With the start of a new semester quickly approaching, or already in full swing, we wanted to take a moment and share some new Groups features that are now live on the site. With more …
Radio Exercise: ラジオ体操
ラジオ体操 (ラジオたいそう) is a very popular form of morning exercise in Japan. It first was started as a radio broadcast, but can now be found on the television as well. People either do these exercises …
Skritter Japanese 201
こんにちは fellow (Japanese-learning) Skritterers! This is a quick blog post just to let you all know that there is a new “Skritter Japanese 201” list now available for study. If you haven’t studied the 101 …
Please Turn Off Your Smart Device
I’ve been doing a lot of traveling the past few weeks and it got me to thinking, how much interaction are we missing out on because of heavy reliance on smart devices? Also, what impact …
Blood Type: 血液型 （けつえきがた）
While for most westerners it’s not uncommon to have no idea what their own blood type is, in Japan almost everyone knows theirs. Japanese Wikipedia includes blood type when listing information on celebrities, as well …
Introducing the new “Dear Skritter” column
A few weeks ago we put out a question to the Facebook page asking if users would be interested in a monthly column that responded to reader questions about Chinese and Japanese. Many replied with …
Using Time Tracking With Language Studies
There is something truly wonderful about being able to track stats and progress during the language learning process. In fact, this was one of the things that originally drew me to studying online with Skritter …
Matsuri: Japanese Festivals
When reading Japanese stories or watching T.V. shows (or living in Japan!) I’m sure you have noticed that there seems to be a lot of festivals （祭り（まつり）） that take place in various prefectures. The reason …
The Legend of Meng Tian
Legend claims that while Meng Tian (A general from the Qin era ~210 BC) was garrisoned in the northern boarder regions of the great Qin empire, he took great issue with his inability to send …
Open Course Lectures and Finding Material Relevant to One’s Interests
I’m a firm believer in making language learning as fun, interesting, and engaging as possible. There is almost nothing better for one’s motivation than content that meets those needs. While movies, comics, novels etc. are fun, …