Music shouldn’t be overlooked as an important learning resource for those studying Japanese or any other foreign language. Though song lyrics can be difficult to understand (I’m notoriously horrible at comprehending them, even in English), on the flip side you can get exposure to different vocabulary you normally wouldn’t be in touch with. Also, by… Read More »
If you look up the word “わり”（割）in a dictionary (see here), you’ll find several different meanings and expressions. In this post I’d like to focus on a few which I use frequently in the hopes you’ll make some use out of them yourself. Each of these are related to the basic meaning of わり, which… Read More »
I’ve noticed that in Japanese they are many, many ways to say something, each with a different connotation or feeling. I’m sure this is the case in English as well, but I don’t typically think about it in the same analytical and logical way, so I haven’t really noticed it. Having said that, I feel… Read More »
For a self-studier of Japanese, TV dramas (ドラマ) are one of the most important resources to improve vocabulary for spoken language. They are also a whole lot of fun. Compared to anime, the Japanese used in dramas is generally much closer to daily life, though some dramas about certain occupations (for example medical dramas) will… Read More »
When studying a foreign language, we have no choice but to resort to dictionaries time and time again to help comprehend new words and search for ways to express ourselves more effectively. Having said that,after many years of using dictionaries as a reference, I’ve learned to not over rely on them, sometimes even going as… Read More »
For those Japanese learners who understand a good amount of Kanji, grammar constructs, and vocabulary, your options for study materials are drastically increased. Thats because you can use sites and books that native speakers would use. I’ll introduce a few of my favorite resources in this post. １）教えてgoo (http://oshiete.goo.ne.jp/) This site is extremely valuable for… Read More »
In the flow of a conversation, there are many times when we will make a brief interjection such as “oh really?” or “is that so?” in response to something the other party said. These are typically not used to express any deep meaning, but rather simply to indicate that we are listening and understanding what… Read More »
I believe that having a child is one of the most rewarding things you can do in life, and for parents where two or more languages are spoken fluently there is always the option of raising the child on more than one language. There are many different approaches to this, but what’s clear is that… Read More »
Mastering Japanese verbs so that you can use and understand them fluently requires a good grasp of the concept of transitive vs. intransitive verbs. Transitive verbs are those which perform an action on an object (i.e. つける、たてる). You can think of these as “targeted”. The object is typically specified using the particle を。 On the… Read More »
Recently, I was asked by a fellow blogger (see 1994sunshine’s blog here) why I decided to learn Japanese. I thought it would make an interesting post topic so I’ll give the story here. Ever since I was young, I remember thinking that it would be really cool to speak in another language. I was brought… Read More »