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Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary To "strong-arm" someone, we use threats or intimidation to coerce that person into doing what we want. Well, maybe I shouldn't say "we." I like inclusiveness, but I'm not sure "we" serves me too well here. (I also like to be a bit more discreet about my use of threats and intimidation.) Turns out, the Japanese also "strong-arm" people to get their way. That is, the kanji for "threaten, coerce, intimidate" contains a strong arm, or several: 脅 (KYŌ, odo(su), odo(kasu), obiya(kasu): to intimidate, threaten, coerce) Although 力 (RYOKU, chikara) now means "power," it originally represented a bulging bicep. Henshall says that 劦 in 脅 means "strong arm" or "strength." The... Show more

昼食からしばらくすると、「少しお腹が空いたな」と間食をする人もいるのではないでしょうか。 日本では、この間食のことを「おやつ」と呼んでいます。 「おやつ」の「やつ」は「八つ」、つまり「８」を意味しています。昔の時刻で「八時」に当たる「八つ刻（やつどき）」は、現在の二時から四時ごろを指しているそうです。 江戸時代、人々は一日二食で暮らしていました。すると「八つ刻」くらいにお腹が空いてくるのですね。昔の人は夕食までの空腹を満たすために、果物や木の実、しだいに団子や煎餅などを口にするようになったとか。 ちなみに、「おやつ」の「お」は大切に思う気持ちを託した丁寧な表現です。それというのも、京都では「八つ」の時刻を告げていたのは人々の信仰が厚い本願寺の太鼓だったから。現在でも、「おやつ」が一つのことばとして使われ、「お」を省略して「やつ」とは言いません。 明治時代に入って新たに時刻制度が導入され、「お三時」とも言うようになりましたが、三時以外の時刻に食べる間食も含めて「おやつ」という呼び方が一般です。 私たちの脳は仕事に勉強に、と常に働いています。カロリーオーバーにならないように注意しつつ、リラックスタイムにおやつを楽しむのも良いですね。 ＝＝＝ Just a little while after lunch a lot of people say to themselves "I'm a little bit hungry…" and pick up a snack. In Japan, this snack is called "Oyatsu." The word "Oyatsu" comes from the word "Yattsu"... 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 "Bikkuri Adverbs"! Over the next couple of weeks we will introduce you to a new "Bikkuri Adverb" everyday on Twitter. "Bikkuri Adverbs" are set of adverbs that are interesting because they follow a certain pattern: they are all four syllables, and they follow the pattern of , as in: 「__っ__り」, where syllables go into the two blanks. The name "Bikkuri Adverb" comes from Tim in Takamatsu, who decided to call them this "because bikkuri means 'surprise' and is itself a good example of one". The Japanese language doesn't actually have a name for these kinds of adverbs, despite the large number of them.... 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. Our second forum spotlight post containing a complete list of new proposed Joyo Kanji comes from Psyさん. The Jōyō Kanji (常用漢字) are a list of 1945 "daily-use" kanji characters established by the Japanese Ministry of Education in 1981. Japanese children will have studied all of these kanji by the time they graduate from junior high school. The Ministry of Education has reviewed the current Jōyō Kanji set and proposed 191 kanji to be added to the list.  These characters are still under review, and the final list of additions is expected to be announced in the fall of 2010. Due to the amount of... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary Let's say you encountered this sentence: 新聞はあなたの脇にあります。 You likely know 新聞 as shinbun (newspaper, new + hearsay), so you could read the whole sentence, except perhaps for one troublesome character smack-dab in the center. Trying to work around it, you would have this: Shinbun wa anata no ___ ni arimasu. The newspaper is in your ... driveway? Birdcage? Thoughts? Looking at the components of 脇 might help. The "flesh" radical, 月, almost always tells us that we're talking about the body. So the newspaper is somewhere in your body?! When Does the 月 Component Not Mean "Flesh"? ... As for 力, that means "power." In fact, it was originally a pictograph of... Show more

