教える. To teach, to tell, to show. I've been working as an Eikaiwa English teacher for over a year and half now teaching conversational English to Japanese aged 5-74. One of the most common and redundant mistakes I have noticed happens when the Japanese speaker tries to translate 教える into English. As I have noted in my title, there are 3 ways (in my humble opinion) to express 教える: 1) To teach 2) To tell 3) To show To Teach We use this when we are referring to a school subject, a program, a language, etc. Teaching usually takes some time and it will always involve a Teacher and a Student (or more). If I teach you something, you gain some new knowledge or a new skill that you didn't have before. examples; Teach me Math. Teach me how to speak French. Teach me how to code. To Tell We use this for 言うこと. "To tell" implies speaking or writing. "To tell" involves the transfer of information through speaking or writing. examples; Can you tell me how to get to Shinjuku Station? Tell me why you came to Japan. Please tell me what's on your mind. To show 見せる。"To show" means to physically point out or do something. "To show" involves sight (your eyes). examples; Can you show me how to get to Hachioji exit? Can you show me how to tie my shoes? Can you show me your tattoos? As you can see, the meanings of these 3 words are quite different. Many Japanese people revert to simply saying "teach" for all situations, when in fact "tell" or "show" would be much more suited to properly express what they want to say. There are cases these words can be used interchangeably, there are cases when they make sense grammatically but their meanings are different. If you are a Japanese learner of English, please be careful when translating 教える into English and make sure you use the right word to mean what you want to say! みんなさん頑張りましょう！