JapanesePod101.com Blog

Some of you may have noticed that the "Contains" and "Ends with" search methods of the word dictionary in the Learningcenter are gone. We changed the way the dictionary works to improve performance, and to take a large step closer to providing you more accurate search results. Therefore it now returns results ordered by relevance. The order is not perfect, processing natural language with computers is difficult, but it should be much better than before ;) Now I will explain by example how the remaining search methods work: The default "Is" method will now also search inside English phrases. A search for "way" for example will still find "途中 - on the way, en route, midway". It will also find "one-way traffic", but will not find... 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 Ear!

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary We saw two weeks back that 密 has three disparate meanings: 1) Close, dense, thick, compact, tight 2) Minuteness, carefulness 3) Secret, private, illegal, stealthy Thus far, we've only explored meaning #3. As I've said, it's odd that these meanings appear to be so far apart. But are they really? Maybe not. Let's look at some takes on secrecy: The secret of a good sermon is to have a good beginning and a good ending, then having the two as close together as possible.      —George Burns (1896–1996) He's obviously linking secrecy (meaning #3) with closeness, density, compactness (meaning #1). OK, let's try another: The whole secret... Show more

Mina-san, our friend Tajee and her team have started a new short video series starring a Ninja Girl who offers insight into different Japanese things and events. You can see Ninja girl in action here.

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 Child!

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary In English, we speak of "airtight excuses." This is a strange idiom. "Airtight" means something so impermeable that air cannot pass in or out of it. But how could air pass in or out of an excuse? Are we talking about hot air? No, I think the point isn't actually the air; the point is the sturdiness of the excuse. It's so solid that you can't poke a hole in it, deflating it like a flimsy balloon. Oh, dear, we're back to air. Well, so be it. If you've confided your most scandalous secrets to a friend, you might hope for something similarly airtight—a hermetic seal around those secrets. Here's how you can say "airtight" in Japanese: 気密 (kimitsu:... 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 woman!

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary In Part 3 of the unagi road trip series (a recent beginner's lesson in the main part of JapanesePod101.com), the PDF contains this great sentence: 君の秘密を皆に話してしまったよ。 Kimi no himitsu o mina ni hanashite shimatta yo. I have revealed your secret to everyone. Breakdown of the Kanji ... Another Way to Betray Someone's Trust ... When would you ever say something like this? And with what tone? Perhaps you utter it in a state of complete disgrace, just before ending your life. You've got the sword in hand (since you're a Japanophile and want an old-timey, Japanese method of suicide). You hang your head and quietly say, "Kimi no himitsu o mina ni hanashite shimatta... Show more

After weeks of development, we're happy to announce the launch of the much anticipated My Feed. This fully customizable RSS feed lets Premium members decide exactly what lesson content they want on their Premium feed. Setting up My Feed is a a simple 3 step process. Choose the lesson types you want (e.g. Beginner, Newbie, Audio Blog, etc.) Choose the type of content you want (e.g. Main Audio, Dialog Clip, Review Clip, PDF, Video Vocab, etc.) Add My Feed to iTunes or other iTunes compatible feed readers like Juice, and just watch the content you want come rolling in. To learn more about My Feed check out the video below or if you're a Premium member, click here to get started now. Thank you all for your continued... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary For kanji lovers, the word 果実 (kajitsu: fruit, fruit + fruit) is so ripe with possibilities that it's ready to explode. As we saw last week, 果 and 実 each mean "fruit," both literally and metaphorically. We investigated the juicy, literal sense last time. Now we'll see how these terms can refer abstractly to the fruits of one's labor—the rewards for hard work. Let's take these kanji one at a time.   The Rewards of 実 The following word captures both the literal and metaphorical aspects of 実: 実入り (miiri: (1) crop, harvest; ripeness; (2) earnings, profits, gains)     fruit + to enter The breakdown brings to mind James and the Giant Peach.... Show more