Tag: Japanese language

When you study a foreign language, the first thing you usually learn are the "naughty" words -- that's just human ...

The ongoing crisis in Japan has caused a lot of deep thinking about the country in general by the Western ...

The drama in Japan continues, two weeks after the worst earthquake in the country's history, and every day brings new ...

Japan's terrible national tragedy continues five days after the strongest earthquake ever recorded here. Cleanup is proceeding, but it's a ...

Japan's online culture has really taken off over the past decade, and it's fun to dip into some of the ...

One of the great things about having kids is, you get to watch them at various stages as they grow ...

It's interesting, the things you learn to do in Japan. Like writing "air kanji" for someone, or explaining how to ...

The most common word for "foreigner" in Japanese is gaijin, a term that's used to describe Westerners who are obviously ...

One of the great mysteries of learning a non-Western language like Japanese is when your brain actually starts "reading" it ...

I write often about how vague and imprecise the Japanese language can be, and how easy it is for foreigners ...

One of the more unique snacks in Japan is taiyaki, essentially a fish-shaped cake made with pancake batter and containing ...

Over the weekend we went to our favorite Indian restaurant for curry, tandoori chicken and that heavenly naan bread that ...

One impression of the Japanese language I got soon after arriving here was one of "duality," and it seemed that ...

As with any language, Japanese has certain weirdness built into it. There are, of course, words for occupations which have ...

Japan uses kanji characters to communicate written meaning, a system that has worked for the Chinese for the past 3000 ...

I remember when I first started learning Japanese, I wondered how Japanese text entry could work on a computer. I ...

One of the defining features of the Japanese people is humility, known as kenson (ken-sohn). This manifests itself in interesting ...

One of the holy grails of speaking a foreign language is thinking in your target language, a process that seems ...

I sometimes look back with fondness on my college days, and the adventure that was learning Japanese in Mrs. Higurashi's ...

Right now it's juken (test) season in Japan, when hundreds of thousands of students take the entrance exams they've spent ...

The Japanese language is based on kanji characters in much the same way that Western languages draw from ancient Latin ...

One thing I like about popular culture like anime or manga is the way is the way it can teach ...

I write a lot about how Japanese is a vague, nuanced language that can create some challenges for Westerners trying ...

On the J-List and JBOX.com websites right now we've got a New Year's greetings featuring our mascot character Megumi who ...