What Giongo and Gitaigo Are All About
Posted by harvey in Language on 12. Aug, 2009 | 2 Comments
Most students of Japanese are introduced to giongo (擬音語) and gitaigo (擬態語) very early in their studies and don’t even realize it. Students of Japanese who are reading this may already be familiar with the term, “wan-wan” (ワンワン) which is the Japanese sound (giongo) for a dog barking, or “peko peko” （ぺこぺこ） which is 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 [...]
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
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 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 [...]
Lightning, The Wife of the Rice Plant
Posted by harvey in Culture, Language on 16. Apr, 2009 | 18 Comments
In Japanese kaminari 雷 is “thunder”, and inazuma 稲妻 is “lightning”. For a long while I think I was referring to both of them as kaminari… Anyway, I recently realized that inazuma is in fact the correct way to refer to lightning. Then, like any good language geek, I checked it out in my dictionary. [...]
Pizzicato Five – It’s a Beautiful Day
Posted by harvey in About, Media, Music on 08. Apr, 2009 | 4 Comments
I listened to Pizzicato Five CDs over, and over again while sitting at home in Iowa back in the mid 90s. I just put some on now, which gave me the idea to check YouTube to see what I could see. This was my first time seeing this video! なつかしい〜〜〜〜〜 This particular song is on [...]
Getting Emotional with the Kanji
Posted by harvey in Culture, Language on 03. Apr, 2009 | Comments Off
喜怒哀楽 (kidoairaku) This Japanese four-character phrase (四字熟語) roughly means, “the range of human emotions.” Individually the characters mean… 喜 – happiness 怒 – anger 哀 – sorrow/pity (Love this kanji, it’s used in 哀れ. Very Japanese.) 楽 – pleasure Together, these characters express the entire range of feelings that a person might have. I can’t [...]
