Easy Japanese

When Faith and I started attending Twincentric Academy we met another set of twins named Aiko Hope and Akiko Grace who have Japanese parents. They grew up here but speak Japanese at home with their parents. Meeting Hope and Grace inspired me to learn some Japanese, too.

This is one of the best sites I found!

Easy Japanese is a site created for people who want to learn Japanese anyway. It is very kid friendly, I think with it's cute interface. Anybody of any age should enjoy it.

On the front page they have a word of the day.

Today's word of the day is Watashi.

There are a bunch of fun games to learn your Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji. All of the games are fun and easy.

In the first picture above is the Kana quiz where you can see how much Kana you can recognize. This is for people who have been studying the writing.

The second picture shows a memory game which is better for beginners who are stilling getting confused.

The third picture is a game where you click on a piece of Hiragana and it shows you how to write it.

The fourth picture is Kana invaders. You can use the game to practice your Kana recognition.

They have a new area called Lessons which teaches you Japanese in lessons. It is not a game. It just shows you the words but it is interesting and if you are very interested in Japanese I think you will enjoy spending time in this area.

Personally, I think the best thing about the site is the writing games and the games that show you how to write. So, go check it out.

Have fun.

Duolingo: Destiny's Review

Today, the language course I want to talk about is called Duolingo. 

Duolingo looks like it is going to be a big hit! When learning a language Duolingo gives you community in the truest sense of the word.

You get a profile page and a stream where you share your thoughts (that is very similar to Twitter, so if you are Twitter fan who has always wanted to learn a language this may just be the course for you.)

Show off your Spanish learning skills, earn points, share with your followers!

In each lesson, under the phrase is a place that says comment where you can talk about the word or phrase you've learned and ask questions. No matter how silly they are, someone may answer them and then you'll feel a lot smarter! The developers often lurk in the forums and one of them may even help you with your question!

Have a question? Duolingo members don't mind helping you out!

Duolingo's motto is "Learn A Language While Translating The Web."

Why is this their motto? Because on Duolingo they give you documents and you help to translate them using your newfound knowledge of the language.

Duolingo currently offers Spanish, French, Italian (beta), and Portuguese (beta) so if one of these is the language you want to learn you should go sign up. I almost forgot to mention, they offer English lessons for those of you who speak English as a second language and need to brush up.

One of the reasons why I like Duolingo is that it works like a virtual textbook and starts off with a really easy lesson. Every lesson builds on the things you learned in the previous lesson.

How easy is that?

It's also sort of like a game. You earn points, go up in level, and get to unlock new things making Duolingo a big winner