A common theme of this blog (as well as my personal studies) is how to experience “real” Japanese in all its forms, without actually living in Japan. By “real”, I mean not just watching Anime or reading Manga, but rather experiencing Japanese that an everyday person would be using. Focusing on too many fantasy-oriented resources won’t… Read More »
Studying a foreign language, there are many times when you get stuck and just don’t know what to say. Sure, you can just mutter a “ちょっと待って” (wait) and clam up for a few seconds to think, but that would set you apart from what a native would do in similar circumstances. It’s best to give… Read More »
As a self-studier of a foreign language with limited exposure to native speakers of that language, I try my best to take advantage of every opportunity that comes my way. Recently, I briefly met several Japanese businessmen at a conference on the west coast, and after speaking of business matters for a few minutes I… Read More »
Once someone who was informally teaching me Japanese mentioned that in Japanese there are not that many strong curse words in everyday language. If you watch certain anime or dramas you might occasionally catch overdramatic words like “ちくしょ!” (negative expletive, literally ‘beast’) or “きさま!” (second person pronoun used as an insult) but those are very… 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 »