June 10, 2010 by Eric Nishio

Easily the Fastest Way to Become Fluent in a Language

No comments Languages, Learning Methods, Success Story

How long does it usually take to learn how to have conversations in a new language? As you probably know, I am someone who tends to dislike “Learn _____ in 7 Days” methods, because most of the time these approaches just let you barely scratch the surface—in other words, they fail to provide any substantial [...]

April 17, 2010 by Eric Nishio

How to Learn Cantonese by Yourself

No comments Books, Languages, Learning Methods

I’ve tried several audio programs that teach you Cantonese, and I’ve had a lot of success with them, but there’s one that has easily surpassed every other audio course—it’s Pimsleur Cantonese Chinese. The genius minds behind Pimsleur have created a awesome system that enables you to remember words and phrases almost magically—and more importantly, learn [...]

February 18, 2010 by Eric Nishio

Vocabulary Notebook: Be on the Lookout for Useful Words

2 comments Languages, Writing

Whether you’re a writer or a telemarketer, it’s good to improve your vocabulary. Having a command of effective words is not only important in writing, it is also essential in everyday speech. But how do you collect new words? Well, you can get yourself a thesaurus or a vocabulary textbook and to pick up new [...]

December 3, 2009 by Eric Nishio

How I Taught Myself to Read Japanese in Six Months

No comments Languages, Learning Methods, Success Story

In September 2006 I couldn’t read Japanese. Well, I could read the basic Japanese syllabaries (hiragana and katakana), but that didn’t help much since I didn’t know any Chinese characters, or kanji as they’re called in Japanese, to combine with them. If you’re familiar with written Japanese, you know that there are about 2000 unique [...]