So, there are a lot of YouTubers living in Japan and making videos. Some of them are even Japanese. Japan is perceived as a really cool country by a lot of people who don’t live there. YouTubers find the coolest parts of the country, and display them to us, the Western audience, so many kilometers away from there. We go ooh, aah, and then the cycle repeats. A lot of these videos are about Japanese food. I understand as well as anyone that Japan is a gourmet’s paradise. And, sure, it’s interesting to see a video now and then about food, but EVERY video? There’s a lot more to Japan… Read More
Continue ReadingConfusing the Kanji, part 1 of ???
It’s no secret to any student of Japanese that, once they get into the kanji (you know, roll up their sleeves and really start dealing with that old cranky dog), there are a lot of confusing ones. Here are some of the ones currently plaguing me. 民 氏 猫 描 和 相 I leave their interpretation as an exercise for the reader.
Continue ReadingWorking the Conditional Form
Wow, this part of Japanese grammar is SO complicated. So I can use と たら ば なら Obviously, not all can be used, based on the context of the sentence. It’s figuring out the context of the sentence that’s the problem. The way I am trying to learn it is that there is an antecedent part of the sentence, and a consequent part of the sentence. I go to Japan (antecedent) I will visit Osaka and eat a lot (consequent) In English, I’ve got one word for conditional, if. If I go to Japan, I will visit Osaka and eat a lot. In English, there is also the word when,… Read More
Continue ReadingMy Dream Trip to Japan
I need some motivation to remind me why I’m doing all this Japanese studying, so I am going to write this blog post. These are the places I really want to visit, but if I win the lottery, I’ll be happy to go to lots more. Tokyo. 2-3 days. I think I would be able to enjoy it for this amount of time, but then what looks to be a very hectic pace would wear me out. Kyoto. 4-5 days. I want to see some temples and older buildings, in a quieter city. Also some kabuki and noh theatre, if I can find some. Locals could marvel at my complete… Read More
Continue ReadingTools for Writing Japanese
This is going to be Windows only, because I have no idea what is available on a Macintosh, or a Linux system, etc. System IME The built-in IME of Windows works just fine. You set it up, switch between languages with Windows-Space, and toggle between hiragana (ctrl-CapsLock) and katakana (alt-CapsLock). Sakura This one is for the hardcore fluent Japanese user, because it’s entirely in Japanese. It also seems to be made for programmers. However, unless I’m missing something (which I almost certainly am), you still need to use the Windows IME to actually enter text properly. JWPce This is for someone who wants to avoid the IME altogether, because you… Read More
Continue ReadingInteresting Japanese Grammar/Vocabulary Site
So I’m working on a small written project with the help of a Japanese person. And I got a correction of a sentence, with the following added at the end: かよ (Well, I’ve gotten a lot of corrections, but this is the one that triggered this blog post.) So I did the Google search on “kayo particle”, and out of the list of hits, I came across one for Nugalis. This is a Spanish-run site, apparently not updated since August 2016, going by the last News item on the site. But it listed かよ in the Grammar section, with the explanation (sentence-ending particle expressing doubt) It looks like they have… Read More
Continue ReadingFear of Mistakes
So I go to a Meetup group almost every week, with the express purpose of practicing my spoken Japanese, and almost every week, I don’t speak it. I could make up a lot of BS reasons for why not, but the main one is fear of looking stupid, of being so bad at speaking that I embarrass myself irreparably for all eternity. Pretty stupid, right? I mean, what am I, some kind of child? In this case, sure. I am being a child. So, my challenge going forward is to speak at least one sentence in Japanese next week. Then…one more each week. Then I’ll at least know how much… Read More
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