JapanesePod101.com Blog

Not long ago, one of my Japanese-language partners told me this:

むちゃがしたくなる。

I had no idea what he was saying, so he wrote it down (thank goodness for Skype’s chatting features!) as follows:

無茶がしたくなる。

That didn’t help at all. Among other problems, I couldn’t figure out where to divide the hiragana, so the romanized rendering seemed like this:

Mucha ga shitakunaru.

Huh? ¡Mucha confusión!

Kensuke explained that したくなる was したい (shitai: I want to do) + なる (naru: to become). The final い of したい had turned into く to accommodate なる. So we had “I want to do” or “I want to become” or some combination of the two.

I want to do what? Become what? The first word stumped me. If 無 is “no” and 茶 is “tea,” were we talking about a lack of tea? That sounded to me (a tea fanatic) like a crisis of major proportions. But Kensuke has never mentioned anything about a tea passion, and although I’ve now forgotten what we were discussing at the time, I’m certain it had nothing to do with tea.
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Am I crazy? Who’s to say? By Einstein’s definition, I may well be. He said insanity was repeatedly doing the same thing while hoping for a different outcome. As I write this, I’m drinking caffeinated tea at 7 p.m. All the while, I’m telling myself that it won’t affect my sleep. At some deeper level, I also know that if tea has kept me awake on a thousand other occasions, I can probably expect some misery tonight. Crazy, right? Yes, but I can’t help it, because I’m crazy about black and green tea. (I mean, black tea and green tea. Not tea that’s simultaneously black and green.)

Crazy—there’s that word again. When you speak of being “crazy about something,” it has nothing to do with insanity … or does it? Passion is worlds apart from insanity, but they both have to do with being imbalanced and out of control. The word “fan” comes from “fanatic” but has lost its associations with craziness. Similarly, “craze” (as in fad) doesn’t conjure up images of “crazy,” even though the words are nearly identical.

I’m not the only one to have mulled over these issues. When I asked a Japanese photographer whether I could include a photo of his in my book Crazy for Kanji, he said it depended on my answers to several questions, including these:
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Congratulations to Jenni from Southern California on winning the GRAND PRIZE of Mail Bag Contest II!

Jenni is in high school currently and absolutely LOVES Japanese!  Much like many of our other listeners, she became interested in the language and culture first through Japanese media like anime and  manga.  She was a bit discouraged when she first thought of learning Japanese, but toughed it out and is moving along and learning quickly!

Have a look at the mail she sent us:

“My name is Jenni and I’m a junior in high school. I am 16 years old going on to 17 this year. I became interested in Japan through anime and manga. That soon developed into a greater passion for the Japanese language, its people, and its culture. 

I started trying to learn Japanese on my own in the 8th grade.  My local high school offered Japanese classes but, sadly, they were going to be removed the year that I would be entering that high school. 

So, I set off to learn Japanese on my own through the easiest and cheapest way possible, the Internet. For the first year and a half I learned through many websites what I could, but none of them were well structured or explained things very well. I was starting to give up hope on ever learning Japanese. 

My parents just didn’t think I would stick with the language so they didn’t bother getting me a teacher. “What will you ever use Japanese for?” is what they would constantly tell me. “It’s almost impossible to master.” In a way they were right. It was difficult to master. But that wasn’t going to stop me. It only fueled me to try harder and prove them wrong. 

Then, thank God, I came across Japanesepod101 last year. At first I was skeptical. I thought it would be just like every other ’learn Japanese’ website out there.
Boy was I wrong. 

I learned SO much within just one month of listening to the pod casts, just with the free content. It was so useful it turned into my own little class on Japanese. I have hosted Japanese students before and they were surprised when I knew how to use words such as ‘zenzen’ or even knew about places like the ’suicide forest’ at the bottom of Mt. Fuji(thanks to your culture class). I of course told them it was all thanks to Japanesepod101. 

My parents have been really impressed on how much I have learned since I started learning Japanese. They are still very unsure on whether or not it is a good idea but at least they are a bit more accepting of it. They never thought I would learn even the basics. Now, me and some of my friends use Japanesepod101 as a teacher. We meet twice a week for a few hours and go over a lesson each day. We only use the free content since our parents won’t pay for a subscription, but we still learn a GREAT deal from it. That’s how well structured and useful this website is. 

JapanesePod101 has honestly become a life saver to me. I cannot go a day with out listening to a lesson. I just want to tell you how thankful I am and how much I appreciate what you guys are doing. You are great teachers and from the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU :]” 

That’s truly inspiring, Jenni!  Despite not getting much support, you really tried your best and searched for the best tools you could afford to aide your studies.  On top of that, having group lessons at school during your breaks?  素晴らしい！  And that’s why we’ve decided to pick your story as the Grand Prize.

Have a great story to share?  Share with us yours in the comment field on any of our current posts or e-mail us.

