Our Favorite Tofugu Content of 2022

Here's what we loved from 2022. I think you'll love it, too. [View this email in your browser]( Hello, and こんにちは！ Can you believe it’s already December? Whether you can or not, I thought I’d share some of the best Tofugu content from 2022. The Tofugu team worked very hard to produce a ton of quality articles this year, so I hope you’ll like them as much as we do. Tofugu's Learn Hiragana Book & Learn Katakana Book This year, we made free books to teach hiragana and katakana. They’re basically PDF versions of our hiragana and katakana articles, plus handwriting sheets and exercises. We also used this opportunity to overhaul our kana mnemonics (memory hints). Check out our [Learn Hiragana Book]( and [Learn Katakana Book](. How to Language Exchange Successfully Whether you’re already doing a language exchange or thinking about starting, check this article for structure and guidance on the process. You’ll find practical tips and even useful Japanese phrases for a successful language exchange. [Read the article](. けど: Why Are Japanese Speakers Always Ending Their Sentences with "But"? Japanese speakers often use けど (kedo) — the equivalent of “but” — to end their sentences. You might’ve been taught that it’s to soften the tone, but there’s more to it than just sounding polite. [Read the article](. Japanese Grammar YouTube Channels for Beginners There are some good YouTube channels offering grammar content these days. In this article, we picked the best ones for beginners. Ready to binge and study at the same time? [Read the article](. The Best Japanese E-Book Retailers for Japanese Learners Buying Japanese books can be a real pain when you’re not in Japan. That’s why Japanese e-book stores are a great option. We picked foreigner-friendly e-book stores that don’t require a Japanese address, a credit card, or a VPN. [Read the article]( or [listen to the podcast episode](. ばかり (Bakari) vs ところ (Tokoro): Two Ways to Say You "Just" Did Something ばかり and ところ are both used to express how something “just” happened. However, they’re not completely interchangeable and there are nuance differences between them that we can’t quite translate into English. [Read the article](. The Best Japanese Language Learning Podcasts for Beginners It can be hard to find a Japanese podcast that you can get the most out of as a beginner. So, we put together a list of ten beginner-friendly Japanese podcasts. [Read the article](. (There’s [an article about intermediate-level podcasts]( too.) This is all for now, but make sure to check out the [Tofugu blog]( and [podcast]( for more that you’ve missed. This is just some of what we wrote this year. Oh, and a quick heads-up — WaniKani’s Holiday Sale is coming up in a couple weeks! In case you’re not familiar with WaniKani, it’s a kanji and Japanese vocabulary learning program that we built. Actually, this year was a special year for us as it’s been 10 years since we released WaniKani. Over the years, WaniKani users have been proving that kanji doesn’t have to be this big hairy goal for Japanese learners. Some users even completed the program in just over a year and learned over 2,000 kanji and 6,000 vocabulary items. There are seriously no words to describe how proud we are of our users. If you're interested, [now’s the perfect time to start WaniKani](. You’ll get to try the first three levels (which are available for free) to see if WaniKani works for you before the Lifetime account goes on sale. During the trial levels, you get to learn over 80 kanji and 180 words in about 2-3 weeks. So whether you decide to buy a Lifetime account or not, it can be a fun Japanese study challenge to keep you busy for the rest of the year. This may be the last time you hear from us this year, so let me wish you another great new year of Japanese learning — 良いお年を！ - Kanae Copyright © 2022 Tofugu, All rights reserved. You are receiving this e-mail because you signed up to get Tofugu Newsletters. Our mailing address is: Tofugu 525 3rd St Suite 200Lake Oswego, OR 97034 [Add us to your address book]( Want to change how you receive these emails? You can [update your preferences]( or [unsubscribe from this list](.