JapanesePod101.com Blog

Hope everyone is enjoying their holiday season. With the year coming to a close we managed to squeeze in two more exciting enhancements.

Lesson Browser
The new lesson browser was developed with simplicity and convenience in mind. Broken down into “Core Lessons” and “Extra Lessons”, this new features lets you quickly find the lessons you love. The new browser offers the following functionality:

• Brief description of each lesson level for new users coming in contact with JapanesePod101.com for the first time
• A Quick Jump menu to quickly find your favorite lessons within a particular level
• Sort functionality to arrange lessons by date (newest first or oldest first)
• A global search functionality to find any lesson by searching the title or description fields.

Grammar Bank Search
With over 100 Japanese grammar constructions, the Grammar Bank, available in our Premium Learning Center, was getting a bit unwieldy. So to make finding grammar items a bit easier, we’ve added a full text search functionality. Search the Kanji, Kana, English, Samples, Formation, Notes, and Explanation fields to find the grammar you want to master.

As for future features, our content and product development teams have a ton of new and exciting enhancements for 2008. So stay tuned for more announcements.

As always, leave us a comment and let us know what you think of these new features and how we can make them better.

Don’t forget our 25% Off Holiday Sale expires in just a few days, so now is the perfect time to pick up a Basic or Premium subscription. For more information about this promotion, visit this page.

Thank you for a wonderful 2007, and a happy and healthy New Year to everyone.

Welcome to another addition of Benkyou Blog! So, you’ve been studying through JapanesePod101, but you think you’re ready to add a little extra something to your routine. If you feel you’ve got a decent mastery of basic Japanese, there are a few ways you can add snippets of Japanese popular culture to your routine that will build your exposure to the language. Building exposure through music, television, and other forms of media is a great way of helping you learn Japanese. Case in point: me!

Before I went to Japan, I was obsessed with Japanese pop music. It’s all I listened to. GLAY and Utada Hikaru dominated the airspace in my bedroom. I was also your typical anime nerd (though not anymore – remember, this was when I was in 8^th - 9^th grade) who always had her nose in the latest episode of Card Captor Sakura or clips from the Japanese version of Digimon.

…Yes, I was a total nerd.

Anyway! When I went to Japan and began actually studying Japanese, I discovered that my pronunciation was excellent and my accent was minimal at best. I received compliments all the time on it, so I could safely assume people weren’t just being nice because I heard it from so many people. I credit this to the intense exposure I had to the language before actually learning it.

Exposure can build your vocabulary, teach you colloquialisms, and improve your pronunciation, too. It’s a great way to learn, not to mention fun! Here are my favorite ways of gaining exposure:

Jpop and jrock – From Hamasaki Ayumi to GLAY, jpop is a fun, upbeat genre of music and, of course, it’s Japanese!

Japanese television – If you can, download Japanese TV shows or watch clips from various shows via YouTube. You’ll be pleasantly surprised when you recognize a word here and there, or maybe even understand a sentence or two.

Anime – Yes, it’s nerdy. It’s just cartoons, almost always created for children’s entertainment. But, there are some good ones out there. I highly recommend anything by Studio Ghibli (Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Kiki’s Delivery Service, My Neighbor Totoro, etc.) because the animation is top-notch and the stories are compelling. If you watch these films with the subtitles and Japanese language track on, you might find yourself picking up new vocabulary.

Japanese film – You’ll learn much the same way you would through anime – by watching the subtitles and hearing the audio. There is some excellent Japanese cinema out there that can be found at your local Blockbuster. Don’t know where to start? One word: Kurosawa. Look him up.

Children’s books or manga with furigana – This way, you can practice reading and look up new words in a dictionary as you go along. Again, it’s great practice that’s entertaining to boot!

And as always, benkyou de ganbatte ne!

Welcome to winter, a time of holiday hokeyness, excess consumption, darkness, coldness, and most of all sleep. A bear would put sleep first on that list. But you needn’t be a bear to think about hibernation. As the year draws to a close, you might take note of the compound 越年 (etsunen: to go beyond + year), which means both “ringing out the old year” and “hibernating”!

Actually, 冬眠 (tōmin: winter + sleep) is a much more common way to say “hibernation.” It’s a great compound but could introduce some confusion; if you already knew 寝, seeing 眠 would make you realize that there are two characters for “sleep”:

寝 (SHIN, ne(ru): to go to sleep)
眠 (MIN, nemu(ru): to sleep)

Their kun-yomi sound similar, and their on-yomi aren’t too far apart, either. But whereas 寝 can mean “to lie down,” 眠 cannot. Moreover, 寝 can refer to the process of falling asleep, as these words imply:

寝入る (ne-iru: to fall asleep)     sleep + to enter
寝際 (negiwa: on the verge of sleep; just after falling asleep)
     sleep + edge

This breakdown conjures up the wonderful image of sleep as a space or place with an edge.

