JapanesePod101.com Blog

We would like to start with a big, make that a very BIG, "Arigatou gozaimasu!" In total we received over 5,000 submissions! We were blown away by the incredible response to our request for help. We would like to thank everyone who submitted a suggestion, and also would like to let you know we'll be sending along a very special e-mail for you in the near future. Please keep an eye out for it. Below are the finalists. After 7 straight days of analyzing, testing, comparing, brainstorming, and more, below are the finalists. We would like to ask you help one more time, as we would truly appreciate a vote for your favorite. Thank you everyone for voting. The final results are below: Thank you again. It is you, the listeners,... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary I've never liked the term "passing away," perhaps because it's euphemistic or ... I don't know. I've just never liked the way it sounds. But this week, as my grandmother has been lying in a semi-conscious haze, close to death, I've taken comfort in the idea of a passage. That is, I like to think that she's not passing away but rather passing through. I imagine that she's going through a tunnel. Much as we come into this world through a birth canal, I choose to believe that she's working her way down a "death canal." And that somehow makes the idea more palatable. Death is about stopping: 止. It's about going no farther. But if she's in a passage, then she's still... Show more

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