皆さん、初めまして。英(はなぶさ)いつきです。私は、幼い頃から日本語に関する勉強が好きで、以前は高校で国語教員をしていました。このブログを通じて、皆さんと一緒にことばの面白さを分かち合えたら嬉しいです。 では早速、今回は「高い」という表現について考えてみましょう。 「背が高い」とは、どういう意味でしょうか？　「高い」は「下から上への距離が大きく離れること」を意味しています。だから、「背が高い」とは定規で地面から測っていくと上の方で目盛りを読む状態を指しています。  では、「鼻が高い」とは、どういう意味でしょう？　頬から鼻の先まで測ってみると長いのでしょうか？　いいえ、日本語では「得意になっている様子」を表わしているのです。皆さんも誰かに褒められたり、自慢できることがあったりすると胸をそらして上の方を見ませんか？　そうした仕草をしているとき、鼻は普段より高い位置になりますね。 では、「目が高い」はどうでしょう？　目が顔から飛び出すくらい上の方にある状態？　想像すると面白いですね。「目が高い」とは、日本では「良いものを見分ける能力に優れていること」を意味しています。  さらに、「声が高い」はどうでしょうか？　ソプラノの声のこと？　いえいえ、「声が大きいこと」を表わします。でも、大きな声で話そうとすると不思議と少し音程が高めになりますね。  日本語を学習している皆さんが高いもの…それは「志（こころざし）」、つまり自分を高めようとする熱意です。  ======================================================== Pleased to meet everyone – I’m Itsuki Hanabusa.... Show more

Love JapanesePod101? You HAVE to Check Out ChineseClass101.com! 50% Off Subscriptions for LIFE to the First 101 Signups! Innovative Language Learning LLC, the company that brought you JapanesePod101.com, is proud to announce the newest member of our language family, ChineseClass101.com! Have you been hankering to add another language in addition to Japanese to your linguistic repertoire? Have you ever wanted to learn Chinese for business, travel or personal fulfillment? If so, now is the perfect time to learn Chinese! ChineseClass101.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 subscribe to... Show more

The Kanji for this week are as follows: (Remember, each compound must use the Kanji in the brackets .) Kanji Scrabble #05 : 　年、立、長、大、語、社、入、国、会、見 Kanji Scrabble, a JapanesePod101.com original game. (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 入学 にゅうがく (n,vs) entry to school or university/matriculation/(P)/ 国学 こくがく (n) study of (ancient) Japanese literature and culture/(P)/ 国立大学 こくりつだいがく (n) national university/ 国語学 こくごがく (n) Japanese philology (linguistics)/ 大学 だいがく (n) (1) post-secondary education institution, incl. university, college,... 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. Our first forum spotlight post explaining particles for beginners of Japanese comes from Bueller_007さん. This was posted in response to a listener who said that they were having trouble keeping all of the particles straight. は (wa) marks a topic, emphasing what follows it as being specific to that topic. There is no real equivalent in English, but people often say that "AはB" = "As for A, B". The "topic" is often the grammatical subject, but can be anything (including the grammatical object, and sometimes the verb), and it may also follow some other particles. Grammar Bank が (ga) marks... Show more

Hi everyone! Did you know that JapanesePod101 is on Facebook? On Facebook, you can find a JapanesePod101.com Group, FanPage, and Application! If you're not quite sure what Facebook is,  it's a Social Networking Service that allows you to keep up with your friends and learn more about the people you’ve met. You can also share your photos, videos or other information with each other. What can you get from joining us on Facebook? - Updates on what's happening at JapanesePod101.com - The latest information on our daily lessons - FREE STUFF! That's right, starting now, Sunday 6:30 p.m. Tokyo time, we'll be giving away 5 Free App Codes to the first 5 people that grab them from our Fan Page on Facebook. This app code will give... Show more