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俳句…と聞けば、松尾芭蕉が有名ですね。彼は俳句の基礎を作り、旅をしながら自分の感動を芸術的に表現しようと探究を重ねました。多くの代表句の中から『奥の細道』に収録されている夏の作品を一つ紹介しましょう。 閑（しづ）かさや岩にしみ入（い）る蝉の声　松尾芭蕉 「しずか」とは音のしない状態を表わし、一般的には「静」の漢字を使います。ただ「静」の文字は「音や動きがなく、しずまりかえった様子」を意味するのに対し、この句に使われている「閑」には「のんびり、ゆったりとしてしずかに落ち着いている様子」という意味があります。ちなみに当時は、現代とは異なる仮名遣いをしていたため「閑」のフリガナは「づ」と書きますが、発音は「ず」で構いません。 さて、蝉が鳴いています。その声は、まるで周囲の岩にしみ込んでいくようだった、と表現されています。 この句は山形県にある立石寺（りゅうしゃくじ）という山寺で作られました。ここは多くの人が仏教の修行のために訪れる寺で、山道は険しく岩はごつごつしていたとか。芭蕉もそんな険しい道を汗を拭きながら登ったのでしょう。道中、聞こえてくるのは蝉の鳴き声だけ。ふと足を止め、ゆったりした時間の中で蝉の声に耳を傾けたのかもしれません。 名句と言われるこの作品も、実は三回も書き直されたそうです。1689年、彼が四十六歳の頃の作品です。 ＝＝＝＝ In the world of haiku, Matsuo Basho is very famous figure. He created the foundations of haiku, and researched this form of expression by artistically... Show more

Are you learning English? Or know somebody who is? You HAVE to Check Out EnglishClass101.com! 50% Off Subscriptions for LIFE to the First 101 Sign ups! Innovative Language Learning LLC, the company that brought you JapanesePod101.com, is proud to announce the newest member of our language family, EnglishClass101.com! If you're studying English, or know somebody who is, this is the perfect site for you! Have you ever wanted to learn English for business, travel or personal fulfillment? If so, now is the perfect time to learn English! EnglishClass101.com has all the same features as JapanesePod101.com to help you master both oral and written aspects of the language! The best part: If you are one of the first 101 people to... Show more

The Kanji for this week are as follows: (Remember, each compound must use the Kanji in the brackets .) Kanji Scrabble #12, Key Kanji: 金、言、花、円、一、年、口、国、人、東 (Learn How to Play Here) To start, all you need is a Twitter account and to follow our Twitter account @japanesepod101 (What’s Twitter you ask? Read our guide here.) Answers: Kanji Kana English 一万 いちまん (n) 10,000/ten thousand/ 一万円 いちまんえん (n) 10,000 Yen/ 万一 まんいち (adv,n) by some chance/by some possibility/if by any chance/10,000 to 1 odds/(P)/ 万万 ばんばん (adv) (1) very much/fully/(2) never (with negative verb)/ 万万一 ばんばんいち (adv,n) by any chance/ten thousand to one/ 万人 ばんじん (n) (1) all people/everybody/(2) ten thousand... Show more

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. I am familiar with "san" and and "sensei"** and their basic use but the ones I'm curious about I'll list below. I know its quite a list but I'm mostly looking for an understanding of what they mean and how they relate to ones name and the relationship it might place between... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary It's officially summer! And on Alberto's haiku calendar, the July page celebrates the arrival of summer! Here's the PDF where he explains the haiku a bit. Don't be fooled (as I was) into thinking that 来ぬ means "has not arrived." What we're seeing is an old, literary, present perfect form of the verb. In other words, summer has come! I've celebrated the arrival of summer with a trip to Spain, where I've been for nearly a week. Hope you've also rung in the season in a happy way. If not, there's nothing like kanji to make you happy, so let's get to it! If you saw this compound and its breakdown, what would you think arasuji meant? 粗筋... Show more

