JapanesePod101.com Blog

We start with Alberto’s haiku calendar for February, another beauty:

Wow, this haiku features some complex kanji! Alberto will tell us about the poem in the comments section. Meanwhile, here’s the scoop on the least familiar characters:

嶺 (RYŌ, REI, ne, mine: peak, summit)
且 (SHO, SHŌ, SO, ka(tsu): also, furthermore, moreover)
褐 (KATSU: brown)
蔽 (FUTSU, HEI, HETSU, ō(i), ō(u): to cover)

In this list, the first and last characters are non-Jōyō.

Let’s return to a kanji you’ve seen before. As you know from last week, 袋 (TAI, DAI, fukuro) often means “bag, pouch.” With that in mind, try to figure out what the following might represent: Read the rest of this entry »

Recently I’ve shown you koala and kangaroo pictures, and in the past I’ve posted pictures of dogs, giraffes, and yaks. By this point, you should be an expert in animal identification. Based on the breakdowns below, see if you can figure out which animal each compound represents:

袋熊 (fukuro-guma)     pouch + bear
袋狼 (fukuro-ōkami)     pouch + wolf
袋鼠 (fukuro-nezumi)     pouch + mouse

Words for Discussing Pouched Animals …

To block the answers, I’ll present the vitals on the kanji of the moment:

袋 (TAI, DAI, fukuro: (1) bag; sack, pouch; (2) skin of an orange (and other like fruits); (3) dead end; (4) plot of land surrounded by water)

The Etymology of 袋 …

So many meanings!

By the way, the first on-yomi of 袋 is easy to remember, because we so often tie (タイ) bags!

Once again, here’s the koala sign that has prompted this examination of 袋. You can also revisit the breakdown of the words in the sign.

Read the rest of this entry »

今、あなたの財布にはいくらお金が入っていますか？

給料やこづかいをもらって財布に入れておいたはずなのに、いつの間に遣ったのか気づくと残りのお金が少なくなっていた…こんな経験を誰もが味わったことがあるのではないでしょうか？

お金はまるで生き物のように、足でも生えていて勝手に出て行ってしまうようです。 Read the rest of this entry »

Every month, we are giving away great JapanesePod101.com prizes to 4 lucky listeners. Sign up to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or JapanesePod101.com to be eligible to win. Increase your chances of winning by following us on all four sites!

Here are January’s winners:

Facebook: Shoshana Stein
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JapanesePod101: helokitti3188

See your name here? Email us at contactus@JapanesePod101.com to claim your prize. Check back next month for February’s winners!

What do you think the following word means?

虚誕 (kyotan)

The first kanji, 虚 (KYO, KO, muna(shii)), means “empty” or “false,” as we saw long ago. You may recognize 誕 from 誕生日 (tanjōbi: birthday, to be born + to be born + day), where 誕 means “to be born, birth.” So 虚誕 is a false birth?! No, 誕 has other meanings, and the pertinent one in 虚誕 relates to the original definition of 誕.

In 誕, the radical is 言 (words). That’s not entirely obvious, because every component in 誕 can serve as a radical!

All Can Be Radicals …

Meanwhile, 延 is “to stretch, extend,” also acting phonetically in 誕 to express “big.” With “big, stretched words,” you have bragging or exaggerations. Thus, 誕 originally meant “deception” or “false.”

That’s the meaning in our star word, as the breakdown indicates:

虚誕 (kyotan: exaggerated talk)     false + false

More False Talk …

That’s not the whole etymological story, though. The word 降誕 (kōtan: holy birth, royal birth, to descend (from heaven) + birth) originally meant “making a fuss about a holy (or royal) birth.” That makes sense, given the exaggerations inherent in 誕 back then. Consequently, “birth” became an extended meaning of 誕, which we can define in an assortment of ways:

誕 (TAN: to be born, nativity, false, to be arbitrary)

“To be born” is now the main meaning, as in 誕生日 and its root: Read the rest of this entry »

昭和初期まで「恋」という漢字は「戀」と書いていました。

1949年に、画数が多く難しい漢字を「旧字体」、簡素化された文字を「新字体」と呼んで、これ以降は新字体を用いるようになったのです。

さて、「戀」には「心」が見られますので、感情や心の動きを表わす漢字であることはすぐに分かりますね。では、その上の「糸言糸」はどのような意味を持っているのでしょうか。 Read the rest of this entry »

When you long for something or someone, do you think of that longing as having a particular location? Do you store it somewhere, such as your heart, mind, soul, or journal? I don’t feel as if my yearnings have specific addresses; they seem all-pervasive. But the following word hints at the idea that desire is actually lodged (宿) somewhere!

宿望 (shukubō: long-cherished desire)     to lodge + desire

This may have something to do with the nuances of 宿 (SHUKU, yado: to lodge), which also appears in two words synonymous with 宿望:

宿志 (shukushi: longstanding desire)     to lodge + purpose

We’ve seen 志 in both 意志 (ishi: will, intention, determination, intention + to intend) and 志望 (shibō: wish, desire, ambition, ambition + to aspire). Working with Halpern’s definitions, I’ve defined this kanji a little differently all three times!

宿願 (shukugan: longstanding desire)     to lodge + desire

You may recognize 願 as the central part of お願い (onegai: wish). GAN is an on-yomi of 願, and we see this yomi again here:

願望 (ganbō: wish, desire)     desire + wish

Aha! We’ve come full circle, returning to 望!

If you also want to return to the idea that wishes can be stored somewhere inside a person, check out this word: Read the rest of this entry »

明治時代まで日本で使われていたカレンダーでは、一月は「睦月（むつき）」と呼ばれていました。言うまでもなく、一月は「正月」であり、年が改まった最初の一ヶ月です。

そんな一月をなぜ「睦月」と呼ぶようになったのでしょうか。 Read the rest of this entry »

明けましておめでとうございます!（Akemashite omedetō gozaimasu! Happy New Year!). We’ve seen that this 明け means “to open, begin.” What I hadn’t seen until last week was this version of the greeting:

謹賀新年 (Kingashinnen: Happy New Year)
     respectfully + to congratulate + new + year

On 謹賀 …

A Japanese friend posted this on my Facebook page. Although I guessed the meaning, I was puzzled both by the yomi and by the fact that I’d never heard this expression. That’s because it’s formal and is used only in writing.

Whereas the 明けまして phrase sounds completely Japanese, 謹賀新年 consists of four on-yomi, so it seems more Chinese. However, I will forever associate it with Australia, because that’s where I was last week when I received the greeting. About an hour later, while admiring koalas at a koala conservation site, I realized that the tourists next to me were Japanese. After they’d gazed at the nearest koala and said “Kawai!” several times, I showed them the message on my cell phone and asked for the yomi.

Japanese Highlights of the Trip …

More Koalas! …

Read the rest of this entry »

皆さん、明けましておめでとうございます。

これは、新年の一般的な挨拶です。そして、日本では新年のお祝いを葉書きに記して送り合います。これを「年賀状」と呼ぶことは、皆さん、ご存知ですね。

さて、今日はこの年賀状に書かれる決まり文句を紹介しましょう。 Read the rest of this entry »