Rikaichan may very well change the way you surf the Web, particularly if you are already at an intermediate or higher level of Japanese fluency. Rikaichan is an add-on extension to the Mozilla Firefox Web browser, which, when activated, instantly translates any Japanese word moused over in the browser window into English, including verb tenses, idiomatic expressions, kana and kanji.

We could all stand to study more Japanese. And living in Japan it can be easy to get in at least some daily practice. But as teachers ourselves, we know all too well that passive exposure to a language rarely equates to language acquisition. Likewise, no matter how much we want it to be, foreign language acquisition can’t always be fun and games. Luckily there are plenty of resources out there for individuals willing to devote a few minutes a day to focused Japanese study, from tried and true low-tech methods such as flash cards, to the cutting edge of pocket technology such as iPhone applications. This column, which will run the fourth Monday of each month, will help you weed through what seems to work, what’s a waste of time, and what will serve you best in your quest for Japanese language fluency.