Top Secret Project with the Legendary Jim Breen Finished! Well, it’s done, and it’s alive! Mr. Jim Breen, Innovative Language Learning, and JapanesePod101.com, are happy to announce that EDICT, Jim Breen’s legendary Japanese to English dictionary, now has… Audio clips for all entries! So what exactly am I going on about? First, let me back up a second. If you’re studying Japanese, you’ve encountered Jim Breen’s EDICT Japanese to English dictionary, whether directly at WWWJDIC or through another Japanese language learning tool. (Many popular Japanese language learning tools use EDICT.) Having used the dictionary at WWWJDIC countless times during my Japanese studies, I’m a huge fan of the site. Last November, I... Show more

Welcome to the JapanesePod101.com blog, Feature Spotlight. Here we would like to periodically introduce some well known features as well as some not so well known features here at JapanesePod101.com. We want to make sure everyone knows about all the great features that you can use to master Japanese in just minutes a day. Today we would like to introduce My Feed. This is a fully customizable RSS feed. What's that mean? Well, for those that haven't studied up on the latest Web 2.0 technology, that basically allows Premium members to decide exactly what lesson content they want on their Premium feed. Here's 3 simple steps on how you can use My Feed to really master Japanese: You decide exactly what you want. You download what you... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary As a multicultural citizen of the world, you've probably left your hometown behind. You may miss it occasionally, but what do you miss? The way the hills and valleys came together, a river running through it? The scent of honeysuckle in summers, and the crickets that never stopped chirping? The brilliant autumn displays, and the heavy snows in winter? Do you miss the kind of people from that area? Your family in particular? The food you can't find anywhere else? Your house and the room that was yours and yours alone? The familiarity of everything in that house—the layout, the way the place smelled, the possessions that acquired so much meaning along the way? Or... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary Today we'll start with a Verbal Logic Quiz! But first, consider this compound: 郷土 (kyōdo: native place; birthplace; old home)     village + soil If you come from Kyoto, you're lucky, because you can say this: 京都は郷土だ。 Kyōto wa kyōdo da. My hometown is Kyoto. OK, now you're ready for the quiz! Quiz 1: If-Then 1. If 色 (SHOKU, iro) means "color," what color is 郷土色 (kyōdoshoku: village + soil + color)? Does the answer vary with the color of the local soil? 2. If 博物館 (hakubutsukan) means "museum," what kind of museum is 郷土博物館 (kyōdo hakubutsukan: village + soil + extensive (knowledge) + physical phenomenon + public building)? 3. If 文学 (bungaku) means... Show more

Are you committed to studying Japanese? Do you study on the train? At home after a long day of work? While at the gym? Any moment of free time you can find? We know how serious our students are. Studying a language takes time and commitment. We know you have the commitment to study. Now we're providing you with the time to study Japanese for 2 full years, hassle free! You can now study with JapanesePod101.com with our new 24 Month Subscriptions! After studying Japanese with JapanesePod101.com for 24-months you can take the leap from Beginner to Advanced, have flowing and fluent conversations with native-Japanese speakers, and rread books, novels, magazines, and newspapers. We want you to be able to reach those goals. That's why... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary The contest results are in! Although I predicted that the high score might be 2 or 3 correct out of 8, I couldn't have been more wrong! Out of 45 contestants, an astounding 21 had perfect scores! And it's not as if the questions seemed easy to people; many spent two to three hours on research. What a motivated, ambitious group! Can it be that they simply wanted a copy of Crazy for Kanji? Or do they love kanji as much as I do? Even a self-identified kanji newbie spent several hours on the questions, getting many of them right. This impressed me enormously, because doing kanji research is no small task. Knowing how to look for answers is most of the battle, and that... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary Here's a Seinfeldian type of question: Have you ever wondered why we call odd numbers odd? After all, every other number is odd. What's so strange about that? They're hardly scarce. (By contrast, much scarcer numbers are called prime, as if they're of great value, like prime rib or prime real estate.) I'd never considered the matter of numerical oddness until I came upon this compound: 奇数 (kisū: odd number)     odd number + number In 奇数, says Halpern, 奇 means "odd number." But the original and most common meaning of 奇 (KI, ku(shiki)) is "unusual, strange, odd," and the meaning "odd number" clearly spun off from that. In both English and... Show more

Do any of these scenarios sound familiar? * My computer crashed, and my JapanesePod101.com files are gone! * I lost my iPod! All my JapanesePod101.com lessons...gone. * I got a virus, and my computer is toast. * I reformatted my computer, and I didn't back up my JapanesePod101.com lessons. * I accidentally deleted JapanesePod101.com files, help! * My computer died. * My iPhone got wet, and.... Over the years, we've seen almost every possible scenario on how our Japanese lessons go missing. We weren't sure how to solve the issue. After all subscription do run out, but people want to use our lessons forever. This simple solution was proposed by one of users who lost his audio files when he lost his... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary Today's blog features two parts: a contest and a palindrome puzzle. They're both challenging in their own ways, so 頑張ってください (Ganbatte kudasai: Good luck)! Back next week with a more typical blog!   Contest! Do you want to win a copy of Crazy for Kanji: A Student's Guide to the Wonderful World of Japanese Characters? I'm hoping that my new book will make you fall in love with kanji. I'm also hoping it will serve as a map that orients you in the vast and often confusing world of kanji characters. For a free copy, try your hand at the eight questions in the contest at the first link. Whether you're a kanji newbie or an expert, you'll find a fairly level playing... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary When an actor wins an award for a film, one rarely hears a profound acceptance speech. But that's what happened in January. At the Golden Globes, Colin Farrell won "Best Actor in a Motion Picture—Musical Or Comedy" for In Bruges, a movie I adored. And when he accepted the honor, he equated curiosity to love. "Aha!" I thought. "That's exactly right!" When you're passionately in love with someone or something, you want to know everything you can about that love object. Which is how I feel about kanji. Which is why "Kanji Curiosity" could just as easily be called "Kanji Love" (though the alliteration would disappear). And as it turns out, you can use the kanji for... Show more