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September 2021

Introducing… Hidden Japanese!!

I’ve been busy!!! So, as I was looking back on some of my earlier posts, I had made a few observations of discoveries I’d made about Japanese, but they got lost in the noise of my emo angst and whining.  So I decided that it would make sense to make a new site with only observations like those.  No blog, no whining, just information. You can find it at https://hiddenjapanese.com What this site is, is a clearinghouse with short pages of information on concepts and words that I think will make… Read More »Introducing… Hidden Japanese!!

Hentaigana, and the Frustration of Learning Japanese

While I was doing research for another project I was doing, I went down a bit of a rabbithole.  I was trying to explain (and make sure I understood) the uses of voiced vs. unvoiced consonants.  I found a bunch of interesting things.  One was that there are some kana that are not well known and aren’t taught.  Another is that there are specific origins for hiragana, and some of them went down some rather odd roads before settling on their current form. Now, Japanese teaching and learning is a… Read More »Hentaigana, and the Frustration of Learning Japanese

Silly Japanese Dream

Last night I had a dream about Japanese. I was sitting across from a bunch of idols. Don’t ask how it happened, it was a dream, dreams don’t have to make any sense at all. I didn’t think any of them spoke English, and my (now dead) father was sitting next to me. I was struggling to put together even a basic sentence, so I said something like “watashi no haha chotto baka desu”. Of course, in my waking state, there’s so much wrong with that sentence. In my dream… Read More »Silly Japanese Dream

My Most Embarrassing Japanese Mistake

So ready for a laugh at my expense? Here ya go. Back when I was first starting to learn Japanese, I was trying to find all of the Japanese stuff I could. I found a World Market at the local mall, and they had a litle stuffed toy – it was a hamster holding a waffle. The cutest, most kawaii thing ever. I knew enough Japanese to read some of the stuff on the tag, but not quite enough to really read it. Of course, that didn’t stop me. On… Read More »My Most Embarrassing Japanese Mistake