東京の旅館に北海道からの旅行客が泊まりました。部屋まで案内すると、客たちは口々に「あぁ、こわい」「こわい、こわい」と言うではありませんか。案内してきた仲居さんは驚いて、慌てて洗面所の鏡をのぞき込みました。しかし、そこに映っていたのは普段と変わらない自分の顔。 厨房に行って、同僚に「ねぇ、私の顔って怖い？」とたずねました。「え？　別に…。いつもと同じ顔よ」「さっき案内したお客さんが、私の顔を見て『こわい、こわい』って言ったのよ」。 その会話を聞いていた板前さんが、「どこから来たお客さんだい？」と尋ねます。「確か北海道からのお客さんだったわ」と仲居さん。「そりゃ、方言だよ。北海道では『怖い』というのは『疲れた』って意味だぜ」。 こうして仲居さんの謎は解けました。「こわい」という単語を「恐ろしい」という意味だけだと思っていたので、このような誤解が生じたのです。 北関東から北の地域では、「こわい」を「疲れた」という意味でも使います。さらに、西日本や中部地方では「食べ物が硬い」という意味での「こわい」の用法があります。ですから、「このご飯、こわいねぇ」という文章は、ご飯がおそいかかってくるわけではありませんのでご注意を！ ===== Fright : Travelers from Hokkaido stayed in a Ryokan (Japanese style inn) in Tokyo. When shown to their room they were all saying "Ah, kowai," (Oh, how scary) and "Kowai, kowai" (Frightening, frightening.) ... Show more

The Kanji for this week are as follows: (Remember, each compound must use the Kanji in the brackets .) Kanji Scrabble #11 気、言、国、人、手、社、生、一、会、道 (Learn How to Play Here) To start, all you need is a Twitter account and to follow our Twitter account @japanesepod101 (What’s Twitter you ask? Read our guide here.) Answers: Kanji Kana English 一本 いっぽん (n) (1) one long cylindrical thing/(2) one version/(3) (a) certain book/(4) (a) blow/(5) an experienced geisha/(P)/ 一本気 いっぽんぎ (adj-na,n) (a) one-track mind/monotony/ 一本道 いっぽんみち (n) direct unforked road/straight path/ 国本 こくほん (n) foundation of the nation/ 手本 てほん (n) (1) copybook/(2) model/pattern/(P)/ 本人 ほんにん (n,adj-no) the person... Show more

If you’ve been thinking about how you’re going to make the most of this summer, we’ve got some great news for you. You don’t have to travel the world to immerse yourself in Japanese culture. You can learn Japanese this summer at a teeny tiny fraction of what it would cost you to take a big trip. Over the years, we at Innovative Language Learning have been working hard to develop the best Japanese language learning program available. You can rely on our proven method. It’s been field tested over and over again. There are no weak points, no gaps and no traps. This program is FUN, FAST, and EASY and best of all …you won’t spend a lot of money! In fact this your chance to get Premium level access to JapanesePod101.com for 25%... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary If someone planned to serve you the following, how would you respond? 粗煮 (arani: dish consisting of bony fish parts boiled in soy sauce)     coarse + to boil Blech! Not one part of that sounds good to me. Bony fish parts and hot soy sauce do the opposite of whetting my appetite. I would have guessed that you'd make this dish only if the fridge were barren, save for a few bottled sauces and a moldy onion growing new parts. But it's entirely possible that 粗煮 is a delicacy! As it turns out, the answer isn't so clear-cut; see the link for more on that. Native Takes on the Situation ... From the following definitions of the first kanji, you... Show more

Thanks for following us on Twitter! We hope you have been enjoying the mini lessons we’ve been updating everyday. Our next theme will be Compound Verbs, or 複合動詞 (fukugō dōshi) in Japanese. Over the next couple of weeks we will introduce you to a new Compound Verb everyday on Twitter. So what are Compound Verbs, you ask? Compounds verbs are verbs that are made up of two or more verbs (all of the ones we introduce will be made up of only two verbs). In Japanese, the first verb is in the masu stem form, which is the masu form of the verb with the masu part taken away. Let’s look at an example: 読む (yomu, “to read”) + 始める(hajimeru, “to start”) The masu form of yomu is yomimasu, so when we take away the “masu” we get the masu stem: 読み... Show more