Get 40% OFF with the You Can Speak sale! Hurry! Ends soon!
Get 40% OFF with the You Can Speak sale! Hurry! Ends soon!
JapanesePod101.com Blog
Learn Japanese with Free Daily
Audio and Video Lessons!
Start Your Free Trial 6 FREE Features

Archive for the 'Forum Spotlight' Category

Forum Spotlight: Sending Wedding Gifts to Japanese friends

Welcome to Forum Spotlight! Here we’ll be introducing interesting and useful posts made by members at our very own JapanesePod101.com Forum. This week’s forum spotlight post is by mtpiper, who asked about an appropriate wedding gift for a Japanese couple. This question was answered by both gerald_ford and hatch_jp, who had some great ideas to share! If someone you know is getting married, this would be a great post to read for some ideas!

=============
Asking for advice
=============

We have a friend in Japan that is getting married. We can’t travel to Japan to attend the wedding, but want to send a gift. Sending cash in the mail is out of the question.
What would be an appropriate gift to send? Something representative of our home country, or something traditionally Japanese?
Thanks for any advice!
Read the rest of this post »

Forum Spotlight: Japanese people don’t understand my Japanese?

Welcome to Forum Spotlight! Here we’ll be introducing interesting and useful posts made by members at our very own JapanesePod101.com Forum. This week’s forum spotlight post is by reboundstudent, who asked about why Japanese people might be having trouble understand her when she speaks . Forum user Javizy responded with some possible reasons and gave advice on how to help remedy the problem.

======================
Asking for advice
======================
I am an American doing the JET program since about the end of July (so going on 2-3 months.) I was a Japanese minor in college, but my listening comprehension is dreadful, and my speaking is halted and usually filled with bad particles.

My situation is, I speak and understand only a bare minimum of Japanese. But it seems whenever most Japanese people talk to me, they speak pretty rapidly and with advanced vocabulary. Whenever I try to speak back, they either ignore that I just said anything, or just kind of stare at me. 

Has anyone else ever found themselves in this situation? How do you respond? As a last ditch effort, I switch to English and body language, but that really doesn’t give me the speaking practice I need with Japanese… yet when I speak it, the Japanese people around me seem totally unable to comprehend what I’m saying. Read the rest of this post »

Forum Spotlight: How to buy tickets to the Ghibli Museum in Tokyo

Welcome to Forum Spotlight! Here we’ll be introducing interesting and useful posts made by members at our very own JapanesePod101.com Forum. This week’s forum spotlight post is by mint, who asked how to buy tickets to the famous Ghibli museum (for the works of animator Hayao Miyazaki) in Mitaka, Tokyo. Forum users robopanda and fangorn responded with the answer and a useful link!

=======
Question from mint
=======
I’m trying to buy my tickets just now as i fly out in a week’s time and havent got anything sorted out yet haha, Well i have my hostel’s etc and rail ticket etc but no set plans on what were doing for 2 weeks…

Anyone know where we can get them? I believe we can get some at Lawson’s shop?? Im guessing Lawson’s is like an AM/PM? Is the sign Yellow and Blue? I think i remember it from last time i was in Japan back in Jan…. If so, What do i say to them? I was told if i mention “Totoro” to them they will understand with My Neighbor Totoro being pretty famous in Japanese Anime?

======
Answer from robopanda
======

I had to buy the tickets in japan as well. In the lawson convenience store, there is a machine called “Loppi” that looks like a ATM but it sells tickets for concerts and sports events.

Heres a link to the instuctions to use the machine to buy tickets for the Ghibli museum:

https://www.lawson.co.jp/loppi/ghibli/english.html#how_to

I hope that helps a bit. It’s not too difficult using the L-code, but I’m sure if you need help the staff can do it for you.

** More Advice from fangorn**

Yes, you can follow the instructions in this page to buy the ticket. However, it was missing one last step. After Step 7, the system will ask you for your name. So you will need to enter a proper full name in Katakana/Kanji (e.g. surname <SPACE> firstname) before proceeding to Step 8.

——————————————————–
Thank you robopanda and fangorn for that useful information! The Ghibli museum in Tokyo is a great place to visit, so definitely stop by if you get the chance 🙂
You can find a lot more useful information and tips like this at the JapanesePod101.com Forum, so stop by and join in the many discussions with fellow listeners and the JPOD101 crew!

