Japanese Lessons Peebles

09/10/2026

Four months have passed since I started teaching Japanese, and it has officially become my full-time work! I enjoy teaching people with diverse backgrounds. Along with my private students, I’ve taken on many international learners through the online tutoring site Preply.
Having recently passed 500 total teaching hours, I’ve decided to adjust my rate to £10 per lesson. I hope that still feels reasonable.
Whether working with complete beginners or higher-level students, I’m getting into a good rhythm and enjoying the process. I look forward to meeting many more people along the way.
The only downside is... I’ve started accidentally blurting out Japanese words while out grocery shopping here in Scotland!

10/09/2026

I’ve found that for many beginners, learning Hiragana and Katakana can be a big hurdle, and it takes time before you can comfortably read full sentences in them. So, I looked for resources that allow you to pick up key phrases and basic grammar without needing to master Hiragana or Katakana first.

I found this site really useful for studying Japanese without needing to read Hiragana or Katakana yet. All the lesson scripts include romanized English (romaji), so you don't need to read Japanese characters. You can choose the English translation, but there are also 20 other languages available to pick from! While you'll still need some guidance to fully understand each topic, this material is about as good as it gets for self-study.

NHK is Japan's public broadcaster, and they make excellent educational materials. These 48 short lessons includes videos, MP3 audio files, and PDF skit scripts. You can also review all the vocabulary. If you're looking for good self-study material, I recommend this:-)

Japan's public broadcaster, NHK, offers this fun and reliable Japanese language course to beginners. Download MP3 audio and PDF text lessons for free, and learn phrases you'll use right away.

30/08/2026

This drama is wonderful.
The story is set in Tokyo in the late 70s. It makes me feel nostalgic because of some of the details of the time. But even without knowing those details, it very delicately describes the emotions of the four sisters and the other protagonists. It has a really good, subtle balance of tragedy and comedy.

The original was written by Kuniko Mukoda. I love her essays and novels. She was a well loved scriptwriter and essayist who died at a young age in an aeroplane accident in Japan.
Koreeda, The director is probably best Japanese director in this generation.

If you want to watch something more nuanced, rather than an overacted, one-emotion-at-a-time story, I recommend watching this series:-)

Palme d’Or-winning Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda’s tale of four sisters is a stunningly shot, laugh-out-loud tale that’s hugely touching. How has it gone almost unnoticed?

05/08/2026

If you’re looking for a good Japanese book to read, one of my recommendations is Totto-chan: The Little Girl at the Window by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi.

Tetsuko Kuroyanagi is one of Japan’s most beloved TV personalities, and this book is a memoir of her childhood at a very unusual primary school in Tokyo during the Second World War.

At a time when Japan was becoming increasingly strict and controlled by the government, this school offered a wonderfully creative education, treating every child as an individual with different strengths and needs.

I first read this book when I was eight years old and loved it. I’ve read it several times since, and it never feels dated.

The original Japanese is written in a fairly simple style and divided into short chapters. It may still be very challenging for learners. Fortunately, there are translations available, as well as editions adapted for people learning Japanese.

If you’re thinking of reading a book by a Japanese author, this would be my first recommendation.

Totto-chan, the Little Girl at the Window (Japanese: 窓ぎわのトットちゃん, Hepburn: Madogiwa no Totto-chan) is an autobiographical memoir written by Japanese television personality and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Tetsuko Kuroyanagi. The book was published in 1981, and became an "instant bes...

22/07/2026

In English, "I" is always "I" and "you" is always "you"—but not in Japanese!

It changes its form depending on your position in the situation and how you want to show the relationship between you and the other person. The examples above are just some of them.
"Watashi" and "Anata" are the most neutral. But if you really want to start a fight with someone, you can call the person "kisama". And if you want to sound like a gruff old man, you can call yourself "washi"!

16/07/2026

Why does Japanese mix Kanji, Hiragana, and Katakana?

Let's look at: 駒込の困りゴリラ (Komagomenokomarigorira =The troubled gorilla of Komagome)

Here is how each script plays its part:

⛩️ Kanji (駒込 / 困り): Gives you the instant "image." 駒込 is a place, and 困り means "troubled." You see the character, you get the idea!

🦍 Katakana (ゴリラ): Signals an imported loanword (Gorilla). It screams, "Hey, I'm foreign!"

🟢 Hiragana (の): Acts as the grammatical "glue" (particle) connecting the words.

If we wrote this in all Hiragana:
👉 こまごめのこまりごりら (Where are the word breaks?! 😵‍💫)

💡 Mixing scripts creates natural visual boundaries, making Japanese much easier and faster to read!

04/07/2026

Did you know that Japanese is full of sound effect words?
One unique feature of the Japanese language is our massive collection of onomatopoeia!
Here is just one example:
Za-za (ざあざあ) expresses heavy, pouring rain. 🌧️
If you love reading Manga, you’ve probably seen these words everywhere!

03/07/2026

Teaching Japanese to people from different language backgrounds has made me notice that there are certain sounds you simply can’t hear if you didn't grow up with them.
Today, I noticed that a student from Austria found it really difficult to tell the difference between せ (se) and ぜ (ze). For her, 'Senせん' (1,000) and 'Zenぜん' (🧘) sound exactly the same!
It’s fascinating how every language trains our ears and brains in its own unique way!

01/07/2026

I’ve registered on this online tutoring platform to reach students from other part of the world. In my first month, I was awarded a “Super Tutor” badge👍
It reflects, good reviews from students, a high conversion rate from trial lessons to regular students, good time keeping, and quick responses to messages. It’s a boost to my confidence as a new tutor😀

https://preply.in/SUPERTUTOR1EN1MJKZNDQ5ODA=?ts=17829065.

01/07/2026

I’ve found that the many people who learn Japanese love One Piece and can pronounce this phrase very fluently in Japanese. It might be the most well-known Japanese phrase in the world😅