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Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary I love the yomi arawa. It rolls off the tongue. And yet the sequence of sounds is also tough to remember—so much so that when I first learned arawa(seru) as the kun-yomi of 表, I had to associate it with a mnemonic: Ottawa. Strangely, those words sound similar—or they do when I pronounce them! Last week we found that 露 can have the yomi of arawa, in which case it means "exposed, scanty, bare, unconcealed, naked." In a tucked-away corner of an August blog, we looked at three other kanji with the kun-yomi of arawa and with similar meanings. So here's what we now have altogether: 1. 露 (arawa: exposed, scanty, bare, unconcealed, naked) 2. 著 (arawa(su): to write,... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary Two weeks ago, we came to know 露 (RO, RŌ, tsuyu) as "dew." So when I saw 露 in the following compound, my mind naturally turned to "dew": 流露 After all, 流 (RYŪ, naga(reru)) means "to flow," and dew could easily flow. But in this case, 露 means "to expose"! Here's the word again: 流露 (ryūro: to disclose, reveal, express)     to flow + to expose In fact, 露 often conveys a sense of exposure. That was actually our first taste of this kanji two weeks ago, when I introduced a compound about introductions: 披露 (hirō: announcement, introduction)     to reveal + to expose We also knew 露 as "to expose" back in March, when we... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary We saw last week that 露 (RO, RŌ, tsuyu) primarily means "dew." But this kanji has also spun off several auxiliary meanings, most relating to dew metaphorically. Let's take them one by one. DewPhoto: Mustangaly   Tears This will be a very short section, because I can offer you only one expression involving 露 as "tears." But it's a doozy: 袖の露 (sode no tsuyu: tears falling onto the sleeve)     sleeve + tears I'm hoping there's also a phrase for "tears falling onto shoes" or "tears (sparked by poverty) falling onto empty wallet," but if so, I haven't yet found those expressions. If you need to know more about tears in a... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary When my Japanese-language partner told me about his brother's wedding reception, he used the word 披露, which tripped me up in a variety of ways. I learned that the yomi was ひろう (hirō), and even though the dictionary identified ひろう as a noun, it sure looked like a verb, and I couldn't shake that sense. I eventually had to relent. After all, it's a noun. This compound contains 露 (RO, RŌ, tsuyu), the kanji for dew! Something about both 露 and the English word "dew" appeal to me immensely. I have no idea why, except that when I was young, I frequently passed a sign for a motel called Dew Drop Inn. It was perhaps my first exposure to wordplay, and that sign made something click... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary Today we're going to start with dessert—a quiz! Uncharacteristically, the learning portion will come at the end. Below you'll find a game that I had to excise from my forthcoming kanji book, because of space constraints. (Similar exercises remain in the book, but this one got the axe because it was so long.) It seemed like a shame to waste the material, especially after my friend Mayumi-san was nice enough to help me create the game, so I thought I'd present it here. In the sentences below, one kanji appears repeatedly: 覚. This character has quite a few yomi, and the point of the game is to figure out which yomi applies each time. Rewrite the sentences in hiragana or... Show more

Starting Monday, November 10th all lessons three weeks or older will be moved to the Basic subscription section of the site. The first three lessons of every season and every level will remain free forever on the site. What does this mean for you? If you’re an active Basic or Premium member, you will be unaffected. Absolutely nothing will change. Furthermore, long-time listeners enjoying the most recent episodes, you are also unaffected. Lessons less than three weeks old will remain absolutely free on the site and on the feed. In addition, the first three lessons of all levels and all season will still be free on the site for you to study from, so continue to enjoy JapanesePod101.com lessons. Listeners and users focusing on older... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary You may have heard that there's a Japanese town called Obama. Well, it's true! The town is in central Japan, on the island of Honshu, in Fukui Prefecture. To understand the origin of the name Obama, you need to know more about the two characters that form that word: 小浜 (Obama)     small + beach As it turns out, Obama is "small beach," making it one of those wonderful Japanese place names that derive entirely from nature. (We have a bunch of those in English, too, but somehow Pleasant Hill and Pine Valley seem horribly suburban and bland by comparison.) With 小浜, you pronounce the first kanji simply as o. Normally, the second isn't bama but... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary Let's start with a quick quiz. We’ve seen that 味 (MI, aji) means "flavor," among other things. Given that, what do you think this compound means? 一味     one + flavor a. the best possible flavor b. unique or peculiar flavor c. gang, clan d. monomaniacal To block the answer from view while you think about it, I'll share something cool I saw in LA recently: The orange thing in the car is the setting sun! You may remember how I said awhile back that accepting my new age was as difficult as looking at the sun? I saw this sunset during an endless traffic jam on my birthday. So I guess I managed to look straight at the sun after all! OK, give... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary Today we'll learn how to be pretentious in Japanese. If you've ever watched the show Frasier, you may have heard the character Niles order cappuccino with "just a whisper of cinnamon." And if you saw the movie Sideways, you heard the wine snob protagonist refer to one red wine as having "the faintest soupçon of asparagus and just a flutter of a nutty Edam cheese." These characters used an important bit of syntax when they indicated "a touch of" or "a smidge." How important? Well, it's the difference between calling a movie Evil and A Touch of Evil. In Japanese, 味 (MI, aji) enables you to indicate when something has just a hint of this or a touch of that. This kanji... Show more

Hello Ladies and Gentlemen, (Formal I know, but "G'Day mates," might be a bit too casual.) Sam (AKA Jkid) here. I have been listening to JapanesePod101 since its debut on the web. Its purpose was simple. To make learning Japanese interesting and fun. As a long time learner of Japanese I was, of course, interested in what it might have had to offer. Since that time I have listened to almost all of the lessons here. At first, that is all I did. However, it didn't take me long to find my way over to the forums and into the comment section of each lesson where I then began to interact regularly with the great community of people that’s been established here. (Although, it should be noted that in the lesson comments I posted as “A... Show more