iPhone Kansai Dialect App Now Available!
Posted by harvey in About, Language, Osaka on 31. May, 2009 | 3 Comments
Hey Everyone!
Our iPhone and iPhone Touch Kansai-ben application is finally available in the iTunes Store! The full application name is “Japanese 101: Kansai Dialect.” You can read more about the application here, and also in the iTunes Store. The direct link to the App in the iTunes Store via iTunes is here, careful, this [...]
Movie: My Secret Cache
Posted by harvey in Media on 30. May, 2009 | 2 Comments
I recently saw the movie My Secret Cache (ひみつの花園).
To be frank, this was an extremely campy comedy with a completely ridiculous plot. The main character Sakiko, played by Naomi Nishida, is a girl who since childhood has only been able to get excited about money. When guys ask her out on a date, she checks [...]
JapanNewbie Reader Survey!
Posted by harvey in About on 26. May, 2009 | No Comments
Hey everyone!
I put together a simple five question survey in an attempt to learn more about JapanNewbie readers and what you want from JapanNewbie.com. Please participate in it!
There are hundreds of you, some of you who have been reading for 5 years, and some who are new. I really only personally know a handful of [...]
Gakuranman’s Super Mario X Japanese Lesson
Posted by harvey in Language, Media on 24. May, 2009 | 1 Comment
Latest video post by Gakuranman entitled “Super Mario X Japanese Lesson” is freakin’ great.
I didn’t know バーター either! And neither did my wife who is a native speaker! Mike is digging deep into the bowels of Japanese. Follow him down the rabbit hole… Or something.
- Harvey
Marriage Hunting – Japanese Slang and Society
Posted by harvey in Culture, Society on 24. May, 2009 | 18 Comments
That says “konkatsu”. This word isn’t in your dictionary, but if you’ve been studying Kanji for quite some time and know a bit about Japanese society you can probably guess what it means. By the way, “konkatsu” was nominated for the 2008 流行語大賞, if you’re into that sort of thing.
I’ll explain this “konkatsu” slang [...]
A Trip to Yakushima
Posted by harvey in Travel on 22. May, 2009 | 4 Comments
I realized about a week ago that I never blogged about my trip to Yakushima in October 2007. It’s a shame too, because Yakushima was one of the greatest trips that I took during my entire 6 years in Japan! I think blogging on it slipped my mind because I was a bit busy right [...]
Kansai-ben iPhone App Audio Preview #2
Posted by harvey in Gadgets, Language on 21. May, 2009 | 2 Comments
Here is another sample from the upcoming Kansai-ben Application illustrating the difference in intonation used when speaking Kansai-ben when compared to standard Japanese.
In this audio sample both speakers are saying the exact same thing, but one person is speaking in the standard Japanese intonation and the other is a native of Osaka speaking with Kansai-ben [...]
Study Abroad in Japan Tips from Joe in Japan
Posted by harvey in Travel on 21. May, 2009 | 8 Comments
Just ran across a blog entry written by Joe who studied abroad in Japan for one year, returning to the states March 2009.
He has some good straight-forward advice on how to get the most out of a study abroad experience in Japan.
Even though I did my study abroad from 1999 to 2000, reading his comments [...]
