BBQ Meat Day Explained
Posted by harvey in Culture, Humor, Language on 27. Nov, 2011 | 1 Comment
What do these people have in common? Michael Jackson, birthday: August 29, 1958 Bae Yong Joon (Yon-sama), birthday: August 29, 1972 John McCain, birthday: August 29, 1936 Charlie Parker, birthday: August 29, 1920 Right! Their birthdays are the same! But what about their birthdays is special and interesting to those of us studying Japanese language [...]
Japanese slang: Bacchiguu
Posted by harvey in Language, Media on 03. Sep, 2011 | Comments Off
Time to learn some 90s Japanese slang!!! バッチグー!!! I can hardly even remember why I wanted to blog about this phrase… Ah yes, I do remember now. So I’m slowly working my way through Devil Survivor, a sweet strategy RPG for DS, and there is one character that says this phrase over and over again. [...]
Swearing in Japanese
Posted by harvey in Culture, Language on 13. Aug, 2011 | 7 Comments
Come on, admit it. The first time you started learning Japanese you wanted to learn all the swear words. There’s no shame in that, I did too. But now that you know a few, and you’re a bit more geek, you want to know what they really mean and where they came from, right!? Maybe you [...]
Intensive Japanese at OSU – Interview with @curryisyummy
Posted by harvey in Culture, Language on 04. Aug, 2011 | 1 Comment
Time for another interview with a fellow Japan Head! This time we talk to David (@curryisyummy) who will tell us about the intensive summer Japanese program that he is doing in Ohio at the moment. He finishes the program on August 19th, so he’s really right in the thick of it. If you still have [...]
Unbelievable! Old School Japanese Slang
Posted by harvey in Culture, Humor, Language on 16. Jul, 2011 | 4 Comments
Today I attended a wine tasting party and there happened to be tons of old-school Japan hands there along with their respective Japanese wives. It was a little awkward being the youngest dude in the room by an entire generation, but it was cool to hear their stories. One man had lived in Japan in [...]
A Poem by Misuzu Kaneko
Posted by harvey in Art, Culture, Language on 09. Jul, 2011 | 3 Comments
Kaneko Misuzu One of my good friends told me to check out this poem by Kaneko Misuzu [wiki] quite some time ago, and I finally got around to it. The poem is short and sweet, and not too difficult, so you can use it as a study tool as well. I have provided a simple [...]
Japanese Calendar Converter for iPhone
Posted by harvey in Gadgets, Language on 09. Jul, 2011 | Comments Off
I’ve had this app for a while now. It’s simple, but useful, and free! The title is, “Gengou Free” By Masayuki Akamatsu. It converts the year counting system you’re used to, like 2011, into the Japanese system which is like 平成 (Heisei) 23. You know how when you’re filling out some form at a service [...]
Tadoku Again! What to Read?
Posted by harvey in Books, Language on 29. Jun, 2011 | 4 Comments
Kafka! Again! Tadoku is coming again! I haven’t performed very well in the Tadoku competitions. I do read a lot of Japanese daily, because it’s my life, but I have trouble sticking to whatever novel it was that I picked for the contest. Also, I’m too lazy to record pages of games or random webpages [...]
