Ferriss on how he learned Japanese, and other stuff
Posted by harvey in Language on 13. Mar, 2010 | 1 Comment
I found this TED Talk with Timothy Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Workweek, where he happens to mention his approach to learning foreign languages, and specifically Japanese.
Pretty interesting. I had no idea he was an old school Japan-head.
I think his idea of focusing on the joyo Kanji is a good idea. It certainly [...]
Cherry Blossom Festival in DC
Posted by harvey in Culture, Travel on 03. Mar, 2010 | No Comments
Here is a guest post from Erik who is involved in the Annual Washington D.C. Cherry Blossom Festival Planning!
First a few words from me though. Believe it or not, I have never been to the D.C. Cherry Blossom Festival… I was close to going last year since I was living on the east coast, but [...]
Evangelion in Kansai-ben
Posted by harvey in Humor, Language, Media, Movies on 17. Feb, 2010 | 1 Comment
This is quite possibly the coolest Kansai-ben thing ever.
Kansai-ben is an international language. You must learn it.
Near the end it busts into Yappa Sukiyanen by Yashiki Takajin, quite possibly the most famous songs in Kansai-ben ever (except maybe some of Ulfuls tracks).
And… don’t miss part 2!
If you’re curious about Kansai-ben check out our Kansai-ben lessons, [...]
Study Joyo Kanji on your iPhone with iKIC
Posted by harvey in Gadgets, Language, Media on 12. Feb, 2010 | 2 Comments
Yet another iPod Touch or iPhone App to help you learn Japanese has been released. This one was released my my former school, IUC Japan.
iKIC is available as a free limited download, and as a iKIC full paid version with more content. You can also purchase add-ons for the paid version that adds even more [...]
Kana Balls for iPhone and iPod Touch
Posted by harvey in Language, Media on 10. Feb, 2010 | 9 Comments
My good Twitter buddy @papajohn let me know that he had a new Japanese-related application called Kana Balls in the iTunes Store so I gave it a try.
Fun stuff! Despite the possibly awkward name… Kana Balls is a slick application!
This app will help you learn to read Japanese Hiragana and Katakana quickly. It doesn’t teach [...]
Rock in Direct Translation with Osama
Posted by harvey in Language, Media, Music on 04. Feb, 2010 | 1 Comment
Get ready for Highway Star and Smoke on the Water Japanese Style!
Highway Star in DIRECT translation.
The musician went by the name of Ousama 王様 (king) and was a musician engaging in this style called “chokuyaku rock” 直訳ロック. Here is Ousama on Wikipedia (Japanese). The focus of this music is on the lyrics, because they’re just [...]
PlaySay Revisited
Posted by harvey in Culture, Gadgets, Language on 01. Feb, 2010 | 8 Comments
Learn Japanese Vocab on your iPod-like Device with PlaySay
You may have noticed mention of PlaySay on and off on this blog over the past year so. Recently Ryan, the head Japan-head at PlaySay, contacted me to let me know that PlaySay has really been taking off. You can read a quick article about Ryan and [...]
More Mameshiba Advertisements
Posted by harvey in Food, Humor, Language, Media on 25. Jan, 2010 | 3 Comments
These are just too funny. Sure I could have tweeted it… but this deserves more permanent placement.
Be sure you catch the Kansai-ben speaking mameshiba commercial that I posted earlier!
- Harvey
