JapanesePod101.com Blog

Hope everyone is enjoying their holiday season. With the year coming to a close we managed to squeeze in two more exciting enhancements. Lesson Browser The new lesson browser was developed with simplicity and convenience in mind. Broken down into "Core Lessons" and "Extra Lessons", this new features lets you quickly find the lessons you love. The new browser offers the following functionality: Brief description of each lesson level for new users coming in contact with JapanesePod101.com for the first time A Quick Jump menu to quickly find your favorite lessons within a particular level Sort functionality to arrange lessons by date (newest first or oldest first) A global search functionality to find any lesson by searching... Show more

Welcome to another addition of Benkyou Blog! So, you've been studying through JapanesePod101, but you think you're ready to add a little extra something to your routine. If you feel you've got a decent mastery of basic Japanese, there are a few ways you can add snippets of Japanese popular culture to your routine that will build your exposure to the language. Building exposure through music, television, and other forms of media is a great way of helping you learn Japanese. Case in point: me! Before I went to Japan, I was obsessed with Japanese pop music. It's all I listened to. GLAY and Utada Hikaru dominated the airspace in my bedroom. I was also your typical anime nerd (though not anymore – remember, this was when I was in 8th - 9th... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary Welcome to winter, a time of holiday hokeyness, excess consumption, darkness, coldness, and most of all sleep. A bear would put sleep first on that list. But you needn't be a bear to think about hibernation. As the year draws to a close, you might take note of the compound 越年 (etsunen: to go beyond + year), which means both "ringing out the old year" and "hibernating"! Actually, 冬眠 (tōmin: winter + sleep) is a much more common way to say "hibernation." It's a great compound but could introduce some confusion; if you already knew 寝, seeing 眠 would make you realize that there are two characters for "sleep": 寝 (SHIN, ne(ru): to go to sleep) 眠 (MIN, nemu(ru): to... Show more

Hello again! Welcome once again to Benkyō Blog. I was thinking back to when I first started studying Japanese, and I recalled a technique I used for memorizing some hiragana and katakana. I saw some of them like pictures or symbols of something else. These little picture devices helped me to remember what was what. Here are a few examples of what I came up with. While looking at my examples, think to yourself: what is it that I see? It's like looking at clouds and describing what animal they look like. One person might see a duck, and another person might see a stegosaurus. Don't just take my examples because they aren't yours. Make up your own and they'll really stick! コ　- This little guy is the katakana for “ko”. To me, I see a... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary In the holiday shuffle, it's easy to lose a sense of balance and perspective. Kanji to the rescue! Evening BalancePhoto credit: Hickoree   With all that I've said about 意 in past blogs, I've neglected to mention that it's nearly symmetrical. If this kanji resembles an animal with a long tail, just snip off that tail (ouch!), and you have yourself a symmetrical (but aching!) animal! When 意 combines with other symmetrical kanji, they result in compounds that are particularly calming to see. Click the link to find some of those. Soothing Symmetry ...   The Meaning of Life The commercialism of December can fill us with a sense of meaninglessness,... Show more

Youkoso! Welcome to the first “real” edition of Benkyou Blog. Gather 'round everyone, it's story time. I'm going to tell you a little personal story about when I was a high school exchange student in Japan. I am a very self-conscious person. I find I'm comparing myself to others often. So, when I and my fellow exchange students would get together for various functions, I was constantly comparing my Japanese to theirs. At first, I was proud of myself. I had the best pronunciation and least accent of anyone else in the group, and considering I'd had no formal Japanese education, I wasn't half bad. Midway through our ten month stay, things were a little different. I arrived at our little meeting for the Osaka exchange students and their... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary I've long been interested in human consciousness, so I'm excited that Japanese has a host of fascinating words about that concept. The word for "consciousness" is 意識, ishiki (mind + discernment). Strangely, ishiki sounds like dashiki. Since the 1960s in the United States, this West African garment has signified a raised consciousness about black culture and politics. And suddenly we're a world away from Japan! How did we stray so far, so quickly? Consciousness—faster than the speed of light! The word 意識 doesn't necessarily refer to a raised consciousness of social issues. Here are two terms for that: 社会意識 (shakai ishiki: social... Show more

Hey guys, Marky here! The year is coming to an end. I want it to hurry up and finish as soon as possible because I've been focusing all my energy on 2008. But, the month isn't over yet, so I'd like to get some important information out there about December. ◎　Mixi We finally got off our lazy butts and set up a mixi community. I'll be posting little tidbits here and there about upcoming stories and behind the scenes things. Next year we'll be trying some new approaches, so if you're obsessed with JPod like some people are, you'll definitely want to check it out from time to time. ◎　My Tokyo Travelblogue　 For fans of the Agnes Murakami saga, December is a good month for you! There are 4 Agnes lessons this month. Day 22,... Show more

So, you've listened to the podcasts. You've looked at the lessons. You've tried to memorize the grammar and vocabulary. Still having problems? Looking for some tips on studying Japanese? Looking for someone to relate to so that you don't feel like the only one struggling to learn this difficult language? Hello everyone. My name is Janna, and I'm here to introduce to you my new blog series, “Benkyo Blog", that will be the new addition to the JapanesePod101 blog. My job is simple: to make sure that you, the JapanesePod101 listeners, don't feel alone. I have been studying Japanese for years, and much of that time was spent in self-study. I went to Japan in 2004, my sophomore/junior year in high school, as an exchange student. While there,... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary When I happened upon the word 意図 (ito: intention), I was tickled. I figured that this instance of 図 might mean "map," as it sometimes does. If so, one could read 意図 as mind + map! An intention might be a map of the mind! Not So Fast ... Thinking that way made me quite happy, because back in college, I took an anthropology course called "Cultures and Consciousness," and one of my favorite textbooks was Charles Hampden-Turner's Maps of the Mind. An Ancient Memory of Maps of the Mind ... "Maps of the mind" is a great phrase, suggestive of many things, including trains of thought. When it comes to representing interconnected thoughts (e.g., about kanji!), the... Show more