Classes I'm Currently Teaching

•  SANKYUU for the JLPT!

About Me

Got Japanese questions? On Twitter? Tweet @tasukatta and get some answers!
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Welcome and thank you for visiting my page. My name is Jillian Nonaka, but please do call me Jill. Not even my mother calls me Jillian, after all. ( ._.);

I am a native English speaker who has been studying Japanese for more than twelve years now and I would love to help my fellow learners as they lumber up the mountain that is Japanese. Just like Mount Fuji, the Japanese language may look beautiful and elegant from a distance — and just like Fuji, as you start climbing, your feet may sink into the sandy ash and oxygen starts getting thin and your head starts getting light and as the nausea threatens to overwhelm you, you begin to think you might never make it to the top. But if do you make it up, the view is tremendous.

There’s a saying, you know, about climbing Fuji:

富士山に一度も登らない馬鹿、二度登る馬鹿
ふじさん に いちど も のぼらない ばか、にど のぼる ばか
[Fuji-san ni ichido mo noboranai baka, nido noboru baka].

It is usually colorfully translated to mean that you would be a fool not to climb Fuji even once. So don’t give up!

(Though the second part means you would be a fool to climb it more than once, so let’s just drop the metaphor, shall we?)

Let’s be realistic. Learning any new language is a challenge, but hopefully it is an enjoyable one. I know that I love learning different languages and even more, I love learning about language. With my training as a linguist and specifically in the field of second language acquisition, I can help you to try to understand some of those baffling bits of Japanese and learn effective learning strategies. In addition, because of my own experience learning Japanese as a foreign language, I understand the hurdles that you may run into and can help you find solutions to overcome them. I hope you’ll get in touch soon.

Below are the classes which I am currently hoping to offer in the new future. I’ll have each of them up and running just as soon as possible, so please let me if you might be interested in any of these titles.

- Japanese Idioms

- Social Issues in Japan (video clips/articles in Japanese, with discussion in English or Japanese, depending on level)

If there is anything else you are interested in learning, just bounce it off of me! I offer FREE ten minute consultations to anyone considering me as a tutor. We can talk about your learning history, your Japanese level, what you want to achieve, and any of your questions or suggestions. Just send me a message and we can arrange a time on Skype or here, or even just have an old-fashioned, text-based chat.

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Biographical information:
Just a bit about me. I was born and raised around Seattle, WA, in the United States. I moved to England when I was twenty, then to Japan, and now I am living in Sweden. I have worked as a teacher in high schools for two years now and tutoring even longer (though never online before!). Now I mainly work as a Japanese to English translator. I really enjoy translating, but it’s all too often dry, business subjects, so I hope to have a bit more fun with my Japanese here! Let’s enjoying. ;D