Japanese intonation, in a nutshell, consists of a series of high and low pitches, where each word has a characteristic pattern of these high and low pitches. There are words where the pitch rises, words where the pitch falls, as well as where the pitch both rises and falls. When a word is said in… Read More »
As part of my continuing education in Japanese I’m always on the lookout for good content in Japanese that is interesting, educational, or both. While watching videos is fun, in terms of budgeting my time I find I have many more opportunities to experience content going on a walk or driving, so I tend to… Read More »
I’m happy to announce the 6th book of my series on Japanese classic fairy tales, written by Mimei Ogawa. Each story is published both in English-only and parallel English/Japanese versions.
I’m proud to announce the second book in my new series of Japanese bilingual readers, showcasing “The Bowels of the City”, a historically relevant experimental work by modernist author Riichi Yokomitsu (横光利一).
After studying a foreign language for a certain amount of time, you develop a level of confidence about grammar and commonly used words. But for all of us that have learned a language as a non-native, there comes a time when we fail to use even the simplest of words properly, resulting in disastrous consequences…… Read More »
In this post I want to highlight a common and important word in the Japanese language, “yoku”. It can be written in hiragana as よく, and depending on the meaning can also be written in kanji as 良く or 欲. The first meaning I would like to go over is the most common one, which… Read More »
Weather is part of our day-to-day lives, whether it is a rainstorm, a heatwave, or extra strong winds. And the seasons are one of the fundamental ways we categorize weather in terms of certain weather patterns. In Japan the seasons are especially important, partially because the types of foods that are available fresh differ significantly… Read More »
When learning a foreign language, it’s important to learn a little bit about a lot of things: words, expressions, culture, etc. But it’s also important to learn a lot about a few things, namely those things that occur frequently in daily life. This post, falling in the latter category, is about an expression you are… Read More »
English-speakers tend to quickly pick up on the large number of words in Japanese that come from English (something I’ve written a few articles about). However, there are many loanwords in Japanese that originate from other languages such as Portuguese, Dutch, French, and German. It so happens that I have started studying German a little… Read More »
“Mono” in Japanese (usually written in hiragana as もの, and sometimes in kanji as 物) is a word that has the basic meaning of “thing”, generally in the sense of a physical (often tangible) thing. 店でいいものを買ったよ (mise de ii mono wo katta yo) I bought something good (=a good thing) at the store. However this… Read More »