JapanesePod101.com Blog

Hi everyone!

Previously I introduced a game called “Fukuwarai” in my last blog. Has anyone tried it?
Today, I want to introduce another useful game that you can play with your friend.
I am sure that many of you have played this game with cards. It is a language version of “Concentration” (Shinkei suijaku). This is also known as memory, in which all of the cards are laid face down on a surface and two cards are flipped face up over each turn. The object of the game is to turn over pairs of matching cards.

If you have the chance to play this game with your classmates, make your own cards and try with Japanese. To remember Katakana and Hiragana, for example, you can make cards with Hiragana and Katakana which can be matched together. You can also play this game to memorize vocabulary – you can write matched words in English and Japanese.
This game is actually quite fun and can help you remember character/words in a fun and easy way!

Another good thing is that you can start with small number of cards, and then you can add more and more cards later on. So why not make your own cards and play with your friends!

See you next week!

In Japan, where they practically time trains down to the second, you might think that nobody’s ever late and that the Japanese wouldn’t need a word for “tardiness.”

Think again! Our old friend 後 (KŌ, GO, ato, ushi(ro): after, behind) provides us with a way to say that. Although 遅れる (okureru) is the main way to write “to be late,” 後れる has the same yomi (okureru) and the same meaning. That’s true, for instance, in this word:

手後 (teoku(re): too late, belated)     hand + after

I have no idea how the breakdown (hand + after) relates to the meaning, “too late, belated,” but as long as we’re discussing 手後, here’s a quick quiz.

For an Answer to the Quick Quiz …

Another reading of 後手 is gote (outmaneuvered, passive). Doubling that compound yields gotegote, “ending up behind with everything; always being too late (never in time).” A dire situation indeed!

And if you’re always too late, you’ll certainly be late for the fair. Many people must have been, or else the Japanese wouldn’t have coined this expression:
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Mina-sama, here at JPod World Headquarters we’re always trying to think of more and more ways to help you learn Japanese! And now we have something very special for you!

In April, we will have a very special guest with us. His name is 矢野先生 (Yano sensei) and he has nearly 20 years of experience teaching Japanese! His resume includes not only university classroom instruction, but also private and corporate instruction. He also founded the 矢野アカデミー which specializes in training Japanese teachers how to teach Japanese. It goes without saying; Mr. Yano will bring to us a wealth of expertise and wisdom about the process of learning this amazing language!

But it gets better!
Rather than merely introduce him to our staff, we thought it would be much more fun if we could bring Yano sensei directly to you! So, that’s what we’re going to do.

Now is your chance to ask this seasoned sensei for advice about effective study methods, avoiding pitfalls, breaking bad habits and picking up good ones. If you have a question about studying Japanese, we’ll ask Yano sensei during a very special podcast whose contents are totally determined entirely by YOU!

How cool is that?

The entire interview will be conducted in Japanese, so if you wanna try to ask your question in Japanese, go for it. (Of course, if you don’t want to, that’s OK, we’ll be translating everything!)

Let’s get a big ol’ list of questions for the sensei!!!
Post your questions here in the blog or send them to marky @ japanesepod101.com!

宜しくお願いします

Marky and Yuki and everyone at JapanesePod101.com

I firmly believe that every kanji has its own personality. And as with people or dogs (or most creatures), it takes a while to get to know a complex kanji. By “complex,” I don’t mean something like this:

Read as KYŪ or kuji, this crazy concoction means “lottery” (though “circuit board” would have been more fitting). It certainly looks complicated. But when I say “complex,” I mean a character with … well, with lots of character! That is, one with emotional depth and many sides to its personality, a kanji that sets a mood or conveys layers of meaning.

When you think of 後 (KŌ, GO, ato, ushi(ro)), which generally means “after” or “behind,” what associations would you expect such a kanji to have? Take a moment to think about it. Then, after reading today’s blog, see how your expectations matched up to the reality of 後!

Looking Back

As you might have guessed, 後 figures into words about reflecting on the past, but not nearly as many as I would have thought. Here’s what I could find:

後知恵 (atojie: hindsight)
     after + to know + wisdom

Together, the last two characters mean “wisdom.” When they stand alone as 知恵, the yomi is chie.

後口 (atokuchi: aftertaste, reminder)
     after + mouth

English speakers call it the aftermath. For the Japanese, it’s the aftermouth!

読後感 (dokugokan: one’s impression (of a book))
     to read + after + impression

In previous blogs, we’ve seen these:
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Robert Belton is one of our most active users, currently tuning in from London, England.

How did you find JapanesePod101.com?
Through the iTunes store. I was browsing for Japanese language podcasts.

What made you stay?
The people. In the long term that is what has kept me there. Vicky-san and Liz-san were very welcoming and we started chatting on Skype. The general tone of the forums is pleasant and friendly. I don’t think I’ve seen any of the unpleasantness I’ve seen in other Internet forums. The level of conversation is intelligent, there’s no spam, people are well behaved. My contacts with Peter-san have been friendly and I admire his boundless enthusiasm and energy. And it’s nice to have contact with Miki-san on her blog. And everyone at JapanesePod101 seems so dedicated to what they’re doing.