寝掛け (negake: half-asleep)     sleep + to suspend, to hang

Also a neat idea—being suspended in the space between sleep and wakefulness.

Another Cool Word for Half-Asleep …

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Hello again! Welcome once again to Benkyō Blog. I was thinking back to when I first started studying Japanese, and I recalled a technique I used for memorizing some hiragana and katakana. I saw some of them like pictures or symbols of something else. These little picture devices helped me to remember what was what. Here are a few examples of what I came up with. While looking at my examples, think to yourself: what is it that I see? It’s like looking at clouds and describing what animal they look like. One person might see a duck, and another person might see a stegosaurus. Don’t just take my examples because they aren’t yours. Make up your own and they’ll really stick!

コ　- This little guy is the katakana for “ko”. To me, I see a backwards “C”. I know that it’s used in the word “kōhī”, which is the Japanified way of saying “coffee”. Coffee starts with a “C”. “Koohii” starts with a コ, which looks like a backwards C.

と　-　Does anyone remember the show “Digimon”? There was a Digimon called Tokomon. He looked a lot like this hiragana, “to”. Tokomon starts with a “to”, which looks exactly like Tokomon himself in Japanese!

ほ – This might seem a little profane, but when I look at this hiragana for “ho”, I see a scantily-clad woman standing next to a pole. You can guess from that description exactly how I remember this one…

う　- The hiragana for “u” looks like an upside-down, underlined U. Anyone else see it?

ヨ　- The katakana for “yo” looks like a backwards E. I don’t know why, but somehow this reminds me that it’s read “yo”.

When you look at the different kana, what do you see? Use your imagination! Trust me, you might surprise yourself by what you come up with. Ganbatte ne!

In the holiday shuffle, it’s easy to lose a sense of balance and perspective. Kanji to the rescue!

Evening Balance
Photo credit: Hickoree

With all that I’ve said about 意 in past blogs, I’ve neglected to mention that it’s nearly symmetrical. If this kanji resembles an animal with a long tail, just snip off that tail (ouch!), and you have yourself a symmetrical (but aching!) animal!

When 意 combines with other symmetrical kanji, they result in compounds that are particularly calming to see. Click the link to find some of those.

Soothing Symmetry …

The Meaning of Life

The commercialism of December can fill us with a sense of meaninglessness, prompting us to wonder what we value and how we should allocate our time and energy. The questions can even make us consider the purpose of our existence. In a muddle, we might not know how to articulate these psychic and existential matters. But once again, kanji can help; in particular, several compounds will surely prove useful:

目的意識 (mokuteki-ishiki: sense of purpose)
     purpose (1st 2 chars.) + consciousness (last 2 chars.)

使命意識 (shimei-ishiki: sense of mission; awareness of duty or calling)     mission (1st 2 chars.) + awareness (last 2 chars.)

In this four-kanji compound, 使命 means “mission.” That mission may be anything from photographing documents to destroying a bridge.

A Note on the Breakdown of 使命 …

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Youkoso! Welcome to the first “real” edition of Benkyou Blog. Gather ’round everyone, it’s story time. I’m going to tell you a little personal story about when I was a high school exchange student in Japan.

I am a very self-conscious person. I find I’m comparing myself to others often. So, when I and my fellow exchange students would get together for various functions, I was constantly comparing my Japanese to theirs. At first, I was proud of myself. I had the best pronunciation and least accent of anyone else in the group, and considering I’d had no formal Japanese education, I wasn’t half bad. Midway through our ten month stay, things were a little different.

I arrived at our little meeting for the Osaka exchange students and their host families expecting to be at the same level or even ahead of the others who had previously been struggling. Instead, I was unpleasantly surprised to find myself stuttering and using far less new vocabulary when we made our usual introductory, “how I’m doing” speeches. My confidence came crashing down, and only continued to crash as the day went on.

A few months later, we had yet another exchange student gathering. Since the previous meeting, I had gotten back up on my feet and studied madly to catch up. Sure, the period before the last meeting was plagued with culture shock and various other exchange student stresses, but I felt that was no excuse for being so far behind! So, despite my lack of confidence, I studied hard all through my summer vacation. While my classmates were out having a good time, I was spending hours a day practicing kanji and translating the lyrics to my favorite songs as practice. At that next meeting, I felt about even with everyone else. We had all seemed to level out, no matter what our previous Japanese exposure was or how fast we’d learned at the beginning. At the end of the day, we were all about the same.

