Tag: Japanese language

After studying Japanese for four years at San Diego State University and living here for nearly twenty years, I'm about ...

Anyone who's worked in Japan probably knows the frustration of making a heartfelt suggestion to one's employer, only to have ...

Humans are strange creatures. It's okay for a man to carry a laptop bag or "messenger bag" or a backpack, ...

If you've ever spoken with a Japanese person at length, you may have noticed them making strange "agreeing noises" while ...

My son is in juken jigoku or "test hell" this year, as he prepares for his high school entrance exam ...

Iceland's erupting volcano Mt. Eyjafjallajokull has certainly been in the news a lot this week, and the media here was ...

The Japanese strike me as a very creative people, and I'm often amused by the things they bother to come ...

"How are you?" If you've ever taught English as a Second Language in Japan then you know the correct answer ...

It's interesting to see the random cultural tidbits you can pick up watching anime. Like the scene in K-On! in ...

Japan has certainly had a unique history. Compared with most other nations, it got a late start, importing its writing ...

The Japanese use a great number of English words in their daily speech, often changing their nuances to fit a ...

When I was studying Japanese back in the 1980s, I had a real problem finding tools to help me learn, ...

Just about any aspect of Japan can provide an interesting cultural lesson, even names. In Japan, everyone has a family ...

The other day I came across a site asking in all seriousness which country's animation was better, the U.S. or ...

The Toyota Motor Company has been in the news a lot lately over quality issues with its vehicles. Akio Toyoda, ...

When a member of one language group learns to speak another language, the laws of phonetics decree that he or ...

It's funny how anime characters tend to follow certain established patterns, like the classic dojikko clumsy girl, or the always-popular ...

There are several methods of learning a foreign language, including Grammar-Translation (learning grammar and example sentences), Total Physical Response ("Simon ...

In Japanese, there's a class of polite phrases that are useful to memorize since they're used quite almost daily. One ...

One aspect of Japan I've written about many times is the way Japanese are tickled to death when any of ...

Among the many fine products J-List offers, we have a popular line of magazines which can be purchased on a ...

Like other languages, Japanese comes in various dialects. Some of these are regional, like "standard" Tokyo speech or the more ...

J-List is loaded with fun products for Haruhi fans. First, we've got several outstanding T-shirts, like our popular "No Normal ...

Words are complex things, and one of the challenges a person learning a language like Japanese faces is parsing everything ...