JapanesePod101.com Blog

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary Recently, when I logged onto JapanesePod101.com to listen to some podcasts, a photo with big, bold, striking kanji stopped me in my tracks. The lesson was about 過労死 (karōshi), "death by overworking," but none of those kanji appeared in the photo. I knew 残業 (to remain + work) as zangyō, "overtime." And I knew 風 (FŪ, kaze) in several ways, often having to do with wind. But how did 風 factor into overtime? And what was 呂敷? What Does サービス Mean Here? ... Because the characters appeared in a photo, I couldn't copy and paste them into Breen, and somehow all other methods of kanji investigation failed me. What would the radical of 呂 be? It couldn't be 口, could it?... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary One might think of a jumble as a negative thing: a massive ball of knotted string that takes forever to untangle, a scrambled mind that keeps nothing straight, a mess of feelings and problems that you can't sort out, a messy house where you can't locate what you need. But there are also positive jumbles, and for some reason (hunger?!), I can mostly think of examples related to food: an appetizer sampler plate, variety packs of candy bars for Halloween, a stew. In fact, when you cook and mix things together, a jumble is often the goal. Hence the Term "Jambalaya"? ... Chaos of Color, the Big Hodgepodge Photo credit: © John W. Hammond Kun-kun 混 combinations... Show more

Back in November, Dr. Matt Wachsman contacted us about his mnemonic system for learning Kanji using captivating and enjoyable flash movies. These movies involve multiple parts of the brain simultaneously, reinforcing memory linkage with visual associations, sequence associations, humor and rhymes. We hope these will appeal to people with a variety of learning styles and that you enjoy them. We plan to introduce about 6-12 new Kanji per week to cover the Kanji taught in the first 6 years of school in Japan and the JLPT levels 4 and 3. This week's animation is titled Speak!

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary Do you think of Old Japan as an orderly or disorderly place? My gut reaction is to think of orderliness: the constant cleaning of already spotless houses, the exquisite presentation of shōjin ryōri (精進料理: vegetarian Buddhist food served at temples, meticulous + to offer + cuisine (last 2 chars.)), the dainty washi wrapped around purchases, and the minute attention to detail in the tea ceremony. And yet kanji calligraphy tends toward chaos! Only highly trained practitioners can read the flowing lines. And there's the matter of twisting, narrow roads in Tokyo and how easy it is to get lost there, with the unclear or nonexistent indication of streets and building numbers.... Show more

Back in November, Dr. Matt Wachsman contacted us about his mnemonic system for learning Kanji using captivating and enjoyable flash movies. These movies involve multiple parts of the brain simultaneously, reinforcing memory linkage with visual associations, sequence associations, humor and rhymes. We hope these will appeal to people with a variety of learning styles and that you enjoy them. We plan to introduce about 6-12 new Kanji per week to cover the Kanji taught in the first 6 years of school in Japan and the JLPT levels 4 and 3. This week's animation is titled Gate!

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary When I came upon the compound 混沌 (konton: confusion, chaos, disorder), I couldn't fathom why this word had taken on so much water (). I wondered whether the moisture had anything to do with the "swirling waters of confusion" to which English speakers refer. As it turns out, yes! Check out some of the meanings of these kanji (the second of which happens to be rare): 混: confused 沌: swirling water, to be blocked, primeval chaos Primeval chaos?! Burbling bodies of water must have terrified some early people! Swirl Photo credit: Ray Byrne Henshall says that 混 originally referred to water rushing and swirling with no fixed course, as in a flood. Then "confused... Show more

Metropolis, Japan's No. 1 English magazine, selected JapanesePod101.com as its first ever Website of the Week. Metropolis is a weekly English Magazine for foreigners with a focus on entertainment, events, and Japanese culture.

Back in November, Dr. Matt Wachsman contacted us about his mnemonic system for learning Kanji using captivating and enjoyable flash movies. These movies involve multiple parts of the brain simultaneously, reinforcing memory linkage with visual associations, sequence associations, humor and rhymes. We hope these will appeal to people with a variety of learning styles and that you enjoy them. We plan to introduce about 6-12 new Kanji per week to cover the Kanji taught in the first 6 years of school in Japan and the JLPT levels 4 and 3. This week's animation is titled What Box!

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary In English, "tail of the yak" and "tale of the yak" both make sense but mean very different things. This is nothing compared with the profusion of Japanese homonyms. When you type YAKU in hiragana and convert it to kanji, any of the following characters could pop up, as all have the on-yomi of YAKU: 約 (to promise, shrink, about) 訳 (to translate) 薬 (medicine) 役 (service, serviceability) 厄 (misfortune) 躍 (to leap) 疫 (epidemic) 益 (benefit, profit)　 This leads to a plethora of homophonous YAKU compounds. There are three more types of yaku: 焼く (to burn, roast, grill, bake) In this case, ya(ku) is the kun-yomi. Some compounds include the kun-yomi of... Show more

Mina-san, When we first started JapanesePod101.com, we only had a few lessons and a few levels, so it was very easy to figure out how to use the site. But now with over 700 lessons and many different levels and series, a lot of people have asked us “Where should I start?” While there are many ways to use the site, we definitely have a few recommendations! We grouped the lessons in 4 categories Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced and Miscellaneous. Also we designated each level linear or non-linear. Then we listed descriptions of the each course and included the first and last lesson so you can better gauge which levels are perfect for you! Check out the page here: Also, since it's Golden Week, we're running a special Promo... Show more