Emphasis on manners and politeness is one of the key characteristics of both Japanese culture as well as an integral part of the language itself Beginners generally start with basic phrases like “ありがとう” (arigatou), “ごめん” (gomen), and “どういたしまして” (dou itashimashite), but eventually learn better ways to express themselves in a variety of situations. In this… Read More »
After doing translations of Japanese fiction for over two years now, I’ve gradually moved from the stage of just putting translations on my blog informally to releasing them in E-book form on Amazon. My first two books were translations of a classic SF Japanese author (Juza Unno), and while that was a great experience, for… Read More »
When learning a foreign language you sometimes come across words that, while mostly translatable on a case-by-case basis, are hard to translate literally to your native language (English in my case) such that all its nuances are carried over. If you can understand the ins and outs of these words you can even make them… Read More »
Raising a child bilingually (or bi-culturally) can enrich him or her with the knowledge about a culture different from where they are living now. However, putting aside the advantages of learning a second language, it can be said that some of this cultural knowledge can still be gained via translations. However, in rare cases you… Read More »
Whether you are translating between languages, or simply trying to understand a foreign language, looking up the meanings of words is a common activity you can end up doing tens, if not hundreds of times a day. Learning to improve your word research process will not only help save time but can also lead to… Read More »
When learning a foreign language, we learn the meanings of words along with grammar rules for how to put them together. However, as most languages have evolved over hundreds of years in a haphazard way, there are many exceptions that also need to be learned. In this post I’d like to talk about a few… Read More »
I recently received an email from a member of LingoDeer, maker of a free mobile language learning app, asking me to try their app and maybe write a review. So I thought I would try it out and write a review with my unbiased feedback about the app. (I’m using an iPhone 6 in case it… Read More »
In this post I’d like to go over a few different ways to express the concept of “more” in Japanese, essentially when something is going to be a greater degree or amount than it was previously. Keep in mind that in English sometimes the concept of “more” is implied (even though the word itself isn’t… Read More »
Compared to learning a foreign language in an environment where that language is spoken daily, learning away from such an environment has several disadvantages. In fact, that was one of the original themes of this blog. (I’m mostly talking from experience about Japanese here, but I believe this applies to other languages) Besides cultural things… Read More »
(Update: As Reajer has shut down, I have disabled the links in this article, but I will leave the rest of the article for the time being for historical reasons.) In October 2016, I reviewed the site Reajer.com which produces bilingual Japanese/English E-books with detailed explanations, across a wide range of levels from beginner to advanced.… Read More »