JapanesePod101.com Blog

Konnichiwa! I'm sure everyone is waiting in anticipation to hear who the next Mailbag Contest winners are, but until we decide the final results I'd like to introduce another listener. This week's story comes from Richard Murabayashi, age 71 in Hawaii.  Murabayashi-san shared a story with us about how he started studying Japanese and how he currently studies. "I'm a soon to be 71 year old nisei and sansei, born and raised in Hawaii. Though I picked up some Japanese as a child, after the war broke out I didn't have a chance to study any longer. After that it was one thing after another, and Japanese was on the back burner until I retired at age 64. I started with 3 adult education classes in Japanese. And that was right about... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary This week, as the United States ushers in a new president and a new era, it seems appropriate to focus a bit on politics. Here are three political words that intrigue me: 共和党 (kyōwatō: Republican Party)     together + harmony + faction The breakdown gives us "harmony together"! And the first two kanji mean "cooperation"! Sounds like socialism to me! 進歩的 (shinpoteki: progressive)     to progress + progress + adjectival suffix The Japanese word for "progressive" actually involves "progress," 進歩. Strangely, the progress seems to come not from running but rather from walking (歩)! (Although 歩 generally means "to walk,"... Show more

Konnichiwa listeners!   Welcome to the new section of our blog, The Mail Bag. This is where we'll share stories from our listeners about their endeavors with Japanese. We hope stories from fellow students can help motivate and inspire you to learn Japanese with JapanesePod101.com or give you that extra needed push and renewed sense of strength when you think it's impossible to get become more proficient in Japanese!   This week we'd like to introduce you to Jalees, the winner of  the Mail Bag Contest and recipient of a free 1 year Premium subscription.  She had this to say about her Japanese studies: "My Japanese story is as simple as this.  I felt like my brain was MELTING! Why, you may ask? Well to make a long story... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary If English speakers talk about seeing something quickly, they usually mean that they glimpsed something as it whizzed by but couldn't study the image in detail. In Japanese, looking at something fast has an entirely different meaning: 早見 (hayami: chart, table)     fast + to see An alternate way of writing this compound features another "fast" kanji: 速見 (fast + to see). In both compounds, notice the kun-kun construction. This is old Japanese. A chart organizes the bare bones of information, enabling you to find what you need quickly! And what would it mean to look at something slowly in Japanese? Think of quintessential Japanese... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary Let's start with a quiz today. What do you think the following equation yields? excess + talk a. headache, earache b. gossip c. insincerity d. digression While you think about it, I'll share some photos from my recent trip to New Zealand (so as to block the answer). The Japanese writing is fuzzy. But you can blame any fuzziness on the millions of New Zealand sheep. The sign says this: キウィ・サウス (Kiui Sausu: Kiwi South) 羊の国のセーター (hitsuji no kuni no sētā:     knitwear)      sheep + country I love how "knitwear" turns into "sheep country sweaters"! The characters 喫茶 (kissa: tea house, to... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary Happy New Year! Or is it so happy right now? Quite possibly, you’re home with one of these: 宿酔 (shukusui: hangover) And how would I know that you happen to be at home with your hangover? Well, if you're feeling sick, it's likely that you'll want to stay home. But beyond that, the "ingredients" in 宿酔 more or less mandate that you be at home: 宿酔 (shukusui: hangover)     home + to become intoxicated Actually, it would seem from the breakdown (the kanji kind, not the bodily sort) as if you had gotten drunk at home, too. But I'll leave such matters to your discretion. You could probably succeed in getting drunk in any number of locales.   ... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary At this time of year, there are plenty of reasons to celebrate: 12 days of Christmas, 8 days of Chanukah, 7 days of Kwanzaa, and a partridge in a pear tree. But in all this merrymaking, you may have overlooked one important cause for celebration: 赤道祭（sekidōsai: ceremony to celebrate crossing the equator)     red + road + festival The Equator Is the Red Road?! ... As it turns out, an equatorial crossing is exactly what I celebrated this week. Somewhere over the Pacific, as others slept, I hooted and hollered as we crossed from winter into summer en route to New Zealand. I also celebrated the idea of seeing water swirl down the drain in... Show more

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year from everyone here at JapanesePod101.com! We're grateful to have listeners just like you, and we're eagerly waiting for the upcoming year to learn Japanese together! And when the New Year comes around, be sure to make a resolution to study Japanese with JapanesePod101.com! Have a healthy and happy holiday season. From Peter, Naomi, Natsuko, Sakura and the whole JapanesePod101.com team!

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary I feel that I've overloaded recent blogs, making us all work way too hard. There's been too much consideration of fine distinctions between similar kanji, too many examples, too many links to click, and too much to read. So it's time for an extended vacation from all that hard work—from all that thinking. (It sometimes seems as though we're never allowed to give our brains a rest, doesn't it? So much to stuff in there and keep straight.) I've decided that, over the next month or so, I'll return to the thing that inspires me most about kanji—cool compounds. In each blog, I'll present some great compounds, grouping them according to a theme (just to provide a reassuring... Show more

Picture this. You’re out holiday shopping. You see a sign for 10% OFF. You feel like you’re getting a really good deal, so you rush into the store and make your purchase. You’re a happy customer. 2 days later… You’re out holiday shopping again. You pass by the same store, and the sale sign doesn’t just catch your eye, it punches you in the face! 20% OFF! You're not such a happy customer. Sound familiar? We’ve all experienced it. You buy something at a low price just to see it selling at a lower one the next day. Now the good deal we got suddenly doesn’t seem so good anymore. And you know what? It didn’t seem fair. In fact, we think responsible people who act early should be rewarded. So…we came up with the Reverse... Show more