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How languages actually work for an English speaker.
Most advice about learning a language is written for nobody in particular. These aren't: every article starts from what English hands you for free and what it quietly costs you.
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Learning Chinese as an English speaker
The consonants every guide tells you to fear are already in your mouth. The vowels you assumed you had are where you'll actually go wrong. Sorting that out in week one saves you a year of sounding off.
Bill Edwards · 9 min read
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Learning Japanese as an English speaker
Japanese has a reputation it only half deserves. Speaking it is one of the friendliest jobs you could take on; the writing is where all the work lives. Knowing that on day one changes where your hours go.
Bill Edwards · 8 min read
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Learning Korean as an English speaker
Korean looks impossible and isn't. The alphabet takes a weekend, hundreds of words are already yours, and there are no tones. The real difficulty is somewhere nobody warns you about — and it isn't the writing.
Bill Edwards · 8 min read
Full guide
Learning Spanish as an English speaker
Spanish gives away more in the first month than almost any language you could pick. That generosity is exactly why so many English speakers get to «I can order food» and stop there for a decade.
Alonso Coronado · 9 min read
Chinese tones and pinyin for English speakers
Pinyin isn't a pronunciation guide, it's a spelling system — and several letters don't mean what they do in English. The traps, the syllables that hide a sound, and the third tone you'll almost never say in full.
Bill Edwards · 9 min read
What the HSK is and which level you actually need
There are two different HSK exams using the same numbers, and most of what's written online describes the one that no longer applies. What each level means now, and why you probably don't need the exam at all.
Bill Edwards · 7 min read
How long does it take to learn Chinese
The only serious number is 2,200 hours, and unlike most learners you're the exact person it was measured on. What it actually measures, why it still doesn't apply to you, and how long the goals you care about take.
Bill Edwards · 8 min read
How many characters you need to read Chinese
The famous answer is 3,500, and it misleads in two ways. What covering 98% of a text actually feels like, why counting characters measures the wrong unit, and which English habit genuinely helps here.
Bill Edwards · 8 min read
Hiragana, katakana and kanji: which first and how many
Three scripts, three jobs, and an order that matters more than people think. What each one does, how long each takes, and why the 2,000-kanji figure is the wrong number to plan around.
Bill Edwards · 8 min read
What the JLPT is and which level you actually need
Five levels, one exam, and a gap most guides skip: the JLPT never asks you to produce a single word of Japanese. What each level means, which one anyone actually asks for, and what the certificate doesn't prove.
Bill Edwards · 7 min read
How many kanji do you need to read Japanese
Everyone quotes 2,136. The number is real and it's the wrong thing to plan around, because the hard part was never learning kanji — it's keeping the ones you learned six months ago.
Bill Edwards · 7 min read
Japanese pronunciation for English speakers
Japanese sounds are among the friendliest you could take on, and English speakers still get an accent. It comes from three habits you can't hear yourself doing — and one feature nobody teaches until it's too late.
Bill Edwards · 8 min read
Learn hangul in a weekend
Not a marketing claim — hangul was deliberately engineered to be learnable fast. Here's the actual order to learn it in, why the letter shapes are a cheat sheet, and the one part that genuinely takes practice.
Bill Edwards · 7 min read
Korean speech levels explained
Korean grammar changes depending on who you're talking to, and there is no neutral setting. What the levels are, which one to live in, and why getting it wrong isn't a grammar mistake but a social one.
Bill Edwards · 8 min read
What the TOPIK is and which level you actually need
You don't choose your TOPIK level — your score does. Two exams, six levels, and a scoring quirk that changes how you should prepare. Plus the honest answer on whether you need it at all.
Bill Edwards · 7 min read
Can you learn Korean from K-dramas
Yes and no, and the difference isn't willpower — it's a measurable threshold. Why the same show teaches one person and entertains another, and how to make dramas count without pretending they're a course.
Bill Edwards · 8 min read
Why you have an English accent in Spanish
It's mostly one habit, and it isn't the rolled r. English relaxes unstressed vowels and Spanish never does — fix that and your accent improves more than any amount of consonant practice will manage.
Alonso Coronado · 8 min read
Which Spanish should you learn: Spain or Latin America
Spain or Latin America is the question everyone asks and it's the wrong shape. What actually differs between varieties, how much of it matters, and the one decision that genuinely does.
Alonso Coronado · 8 min read
Spanish false friends that actually matter
Thousands of Spanish words are free for an English speaker. A few hundred look free and aren't, and a much smaller set will genuinely embarrass you. Which ones to memorise and which to stop worrying about.
Alonso Coronado · 7 min read
How long does it take to learn Spanish
Spanish is the fastest language on the US State Department's list — around 600 hours. That number is real, widely misread, and explains why so many people who «speak some Spanish» have said the same amount for a decade.
Alonso Coronado · 8 min read