hmmn

A friend recently wrote the following on his blog about his son (1 year, 4 months old): I have to work harder at teaching him [English] words, but I get the feeling he will speak more Japanese first, because there are so many easy two-syllable words for him to pronounce easily in Japanese, and most [...]

In March of this year, Nihongo Journal, a magazine for those studying Japanese as a second language, ceased publishing. While the magazine had its faults, namely too much English translation and more furigana than I thought healthy for Kanji improvement, it was a well-put together monthly magazine complete with a CD and more stuff than [...]

In Japanese, sitting in a circle is called kurumaza, literally, “wheel seating.” A kurumaza formation can put others off, since all they see of the people forming the circle is their backs, which seems to be saying, “The rest of you are outsiders.” To be sure, when the kurumaza is formed on the ground outdoors, [...]

aramusha — reckless-behaving person, daredevil, rude-mannered samurai This was part of the headline on a recent Sumo monthly magazine, which featured a picture of Yokozuna Asashoryu after he won the recent Natsu Basho. Asashoryu had upset many sumo fans, and the Japan Sumo Association, with his disrespectful and un-Yokozuna like behavior after a losing performance [...]

Perhaps this will be of help to some of my fellow Japanese language learners out there. I’ve been looking for some Japanese radio stations to listen to via Real Audio, in an effort to bolster up my at-the-moment flagging Japanese, and especially my listening skills. There are plenty of news programs out there, usually coupled [...]

Anyone who’s studied Japanese for some time eventually comes up against the fact that when counting things, it’s not enough to be able to count to a hundred (or more). This will only get you so far. Fo you see, for different objects, one must also attach a unique “counter,” which varies depending on the [...]