Author: Michael
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Haikyo Hiragana Reading Practice
Recently I had an article published in the Hiragana Times (on sale in Japan this month) about Haikyo – Japan’s abandoned buildings. The main article is only available in the magazine, but there’s a small summary on the Hiragana Times homepage that makes for some good reading practice for beginners. Enjoy!
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All Kinds Of Thing – ピンキリ
All and sundry. The whole spectrum. Anything and everything. Those are all viable translations for this juicy little slang term. ピンキリ might confuse you at first though. I initially thought of remembering something (ピンとくる) and for something to have no limits (きりがない), but it’s actually used in quite a different way.
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Get What You Deserve – 自業自得
Here’s the Japanese equivalent of a nice little idiom that we often find ourselves using in English. 自業自得 literally translates to the English idiom ‘you reap what you sow’. But we have several other expressions that are good matches for this Japanese phrase too. Let’s explore.
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Japanese Job Hunting Test
Recently as part of my job hunting I had to take a personality test in Japanese. There were quite a number of unusual adjectives that I came across, so I thought the content would be useful for advanced learners of Japanese.
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Mothers’ Meetings – ママ会
Something you’ll see a lot of in Japanese is the Kanji 会 (かい), which symbolises a grouping or meeting. Its uses are quite broad, from titles, such as ‘International Association’ (交際交流会 – こくさいこうりゅうかい) to birthday party (誕生日会 – たんじょうびかい) . The trick is simply to look for the Kanji on the end and think of…
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Office Intranet Party Invitation
This invitation was sent to me and other members of our section some time ago, but I feel it provides a nice example of the sort of messages that are sent over the office intranet. See how much you can understand by reading through it first without using plugins like Rikaichan to help you! Naturally,…
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Blue Ocean Dating Strategy
Red Oceans and Blue Oceans. What does it all mean exactly? I recently heard the term used to comment on the prospects of meeting girls at a club, but the term has its origins in marketing.
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Hanage – Nostril Hair Notification Service
A rather bizarre yet undeniably useful little website I stumbled upon recently allows you to notify unwitting co-workers of unpleasant protruding nostril hairs. Hanage No More!
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Satisfying Real Life – リア充
A recent slang term that has naturally evolved with increased use of the internet and virtual interaction. The word is a mixture of リアル and 充実 (じゅうじつ) and refers to a person who is has a rich and satisfying offline (real) life. This is meant in contrast to an online (virtual) life that revolves around…
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Japanese School System
Have you ever wondered exactly how old school children are in Japan? Quite often the students are called by their school year and not by their exact age. Various types of media also use the Japanese school year system to break children up into groups.