Learn Japanese – Japanese song lyrics translation website (Forum Spotlight)

Welcome to Forum Spotlight! Here we’ll be introducing interesting and useful posts made by members at our very own JapanesePod101.com Forum. This week’s forum spotlight post is by Taurus, who shared a great site that features Japanese songs lyrics in the original Japanese with nice English translations. After posting this, many other forum members jumped in with their own Japanese lyric site links. Singing in Japanese is actually a great way to improve your Japanese pronunciation, so why not give it a try!

====
Posted by Taurus:
I’m sorry if this has been posted before but, inspired by my quest to find surprising karaoke songs, I’ve just come across a website that has a load of song lyrics in both Japanese and English. It might be useful if you’re trying to expand the range of your exposure to original Japanese sources.

https://www.quartet4.net/ (English translation, Japanese) Read the rest of this post »

Learn Japanese – Two clever ideas for remembering vocabulary and expressions (Forum Spotlight)

Welcome to Forum Spotlight! Here we’ll be introducing interesting and useful posts made by members at our very own JapanesePod101.com Forum. This week’s forum spotlight post is by mikuji, who shared some useful ideas for remembering vocabulary and expressions with everyone.

======
I have a couple of tips I would like to share – it may help some of you.

1) When I find it difficult to learn an expression or a word, I use it as my screensaver password. I set the screensaver delay to a relatively short time so I am forced to use the expression several times a day. After a while my fingers remember it even if I don’t! Read the rest of this post »

Learn Japanese – Do you know what Japanese name suffixes mean? (Forum Spotlight)

Welcome to Forum Spotlight! Here we’ll be introducing interesting and useful posts made by members at our very own JapanesePod101.com Forum. This week’s forum spotlight post is a question asked by slehner about the various name suffixes that exist in Japanese that was answered by Psy.

=======
Question:
=======

I’m new to the Japanese language and I’ve seen a few suffixes used with names before but I do not know how to use them or understand the usage of them. Read the rest of this post »

Learn Japanese – What’s the best way to write out kanji and kana? (Forum Spotlight)

Welcome to Forum Spotlight! Here we’ll be introducing interesting and useful posts made by members at our very own JapanesePod101.com Forum. This week’s forum spotlight post is a question asked by debondtjan about the best way to write out kanji and kana that was answered by Belton.

=======
Question:
=======

“For writing the kana/kanji, what would you suggest: a thick pen or a normal pen to practice? The bigger, calligraphic versions of kana & kanji (where they use a thick pen) always look so much better and easier to the eye than the smaller ones.

One problem I currently see in my learning process, is that sometimes small hiragana (on screen) miss some pixels (that you clearly see on bigger hiragana) that aided me in remembering certain hiragana. For example: an arc not completely drawn and looks more like a strike. If someone needs a better example, I’ll try looking for one.” Read the rest of this post »

Learn Japanese – Confused by how the Japanese writing system works? Get answers! (Forum Spotlight)

Welcome to Forum Spotlight! Here we’ll be introducing interesting and useful posts made by members at our very own JapanesePod101.com Forum. This week’s forum spotlight post is a question asked by thegsusfreek about the Japanese writing system from a beginner’s point of view that was answered by QuackingShoe. If you’re a beginner who is confused by how the Japanese writing system works, you’ll find some answers here! Read the rest of this post »

Learn Japanese – 191 new Kanji that you need to know by next year! Part 3 (Forum Spotlight)

Welcome to Forum Spotlight! Here we’ll be introducing interesting and useful posts made by members at our very own JapanesePod101.com Forum.

This forum spotlight post contains the final part of a list of new proposed Jōyō Kanji, which comes from Psyさん. What are Jōyō Kanji? The answer to that question along with the first installment of the list can be found here! For the second installment, click here.

Here is part 3, the final installment of the new proposed Jōyō Kanji list. Next to each kanji, you will find the reading (onyomi is in katakana, kunyomi is in hiragana), the character’s meaning, and a sample word using that kanji.

Read the rest of this post »

Learn Japanese – 191 new Kanji that you need to know by next year! Part 2 (Forum Spotlight)

Welcome to Forum Spotlight! Here we’ll be introducing interesting and useful posts made by members at our very own JapanesePod101.com Forum.

This forum spotlight post contains part 2 of a list of new proposed Jōyō Kanji, which comes from Psyさん. What are Jōyō Kanji? The answer to that question along with the first installment of the list can be found here!

Here is part 2 of the new proposed Jōyō Kanji list. Next to each kanji, you will find the reading (onyomi is in katakana, kunyomi is in hiragana), the character’s meaning, and a sample word using that kanji.

Read the rest of this post »