When my husband read the Sunday New York Times this week, he came upon some kanji in a photo and decided to give me a quiz. Covering all the surrounding English, he said, “You don’t get any context. See if you can read this.” Here’s what it said:

大企業の首切りを許さないぞ！

My first reaction was to panic and to go blank. I don’t know why that is. I love kanji as much I love chocolate and tea, and I’ve never panicked on seeing either of those things—not once. Then again, chocolate and tea don’t require much of me, except perhaps willpower!

Once I gave myself a moment, though, things started to fall into place. I could easily recognize 切 as ki(ru), “to cut.” So what was being cut? Although I should have known 首 in an instant, it took me more like five instants to make sense of 首切り. Of course! I love this compound; 首 is “neck,” and 首切り (kubikiri: neck + to cut) is a wonderfully graphic (if gruesome) way of referring to firing employees.
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JapanesePod101.com was created with the intent to help people study, but we’ve found out some people even use our tools as a reference for work!
One such individual is Darryl, age 59, from Oklahoma.  He works for Hitachi as a technical Japanese translator, a true veteran in his field!

“Since my job at Hitachi is to translate technical drawings, procedures, reports, operating instructions and email communications between our office here and the headquarters office in Japan, I have to use my Japanese-language skills everyday.

If JapanesePod101 was a store, I would call it a “One-Stop Shop” because it provides ALL the tools you need for learning the Japanese language.  That’s why it is now my only reference tool. I used to read and listen to Japanese news broadcasts over the internet and look up words in my electronic dictionary when needed (a lot !). Though I will still listen to news broadcasts every now and then, I basically use JapanesePod101 exclusively since it provides all the tools I need for improving my ability in the Japanese language.  No other tool or software is needed.”

He translates technical drawings, procedures, reports and operating instructions?! I’m sure that takes quite a vocabulary to do that!

Does anyone else use Japanese on the job? Send us an e-mail and let us know!

Last week I mentioned that an email from Japan had left me scratching my head about one word. Actually, more than one word in the letter had that effect! The following sentences also gave me pause:

社員のリストラとか、良くない景況の話ばかりです。それでも人々は健気に精一杯前を向いて生きています。
Shain no risutora toka, yokunai keikyō no hanashi bakari desu. Soredemo hitobito wa kenage ni seiippai mae o muite ikite imasu.
With downsizing and so forth, all anybody talks about is the bad economic outlook. Nevertheless, people are bravely doing all they can to look ahead and move forward.

There are so many things to explore in this passage that it’s hard to know where to begin! So I’ll wrestle with each thing in order.

First, a breakdown of the tricky words in the initial sentence:
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Konbanwa Listeners!

This evening I thought I’d bring you a story about a foreigner living in Tokyo, but finding it difficult to practice Japanese.

In Tokyo many Japanese speak basic English or the store clerks have mastered simple phrases to conduct business with the many foreigners living here.  This is great for the newly arrived or confused traveler, but for those trying to speak the language it can be quite frustrating!  There are also many people who speak only English at work and have no contact with Japanese. This makes learning even more difficult!

This week’s story comes from Julie Mitchell  in Tokyo.  Julie shared a story with us about this difficult to escape “expat bubble”:

“Why am I studying Japanese?  I ask myself that question every month when I need to pay for my Japanese lessons.

Of course, it is helpful to know Japanese, but as an obvious gaijin, the Japanese people are very accommodating to English speaking foreigners.  And when you live in the “expat bubble” you can actually survive quite well not knowing a word of Japanese…

So why do I pursue this endeavor?  I think its fun to learn another language, difficult and challenging too, but since I’m arafo (a woman around 40) I need to keep my mind active and Nihongo is good brain food.    

 The problem with studying Japanese and living in the “expat bubble” is that I don’t always have the opportunity to use my emerging skills.  I’m able to say many phrases in Japanese but I’m not able to understand the response spoken back to me. 

 Japanesepod101.com has been a huge boon to my listening comprehension.  I try to eavesdrop on the train and on street corners, but I think it would be rude if I told my victims, “Mo ichido, yukkuri itte kudasai.”  Your dialogues politely fill that void. I can listen as many times, even slowed down, until I understand!

 I just started listening in November of 2008 and I love the topics, grammar points, cultural info, and the pop culture too.

Because I have a “Type A” personality I want to catch up on all the episodes I’ve missed.  On Monday, I listened for about four hours on my daughter’s iPod; I stopped only because the ear buds hurt my ears. That’s why I’ve told countless people about your site because I’m feeling a need to form a japanesepod101.com support group because of my recent addiction!

Your site is a great value and if someone didn’t have access to Japanese instruction this would give them an opportunity to study.   I’ve used Rosetta Stone and other resources, but your site is BY FAR the best instruction I’ve come across so far!

Otsukare-sama!“

Keep trying hard Julie!

Any suggestions for those times when it’s hard to practice Japanese because your native language is so comfortable? Send us an e-mail!