When I started this blog, I promised myself I would first write 50 posts and then see how things went before I decided to continue or not. I managed this many posts in a little under two months, which translates to almost a post a day. This is actually my second WordPress blog (my first… Read More »
Japanese has several words which contain opposing meanings and these can be tricky to understand at first. As always, the key to unlocking their meaning is context. I’ll discuss these with examples of both opposing meanings. やっぱり (Yappari, also written as やはり or abbreviated as やっぱ) This word is more frequently written using hiragana, but learning… Read More »
In a recent post I commented how bad of an idea it is to use English subtitles when watching Japanese TV shows. When doing so, your brain gets lazy and stops trying to process the stream of Japanese, or at least reduces focus on it. Having said that, there is a way to use subtitles… Read More »
It’s been a while since I’ve sat down and watched a Japanese drama, but I decided to watch the first episode of a drama that is pretty popular in Japan now. Not only does it star some actors that I like, but it involves a theme very dear to my heart – sweets. This drama… Read More »
Loanwords, or those borrowed from another language (外来語), are used very frequently in Japanese. Those originating from English words are especially common, and this is a boon for all us studying this very challenging language. A majority of these can be understood with a glance, and are easy to remember as well. However there is… Read More »
なる is one of those super useful Japanese verbs that has many common uses, even for beginners to the language. This verb generally means “to become” and is used in the following pattern: [object] が [condition] に なる where the [object] here will become (turn into, change into, progress into) the [condition]. Let’s start with… Read More »
For those of us raising a child bilingual Japanese/English child, it can be difficult to find appropriate teaching materials, especially if you live outside of an area with a large Japanese population like California and New York. Fortunately, these are a few excellent distance learning (通信教育）programs designed for young learners in mind. Benesse’s “Child Challenge”… Read More »
For a self-studier of Japanese, TV dramas (ドラマ) are one of the most important resources to improve vocabulary for spoken language. They are also a whole lot of fun. Compared to anime, the Japanese used in dramas is generally much closer to daily life, though some dramas about certain occupations (for example medical dramas) will… Read More »
When learning a foreign language, there are always times when we make mistakes, and many of those times we end up saying or doing something embarrassing, or even funny. For example, there have been times when I tell my wife something in Japanese and she says “What?” (”何？”） and then I repeat it, and she… Read More »
I’m sure that those of you studying Japanese take advantage of TV dramas and anime to help boost your vocabulary and comprehension, but documentaries are another great resource that is often overlooked. Documentaries typically talk about more real life subject matter, so you’re more likely to learn expressions you can use in real life, unlike… Read More »