This Word is Rare

So I’ve already written about how I’m using the Android app Aedict as my main Japanese dictionary. It’s really handy, acts as a simple translator, but, it has one feature I can’t understand. It (like every Japanese-English dictionary I’ve seen) uses Jim Breen’s dictionary data as the source of all the words. And, it gives a “rarity” for each word I have looked up on it. I questioned some of the rarities before, but today I really had to check what was going on. I was typing out a reply on HelloTalk to someone, and I wanted to check that I was spelling こちらこそ correctly (no doubled vowel sounds anywhere),… Read More

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Sweet YouTube Japanese Drama

No, not a professional production. It’s Japanese From Zero versus a fan of All Japanese All The Time (AJATT). I like Japanese From Zero. I haven’t really looked at the printed materials that George Trombley puts out, but his videos are always informative. His explanations are clear, and he definitely knows his spoken Japanese very well. Then there is a guy called Matt, who runs the YouTube channel Matt VS Japan, and is a fervent disciple of the AJATT method. I don’t know a lot about AJATT, beyond the fact that its website reads like it was written by a dude bro who is trying to sell me insurance. As… Read More

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