Someone asked on a recent post at Japanesepod101.com what なつこ先生's name was in 漢字. I said that it was 夏子. I'm pretty sure it's 夏子, in all of the early PDFs, she is listed as 夏子. Almost all Japanese people have 漢字 names, and all family names are 漢字. The last time I went to Japan, I was quite fluent with my 漢字 from my Chinese study, but I still found common Japanese names very interesting. Whenever I'd go into any shop, I'd make a point of reading the various workers' namecards. I found the names fascinating. To someone used to dry, uninteresting Chinese names, Japanese names are a breath of fresh air. They sound like they were made up by hippie parents. Take 夏子 for example (the name, not the lady!) The first character is 'summer', the... Show more

Some of us don't get the opportunity to use what we learn in Japanesepod101.com lessons; Japanese speakers just aren't everywhere. But there is one avenue that we can take advantage of, one which is often overlooked. Our teachers mention it in almost every podcast. It's the message board. In case you haven't noticed, there is a separate message board for every individual lesson at the Japanesepod101.com website. It is where users can post anything. Recently, I have made a conscious decision to post something every day. It wasn't easy at first, but it's getting easier and easier. One of my first problems was not a language problem, but what to post. But once you get your creative side working, it gets easier gradually. Also, after... Show more

Poking around youtube, as I am often of wont to do, I came across ピタゴラスイッチ1, a kids TV show. The main demographic of ピ・ス seems to be Japanese first graders, which suits me fine, as my Japanese is at about that level. I found a series called 「なにしてるの？」2 Each short clip is only a minute or so, and I have learnt something from every single one. In each one, three boys are seen in a playground. One notices an adult doing really weird exercises, and is heard to remark 「何してる」3. Eventually one succumbs to the others' badgering of 「聞いて来いよ」4, wanders over and asks 「おじさん、何やってるの？」5 He explains the weird procedure he is going through, and a clip explains it a bit better. I discovered the verb which 愛香6 explained to me as the verb 'to spray', a... Show more

As part of my ongoing immersion into all things Japanese, I have bought a Wi console, made by company Nintendo. If you didn't know already, Nintendo is one of the biggest manufacturers of video games in the world. The Wii is their latest machine, and it has an interesting interface method: instead of pressing buttons with your fingers, you hold two controllers, or リモコン and wave them around in front of your TV. You really have to try it to understand it; the feeling of having two controllers in your hands and frantically flailing them about makes the whole experience much more enjoyable. I'm currently battling my way through a game called Rayman Raving Rabbids. In it, a group of crazy ラビッツ　try to take over the world, and challenge... Show more

Besides listening to jPod and blogging, my other online pastime is Magic: the Gathering Online. Magic is a collectible card game, and was the first. I realise that not everyone will realise what this means, so I'll give you a quick rundown: you buy packs of trading cards, which instead of having sportsmen on them, have pictures of fantastic monsters and wizards blowing each other up. Below this picture is a small box of text. You make up your own deck of these trading cards, find a friend, and play game of Magic with him/her. If you're still not sure what Magic is, this article on the official Magic site entitled "WHAT IS MAGIC?" might make it clearer. Magic is quite popular in Japan actually, so much so that tournament reports (yes,... Show more

I was just 5 minutes ago talking to someone on MSN about one of my vocab memorization techniques. The conversation started, as one usually does on MSN, as 'what are you doing'. It took me a while to explain, but my friend thought it was a good idea. He's learning English, but the principle is the same. I do it whenever I'm trying to memorize a lot of words. Maybe it'll work for you! Step 1: Open a search engine. For Chinese, I use 百度, for Japanese, one might try google.co.jp. Step 2: Click on the 'images' tab (remember it probably won't be in English though!) and write in the word. Let's take something from today's lesson; おめでとう meaning 'congratulations'. Step 3: Feast your eyes on all the lovely pictures. Each one has something... Show more

Recently, 爱香1 enrolled at a 上海大学校2　learning 中国語3. On Friday night, the whole department threw a party to welcome in the new school semester, and all their new students. But to tell you the truth, I guess 大学生 will take any excuse to party! As we went in, we were asked to write our names on a sticker, and stick it on ourselves. Probably so people who forgot our names wouldn't go all night calling us 'dude'. We were also asked to reach into a plastic bag and pull out a number. This was written on another sticker and stuck under our name. This didn't serve any purpose that I could see. I did see a guy whose number was '69' enthusiastically showing off his luck to his friends though. 爱香 introduced me to her classmates. I guess everyone... Show more

I was in a local coffee shop when having breakfast when I heard something that always gets my attention. "わたしは。。。um...　日本。。。すみます。" This broken conversation was coming from the table next to me, and another table beyond that. I had of course noticed some 日本語 being spoken earlier, but had gone back to reading my newspaper. I couldn't think of any excuse to introduce myself and do some 話し練習1, but still was listening in. Someone had heard someone else at the table next to them speaking Japanese, and had introduced themselves. One group of four was visiting 上海, the other table of two lived here, and were imparting their knowledge. Here was the problem. Maybe some other jPod listeners can relate. I felt like jumping in and introducing... Show more

My girlfriend was writing a simple SMS for business. She often shows me the message before she sends it to make sure if the English is ok. It was something like: "Ok, thanks. See you on the 15th. " This was the last message of the SMS 'conversation'. I guess for this reason, she felt like it was missing a little something. "How do I write 「よろしくおねがいします」 in English?" she asked. 'Whoa,' I thought. How do I explain that the small island nation that she comes from is unique in the world with its layers of formality, unbroken dynasty, and turbulent history? How could I tell her how unique those 11 short syllables were in the linguistic pantheon of the world? How could I get that across in 5 seconds or less? I told her that we didn't... Show more

Since 中国1 is so close to 日本2 there are some 日本語3 words that almost everyone here knows. わたしは： Everyone knows how to introduce themselves. I guess it's the first (and sometimes, the only) thing that everyone learns how to say in Japanese. かわいい: Japanese people, particularly young girls, have a habit of yelling out this word at the top of their voices, while pointing at a small dog, foreign child, or tiny cellphone, where appropriate. Usually from the squeals of delight and giggling, the meaning can be ascertained. Also, it sounds very similar to the Chinese 可爱4, meaning 'cute' or 'lovely'. 何5： アニメ is shown daily here, with Chinese subtitles. A friend of mine told me that he often watches them, and somehow remembered this word. He... Show more