Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary In the holiday shuffle, it's easy to lose a sense of balance and perspective. Kanji to the rescue! Evening BalancePhoto credit: Hickoree   With all that I've said about 意 in past blogs, I've neglected to mention that it's nearly symmetrical. If this kanji resembles an animal with a long tail, just snip off that tail (ouch!), and you have yourself a symmetrical (but aching!) animal! When 意 combines with other symmetrical kanji, they result in compounds that are particularly calming to see. Click the link to find some of those. Soothing Symmetry ...   The Meaning of Life The commercialism of December can fill us with a sense of meaninglessness,... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary I've long been interested in human consciousness, so I'm excited that Japanese has a host of fascinating words about that concept. The word for "consciousness" is 意識, ishiki (mind + discernment). Strangely, ishiki sounds like dashiki. Since the 1960s in the United States, this West African garment has signified a raised consciousness about black culture and politics. And suddenly we're a world away from Japan! How did we stray so far, so quickly? Consciousness—faster than the speed of light! The word 意識 doesn't necessarily refer to a raised consciousness of social issues. Here are two terms for that: 社会意識 (shakai ishiki: social... Show more

Hey guys, Marky here! The year is coming to an end. I want it to hurry up and finish as soon as possible because I've been focusing all my energy on 2008. But, the month isn't over yet, so I'd like to get some important information out there about December. ◎　Mixi We finally got off our lazy butts and set up a mixi community. I'll be posting little tidbits here and there about upcoming stories and behind the scenes things. Next year we'll be trying some new approaches, so if you're obsessed with JPod like some people are, you'll definitely want to check it out from time to time. ◎　My Tokyo Travelblogue　 For fans of the Agnes Murakami saga, December is a good month for you! There are 4 Agnes lessons this month. Day 22,... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary When I happened upon the word 意図 (ito: intention), I was tickled. I figured that this instance of 図 might mean "map," as it sometimes does. If so, one could read 意図 as mind + map! An intention might be a map of the mind! Not So Fast ... Thinking that way made me quite happy, because back in college, I took an anthropology course called "Cultures and Consciousness," and one of my favorite textbooks was Charles Hampden-Turner's Maps of the Mind. An Ancient Memory of Maps of the Mind ... "Maps of the mind" is a great phrase, suggestive of many things, including trains of thought. When it comes to representing interconnected thoughts (e.g., about kanji!), the... Show more

Wondering what to give this holiday season? Give something special, give the gift of Japanese. Give a JapanesePod101.com subscription! Our innovative, fun, and easy to use language learning system is the perfect gift, designed to get anyone speaking Japanese from the very first lesson. From now through December 25th we're offering a 20% discount on all gift vouchers. Ordering couldn't be easier, choose the subscription level you want, give us the recipient's email address, a short message, the date you want to have the gift voucher emailed, and we'll take care of the rest!!! Click here to order the perfect gift - the gift of Japanese! Happy Holidays!!!

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary Some kanji go together like peanut butter and jelly. Where you find one, you also find the other. For instance, 意 (I: will, heart, mind, thought, meaning, sense) frequently pairs off with 気, 地, and 得 inside compounds and expressions. In other words, 意 seems to be quite the trigamist.   意 + 気 In and of itself, 意気 (iki) means "spirit," "disposition," and "morale." With a sample sentence from Jim Breen's online dictionary, we can try to make sense of this abstract word: 鈴木さん、その意気ですよ。 Suzuki-san, sono iki desu yo. That's the spirit, Mr. Suzuki. If Mr. Suzuki is indeed in the right spirit, we might say the following about him: 意気に燃える (iki ni moeru: to be... Show more

A gravatar, or globally recognized avatar, is quite simply an 80×80 pixel avatar image that's associated with your email and follows you from blog to blog appearing beside your name when you comment on gravatar-enabled blogs. The comment section of the JapanesePod101.com are now gravatar-enabled. If you don't have a gravatar, you can easily get one for free at Gravatar.com. Just be sure to use the same email address that you use to post comments on the JapanesePod101.com blog. Please note that it might take a few minutes for your shiny new gravatar to show up on our comment system.

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary I find 意 (I: will, heart, mind, thought, meaning, sense) to be one of the cutest kanji around. It reminds me of an upright animal with the following assets:          A head beneath a beret            A blocky torso      Two legs, a long tail that curls around, and ... well, just             pretend we've got a male animal in our midst Put it all together, and you get something like this: Long-Tailed WeaselPhoto credit: Anne Elliott   No beret, but the tapering of the... Show more

Mina-san, We are pleased to announce that a new "remember me" function is now available. When you login to JapanesePod101.com you will now have the option to check a "Remember me?" box. If you do, you won't have to login again from that same computer for up to 7 days! To turn on the remember me functionality, simply click the checkbox next to the Login and Password fields. Then when you are finished interacting with the site - just close the browser window - do not logout (logging out erases the remember me ability). If you accidentally clicked the remember me option, don't worry - just be sure to fully logout of the site before leaving. The next time you visit the site, you will be asked to login again. If you... Show more

On November 13th, Zune launched its new Zune Software, Zune Social, Zune Marketplace and the Zune firmware. This release marks the official support of audio and video podcasting for Zune. JapanesePod101.com was among 1000 featured podcast feeds to come pre-seeded in the Zune Marketplace Podcast Directory (KoreanClass101.com and SurvivalPhrases.com are soon to follow). Podcast lovers can now find, play, subscribe, share, organize, and give feedback about their favorite podcasts (hint hint) Here's a screen shot of the JapanesePod101.com podcast in the Marketplace Podcast Directory (click to enlarge) Next is a screen shot of my favorite podcasts in my Zune Podcast Collection (click to enlarge) Zune also supports an easy... Show more