I Speak Japanese

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Speekit.com is opening tomorrow! I can’t believe it either.

I’m sure you’re probably wondering, “is it free?” And the answer is yes and no.

You will get access a handful of lessons, be able to ask questions, and browse all of the articles in Speekit Answers for FREE. These things won’t cost you a penny.

If you want access to our growing library of premium lessons, there will be a teeny tiny monthly charge. How tiny? $9–about the cost of 3 tall lattes at Starbucks. Plus, you can cancel anytime AND you get a free 8-day trial.

So why isn’t it 100% free?

Well, as you know, Kevin and I work day and night to keep this community together. It’s hasn’t been easy, but we love Japan and care about Japanese language learners like you.

To prove it, we both quit our full-time jobs to focus on ispeakjapanese.net and speekit.com, all while supporting our families. And no, we’re not crazy. We just care about this that much.

This isn’t a sob-story to make you feel bad. It’s just a bit of reality to let you know where we’re coming from

There’s just one more day to go! It’s free to try it out, so we hope to see you tomorrow!

-Aaron

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It looks like our biggest secret about Speekit has leaked. In case you haven’t seen it yet, we’ve decided to bite the bullet and just announce it to everyone.

Staying motivated when learning Japanese is really tough. So we’ve made a fun website where it is actually enjoyable and motivating to study.

Wouldn’t it be great if learning Japanese was as easy as playing a game? And when you encountered problems, you could get help?

Well, that’s what Speekit is.

You will earn points as you play games and get help through our “Answers” community. You will compete with other members and earn “badges” for accomplishments.

It’s all a lot of fun and we look forward to seeing you there!

Aaron & Kevin

P.S. 2 more days until Speekit’s Grand Opening!

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No, we’re not ready to open the doors just yet–that wouldn’t be fair :) But we are ready to tell you what we’ve been working on and when it’s going to be available.

The project that Kevin and I have been working on is a new website: Speekit.com. What is Speekit? It’s the new, painless way to learn Japanese. You’ll get to learn Japanese by exploring Japan right from home. And you’ll get to compete with your fellow Japanese language learners and track your progress.

The best part is that we’re planning to have our grand opening in just 3 days! We can’t wait and we hope to see you at our grand opening.

More details to come, so stay tuned!

-Aaron

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I’m not going to lie. I’m really excited.

Aaron and I are just a few short days away from unveiling our latest creation. This is a project that we have been working on for the last 4 months straight–that’s 120 days of sleepless nights, about 960 cups of coffee, and 2,880 hours of nail-biting anticipation.

But it’s finally here…only a few days away. More info to come so stay tuned!

News

Hey everyone and welcome back to another episode of Happy Hour Japan!

In this episode, Aaron and I discuss how the Japanese language is always changing. If you’re learning to speak Japanese and decide to travel to Japan, you’ll quickly realize there are lots of words and phrases that you’ve never seen or heard of before. That’s because the Japanese language isn’t set in stone, but rather evolving (just like English and every other language). Sounds pretty obvious, but we thought it was worth mentioning and discussing with all of you.

Also, in this episode we talk about…HHJ logo wear!

Kanpai!

Kevin

 

 The Japanese language is always changing! [10:16m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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All eyes were on Japan this past week as it won the World Baseball Classic. Our very own Ichiro helped make it a true spectacle. In looking around the web about Japanese baseball, I came across an article about Japan’s first professional female baseball player. It’s a big deal.

17 year-old Eri Yoshida threw her first pitch in the big leagues last week as part of Osaka’s Kobe 9 Cruise. From mlb.com:

Yoshida walked the first batter on four straight pitches, then gave up a stolen base, but struck out the next batter swinging before being taken out, as her club picked up a 5-0 win over the Osaka Gold Villicanes in front of 11,592 at the Osaka Dome, according to AP.

Pretty cool…

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Yesterday I noticed an interesting article about a group of Japanese lawyers and professionals that has asked Google to stop violating people’s privacy with its Street View service. That got me thinking. As convenient and useful as it is, is Street View a violation of people’s basic privacy rights? Although the photos are not taken in real-time, it does seem to me that the service is getting eerily close to a ‘big brother’ type of thing.

A Japanese group of lawyers and professors thinks it is unacceptable and has asked Google to stop photographing Japan’s streets. The service, they say, is violating peoples’ privacy.

“We strongly suspect that what Google has been doing deeply violates a basic right that humans have,” Yasuhiko Tajima, a professor of constitutional law at Sophia University in Tokyo, told Reuters by telephone.

“It is necessary to warn society that an IT giant is openly violating privacy rights, which are important rights that the citizens have, through this service.”

What do you think? Is Google Street View violating privacy rights?

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