The moral of the story? Don’t compare yourself to others!! If you know someone else studying Japanese, don’t expect to always be on the same page. You can use their efforts as a motivator, but never compare yourself because everyone learns new languages at different speeds. No two brains are exactly alike, right? So, no two people are going to study Japanese at the same pace. But, you’ll find in the end that you’ll end up on the same page. If you study hard, you’ll find yourself just as proficient. You may have to study more than someone else, or it may be more difficult for you, but don’t ever let that discourage you!

You’re headed to the same destination: proficiency in the Japanese language. Don’t follow in the path of another. Blaze your own trail and make it a good one!

Benkyou de ganbatte ne!

I’ve long been interested in human consciousness, so I’m excited that Japanese has a host of fascinating words about that concept. The word for “consciousness” is 意識, ishiki (mind + discernment).

Strangely, ishiki sounds like dashiki. Since the 1960s in the United States, this West African garment has signified a raised consciousness about black culture and politics.

And suddenly we’re a world away from Japan! How did we stray so far, so quickly? Consciousness—faster than the speed of light!

The word 意識 doesn’t necessarily refer to a raised consciousness of social issues. Here are two terms for that:

社会意識 (shakai ishiki: social consciousness)
     society (1st 2 chars.) + consciousness (last 2 chars.)
問題意識 (mondai ishiki: awareness of the issues)
     problem (1st 2 chars.) + consciousness (last 2 chars.)

Instead, 意識 can more generally mean “awareness” or “sense.” Take this term:

苦手意識 (nigate ishiki: awareness that somebody or something is hard to deal with; awareness that one is not good at something)
     poor at (1st 2 chars.) + consciousness (last 2 chars.)

Forget about the second meaning of 苦手意識; I don’t want to think about all the things I’m not good at doing. But the first meaning? I’m enraptured! Scads of difficult people exist at all levels of my consciousness! I have some choice words for them, but none as proper (and as fun!) as this Japanese term. How have English speakers survived so long without an analogue?

With 意識 to guide us, let’s sift through the layers of the mind, starting with this word:

意識的 (ishikiteki: conscious, deliberate)
     consciousness (1st 2 chars.) + adjectival suffix

This seems straightforward—but is it? One could interpret the first definition, “conscious,” as referring to the conscious mind. After all, we see that type of meaning in this word:

下意識 (kaishiki: preconscious, unconscious, subconscious)
     below + consciousness (last 2 chars.)

But the second definition of 意識的 is “deliberate,” which suggests that when it comes to 意識的, “conscious” means “intentional.” This sense brings to mind 故意に (koi ni) from the last blog. That term referred to doing something horrible with full knowledge of what one is doing. By contrast, 意識的 can be either positive or negative.

Sample Sentences with 意識的 …

Read the rest of this entry »

Hey guys, Marky here!

The year is coming to an end. I want it to hurry up and finish as soon as possible because I’ve been focusing all my energy on 2008.

But, the month isn’t over yet, so I’d like to get some important information out there about December.

◎　Mixi
We finally got off our lazy butts and set up a mixi community. I’ll be posting little tidbits here and there about upcoming stories and behind the scenes things. Next year we’ll be trying some new approaches, so if you’re obsessed with JPod like some people are, you’ll definitely want to check it out from time to time.
http://mixi.jp/view_community.pl?id=2858106

◎　My Tokyo Travelblogue　
For fans of the Agnes Murakami saga, December is a good month for you! There are 4 Agnes lessons this month. Day 22, Day 23, Day 24 and Day 25. I can’t remember a time when the Agnes story went this long uninterrupted. I go into a little more detail about Agnes on the Mixi page, so Mixi members may want to check it out.

◎　Japanese Culture Class
We keep getting a lot of requests for explanations about the Intros gags. We recorded this one at the same time as the last JCC on the same topic. We are finally releasing it during the Holiday Break. Actually, we’ve gotten soooo many requests for this, that we decided to act upon it. in 2008, the intro scripts will be included in the PDF’s. I’ll talk more about that next month.

◎　Nihongo Dōjō - Welcome to Style You
This is probably the most popular thing we’ve done to date. The character Fabrizio has taken on a life of his own. I tip my hat to Naomiさん and Yoshikaiさん for that one. This 25 lesson newbie series will end on 12/17. But have no worries, Part 2 will begin next year!

