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Japanese

A Rare Mea Culpa

Anyone who knows me, knows that I don’t apologize.  For almost anything.  Even if I’m wrong, I take it as a learning experience and consider that I was making the best judgement, decision, or what-not that I could have made at the time.  Apologizing only seems to feed the monster these days, so I just don’t do it.  Even if I’m wrong, I don’t do it. But I’m going to come a bit closer than usual, today. I have a weakness, or a flaw.  Okay, I have plenty, but this… Read More »A Rare Mea Culpa

Nobody Cares Anymore

I have a confession to make.  Well, is it a confession?  I guess it’s something you didn’t know that you will in a few seconds. I hate misspelling, mispronunciation (with caveats), and bad grammar. What I particularly hate is that no one seems to even care about misspelling, mispronunciation, and bad grammar.  To the point where it’s to be found quite regularly in YouTube thumbnails and ad copy.  It’s like no one bothers to do proofreading anymore. In fact, one time I had the absolute temerity to correct someone’s Japanese pronunciation… Read More »Nobody Cares Anymore

Fluency in Language and Music

One things that people don’t know about me is that I am – or at least was at one time – a pretty accomplished pianist.  I’ve played professionally.  Specifically, in the community theater productions of a small town in Iowa.  Long story. But last night I was just playing around on the piano – I’ve given up practicing and performing a while ago – and I realized that being proficient at the piano is not that much different than being proficient at a language, such as Japanese.  You put in… Read More »Fluency in Language and Music

The Three Japanese Cultures

Hi!  It’s been a while since I posted here, so I have a lot to say.  Truth be told, I don’t really think I’m fond of the blogging method of expressing myself, but I haven’t come up with anything better yet.  I’m working on it, though!  First, an update. The Lily project (https://lovelylilylives.com, in case you didn’t know) is almost a year old now!  In that time, the story has progressed from a sweet but confused girl who didn’t know who she was, to a sweet but confused girl who… Read More »The Three Japanese Cultures

Japanese Hurts

I honestly don’t know how to say what I want to here, so I’m going to start with the title and move out from there.  That seems to work for me, sometimes. I have completely stopped my study of Japanese, and I don’t know if I will ever start again.  Quite frankly, I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to start again.  Because everytime I engage with Japanese or Japan in any meaningful way, it hurts.  A lot.  And I haven’t quite figured out why. Maybe I feel like I’ve… Read More »Japanese Hurts

Christmas Musings – Japanese and Me

Umm… Merry Christmas, I guess.  I’m not huge on Christmas but it’s a day off, so yay. So I’ve been thinking a little more on Japanese, its role in culture, and its role in my life. I’ve been thinking about what Japanese is, in my culture.  I’ve been thinking about otaku and weeaboo, and why I collect Japanese language books and manga.  I’ve come to the general conclusion that Japanese culture in America is really only tangentially related to Japan, in the same way that American culture in Japan is… Read More »Christmas Musings – Japanese and Me

Japanese: a Failed Experiment – Part Deux

I attempted to write this post previously but it took on a tone I didn’t like, so I’m going to try to redo it.  Last time I talked about why I consider learning Japanese a personal failure.  Now I want to talk about why I don’t think it is. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I failed at Japanese.  But it did serve a very important purpose, and I may yet pursue it for other reasons or considerations. I remember when I first truly became interested in learning Japanese.  I don’t… Read More »Japanese: a Failed Experiment – Part Deux

Japanese: a Failed Experiment (But Not Entirely)

Ever since I began this blog, there have been a few ongoing themes.  The one that really permeated the entire blog was the following question:  Why am I bothering?  Over the last few years, it’s perhaps the most important question, and the one I had the most difficulty answering. I think I might have the answer.  And it ties together nearly all of the threads that have been weaving this blog from the very beginning.  So let me start. The first thread was:  why I started to learn Japanese.  Something… Read More »Japanese: a Failed Experiment (But Not Entirely)

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