song and have been listening to it forever, and the fact that everyone made such a big deal out of that line, that line is one that's in my head a lot. And now it's pretty amiable to me.

So I decided that since my blogger account was already named "easybreezy," it seems like the perfect name! Not only am I attempting to make the task of teaching yourself Japanese easy, but the title comes from a song from a Japanese-American singer (Or would it be American-Japanese? She was born to Japanese parents in America and then moved to Japan... hmmm...)

Anyway, the name seemed pretty cute to me, so I picked it. That's the long-story-short version of it, I guess, ahaha.

How can I help?

If you want to help me out, ask me questions! If you're having particular trouble in an aspect of learning Japanese, let me know, and I'll try to address it. Please don't ask me for a translation or help on a particular lesson or something (like "I don't get how to use this form...") or something... because I could potentially get thousands of questions like that and it would be too hard to address them all. And the purpose of this guide is to teach people how to find those answers on their own -- to be able to learn Japanese without teachers or tutors, since it's a self-study blog.

But if you have a question that you think could benefit anyone learning Japanese like "I have a problem with learning new vocabulary" or "I have a problem distinguishing these politeness levels" or something (which are problems I already plan on discussing), feel free to ask me those. Anything that applies to the entire language, very common problems that a lot of students seem to have, &c.

Also, if you have any useful techniques or study habits or tools or resources or anything that you would like to share, I'd love to hear it and share it with readers, too!

You are so cool! Can I give you money?? 

Well, I'm not really all that cool. Okay, maybe I am. And yeah, you can give me money! It currently doesn't cost me anything to write a blog on blogger, but I would like to eventually upgrade to a full, shiny web site.

But in seriousness, if you find this blog useful, and you think it's worth a donation, feel free to click the PayPal donation button on the right menu bar.