Category IconRadical!

by Matthew

Salvatore-John, saint that he is, handed this off to me to post. It’s a short list of radicals and their names. You can download the pdf here. I will try to track down something similar with meanings included and post it.

Category Iconぎょほんふのり

by Matthew

A student of mine was talking about this the other day. He said something about it being a famous story in China. He didn’t elaborate. Does anyone know more? My Google searching was fruitless.
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[UPDATE] So, forgive my inadequate listening skills. It turns out that actually it is:
漁夫
[ぎょふ ] fisherman
And the expression is:
漁夫の利
where 利 [り] is […]

Category Icon骨 (こつ) kotu / kotsu

by Matthew

My student dropped this one in a lesson the other day: 英会話を聞く骨知りたい, said she. こつ? thought I. The bones of listening? No. The knack. “I want to know the knack of understanding what I hear.” I will add some examples later.

Not this Knack
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[UPDATE] the examples I promised.
それには骨がある
There is a knack to it.
骨を知っている
have the knack […]

Category IconOnline Dictionaries

by Matthew

When you have a lame work computer (like me) and you can’t jack it up for Japanese like I talked about in the post about Rikai-chan and Perapera-kun, then there are some handy online dictionaries you might want to know about.
Jim Breen’s WWWJDIC is one place to start. It is not particularly usable nor intuitive […]

Category IconAnimelab Kanji Guide

by Matthew

Kanji gets a lot simpler when you start thinking about them in their component parts I think. For me that is the case anyway. On this theme, Salvatore-John has a book called “Easy Kanji” which groups kanji according to common components. It is good for low-intermediates and people who already have a couple of hundred […]

Category Iconsorry for my poor Japanese

by pollo diablo

comes at the opening or the closing of most of the non-native english speakers’ speechs: “SORRY FOR MY POOR ENGLISH”…
if you think about it. this sentence might be first said or invented by a non-native speakers..you won’t hear for example a newzealander saying to a syrian “bla bla bla……..sorry for my poor english” that will […]

Category IconI have a dream

by pollo diablo

akemashite omedeto gozaimasu (just woundered if i could say that to congratulate the starting of this beautifull site)..
once a good teacher tought me just to learn how to read the kanji, she said don`t waste your time with the meaning and the various combination…..i didn`t take it seriously …i was still excited about those little, […]

Category IconUsing Japanese on your Computer

by Matthew

Reading Japanese online if a piece of weasels when you set yourself up for it. If you don’t already know about these tools then you better get savvy! Both work the same: you hover over the nasty characters in question and a handy little translation with reading and definition pops up as a tool tip.
The […]

Category Iconたがわず

by Matthew

Keiko’s post included this 案にたがわず which made me think, “w.t.f. is たがわず?”
It is one of those ず negatives. If you don’t know the grammar, then it is formed the same way as a normal negative, but you swap ~ない for ~ず. As an aside, the same applies for ~ぬ to make a negative.
Group 1 verbs […]

Category IconFrom Keiko

by Matthew

すごい!『石の上にも(^_^)v』に書くように、意識して話します。 《あ》シリーズ:
*案外(あんがい) / unexpectedly; contrary to expectations / 案外な unexpected / 案外難しい more difficult than expected.
洪水の被害(こうずいのひがい)は案外少なかった。 The flood damage was less than we expected.
*案の定(あんのじょう) / So, 案 is plan, scheme, proposition, proposal or suggestion (and so on). From which we get stuff like / …という案を出す propose that… / 案を立 make a plan / 案を作る work out a […]