Attempting to master a foreign language is a big undertaking, and if you want to become fluent someday you need to jump in with both feet. Nearly all Japanese I’ve met who have learned English really well were able to do so because they embraced not just the language itself, but the culture behind it, from music to movies to sports and more. When I was studying Japanese at SDSU, I went out of my way to use the language as much as I could, finding activities that helped make my studies more fun. I read a lot of manga, which are much easier to read than normal books and which provide lots of input of spoken Japanese, since comic books contain lots of dialogue between characters. I also learned about Japan through its popular music, listening to tapes my Japanese friends made for me and learning to sing Japanese songs at karaoke bars in San Diego. I probably overdid it a little — when I was dating my wife in the early 90s, she was amazed that there could be an American who hadn’t heard of singer Michael Bolton (who was at the top of his career at the time). I had listened to so much Japanese music I had missed him entirely.
Although Japanese kitchens are well stocked with spoons, forks and knives, most meals in Japan are eaten with chopsticks. Children usually learn to use chopsticks around the age of 4, when they start attending preschool, and this is quite possibly the first of many adjustments to the larger Japanese group that children have in their school lives. Every foreigner living in Japan knows the anguish of being told by a Japanese person hashi ga jozu (“you use chopsticks very well”). While one popular response is to compliment the speaker on their use of a knife and fork, I’ve found you can have more fun telling them okagesama de (oh-KA-gay sah-mah deh). This is a complex phrase which literally means “Yes, thanks to you,” almost as if you had leaned how to use chopsticks from the person, even though you’ve never met them before. The phrase is a useful way of showing Japanese-style humility whenever someone compliments you on something, and since few would expect a gaijin to know it, it’s fun to see their surprised expressions.
J-List offers many cool magazines from Japan via our revolving reserve subscription service, making it easy to get the newest anime, manga, JPOP, toy, and mature magazines sent to you every month. Some of the most popular monthlies are fashion magazines that let you keep your finger on contemporary Tokyo style, like FRUiTs (Harajuku street fashion), Kera (urban + gothic), Egg (“kogal” fashions for free-spirited Tokyo girls), and Super Cawaii (the newest fashion trends, worn by Japan’s top models). Men in Tokyo can be quite fashionable too, and for guys who want to be in sync with Japan’s trends we recommend the newly-posted Men’s Egg, which reports on what’s hot and what’s cool in Japan. All magazines we offer via our direct subscription service are loaded with beautiful color photographs, so you can enjoy them even if you don’t read Japanese.
J-List also sells many unique items from Japan that are great for the upcoming “back to school” season, including Japanese pencil cases with interesting characters, notebooks with funny English on them, study tools for getting better grades, and pens, pencils and other stationery items from Japan, always a pleasure to use. We’re adding more and more of these items to the site this month, for anyone looking to have something unique in school this fall, either for themselves or their kids. We also humbly recommend our wacky Japanese T-shirts and hoodies for the coming fall.
