What were some of the first things you remember as a child learning to read? Driving down the street with your parents, sitting in a restaurant, or walking through the store - you couldn’t WAIT to show off (or try out) your new reading skills! They were suddenly everywhere! Well, they had always been there, but now that you were learning to read, you knew that those fantastic symbols actually fit together to make - WORDS. It’s no different for Japanese.
Now that you’re learning to speak Japanese and read and write kanji, wouldn’t it be great if you had access to the real-life signs, letters, and words all over Tokyo to help you learn and practice like Japanese children do? Oh wait…you DO!! That’s right! With JapanesePod101.com’s new Everyday Kanji Video Project, you can learn Japanese kanji using real-life scenes from Tokyo! And yes, it IS as exhilarating as it sounds!
Members of the JapanesePod101 team spent countless hours slaving away sightseeing and dining out all over Tokyo just to take pictures for this video series! Whew! They worked very hard gathering these pictures and compiling them into a video to teach you kanji in a fun and unique way. These are actual REAL-LIFE examples of kanji, and not just some characters you find in a textbook.
Where can you find these AWESOME pictures and videos? There are several ways:
1. The pictures are posted daily on Twitter
2. The pictures are being added to our Fan Page on FaceBook
3. The videos can be found on YouTube
4. And of course, you can find them at JapanesePod101.com!
Learning Japanese with JapanesePod101.com was never more authentic than this! So, what are you waiting for? Join us at JapanesePod101.com, follow us on Twitter, become a fan on FaceBook, and join up at YouTube so you can start learning Japanese like the Japanese do! Learning Japanese with JapanesePod101.com is the most fun and effective way to learn Japanese…and it just got better!
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This entry was posted on Saturday, July 25th, 2009 at 6:30 pm and is filed under Everyday Kanji . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
25 Responses to “Everyday Kanji #1 - Restaurants”
Saturday at 6:30 pm
Mina-san!
What do you think of this new Everyday Kanji video? Let us know!!
Saturday at 9:25 pm
I love it! This is a great idea.
Saturday at 11:43 pm
I love the word selection. Looking forward to following this series. Thank you
Sunday at 12:26 am
Great idea, I need as much help as I can get with Kanji! It’d be helpful for those of us who are wanting to replay this on media players with small screens if the kanji and the explanatory text were bigger. Maybe a reason for why each individual kanji make up each particular word as well?
Sunday at 12:29 am
Beautiful video! And handy to know! Also, it would be great to have lessons on “package labels”, like Ramen Noodles - - how to cook them.
Sunday at 1:14 am
I knew these already, but it’s still a great idea! I should make my husband watch it, since we’re going to Japan in ten days!
Sunday at 1:57 am
This is an awesome idea! Thank you! Two suggestions: First, more specific themes, like a more specific restaurant or cafe. Second, be careful about putting too much text close to the edge of the screen. If you pause the youtube vid, the youtube title display will overlap on the text of your video.
Sunday at 10:12 am
One of the best features to be added to JPod101 for some time. Very impressive.
Would it be possible to find some images containing only kanji limited to various JLPT levels, say level 4, so we can some how some of the easier kanji is used
( ….or would it not be possible to find usage “in the wild” )
Sunday at 11:44 am
some usefull Different ones
Good video, needs Audio though.
Sunday at 4:31 pm
this is really useful… and good to know…
Sunday at 8:11 pm
Suggestion for a minor improvement …
I have loaded the video on my i-Touch. When the video is played on a small screen, the watermark behind the text of the kanji information makes the text harder to read. Could this area have a plain background, please ??
Monday at 9:47 am
Ripさん, Protikさん, kellysenseiさん, chinさん、
Thanks for commenting! We’re glad that you’re enjoying this series
Atolm_Dragonさん,
Thanks for the suggestion! As for detailed kanji information, we include that info with the pictures on Flickr, where they are stored. You can find links to the individual pictures on our Twitter page (http://www.twitter.com/JapanesePod101) as well as on our Blog (we compile all images for the week into a blog post: http://blogs.japanesepod101.com).
Liz21さん,
Thanks! We thought about doing pictures of packaging labels, so keep an eye out for it in the future!
Raymasakiさん,
Audio would be a good idea. We’ll look into it! Thanks!
FierceCatさん,
Thanks for the feedback!
Monday at 10:21 am
Jessi-san.
This was a great idea for a video lesson. Thanks for all of the hard work!
Steve from St. Louis
Monday at 10:32 am
Hi everyone,
What do you guys think?
This series seems very useful. However, I think the audio part is also essential to help us remember vocabs.
Thank you.
Monday at 6:43 pm
Walk through the city, its very useful.
Monday at 10:06 pm
Thanks Jessi for that link!
Tuesday at 8:13 am
Another nice series, I love it, looking on visual KANJI,the way to read, and the mean, help me a lot , and faster , as review, to memorize it , arigatoo gozaimasu….japanesepod101, SENSEI
Tuesday at 1:51 pm
simon1440-san,
Thank you for your great feedback!
That’s true! I think we should think about!
Atolm_Dragon-san,
Please leave us your comment on the blog too!
Edyta-san, suastana-san,
Thank you for your nice comments! Great to know that you really enjoyed it!
Tuesday at 4:23 pm
Woww! Great idea, very practical :]
Might I suggest you include hiragana for Kanji words when revealing the meaning at the end? For example, having 炭焼 written as すみやき also would help to remember the kanji pronunciation.
ありがとう!次のビデオを楽しみにしています!
Tuesday at 10:16 pm
Great Idea!! I love these kinds of videos for more reinforcement of everyday life vocabulary. The fact that they’re taken as pictures from what seems to be Japanese (Tokyo?) areas is a definitive plus.
Tuesday at 10:31 pm
Ohayo Minasan,
This video opens up additional videos on “Japanese Body Language and Gestures” by Hiroko Sensei.
I find these to be extremely effective. I am not sure if its is the combination of the cultural lesson thru audio and written multiple choice answers that make it work. But there is something about this particulat format that really clicks with my leanirng style. I wonder if anyone else had a similar reaction?
Also Hiroko Sensei is so kawaii, she makes it fun to watch.
Ganbarimasu!!
Wednesday at 1:27 pm
Good idea, but the song is even better! Who is that? And how can I get it?
Wednesday at 2:41 pm
Nigel-san,
Thank you for your great feedback!
Truenappa-san,
Please look forward to our next everyday kanji video!
tom Garney-san,
Very glad to know that you found them very useful for your learning Japanese!
Rich-san,
I’ll ask our video engineer about the music!
Sunday at 8:55 pm
a good idea yes.it helps us become familiar with the kanji
Monday at 3:08 am
I just love the fact that you are so responsive to feedback. It shows respect to users and passion for continuous improvement. Congratulations!
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