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Category Archives: Grammar
Grammar in Anime: B Gata H Kei
Small Words. Big Trouble. Sometimes it’s simpler for me to point something out in anime and, in so doing, give it context. Today’s subjects are the words “kata” (型) and “kei” (系). When playing second fiddle in a compound word, … Continue reading
Sugoku Hayai: Incredibly Fast
凄く速い Most casual viewers of anime and learners of Japanese are familiar with the word sugoi (すごい), roughly equivalent to “tremendous”. However, as a matter of grammar, it’s not good to write “sugoi hayai”. That’s hayai (速い) for the adjective “fast”. The … Continue reading
Teaching Japanese Verbs Well
A Successful Experiment For someone not intending to mess with the written Japanese language, verbs, or doushi (動詞), are one of the largest hurdles to forming one’s own sentences in Japanese. Forming sentences is a major positive step for the … Continue reading
Abstract vs. Tangible Learning in Japanese
There’s More Than One “Learning” One of the largest annoyances in trying to teach Japanese is that many words have differences that dictionaries will not tell you about. Some differences ought to only matter to ex-translators, like me; but not … Continue reading
On Excuses and Apologies
A Culture of Politeness One of my formative lessons in Japanese culture was an old National Geographic article about the cranked up, high stress, high velocity fresh fish business during the mid-80’s, when Japan was booming. It explained how no-fault … Continue reading
Blog Love: Onsen Meijin
I was looking around for some new blogs to look at, and I hadn’t yet discovered Onsen Meijin. A recent poster to my own blog pointed out that “meijin” (名人) means master, and has nothing directly to do with fame/ … Continue reading
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Japanese Idioms: O-tsukaresama desu
Thank You For Your Hard Work Usually, when お疲れ様です (o-tsukaresama desu) rolls off the Japanese tongue, it can be safely understood as “Thank you for your hard work.” The “o” part means that this applies to someone else. The “tsukare” part … Continue reading
Japanese Culture: Duties, Roles and Parts to Play
Yakuwari (役割、やくわり) A yakuwari can be a duty, a role, or a part to play. The first kanji can be read as “of use,” which is a concept used in service (for if you are of use to the Emperor, … Continue reading
Informal Japanese: Why It’s Important
Not Every Situation Is Formal One of the real, visceral failings of standard Japanese courses is that they only teach the formal versions of verbs in the classroom. Granted, this is good for academic situations, the conduct of professional business, … Continue reading
Japanese: That’s How It Is
ソーユーこと This reads like “soo yuu koto.” This is Tokyo dialect, under-pronouncing the first part. One might see the “koto” part either in kana or as kanji, but what we’re really seeing is actually: そういう事 The “sou” part indicates something … Continue reading