I’m struggling with what to write, to be honest. I think a part of it is that I’m far more depressed then I usually am, but that’s not all of it. I just feel like I’ve said everything interesting that I have to say, and everything else just seems to be a rehash of some old post from here or there. There are only so many ways to say “Japanese is hard”, and Japanese popular culture, as I’ve mentioned, seems mostly to be a very broad, very shallow sea –… Read More »Honesty
At my Japanese lesson today, the question was posed: ひらがなは漢字どちら方が一番やさしいですか (which is the easiest, kanji or hiragana) I responded 漢字は方が一番やさしいです (kanji is the easiest). I didn’t make this statement lightly or without thinking. And while it would have been fun to troll sensei, I wasn’t doing that either. I really do think that is the correct answer. And here’s why. Yes, when it comes to pronunciation, hiragana is by far easier. This is obvious. Each kana has its own pronunciation, and the syllables are one to one – meaning there… Read More »Kanji is easier than Hiragana
I found a book at Half Price Books yesterday called “zakennayo”. It’s an introduction to slang in Japanese. It doesn’t paint a very flattering picture of early 90s Japanese teen culture, but maybe that’s just realistic. “Zakennayo” is an extremely rude word that means, essentially, “fuck off” in Japanese. It’s a word I’d actually rather I didn’t know, but I guess it’s good to have in my arsenal if I really, really need it. And I can’t think of a situation where I would. But here’s the funny thing. This… Read More »Ignorance
Many words in Japanese are borrowed from other languages. Many from Chinese, and quite a few from English and Portuguese. A smattering from other languages as well. The interesting thing about Japanese, though, as opposed to many other languages, is that the Japanese language doesn’t have the syllabic structure to migrate the loanwords over untouched. So when they migrate a word into their language, even though it’s somewhat recognizable as the word they borrowed, it’s not the same word anymore. For example, “Starbucks”. In Japanese, it’s “sutaabukkusu”, or スターブックス. For… Read More »Loan Words
I started this blog on a whim, not really knowing what I would even do with it. Honest truth is, that hasn’t changed. I still have no idea. I just write about what I feel like. Sometimes it’s good. Sometimes it’s crap. Sometimes it’s crappily good. But here are some interesting insights. My most popular post is 5 Reasons J-Pop sucks. Interestingly, that was an experimental post. Everything in that post was designed to be popular. I put in a “5 reasons” tagline, I had an emotional conclusion that would draw… Read More »100 posts
A part of me feels like I’ve been a bit hard on Japan. I take back nothing, honestly. There is a darkness that runs through their society, and it is a little jarring when contrasted with the beauty of their culture. I am not comfortable with that, honestly. But then I thought about how my country must appear. There are some places in most major cities in which it is not safe to be out at night. There are fewer but far too many places where it is not safe… Read More »America’s Darkness
I’m not going to review this song. We’ll just say I rather like it and leave it at that. But I do want to point out something interesting about it. One of the central musical themes of this song is a contrast between staccato and lyrical. The part of the chorus that starts “hikasura seiya soiya” are very sharp, cut off, and aggressive, while the part that is “wow” is very lyrical. These two things contrast off of each other to make the music more effective than it might otherwise… Read More »Karate – Babymetal
A recurring theme of this site is my continued wonder at why I’m bothering to learn Japanese at all. I mean, it is an interesting language, it’s difficult, it’s a challenge. All these things are true. But at the end of the day, as a gaikokujin, I find that my reasons for learning the language are really, at the end of the day, somewhat puzzling. What I mean is this: after learning Japanese, I’ll have the following abilities: I’ll be able to read manga in its native language (yay!). I’ll be… Read More »The Shallowness of Exported Japanese Culture