You may have heard there is no word for ‘foot’ in Japanese. That’s only partially true, and in this post I’ll talk about this misconception. When speaking everyday Japanese, it’s true there is no single which maps exactly to the English word ‘foot’. Generally speaking, the word あし refers to both the leg and the foot, but… Read More »
This is my first post in a series containing Japanese vocabulary lists on different topics. If you enjoy it, please like it and comment if you have any suggested topic your want me to write up vocabulary lists for. A great many people have gotten into Japanese via anime or manga. Another way is through… Read More »
As I’ve touched on several times in this blog, one of the themes in my Japanese studies is uncovering what real Japanese is like. Not the stuffy textbook Japanese (though that’s also important in it’s own way), but things like slang expressions and other phrases you’d hear on the street or spoken by an everyday native… Read More »
The Japanese suffix 〜的（てき）is extremely useful and will help you understand many existing Japanese words, as well as act as a tool to create your own. The simplest way to understand this suffix is to see that it turns nouns into (Na) adjectives. 劇（drama) => 劇的 (dramatic) 政治 (politics) => 政治的 (political) 教育… Read More »
One day in the middle of January, I woke up in the morning with an idea in my head for a new way to learn foreign languages. In the next month and a half, I spent many late nights and weekends working on a prototype for the site, which is now ready for a limited alpha… Read More »
The Japanese little tsu, written “っ” (for example in the word “行った”), represents a pause in the flow of sound when speaking. I’ve heard this mispronounced by beginners, and even by those with several months of experience under their belt, so I thought I would clarify any confusion about how it should be pronounced. The brief description… Read More »
There are several verb suffixes used in Japanese which are used to represent something is easy or difficult. [verb in “pre-masu” form] + づらい => hard to do “verb” [verb in “pre-masu” form] + にくい => hard to do “verb” [verb in “pre-masu” form] + やすい => easy to do “verb”… Read More »
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 »
In this post I’d like to go over a few days to express the idea of “again” in Japanese language, keeping in mind the particular nuance of each. 1) “また” is a simple way to say “again”, and is pretty well known by even beginning Japanese learners due to some common expressions it is used… Read More »
In Japanese, the prefixes お and ご are used to add a feeling of politeness or respect to a word. The usage of these two prefix is defined as follows: お : used for words with the 訓読み（”kunyomi”), or Japanese reading. It is sometimes written in Kanij as 御. ご : used for words with… Read More »