Many kanji have subtle differences that may be confused or not noticed, especially if they are printed or written small, and even more so if you happen to have studied reading kanji but not writing …
Hacking the Most Difficult Chinese Characters (4-6)
What are some of the most difficult Chinese characters? We all have some characters that just refuse to stick and that we keep forgetting over and over. The best way of learning tricky characters in …
Why strangers are so hard to understand
Human language is varied. It varies across time and space, but also between individuals. This is true within languages like Chinese and Japanese as well. I think all of us have had the experience where …
Translating the Skritter dictionary
Students of Chinese and Japanese hail from all corners of the world, not just English-speaking parts. So here at Skritter we want to make our methods of language study as accessible as possible to speakers …
Japanese Cultural Post: Onsen (温泉)
Hot springs (onsen: 温泉), or literally “warm spring”, are a common part of the average Japanese lifestyle. They’re used for relaxation, rejuvenation and fighting off sickness if you think you’re about to catch a cold. …
Japanese and Chinese Font Differences
Spawning off from the article on dealing with font issues when learning Chinese, this is about some of the differences you might encounter with various fonts in Japanese and Chinese. It’s luckily not as complicated …
Staying on track with Beeminder
There are many ways to motivate yourself to study more. Some of these are based on cultivating an interest for language or culture, others are instrumental, meaning that you learn because you need to be …
Outlier Dictionary of Chinese Characters
One of the main differences between learning a language as an adult and as a child is that adults benefit a lot more from explanations. Understanding what you’re doing is therefore an essential part of …
語源: Origin of words
The etymology of a word, or origin of a word, is not only interesting to research when learning Japanese but sometimes essential. The word for etymology is 語源 （ごげん）, translating directly to “word origin”. When …
Dealing with font issues when learning Chinese
Have you ever noticed that there are sometimes slight differences between how Chinese characters are displayed on different devices? Or that some characters in printed books are different from those you use on your computer? …