The 10 year plan

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It’s been almost a month since the the grammar guide has been on Amazon and you’ve been buying at least one copy everyday! Thanks everybody for your support! I’m so excited that I’ve decided to take all the royalties and put it away along with the Paypal account to contribute back into the site.

I have lots of bold plans and very little time but hopefully I can put the money to good use to make it even easier for people to learn Japanese. Here’s what I’d like to accomplish in the next 10 years.

  1. Finish writing the complete guide. I’ve been making good progress on this recently.
  2. Make more Youtube videos. I’d like to get some native speakers for the examples so it’s not just me.
  3. Start a lecture series at a local library and post on Youtube.
  4. Get audio for all the dialogues in the complete guide.
  5. Add Yonkoma comics to the site. Unfortunately, I have absolutely no art skills.
  6. Put everything above together in a monster, awesome, interactive eBook for iBooks.
  7. Start a podcast show for Japanese learners. I have some ideas on how to make an awesome show.

Unfortunately, I have to do all this in my free time so if you want to help me out, here’s how.

Time

  1. Make a link to www.guidetojapanese.org with the phrase “learn Japanese”. I want to be #1 on Google when you search “learn Japanese”.
  2. If you’re good at drawing, I’m looking for simple manga style drawings like あずまんが大王、ダーリンは外国人、 or even just stick figures like xkcd. Email me at: taekim.japanese@gmail.com
  3. For native Japanese speakers, anybody interested in contributing audio or co-hosting a podcast show, email me at: taekim.japanese@gmail.com

Buy the book (if you want one) or donate

I do not know what I’m going to do with the money specifically yet but it’s definitely going to be used to improve the site.

CreateSpace: It’s kind of hassle to order from and you have to pay for shipping but it will save about $5 on printing costs.

Amazon: They will take a bigger cut but you will get free shipping. Also if you like the book, I would love to see some reviews on Amazon.

Special thanks goes to Sven ($200), Sergey ($100), and Eric ($200) for their generous donations! (Eric bought the book too!)

It’s been about 10 years since I started this site in college and I hope to bring you more exciting stuff. Thanks for your purchases, donations, contributions, emails, comments, feedback, suggestions, and corrections. Here’s to another 10 years!

24 thoughts on “The 10 year plan”

  1. It’s great you have a lot of ideas for the future. Here are some ideas to help you. Use whatever you find useful for you.
    – you can find people drawing well on fiverr.com Later when you have done some work with someone you can ask him/her more outside of fiverr.com Build a good relationship. This may also work to find a japanese speaker
    – for audio: Audacity is free and good enough to create mp3/ogg for a podcast. Recording with Yeti USB microphone is good enough. Hosting podcast files on Amazon s3 is reliable (you can start with free usage tier for one year http://aws.amazon.com/free/ )
    – for managing your projects: write your ideas and apply them, follow your projects with basecamp.com
    – keep your motivation!

    As other people I plan to buy your guide on paper soon. Thanks for everything you’ve done for people during the last years 😉

    • Thanks for the links. I already have a Yeti. 🙂
      Was planning on using the Internet Archive for hosting.

      I had already planned on networking locally and online to find collaborators once I finished writing the complete guide but thought I’d just mention it here just in case I got lucky.

  2. That sounds like a good plan. Ten years is a long time – you have accomplished quite a lot, so there’s a good chance you will accomplish even more in the next ten years.

    But make sure to make “smaller” plans as well. It can be quite daunting to see those goals if you don’t look at the smaller goals, the small steps on the road.

    Anyway, I think you can do it. Your guide has taught be Japanese well (I will make sure to get a physical copy when I have some money left), and I will always use this foundation for the future!

      • Glad to hear that – looking forward to it. It’s good to do something continuously, it’s easier to stay motivated and build up a certain discipline that way. 🙂

  3. Is there a reason your guide isn’t available as an ebook for Kindle via Amazon? For the moment I’m using your slightly older PDF version, but it’d be really nice to get a proper Kindle item.

    Alternatively, update that PDF and add a mobi version, and count on the donations (I would! 🙂

    • Because Amazon doesn’t support self-publishing for Japanese yet. I would like to update the pdf but I made LOTS of changes for the book and not really feeling like revisiting it for the pdf right now.

  4. Hi Tae Kim, I’ve got a tip for you as well (if you’re not doing it already): sell your book by using affiliate marketing. Approach some webmasters of Japan(ese language)-related websites and offer them commission for selling your book. I believe Amazon has got an affiliate program already and it works automatically, this way you can get extra earnings passively if it’s all set up. A win-win situation.

  5. Thank you for all your hard work!

    Speaking of making videos, have you heard of flip learning and flipped videos?

    The people from Ted Talks created Ted-Ed, a tool for “flipping” videos that could be directly of use to you or serve you for getting ideas:

    http://ed.ted.com/about#flipThisVideo

    Someone mentioned affiliate marketing. If you like the idea, I think you could try at Reviewing the Kanji (http://forum.koohii.com/index.php), which is a great site for Japanese learners with a very motivated user base.

  6. Such guides help greatly in having one beautiful outcome. Continue being well organized.

  7. Hello, Tae Kim!

    May I have your permission to make a Russian translation of the Complete Guide? I understand the guide is not yet complete. Even so it’s great! I’ll do my best to keep the translation up to date with the original.
    I’ve asked it about a week ago but forgot to specify an email.

    Thank you for your hard work!

  8. Hi キムさん。

    I saw that you wanted to incorporate your guide into an ebook as an iBook. Are you wanting to make an iBook textbook like Pearson, McGraw Hill, and the History Channel? You’re book could include pages of interactive material as well as videos, pictures, self-check quizzes, and much more! I have been making professional-looking iBook textbooks for a while now, and I think I could help you out. If you want to look professional, you’re going to need a consistent, attractive design, as well as a lesson layout that won’t scare away readers. I have all the know-how on these topics! So please feel free to contact me. I am also a part of your “Learn Japanese with Tae Kim” Facebook page. My Facebook username is “David Honeycutt.”

    • Thanks for the offer, I might think about it. For now, I’m boycotting Apple because I can no longer support their business practices.

    • I don’t know about the complete guide, but the grammar guide is available in an Android app called ‘Obenkyo’.

  10. Hi, the guide is marvelous, the best one I’ve ever encountered. Any interest in making it available to people outside the English culture? I can help with translating it into Chinese if that makes sense to you. Wouldn’t it be great to share it with the largest population on the planet? LOL

  11. Hey there. I’ve only just started reading your guide but it looks like you’ve made something really awesome.

    I’m currently using a flashcard website to learn Japanese vocab. Would it be alright with you if I made a course on the site for use with your grammar guide?
    I wouldn’t get anything out of it, of course. It’s just for study.

    If you’re interested, the site is http://www.memrise.com

  12. Hello Tae,

    your site is great, thank you very much for the effort! I have recommended it to my friends.

    Please keep going.

    I would love to see many Video Lessons on YouTube.

    Best wishes,
    Jonathan Dark (SFxoFFx)

  13. i would love to help you with what ever you need for drawing bit, but im still really bad ><

    anyways thank you so much for creating this it really helps!!

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