In the short term. The bait on the hook if you like. It was the quality
and quantity of the podcasts. I can’t exactly remember when I joined but it was after the slightly rougher early podcasts (笑）But even those had interesting things for me to listen to.
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Recently, listener Todd Mizomi visited us in the Tokyo Office! Todd was visiting Tokyo with his wife, celebrating his 8th wedding anniversary. He brought in some delicious Hawaiian chocolate as well as some heavy camera equipment! We know our listeners are very interested in seeing the faces behind the JapanesePod101.com team, and we took advantage of Todd’s professionalism! We had a lot of fun with our mini-photoshoot! There will be lots more pictures in the coming days! Thanks Todd-san!

Starting from the left: Brian, Oe, Jon, Marky, Kishimoto-sensei, Jeff, Yuki, and Peter in the center. (Missing: Sachiko, Naomi, Jun, Miki, Sakura, Natsuko, Yoshikai, Take, and Ushijima) We hope you enjoy this.
Yoroshiku o-negai shimasu!よろしくおねがいします。

JapanesePod101.com was recently interviewed by Rob Walsch of Podcast411. Click on the button below to listen to the interview.

Podcast411 is the leading Interview show focused on Podcasting. Past guests include Senator John Edwards, Adam Curry (co-inventor of Podcasting), Walt Mossberg from the Wall Street Journal, Phil Gordon from the Bravo Channel, and many other big names in the Podcasting community.

While investigating 後 (KŌ, GO, ato, ushi(ro): after, behind), I’ve been amused to find it popping up in some highly specific words:

髭剃り後 (higesoriato: after shaving)
     beard + to shave + after

浴後 (yokugo: after the bath)
     to bathe + after

後ろ明き (ushiroaki: clothing that opens in the back)
     back + to be open

For Other Amusingly
Specific Words Including 後 …

It seems that someone designed these words to expedite discussions of such matters. I say “expedite” because, aside from the charming specificity on display here, blow-by-blow descriptions of morning routines are rarely scintillating. Fortunately, two key features will make listeners stay tuned, rather than keeling over in boredom:

• Each compound has a different yomi for 後: first ato, then go, then ushi(ro). That’ll keep listeners (and perhaps speakers) on their toes.

• With handy words such as higesoriato and yokugo, speakers can be concise. To say “after,” they needn’t resort to the cumbersome phrase no ato de but can instead use the suffix 後. When serving as a suffix, 後 has two yomi: -ato and -go. The latter is much more common.

The -Go Suffix, Hard at Work

Here’s the -go suffix hard at work in several common compounds:
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PodFinder UK is an innovative mix of podcasts, video shows and new media programming produced by PodShow UK. Each week the video show Podfinder UK, hosted by the lovely Josephine Laurence, reviews six of the best podcasts and video shows on the web.

This week’s Episode 17 features JapanesePod101. The show can also be viewed directly here in mp4 format.

One month ago, I stepped off the plane at Narita Airport armed with 2 semesters of Japanese language instruction, a handful of Japanese guidebooks/dictionaries, and a naïve confidence of my communication abilities. Although I realized that I was far from fluent, I was sure that I could easily get in a cab, check into my apartment, and get dinner, at the very least. I was wrong.

The Taxi Ride
Nearly sideswiped by the automatic doors of the taxi, I hopped into the taxi with a map, pointed and stated “Tokyo Weekly Mansions Onegaishimasu.” He then stared at the map blankly, obviously not understanding where to go. After he said a string of incredibly fast Japanese (much faster than the audio recordings played for me in my college classroom), I gave up understanding and repeatedly jabbed at my map saying “Koko! Koko!” It took an hour for him to find my apartment complex, which I later discovered to be a 5-minute walk from where I called the cab.

The Apartment
After running into the automatic sliding doors (a rough way to figure out that they open up slower than the ones in America), I reached the lobby of the apartment complex and tried to check in. Emphasis on tried. I thought the payment had been worked out before I came. I was staying for 2 months and my college was taking care of all the major finances. There was an obvious miscommunication when they asked for a 5-figure deposit when I had little else but a few coins with holes in it. (It took me a week to figure out that they were 5 yen). I was never taught the vocabulary necessary to communicate the fact that the rent was supposed to have been taken care of before I arrived, and that I didn’t have enough money on me yet. Eventually after 5-6 phone calls to various people, the situation worked itself out.

The Dinner
At this point, I was starving and craving notoriously delicious Japanese cuisine. I walked around Akasaka overwhelmed by the numerous restaurant choices. Eventually I settled on a decent looking place that ended up being a Yakitori restaurant. I strolled in, was greeted by a loud “Irrashaimase!”, and took a seat at the counter. Ready to put into practice a phrase I knew I’d use countless times, I asked,
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