Tag: kanji

Although all languages share the basic building blogs of grammar, with nouns, verbs, and adjectives, passive and active voice and ...

Learning a new language means getting used to new linguistic concepts, and there are constructs in Japanese that are very ...

One of the more welcome aspects of the Japanese people is their tendency to be humble, a trait you observe ...

One theme I write a lot about is how there's exactly one "correct" way to do things in Japan -- ...

Random nihongo lesson! There's a category of four-syllable (four kana) word used here that are so pregnant with meaning they ...

Back in the early days of my fascination with Japan, I used to wonder how computers and word processors could ...

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

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

"You've been in Japan too long when you can do arithmetic in oku, cho and kei." My father-in-law loves to ...

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

Although most Japanese study English for six years, or up to ten if they take it in university, they're not ...

One area of Japan gaijin are often fascinated with is the way kanji names work. While foreign names are generally ...

I wrote recently about how the Japanese use the katakana writing system to phonetically represent foreign place names like "Grand ...

What's really warm and might conceivably get you a Japanese girlfriend (or boyfriend)? Our warm hoody, which proclaims "Now accepting ...

Everyone knows that the Japanese use Chinese characters, or kanji, as part of their writing system, but since kanji are ...

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

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

One interesting difference between Japan and the West is the use of hanko, or name stamps, when indicating approval on ...

Every language represents different challenges to learners. If I were to study a Romance language like Spanish, I'd need to ...

I wrote last time about an amusing marketing campaign by Georgia Coffee to sell canned coffee using the slogan "Yes, ...

Each year the organization that publishes the Standardized Kanji Test announces the "kanji of the year," the character that best ...

Learning a foreign language is good for reasons beyond the obvious benefit of being able to communicate and share ideas ...