◎　Holiday Schedule
Our usual schedule will be disrupted during the Christmas and New Years Holiday.

The Tokyo office will be closed from 12/28 - 1/6.
In past years we just shut down completely, but I’m happy to say this year will be different. We will still be releasing lessons for most of the holiday break.

On 12/24, we’ll put out a podcast detailing the lesson schedule. Intermediate learners will be loving it, I think!
The new seasons will begin 1/7. Again, I can’t tell you how excited I am to get these out to you!

So, you’ve listened to the podcasts. You’ve looked at the lessons. You’ve tried to memorize the grammar and vocabulary. Still having problems? Looking for some tips on studying Japanese? Looking for someone to relate to so that you don’t feel like the only one struggling to learn this difficult language?

Hello everyone. My name is Janna, and I’m here to introduce to you my new blog series, “Benkyo Blog”, that will be the new addition to the JapanesePod101 blog. My job is simple: to make sure that you, the JapanesePod101 listeners, don’t feel alone. I have been studying Japanese for years, and much of that time was spent in self-study. I went to Japan in 2004, my sophomore/junior year in high school, as an exchange student. While there, I had next to no formal instruction nor did I have a specific “teacher”. I didn’t learn from a book. I learned primarily from real life experiences and conversation.

Not everyone has that luxury, and that’s where JapanesePod101 comes in – it’s there to help you learn this language through real life scenarios with vocabulary you’re going to actually use in daily Japanese life. Even so, no matter how good your materials are, studying a foreign language is difficult. Plus, you’re studying Japanese. It’s one of the most difficult languages in some respects, especially in regards to reading and writing. Not to mention it is unrelated to any other language. There’s good news, though: it’s not as tough to learn as you might think, and that’s what I’m here for.

My goal through these blog posts is to get you to be more comfortable with studying Japanese. I’ll be giving you little ideas for memorizing hiragana and katakana or learning new vocabulary, personal stories from my time in Japan, and even a few tips for studying. Soon enough, you’ll find that Japanese isn’t as difficult as people make it out to be. The grammar and pronunciation are simple enough that it almost evens out with the difficult of the reading and writing. Reading and writing can be tough, but once you’ve learned how to learn the kana and kanji, you’ll discover your speed and efficiency in studying increases significantly.

Plus, to make this blog a little more fun, I might throw in a little Osaka dialect mini-lesson here and there! What can I say? I’m proud of my Japanese home! I lived in Osaka while I was there and am anxiously awaiting my return. So, if you’re planning on traveling or living in Osaka, or you just find the dialect fascinating, you might find my occasional Osaka-style Japanese lesson interesting.

So, enough about me and all this boring stuff! I’d like to once again welcome you all, and it is my most sincere of wishes that you become a more effective student of Japanese through my posts.

Yoroshiku onegai shimasu! Ganbatte ne!

When I happened upon the word 意図 (ito: intention), I was tickled. I figured that this instance of 図 might mean “map,” as it sometimes does. If so, one could read 意図 as mind + map! An intention might be a map of the mind!

Not So Fast …

Thinking that way made me quite happy, because back in college, I took an anthropology course called “Cultures and Consciousness,” and one of my favorite textbooks was Charles Hampden-Turner’s Maps of the Mind.

An Ancient Memory
of Maps of the Mind …

“Maps of the mind” is a great phrase, suggestive of many things, including trains of thought. When it comes to representing interconnected thoughts (e.g., about kanji!), the Internet is a perfect tool, for its glorious hyperlinkability.

On Hyperlinked Thoughts …

Speaking of kanji, I probably ought to focus exclusively on that for the rest of this blog. But it’s hard to discipline the mind to go down a straight railroad track. We have such strong associative capacities that it’s almost as if our minds were meant to wander again and again. Why have we evolved that way, come to think of it? Is it so we can multitask? Is it so we can repeatedly return to the past, always digesting it and learning from it? Jesus, Eve, focus already!

The focus (!) of today’s blog is intentions: the good, the bad, and the unforeseen. We’ll take ‘em one at a time with a few garnishes on the side.

The Best of Intentions

Several compounds help us talk about people’s true intentions. I don’t mean “true intentions” in the sense of “ulterior motives.” Quite the opposite. These words point to good faith and pure hearts:

本意 (hon’i: one’s real intent, motive, hopes)     origin + intention
正意 (seii: true heart; correct meaning)     right + intention
真意 (shin’i: real intention, true meaning)     true + intention

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