In Jisho 4, I spent a considerable amount of time in polish mode. In software development they say that the final 20% of an application takes 80% of the work. I can attest to that.
Something I like, but I’m not sure if it’s immediately obvious, is a shortcut for combining two lists in Jisho [...]

The first time I came to Japan, I had been studying Japanese for less than a year. I couldn’t speak at all and only knew the more polite verb endings (ですます体 desumasu-tai).
I wanted to go out with some fellow students and I was trying to tell my host family that if I miss the last [...]

While most of the time when speaking Japanese you should try to be humble and polite, to ignore the importance of the other extreme (arguing) would be short-sighted. Unfortunately knowing how to argue with somebody in a foreign language is a required skill.
One thing that pushes many foreigner’s buttons in Japan is when (as [...]

I mentioned Jisho 4 in passing a few posts ago. Beyond that I hadn’t said anything about it publicly. I’ve been working on it since August, with spare moment I had.
With Jisho 4 I wanted to do things right, so I went back to the drawing board and created an entirely new user experience. [...]

When I first started working in Japan, I worried about how to request customers do something – without being rude. For example, let’s say I needed some images from them before I can continue working on their site. In English I might say something like:
I need you to upload the image so I can continue [...]

With the JLPT coming up on Sunday, now is the time to get in some last minute cramming of Japanese grammar.
One of the Japanese grammar points that I like a lot is “the more you X the X you you will become…”. I like it for the simple reason that I find it fun [...]