Monthly Archives: December 2014

ある (aru) and いる (iru) in Japanese: two ways to express “existence”

When learning a foreign language, sometimes you run across words or expressions that, compared to your native language, can actually be more logical or simpler in some way. ある and いる are a pair of verbs in Japanese that are very fundamental and should be taught early in any language acquisition course. These verbs express… Read More »

Useful Japanese slang word: 微妙 (bimyou)

Japanese is filled with many slang terms and there are entire dictionaries documenting these, so if you search you can quickly fill up on hundreds of slang words. So I typically don’t focus an entire post on a slang term unless I hear/use it frequently enough to warrant such a treatment. The word 微妙 is… Read More »

Using Japanese family terms to refer to non-family

Japanese, like many other languages, has a large set of terms to refer to different family members (お姉さん, お兄さん, etc.). One special thing about these words is that many of them can even be used to refer to a non family member, including someone you just met on the street and are meeting for the first… Read More »

Japanese grammar focus: これ/それ/あれ/どれ vs. こう/そう/ああ/どう

In any basic Japanese textbook you likely be taught about the ’こそあど’ words, which refer to something that is ‘close’ (either emotionally or physically), ‘far’, ‘very far’, or ‘uncertain’ (respectively). For example, the below set of four are probably the easiest to grasp as a beginner: これ – this それ – that あれ – that… Read More »

Japanese culture focus: Understanding what a “Torii” gate is and what it isn’t

When learning about a foreign culture, sometimes you experience a shift of perspective where what you thought you knew was wrong, or at least incomplete. One place this is common is where your only knowledge about a foreign culture is through the biased lens of another country (probably where you were brought up). One important… Read More »

Solving the mystery of a Japanese phrase on a coffee can (大容量!ビジネスシーンのながら飲みにぴったり!)

As part of the process of immersing myself in Japanese without actually leaving in Japan, I take advantage of pretty much any media I can get my hands on and usually to try to decipher at least a phrase or so (or longer if I have the time). Today I happened to be drinking a… Read More »

Foreign Language Immersion Trick: Satellite TV

Recently I had the opportunity to visit a relative in Arizona who had Dish Satellite TV (http://www.dish.com), and happened to contain a single channel of Japanese broadcast TV. At first I thought that it was cool such a channel could be seen in America, but after all in the age of the internet nearly any… Read More »

困る (komaru) and 助かる (tasukaru), two useful Japanese verbs

困る and 助かる are two Japanese verbs which are used fairly commonly in everyday speech, and though their meaning is conceptually simple sometimes it can be a little tricky to translate into English. 困る (komaru), simply put, signifies being put into a bad situation. The dictionary says “Be in trouble”, “Be in a fix”, or… Read More »

Two modes of foreign language reading: content-focused and language-learning-focused

When reading in a foreign language we are not yet fluent in, our brain is struggling to do a great deal of things simultaneously. We’re desperately trying to grasp the overall meaning of the passage at hand, while looking up individual word meanings and pronunciations. We are also trying to think in terms of grammar… Read More »

Foreign language learning – use it or loose it (listening vs speaking)

I think I’ve touched on this point in another blog post some time back, but it’s such an important thing I decided to revisit it. When studying a foreign language, it’s natural to have a bias towards listening/reading over speaking/writing. This is not only because the latter is generally much more difficult, but because if you aren’t… Read More »