First things first.

The squiggles underneath this text should look the same as the ones at the top of this page (they mean "welcome," incidentally).

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If you see different squiggles, or you see no squiggles, that means your browser does not support Japanese characters. This is no problem - just click below and follow the instructions to remedy the situation.

A few words about Nihongo no Sensei.

I am a student of Japanese myself, and this page is as much a learning exercise for me as it is for you. However, I have gone to every effort to make sure that everything I present is grammatically and liguistically correct - this includes running everything past a native speaker of Japanese.


This page was created from my desire to create an effective Japanese lesson that does the following:

1. Presents material in a coherent order and at a reasonable pace (this is actually somewhat of a rarity among Japanese lessons I have seen).

2. Places entertainment at an equal importance to education.

3. Organizes material so that the student can see the underlying structure of the language.


I owe my knowledge to the Japanese department at Stanford University, and in particular to my talented teacher, Kazuko M. Busbin.
Special thanks also to Bob Tierney, Julia Bullock, Stefan Kauffman, Shu Kuge and Mark Gibeau.

This page will be constantly under construction as I add more material (and learn more myself). So enjoy, and good luck!