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Losing One’s Marbles: Part 3

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary If you've got a good head, you're smart. That works in both English and Japanese: 頭がいい (atama ga ii: smart)     head + good And if you have a bad head? Well, that doesn't make a lot of sense in English (possibly suggesting a headache), but in Japanese the logic continues: 頭が悪い (atama ga warui: dumb, slow)     head + bad OK, then, what if your head is strange or funny? For English speakers, that might conjure up images of Jay Leno (long-chinned), Abe Lincoln (long everything), or Barry Bonds post-"steroids" (plumped-up head). But in Japanese, here's what a funny head gets you: 頭がおかしい (atama ga okashii: insane)     head + funny When it comes to heads, "funny" and... Show more

Mucha Confusion: Part 2

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary Not long ago, one of my Japanese-language partners told me this: むちゃがしたくなる。 I had no idea what he was saying, so he wrote it down (thank goodness for Skype's chatting features!) as follows: 無茶がしたくなる。 That didn't help at all. Among other problems, I couldn't figure out where to divide the hiragana, so the romanized rendering seemed like this: Mucha ga shitakunaru. Huh? ¡Mucha confusión! Kensuke explained that したくなる was したい (shitai: I want to do) + なる (naru: to become). The final い of したい had turned into く to accommodate なる. So we had "I want to do" or "I want to become" or some combination of the two. I want to do what? Become what? The first word stumped me.... Show more

Unbridled Enthusiasm: Part 1

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary Am I crazy? Who's to say? By Einstein's definition, I may well be. He said insanity was repeatedly doing the same thing while hoping for a different outcome. As I write this, I'm drinking caffeinated tea at 7 p.m. All the while, I'm telling myself that it won't affect my sleep. At some deeper level, I also know that if tea has kept me awake on a thousand other occasions, I can probably expect some misery tonight. Crazy, right? Yes, but I can't help it, because I'm crazy about black and green tea. (I mean, black tea and green tea. Not tea that's simultaneously black and green.) Crazy—there's that word again. When you speak of being "crazy about something," it has nothing... Show more

On Permission and Forgiveness

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary When my husband read the Sunday New York Times this week, he came upon some kanji in a photo and decided to give me a quiz. Covering all the surrounding English, he said, "You don't get any context. See if you can read this." Here's what it said: 大企業の首切りを許さないぞ! My first reaction was to panic and to go blank. I don't know why that is. I love kanji as much I love chocolate and tea, and I've never panicked on seeing either of those things—not once. Then again, chocolate and tea don't require much of me, except perhaps willpower! Once I gave myself a moment, though, things started to fall into place. I could easily recognize 切 as ki(ru), "to cut." So what was being... Show more

My Cup Runneth Over

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary Last week I mentioned that an email from Japan had left me scratching my head about one word. Actually, more than one word in the letter had that effect! The following sentences also gave me pause: 社員のリストラとか、良くない景況の話ばかりです。それでも人々は健気に精一杯前を向いて生きています。 Shain no risutora toka, yokunai keikyō no hanashi bakari desu. Soredemo hitobito wa kenage ni seiippai mae o muite ikite imasu. With downsizing and so forth, all anybody talks about is the bad economic outlook. Nevertheless, people are bravely doing all they can to look ahead and move forward. There are so many things to explore in this passage that it's hard to know where to begin! So I'll wrestle with each thing in... Show more

Jumping for Joy

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary In an email I recently received from Japan, the first sentence contained an intriguing compound: お元気に活躍されている様子嬉しく存じます。 O-genki ni katsuyaku sarete iru yōsu ureshiku zonjimasu. I'm happy to know you appear to be healthy and doing well. What the Words Mean ... Actually, before 活躍する intrigued me, it stumped me, because I didn't know 躍. Then I looked it up and discovered this great breakdown: 活躍する (katsuyaku suru: to flourish, do well, be actively engaged)     lively + to leap! More Sentences with 活躍 ... The first character, 活, means "active, lively, energetic, moving" here. All that makes sense in the context of the sentence. But 躍 involves leaping?! I didn't... Show more

Politics and Protection

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary This week, as the United States ushers in a new president and a new era, it seems appropriate to focus a bit on politics. Here are three political words that intrigue me: 共和党 (kyōwatō: Republican Party)     together + harmony + faction The breakdown gives us "harmony together"! And the first two kanji mean "cooperation"! Sounds like socialism to me! 進歩的 (shinpoteki: progressive)     to progress + progress + adjectival suffix The Japanese word for "progressive" actually involves "progress," 進歩. Strangely, the progress seems to come not from running but rather from walking (歩)! (Although 歩 generally means "to walk,"... Show more

Mail Bag Stories – Learn Japanese with Your Classmates!

Konnichiwa listeners!   Welcome to the new section of our blog, The Mail Bag. This is where we'll share stories from our listeners about their endeavors with Japanese. We hope stories from fellow students can help motivate and inspire you to learn Japanese with JapanesePod101.com or give you that extra needed push and renewed sense of strength when you think it's impossible to get become more proficient in Japanese!   This week we'd like to introduce you to Jalees, the winner of  the Mail Bag Contest and recipient of a free 1 year Premium subscription.  She had this to say about her Japanese studies: "My Japanese story is as simple as this.  I felt like my brain was MELTING! Why, you may ask? Well to make a long story... Show more

Cool Compounds: Part 5

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary If English speakers talk about seeing something quickly, they usually mean that they glimpsed something as it whizzed by but couldn't study the image in detail. In Japanese, looking at something fast has an entirely different meaning: 早見 (hayami: chart, table)     fast + to see An alternate way of writing this compound features another "fast" kanji: 速見 (fast + to see). In both compounds, notice the kun-kun construction. This is old Japanese. A chart organizes the bare bones of information, enabling you to find what you need quickly! And what would it mean to look at something slowly in Japanese? Think of quintessential Japanese... Show more

Cool Compounds: Part 4

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary Let's start with a quiz today. What do you think the following equation yields? excess + talk a. headache, earache b. gossip c. insincerity d. digression While you think about it, I'll share some photos from my recent trip to New Zealand (so as to block the answer). The Japanese writing is fuzzy. But you can blame any fuzziness on the millions of New Zealand sheep. The sign says this: キウィ・サウス (Kiui Sausu: Kiwi South) 羊の国のセーター (hitsuji no kuni no sētā:     knitwear)      sheep + country I love how "knitwear" turns into "sheep country sweaters"! The characters 喫茶 (kissa: tea house, to... Show more