Going to Hanami
Well, spring has arrived and the cherry blossoms have started blooming. The bloom this years has been quite late so it looks like this weekend is going to be the time to go see them. (At least for us...
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Mo’ Moe!
「秋葉」 used to be Tokyo’s biggest electronic district. I say, “used to” because it has been steadily turning into something shadier over the years. 「秋葉」(short for 「秋葉原」) is pretty much a geek’s paradise....
View ArticleAnd then… (scroll… scroll… scroll…) …never mind
Japanese blogs are good reading practice if you can find some interesting ones. Most share some unique characteristics. I don’t know who wrote the rules of Japanese blogging… …but you have to use...
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A (late) intro to the original 電車男
I was looking through my old blog for fun and ran into a post about 電車男. Though the post is over 2 years old and the height of 電車男’s popularity is long past, the original story (with some commentary)...
View ArticleA (not very) sarcastic conversation in Japanese
A: Yeah right, like there’s NO sarcasm in Japanese. B: Yes, that’s right. There’s no such thing as sarcasm in Japanese. A: Yeah, like NOBODY is sarcastic in ALL of Japan. B: You can say that. A: And...
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Holidays get deadly with Death Note
Life continues to be hectic and updates to this blog will be sparse probably till the end of this year. I had wanted to write a post with a comprehensive review of the Death Note comic book series with...
View ArticleThe opposite of polite… rude? Not really.
As most of you know, Japanese has a separate way of speaking to show politeness. This way of speaking is called 「敬語」 as a whole and is split into two levels: 1) Polite – 丁寧語, and 2) Honorific/Humble –...
View ArticleJapanese TV
Here’s a funny blog post about Japanese TV: http://www.gaijinsmash.net/archives/drivel_in_a_box_1.phtml Looks like Japanese TV has remained pretty much the same since I’ve been there. I actually like...
View ArticleA difficult reason for losing motivation
Reading articles like these really drains my motivation for learning Chinese. Under Chinese law, carriers of hepatitis B cannot work as teachers, elevator operators, barbers or supermarket cashiers. In...
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Ordering food in real Japanese (part 1)
Phrases won't help you if you can't read the menu If you ever learned how to order food in a classroom and/or textbook, let me assure you that is not how it’s done. Because Japanese employs a relative...
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Ordering food in real Japanese part 2 (ramen)
The response to part 1 was very positive so as promised, here’s part 2 of ordering food in real Japanese. I imagine the first thing most people come up with when thinking about Japanese food is “sushi”...
View ArticleWhat I’m reading today
So today, I read a pretty mundane article about the author’s attempt to gradually lose weight instead of making drastic weight changes. Not super interesting but still good reading practice. Here’s a...
View ArticleSound more Japanese with interjections
When I tutor Japanese, I try to correct non-Japanese interjections whenever possible, the most common one being “umm”. Even the most skilled speakers including native speakers sometimes need to fill...
View ArticlePersonality change by language?
Have you ever felt like your personality changes slightly depending on what language you speak? For example, in Japanese, I feel like I’m a little bit more polite. For example, I might say “shit” or...
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This is pretty much racism…
For crying out loud, I don’t want to write about political BS on my blog but this is just too ridiculous. Here’s a news article about a Korean textbook that had pictures of Japanese people in it. OH MY...
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