While I’ve been spending a lot of my time lately working on E-books, I decided it was time to start translating and posting a new series on STJ. Translating series was something I did heavily a few years ago, and has some advantages to E-books, particularly how there are little bursts of satisfaction with each… Read More »
Recently I was given a physical copy of Jiro Akawaga’s “Katte ni Shaberu Onna”, a compilation of “short-short” stories. It came with a high recommendation, so I couldn’t help but read the book. By the way, the title “Katte ni Shaberu Onna” is taken from one of the story titles; while it is a bit… Read More »
Recently I received a question from a reader about the meaning of だけで (dake de) so I thought I would write a post about that phrase. This phrase is made up of two common Japanese particles: だけ and で. The first of these, だけ, has several meanings but is most often used to mean “only”.… Read More »
Reading Japanese literature in its original language has a few perks. First, you have access to a huge number of works that have not been translated yet, many of which may never be translated. Also, reading untranslated text allows you to pick up nuances which would difficult––if not impossible––to translate, although skiled translators can use… Read More »
The “te” form of verbs, sometimes (confusingly) referred to as the “gerund” form, is a cornerstone of Japanese grammar. Not only are there only a few verb forms in the language, but the “te” form has a variety of uses. In this post I’ll go over the main ones, including one you may not be… Read More »
One of the most exciting moments of a book project is when it is released to the public, which is why I am happy to announce the release of a new book today.
When talking about language we often group words into categories such as nouns, adjectives, verbs, and so on. These so-called “parts of speech” help us understand the roles of each word and figure out how to fit them together with other words. However, the reality is that words in one category can often cross over… Read More »
I finally decided to shell out some serious money for a prosumer drone. Little did I know that our time together would only be a few days… (includes a Japanese vocabulary list of drone-related words)
In my early years studying Japanese I watched a huge number of Japanese dramas, and while this really helped improved my listening and vocabulary skills, it also made me accustomed––or should I say overly sensitive––to the common tropes of this form of media. That, plus the fact I generally try to spend more time in… Read More »
In this post I’d like to go over the Japanese word “kudaranai”, which is often written in hiragana as くだらない, and sometimes in kanji as 下らない. As usual, I’ll first go into the basic meanings, followed by a discussion about the word origin and relevant nuances. The meanings of this word are fairly easy to… Read More »