Skip to content

japanese

Kawaii

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 for cute, “aikurushii” which seems to have a more pure meaning of “cute”. Not pure innocence-wise, but it seems to be more of a direct translation to our word “cute”. I think a better translation of kawaii is “childlike”. That’s… Read More »Kawaii

Restarting Japanese – and More

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 going off for no reason. I left my building and wandered around until I actually found the apartment in which they were going off. I found it, and the apartment was inhabited by a Mexican grandma-type – older lady, very… Read More »Restarting Japanese – and More

Weeb

Let’s get back to basics, I suppose. From the very moment I began learning Japanese, and even before, I became aware of a specific breed of person – one that I instinctively had very little respect for. This type of person was called a “weeb”, which is short for “weeaboo”. There are many different characteristics of weebs, but the primary characteristic is a kind of escapism in to Japanese pop culture. I’m trying to find a way to express it that’s not horrifically insulting, but you get the type. Basically… Read More »Weeb

Today’s Japanese Book Haul

Today I went to Half Price Books again. There wasn’t much manga, but there were a few interesting books 8 picked up. First up was another dictionary. I didn’t know Takahashi Minami wrote dictionaries, but hey. This book was pretty cool. I like this book. It has a very nice cover, and I like reading about Shinto. This book is quite interesting, it’s an English language book about Japanese social issues. Seems really useful. The only manga they had. Volume 13. Wonder if I’ll like it enough to find the… Read More »Today’s Japanese Book Haul

My Japanese Book Collection

I have books. I have piles and piles of books on almost every conceivable topic. They are overflowing my bookshelves, occupying a futon, and basically just making a wonderful mess in my house. So I bought a bookcase with manga sized shelves. These are most of my Japanese books. I have been collecting Japanese manga. Etc, over a period of a few years now, and this is the result. Books, books, and more books. Maybe someday I’ll even read most of them. Wonder what I’ll do when this bookcase starts… Read More »My Japanese Book Collection

Japanese Books I Bought Today

So today I went to Half Price Books, and I bought some Japanese language books.  Let’s take a look at what I found. I spent less than $100 on everything you see. First, I found some dictionaries. I like dictionaries. I’m not sure why, as I can find everything I need online, but these are in good condition, so I thought why not add them to my collection. It’s also why I didn’t feel too badly snarling them – the online dictionaries are available to everyone else too, so it’s… Read More »Japanese Books I Bought Today

I Love how Japanese Women Talk

It’s funny how, in all my studies of Japanese, and their obsession with all things cute, the thing I love the most is how some Japanese women say “ka”. They pronounce it “kaw”, and it’s the cutest thing ever. It’s funny because the Japanese have built entire industries on being cute. Idol culture, schoolgirls, kawaii culture, mascots. Animal faces on everything, etc., and the cutest thing is how some women say “ka”. I first heard that pronunciation on a game with Japanese voiceovers, and I thought they were doing it… Read More »I Love how Japanese Women Talk

Systems Vs. Goals

As you might have gathered at this point, I listen to the Scott Adams podcast. He’s a pretty intelligent guy and generally I respect intelligence. Of course he has a few blind spots of his own, but he’s only human, I suppose. His opinions in theology and philosophy are generally useless, but he makes up for it with understanding the human mind and how to hack it. He said something the other day that has me thinking, and I think my approach to learning Japanese has failed. He tends to… Read More »Systems Vs. Goals

An Update on Japanese

So, I’ve gone all over the place on this blog, and I haven’t posted about Japanese for a long time. And I kinda don’t want to, really. But this blog is ostensibly about Japanese, so, I guess I’ll write about that. I’ve lost all interest. True, if I abandon Japanese for much longer, I’ll start to forget it, and it’s a useful enough skill that I don’t want that to happen, but I’ve lost interest in Japanese, I’ve lost interest in Japanese culture, I’ve lost interest in Japan. All of… Read More »An Update on Japanese

Japanese: Off The Rails

This has not been an easy week for me. The combination of over a day of no power, several days of no water, being stuck in with literally nowhere to go and nowhere to get there even if I wanted to, because of six to nine inches of snow – gives me a lot of time to think. Or try to avoid thinking. This blog has gone off the rails. I’m not apologizing for it because it’s my blog and if I want it to go off the rails I’m… Read More »Japanese: Off The Rails