Mina-san, I hope you enjoyed the holidays! Since we started doing the intros at the beginning of the lessons, we got tons of questions about them. To address these, we did 2 Japanese Culture Classes and explained a few of them. We'll definitely be doing more Culture Classes on the intros (as well as other cultural topics). But we went ahead and added a new section to the Lesson Notes. Now you can find the Japanese transcript and corresponding English translation after the Grammar Point. We hope this helps make a little sense out of the madness （笑）. I think this will be particularly helpful for the 2008 intros which all involve a mini-drama running from Monday to Friday. Enjoy! マーキー

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Hope everyone is enjoying their holiday season. With the year coming to a close we managed to squeeze in two more exciting enhancements. Lesson Browser The new lesson browser was developed with simplicity and convenience in mind. Broken down into "Core Lessons" and "Extra Lessons", this new features lets you quickly find the lessons you love. The new browser offers the following functionality: Brief description of each lesson level for new users coming in contact with JapanesePod101.com for the first time A Quick Jump menu to quickly find your favorite lessons within a particular level Sort functionality to arrange lessons by date (newest first or oldest first) A global search functionality to find any lesson by searching... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary Welcome to winter, a time of holiday hokeyness, excess consumption, darkness, coldness, and most of all sleep. A bear would put sleep first on that list. But you needn't be a bear to think about hibernation. As the year draws to a close, you might take note of the compound 越年 (etsunen: to go beyond + year), which means both "ringing out the old year" and "hibernating"! Actually, 冬眠 (tōmin: winter + sleep) is a much more common way to say "hibernation." It's a great compound but could introduce some confusion; if you already knew 寝, seeing 眠 would make you realize that there are two characters for "sleep": 寝 (SHIN, ne(ru): to go to sleep) 眠 (MIN, nemu(ru): to... Show more

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