JapanesePod101.com Blog

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Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary Some kanji go together like peanut butter and jelly. Where you find one, you also find the other. For instance, 意 (I: will, heart, mind, thought, meaning, sense) frequently pairs off with 気, 地, and 得 inside compounds and expressions. In other words, 意 seems to be quite the trigamist.   意 + 気 In and of itself, 意気 (iki) means "spirit," "disposition," and "morale." With a sample sentence from Jim Breen's online dictionary, we can try to make sense of this abstract word: 鈴木さん、その意気ですよ。 Suzuki-san, sono iki desu yo. That's the spirit, Mr. Suzuki. If Mr. Suzuki is indeed in the right spirit, we might say the following about him: 意気に燃える (iki ni moeru: to be... Show more

A gravatar, or globally recognized avatar, is quite simply an 80×80 pixel avatar image that's associated with your email and follows you from blog to blog appearing beside your name when you comment on gravatar-enabled blogs. The comment section of the JapanesePod101.com are now gravatar-enabled. If you don't have a gravatar, you can easily get one for free at Gravatar.com. Just be sure to use the same email address that you use to post comments on the JapanesePod101.com blog. Please note that it might take a few minutes for your shiny new gravatar to show up on our comment system.

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary I find 意 (I: will, heart, mind, thought, meaning, sense) to be one of the cutest kanji around. It reminds me of an upright animal with the following assets:          A head beneath a beret            A blocky torso      Two legs, a long tail that curls around, and ... well, just             pretend we've got a male animal in our midst Put it all together, and you get something like this: Long-Tailed WeaselPhoto credit: Anne Elliott   No beret, but the tapering of the... Show more

Mina-san, We are pleased to announce that a new "remember me" function is now available. When you login to JapanesePod101.com you will now have the option to check a "Remember me?" box. If you do, you won't have to login again from that same computer for up to 7 days! To turn on the remember me functionality, simply click the checkbox next to the Login and Password fields. Then when you are finished interacting with the site - just close the browser window - do not logout (logging out erases the remember me ability). If you accidentally clicked the remember me option, don't worry - just be sure to fully logout of the site before leaving. The next time you visit the site, you will be asked to login again. If you... Show more

On November 13th, Zune launched its new Zune Software, Zune Social, Zune Marketplace and the Zune firmware. This release marks the official support of audio and video podcasting for Zune. JapanesePod101.com was among 1000 featured podcast feeds to come pre-seeded in the Zune Marketplace Podcast Directory (KoreanClass101.com and SurvivalPhrases.com are soon to follow). Podcast lovers can now find, play, subscribe, share, organize, and give feedback about their favorite podcasts (hint hint) Here's a screen shot of the JapanesePod101.com podcast in the Marketplace Podcast Directory (click to enlarge) Next is a screen shot of my favorite podcasts in my Zune Podcast Collection (click to enlarge) Zune also supports an easy... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary After seeing Wordplay (a documentary about crossword puzzle fanaticism), I couldn't resist the challenge of creating a kanji crossword for you. Well, that's what I started doing, but it morphed into a word find, which you'll find below. You'll probably want to print out the puzzle so you can write on it. Using "Print-Friendly View" will yield the cleanest copy. Reading from left to right or from top to bottom (but not diagonally), circle all viable compounds. Many circles will overlap, as in this example: 質　問　題 Here, you'd circle the first and second characters, which form shitsumon (question). Then you'd circle the second and third characters, which say mondai... Show more

PC Magazine, the most important technology publication in the world, selected JapanesePod101.com as one of five podcasts worth downloading in their Favorite 100 Blogs 2007 Series. "Languages don't come much more difficult than Japanese. Thankfully, this Tokyo-produced podcast offers a painless—and free—way to bone up on the language and culture of the Land of the Rising Sun, offering the sort of relevant real-world preparation that you won't get in a classroom or on a CD-ROM." - PC Magazine

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary One of my favorite compounds is 月食 (gesshoku: lunar eclipse), which breaks down as moon + to eat. During a lunar eclipse, it looks as if something is eating the moon! Given that, what do you think to eat + words means? Here's the answer: 食言 (shokugen: to eat one's words, break one's promise)     to eat + words Cute, isn't it?! There's a playful quality to many words with 言. So ... let's play!   Word Play What sort of person "makes words"? A writer? A compiler of dictionaries? 作り言 (tsukurigoto: fabrication, lie, fiction)     to make + words Making words makes you a liar! The definition includes... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary English speakers say "Silence is golden," but we don't mean it. After all, would chat rooms have become so popular if we didn't feel the constant need to voice our opinions? For What's Golden in Japanese ... I imagine that our cultural attachment to the idea of silence has Puritan roots. But silence also serves the most un-Puritan of motives. For instance, lawbreakers are notorious for saying "No comment." Of course, silence doesn't always indicate evasiveness. The following expressions give a sense of the possibilities inherent in silence: 言い落とす (iiotosu: to leave unsaid, neglect to mention)     to say + to fail (to do something) With... Show more