Tag Archives: language

Japanese tongue twisters

One thing you’re unlikely to come across in most Japanese learning resources is tongue twisters, which are the Japanese versions of phrases like “She sells sea shells by the shore”. These are called 早口言葉 (はやくちことば), a word which might seem like a tongue-twister in itself (: Though these phrases themselves don’t have much practical use (you’re not… Read More »

Don’t make a てき out of 的 (てき)

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 »

Don’t underestimate the Japanese ”っ” (little tsu)

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 »

Self Taught Japanese’s 100th Post!

I’m extremely happy to say that Self Taught Japanese has reached it’s 100th post! A big thanks to everyone who has liked, followed, commented, or re-blogged my posts. First, I’ll give in to my penchant of analyzing blog statistics and talk about how they have changed for this blog between it’s 50th post and now. My first… Read More »

“っぽい” (ppoi): a slang way to express similarity or the tendency to do something

“っぽい” is a very useful expression that has three main usages. Expressing the tendency to do something っぽい can be used to express the tendency or high chance of doing something, and is generally added to the end of a verb in the pre-masu form. Though you can try using it with any verb, initially you should… Read More »

Review: Youkoso: Invitation to Contemporary Japanese textbook

In the internet age, one of the biggest challenges when studying a foreign language is picking the right study reference out of thousands and thousands of competing sites, books, and videos. Of course finding accurate and error-free material is a concern, but a bigger problem is whether the source is providing you  with relevant information… Read More »

Different ways of saying “except” in Japanese

In this post I’d like to discuss a few ways to express the concept of “except” in Japanese. 以外(いがい) 以外 is one of the most basic ways to say “except” in Japanese. You typically put it after a noun, pronoun, or verb. Here are a few examples: ゲーム以外のアプリはダウンロードしたことがない I’ve never downloaded an (computer/mobile) application except… Read More »

Review: “Arakawa Under the Bridge” (荒川アンダー ザ ブリッジ)

“Arakawa Under the Bridge” is a manga series created by Hikaru Nakamura (中村 光)  in 2004, which was eventually turned into an anime, TV drama, and movie. I’ve only seen the drama and movie so will be focusing on those in this post, though I imagine the story is much the same. This story starts out… Read More »

“ikizurai” and (improperly) using the -づらい (-zurai) suffix in Japanese

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 »