Find your Japanese in the Wild
Posted by harvey in Language, Travel on 12. Aug, 2009 | 9 Comments
It’s important to find your Japanese in the wild.
Nothing is worse than cookie-cutter sentences straight from the textbook. Using this prepackaged Japanese alone will make you sound like a robot.
So, it’s important to really get out there and find your Japanese at the source. You know, from Japanese magazines, Japanese TV shows, and random [...]
Japanese 101: Giongo and Gitaigo App Released
Posted by harvey in Language on 12. Aug, 2009 | 1 Comment
Unless you’ve been living under a rock and not checking your twitter for the last 30 minutes, you probably heard that the Japanese 101: Giongo and Gitaigo iPhone app has finally hit the App Store!
You can read more about app here, and of course, check it out in the iTunes store if you’ve got a [...]
Japan and Tanzania joined by Peppers
Posted by harvey in Culture, Language on 15. Jun, 2009 | 8 Comments
As you may or may not know, I’m actually now in Tanzania doing an internship. I’ll be here until August. I’ve picked up a few words and phrases in Swahili (really, just a few) and recently came across something pretty interesting.
The word for a “chili” or “pepper” in Swahili is “pilipili.”
In Japanese the phrase [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Kansai-ben iPhone App Preview Audio
Posted by harvey in Language on 19. May, 2009 | 6 Comments
Hey everyone,
Some audio files from the upcoming Kansai-ben iPhone and iPod Touch Application are below.
The varied differences with standard Japanese (標準語) make Kansai dialect a ton of fun to hear and speak. There are simple grammatical differences like changing the negative “nai-form” of verbs to “hen” (e.g., 行けない to 行けへん), but there are also cases [...]
