JapanesePod101.com Blog

Hi, everyone! Nowadays, there are many fantastic ways to learn Japanese with modern technology like JapanesePod101.com! One good way to learn and experience Japanese culture and language is to surf YOUTUBE! There are many excellent things, and many not so excellent things, you can find on this website. For example, this video can help you remember some adjectives. This is an actual TV commercial in Japan. This commercial uses i-adjectives in a very simple and funny way! You can find many other ads if you search “Japanese Funny Commercial”. If you are learning Japanese outside of Japan, it is sometimes difficult to find very authentic material, but YOUTUBE provides you with the opportunity to access updated authentic... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary Musically and astronomically, we know about the dark side of the moon. But what about the dark side of the sky—or rather, the dark side of the "sky" kanji, 空? As I mentioned in my last blog (when discussing 空々しい　(sorazorashii: false, hypocritical) and 空手形 (karategata: bad check; empty promise)), 空 has a seamy side. This kanji often means "fake" or "sham." Take, for example, these words: 空名 (kūmei: empty name; false reputation)             fake + name 空夢 (sorayume: fabricated... Show more

Hi everyone! Do you have difficulty remembering the counters for small animals (匹・ひき・hiki) and minutes (一分・いっぷん・ippun)? When you count these, as you might know, sound changes as below. CounterHiPi(Bi) CounterFuPu 一匹 ippiki 一分 ippun 二匹nihiki  二分nifun  三匹 sanbiki 三分 sanpun 四匹yonhiki  四分yonfun  五匹gohiki  五分gofun  六匹 roppiki 六分 roppun 七匹nanahiki  七分nanafun  八匹 happiki 八分 happun 九匹kyūhiki  九分kyūfun  十匹 juppiki 十分 juppun When just starting... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary A Japanese friend wrote a tongue-twister and presented it to me in rōmaji, challenging me to convert the words into kanji and hiragana. I did fine until I encountered this line: Kono bin itsu kara kara, kinō kara kara, ototoi kara kara? I associate kara with "from" and "because," so I thought the repeated kara kara phrases might have meant "because it's from." Wrong! For every kara that appeared before a punctuation mark, I should have written 空, meaning "empty" in this case. For The Answer tothe Kara Kara Puzzle ... Just as kara has multiple personalities, so does 空. Look at all its yomi! KŪ: sky, empty a(keru): to empty, leave blank kara, kara(ppo):... Show more

皆様、こんにちは。Hi everyone! My name is Miho　「美帆」, and I live and teach Japanese in Australia, Melbourne. I am also currently studying at renown Monash University. Since JapanesePod101.com began, I have been keeping track of its progess, as I see it as such a fun and interesting way of learning Japanese. I find the pedagogy of the program interesting, and as a teacher of Japanese, I would like to blog about “Japanese teaching”. It sounds quite broad, doesn't it? I will basically talk about useful tips for both learners and teachers of Japanese over the next 10 weeks. My advice and tips will probably focus on students with an English Speaking background since I am in Australia, but you are always welcome to comment about other language... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary When a Japanese friend emailed me a recipe, one ingredient jumped out at me: 玉ねぎ (tamanegi: onion). I hadn't realized that "onion" contains 玉 (GYOKU, tama), the character for "jewel." I momentarily enjoyed thinking of onions as the gems of the vegetable world! As I soon found, though, 玉- is also a prefix meaning "spherical" or "round." That's the sense 玉- conveys in 玉ねぎ. On 玉- as a Prefix Meaning "Spherical" ... Oh, well. Seeing the 玉 of 玉ねぎ as "round" is a little more mundane than imagining a white onion as the pearl of the produce store, a yellow onion as a topaz, or a red onion as a ruby! On Jewels ofMany Colors ... The "onion" compound isn't the only food... Show more

Hey everyone! My name is Jonathan. While a lot of the crew has been busy creating lessons and content, I’ve been working on a few initiatives for JapanesePod101.com. Here are some of fantastic things we’ve done in the past few weeks to share JapanesePod101.com with the world: 1) Solutions Page – We’ve added a section for those interested in using our podcasts and content for schools, companies, and government agencies. Check it out! 2) Wikipedia – We recently created a wiki entry on Wikipedia! Now, you can read all about your favorite Japanese language podcast here. 3) Facebook – In addition to our MySpace and Frapper pages, we now have a Facebook group! Find us by searching us under Group Pages, and add us... Show more

Poking around youtube, as I am often of wont to do, I came across ピタゴラスイッチ1, a kids TV show. The main demographic of ピ・ス seems to be Japanese first graders, which suits me fine, as my Japanese is at about that level. I found a series called 「なにしてるの？」2 Each short clip is only a minute or so, and I have learnt something from every single one. In each one, three boys are seen in a playground. One notices an adult doing really weird exercises, and is heard to remark 「何してる」3. Eventually one succumbs to the others' badgering of 「聞いて来いよ」4, wanders over and asks 「おじさん、何やってるの？」5 He explains the weird procedure he is going through, and a clip explains it a bit better. I discovered the verb which 愛香6 explained to me as the verb 'to spray', a... Show more

Golden Week is here and what better way to celebrate than with an Instant 25% Savings on ANY Basic or Premium JapanesePod101.com subscription. With the country closing down for almost a week, everyone in Japan will surely enjoy something good. At JapanesePod101.com we don’t want you to miss out! Make this year's Golden Week a memorable one by taking advantage of this limited time offer! Simply enter coupon code GOLDENWEEK in the coupon field provided during the registration process to take advantage of this incredible opportunity. New to JapanesePod101.com? * Click here to SAVE 25% and Sign Up for a New Subscription * Coupon Code: GOLDENWEEK * Expiration Date: Saturday, May 5th, 2007 at 11:59pm EST Previously a JapanesePod101.com... Show more

Daniel here. Reporting for JapanesePod101.com. お花見 (おはなみ), or cherry blossom viewing is one of the more pleasant seasonal traditions in Japan. The flowers are stunningly beautiful and change the landscape much like snow can in Winter. People wait in anticipation for their arrival, and the news forecasts 満開 (まんかい • full-bloom) predictions like they do coming rainfall and rising temperatures. In addition to their beauty, 桜 (さくら) are short-lived. Almost as soon as they bloom, wind, rain, and budding leaves conspire to force the lovely pedals off their branches. Just as quickly as they achieve their full majesty, they depart and make way for Spring. As a side note, this phenomenon is very apropos for Japanese culture which seems to... Show more