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
I’ve been studying Japanese (to varying degrees of success) for close to three years now (I think). It’s most certainly been a while. Over this time I’ve grown to understand where Japanese is simple and straightforward – and where it’s not. Here are what, in my opinion, are the most
A couple of years ago, I was watching a Morning Musume video and saw lots of strange characters flashing along the screen, along with a bunch of gibberish. And then I thought to myself, “I would like to learn Japanese”. And thus, a goal was set. Two years later, I
Japanese jyukugo fascinate me, because each one tells a story. Sometimes the story is boring, but sometimes they offer an unwitting insight into the mind of a culture. I was reminded of this when I learned the jyukugo 電池. The two kanji together mean “electricity” and “pond”. But if you put
I have been on Wanikani for a few months now. I am taking the lessons very slowly so that I don’t get overwhelmed. It’s funny – every time I learn a new kanji or a new pronunciation, I think “how am I going to remember that?” And then, a month later,
Let’s face it. As a Japanese learner, Kanji are intimidating. They are this set of pictographs that really seem to have nothing to do with anything, each of them have a whole bunch of readings, all of which apply only in specific contexts. There is a sentence: 明日は日曜日です Where the
Here is a secret about me: I did not actually go to traditional high school. I was home-schooled. My feelings about home-schooling, based upon my experience, are decidedly mixed, and lean negative, but that’s not a discussion I want to get into here. One of the things that has haunted
I am a computer engineer. Before I learned Japanese, I have learned about sixteen different computer languages to a degree of proficiency with which I can make production applications out of them. In doing so, I realized that there are features every language that runs on a procedural basis will
A previous commenter, as seems to be the case a lot, got me thinking about why I study Japanese. In all truth, I am somewhat of a misanthrope. I’m not usually very fond of people. I am pretty good at interacting with people in a competent way, and I do
I’ve been recently learning how to do sudoku puzzles, and it turns out that I’m really good at it with the right hints, and really bad at the harder ones otherwise. But I can’t help but to find some similarities between sudoku and the Japanese language. Both of them –