How to practise
Articles on how to practise speaking Japanese. Each one stands on its own — useful whether or not you install manabiu, and where a piece mentions the software it says so plainly. Same rule as the product: what's true, not what sounds good.
How to actually get something out of shadowing
It works, but most people do it wrong: material that's too hard, lots of reps with no listening back, and never letting go of the text. A four-stage routine, plus how to tell you're improving.
Japanese pitch, from scratch: what high and low actually mean
Not four tones — two levels, spread across beats. The four patterns, how to read the ⓪①②③ numbers, and the two rules that never break.
Long sounds, small tsu and n: the three beats learners get wrong most
おばさん isn't おばあさん — the difference is one whole beat. What a beat is, and how to practise each of the three you can't see.