About HakuShiki Japanese

Shiki Sensei

My name is Shiki-sensei (Temporary name, if you have suggestions, let me know). I have lived in Japan for roughly 7 years, and have been studying Japanese for more than 11 years. I passed N1 a few years ago and have experience in Japanese public and private schools, as well as hotels. 

Why HakuShiki

博識 (hakushiki) is a Japanese word meaning “extensive knowledge”. 

• 博(Haku) is a kanji meaning “Doctorate” or “wide knowledge”
• 識(Shiki) is a kanji that means “knowledge”

I chose this name because in my time creating content for this site and studying for N1 especially, studying Japanese felt more like writing a research paper than studying. I spent countless months lost down rabbit holes comparing nuances, reading Japanese dictionaries, reading Japanese novels, and comparing different people’s take on grammar points, as well as taking surveys of the Japanese people around me. 

Issues with other sites

This website is intended to address the common issues I have with other Japanese Grammar sites:

1. Way too long. A lot of websites are in a blog format and can spend 10 or so pages explaining a very simple piece of grammar. These websites also tend to group simple N5 grammar with N1 grammar.  This forces the reader to waste time skimming and scanning to find what they are looking for, and potentially confusing them with advanced grammar. 
2. Too short. Some sites give a simple, non precise definition of a piece of grammar with no explanation, then skip to examples. Some of these sites also give incorrect or really hard examples. 
3. In Japanese. A lot of the best sources are in Japanese. This isn’t great for people who can’t read Japanese. Information also tends to be easier to remember and sort through in our native language.

Page Layout

My goal is to have my explanations be as precise and as concise as possible, However this is a very difficult balance to achieve. To help with this goal, generally pages on this site:

• Have a table of content. Please use it to find what you need quickly. 
• List 2 or 3 similar or related pieces of grammar together to compare and answer common questions.
• Attempt to give the simplest, clearest, most common examples possible.
• Attempt to address common mistakes or questions. If I missed something, please leave a comment on the post in question. 
• Provide links to external resources for additional reading, if the topic is difficult
• Provide links to any substantive outside source used. 

Process

Despite having a uncountable hours of Japanese study, I don’t trust myself. I’m very cautious with information that I put out.  Unfortunately, this means I spend a lot of time doing research for any page that’s not a simple definition. Currently, each and every grammar page I make on this site follows this process:

1. I research topics by JLPT level and attempt to group similar ones together.
2. I write a rough draft from my experiences learning and studying Japanese. 
3. I research all the information in the draft against outside sources. 
4. I research to check that I didn’t leave something important out. 
5. I check my example sentences against google, weblio, and my Japanese friends/girlfriend. (Some errors may slip by). 
6. I check my impressions of nuance against Japanese people’s impressions.
7. I finalize the rough draft and publish it (Feedback and cooling down period). 
8. I re-edit the draft into a more final page about 1-2 weeks later.

Posts usually take me on average 1-3 hours for drafting, researching, organizing, and re-editing; depending on the complexity of the topic. This is very draining, especially since I’m working a full time job.