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
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,
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
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
So, as a part of moving over to this new host, I’ve been going through old posts (starting from the beginning), and categorizing them. Some of them I’ve put in a “hidden” category – they still exist, but will not show up on any listing page (or I think search),
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
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
You know, in all my years of posting, I think I’ve done one post in Japanese. It’s time for another. おはようございます、皆さん。日本語お話しできます！びっくりですか？私も。私の日本語はよくないですけど、話しできます。恥ずかしい、でも頑張ります。 だけど、問題があります。 日本が大好きです。日本はたくさん綺麗な山と綺麗な町と優しい人があります。そのうち日本に滞在をしたい。だけど、オースチンに日本人ありません。も、私に日本人が優しいじゃないです。 だから、日本語は難しいです。勉強しますけど、練習できません。 時々日本語を止めたかった。でも、頑張ります。 今朝テキサスに、天気は曇りです。昨日雨が降りました。この月、天気は暑いですけど、今年が去年の方が涼しいよりです。よくテキサスはよくとても暑い、だからテキサス人は嬉しいです。 私の日本語はいいですか？ 知りない。でも、がんばりました。またね！ I guess it’s improved. Oh well.
Kawaii may be the only real Japanese word many people know. And they really don’t know what it means. It’s usually translated as “cute”. And that’s one of the meanings, for sure. Maybe it’s even the primary meaning. But that’s not really what it means. They actually have another word
I really liked the format of my last post. The use of separators gave it a flow that I haven’t yet been able to achieve in any other way, and I intend on continuing to do that. The other day, the smoke alarms in an apartment in my building started