When doing something, it’s always important to look at the bigger picture… to create a “higher purpose” for yourself. Whether that’s learning Japanese or teaching people Japanese, that higher purpose will keep you motivated and excited to keep going, even when times are rough. I look at this manifesto every single day. It keeps TextFugu focused, and it makes sure that TextFugu does what it does best.

  1. Keep It Simple: It’s so easy to be complicated and so difficult (but o-so-wonderful!) to be simple. It’s as Einstein said: “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.”
  2. Make Something We Want To Use: If we don’t use the product, and if we don’t want to use the product, there’s something wrong. There’s no better way to see if something is good than to see for yourself. I know what it’s like to learn Japanese and I remember what it was like to be a beginner. All that knowledge goes into making a better product that rings a lot more true to a real person.
  3. Help People To Learn Japanese: It’s not all about the money… in fact, very little of it is about the money (except to keep eating every month). The main goal is to help people, so whether you want to learn Japanese on TextFugu, or somewhere else, the goal is to help you find something that works for you. If you end up learning Japanese, I’m happy.
  4. Change the Old-School Japanese Language Learning Industry: This one’s a bit vague. What does “change” mean? I believe that there are plenty of Japanese language learning resources out there that have overstayed their welcome. They’re only around because they have the advertising dollars (and airport kiosks) to stay around. If it wasn’t for that, their product wouldn’t hold up. It’s time to change that, and make simplicity and “down-to-earthness” the priority. It’s time to focus on the individual, and to focus on learning. It’s really time for those old-school resources to retire, and I plan on helping them do that.

So what’s your Japanese-learning manifesto? Think about it, and get started with your learning now!