JapanesePod101.com Blog

The Kanji for this week are as follows: (Remember, each compound must use the Kanji in the brackets [ ].)

Kanji Scrabble #06:   [目] 口、上、時、円、飲、出、高、車、魚、見
Kanji Scrabble, a JapanesePod101.com original game. (Learn How to Play Here)
To start, all you need is a Twitter account and to follow our Twitter account @japanesepod101 (What’s Twitter you ask? Read our guide here.) Read the rest of this entry »

To “strong-arm” someone, we use threats or intimidation to coerce that person into doing what we want. Well, maybe I shouldn’t say “we.” I like inclusiveness, but I’m not sure “we” serves me too well here. (I also like to be a bit more discreet about my use of threats and intimidation.)

Turns out, the Japanese also “strong-arm” people to get their way. That is, the kanji for “threaten, coerce, intimidate” contains a strong arm, or several:

脅 (KYŌ, odo(su), odo(kasu), obiya(kasu): to intimidate, threaten, coerce)

Although 力 (RYOKU, chikara) now means “power,” it originally represented a bulging bicep. Henshall says that 劦 in 脅 means “strong arm” or “strength.” The tripling of 力 is for emphasis, indicating great force or pressure. (Actually, Henshall didn’t say “tripling.” He said “trebling,” bringing to mind the very unthreatening treble clef.) Meanwhile, 月 means “flesh.” So 脅 originally referred to putting great pressure on someone’s body. Now, the associated figurative meaning of “to threaten, coerce” has taken over entirely.

It may seem completely logical that this configuration of components would have a forceful meaning, but just think back to last week, when we saw that 脇 (waki) meant “side.” Same components, same radical, but a vastly different result.

Even when you pile three pumped-up arms on top of a flesh radical, you don’t necessarily get just one result. In fact, 脅 has three types of meanings:

1. to intimidate, threaten, menace
2. to jeopardize, endanger, imperil
3. to startle, surprise

I have lots of sample sentences to share, in hopes of illuminating these meanings. So where shall we start—by intimidating, endangering, or startling others? I’ll take back what I said about being discreet! I’m suddenly enjoying this sadistic power trip!
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昼食からしばらくすると、「少しお腹が空いたな」と間食をする人もいるのではないでしょうか。
日本では、この間食のことを「おやつ」と呼んでいます。

「おやつ」の「やつ」は「八つ」、つまり「８」を意味しています。昔の時刻で「八時」に当たる「八つ刻（やつどき）」は、現在の二時から四時ごろを指しているそうです。
江戸時代、人々は一日二食で暮らしていました。すると「八つ刻」くらいにお腹が空いてくるのですね。昔の人は夕食までの空腹を満たすために、果物や木の実、しだいに団子や煎餅などを口にするようになったとか。 Read the rest of this entry »

Thanks for following us on Twitter! We hope you have been enjoying the mini lessons we’ve been updating everyday. Our next theme will be “Bikkuri Adverbs”!

Over the next couple of weeks we will introduce you to a new “Bikkuri Adverb” everyday on Twitter.

“Bikkuri Adverbs” are set of adverbs that are interesting because they follow a certain pattern: they are all four syllables, and they follow the pattern of [ syllable + small tsu + syllable + ri ], as in: 「__っ__り」, where syllables go into the two blanks. The name “Bikkuri Adverb” comes from Tim in Takamatsu, who decided to call them this “because bikkuri means ’surprise’ and is itself a good example of one”. The Japanese language doesn’t actually have a name for these kinds of adverbs, despite the large number of them. Interesting!

Although these words are called adverbs, there are also many instances where they are used as adjectives or verbs. Many can be combined with the verb suru (する, “to do”) to create a verb phrase. Some people use the particle と (to) after certain words, but in many cases it is optional.

Click the link below to see a list of Bikkuri Adverbs thatwere introduced on Twitter!
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Welcome to Forum Spotlight! Here we’ll be introducing interesting and useful posts made by members at our very own JapanesePod101.com Forum.

Our second forum spotlight post containing a complete list of new proposed Joyo Kanji comes from Psyさん.
The Jōyō Kanji (常用漢字) are a list of 1945 “daily-use” kanji characters established by the Japanese Ministry of Education in 1981. Japanese children will have studied all of these kanji by the time they graduate from junior high school. The Ministry of Education has reviewed the current Jōyō Kanji set and proposed 191 kanji to be added to the list.  These characters are still under review, and the final list of additions is expected to be announced in the fall of 2010.

Due to the amount of characters, we will be introducing the additions Read the rest of this entry »

Let’s say you encountered this sentence:

新聞はあなたの脇にあります。

You likely know 新聞 as shinbun (newspaper, new + hearsay), so you could read the whole sentence, except perhaps for one troublesome character smack-dab in the center. Trying to work around it, you would have this:

Shinbun wa anata no ___ ni arimasu.

The newspaper is in your … driveway? Birdcage? Thoughts?

Looking at the components of 脇 might help. The “flesh” radical, 月, almost always tells us that we’re talking about the body. So the newspaper is somewhere in your body?!

When Does the 月 Component Not Mean “Flesh”? …

As for 力, that means “power.” In fact, it was originally a pictograph of a bulging bicep. So we have a body with three biceps!
Read the rest of this entry »

皆さん、初めまして。英(はなぶさ)いつきです。私は、幼い頃から日本語に関する勉強が好きで、以前は高校で国語教員をしていました。このブログを通じて、皆さんと一緒にことばの面白さを分かち合えたら嬉しいです。

では早速、今回は「高い」という表現について考えてみましょう。

「背が高い」とは、どういう意味でしょうか？　「高い」は「下から上への距離が大きく離れること」を意味しています。だから、「背が高い」とは定規で地面から測っていくと上の方で目盛りを読む状態を指しています。

 では、「鼻が高い」とは、どういう意味でしょう？　頬から鼻の先まで測ってみると長いのでしょうか？　いいえ、日本語では「得意になっている様子」を表わしているのです。皆さんも誰かに褒められたり、自慢できることがあったりすると胸をそらして上の方を見ませんか？　そうした仕草をしているとき、鼻は普段より高い位置になりますね。

では、「目が高い」はどうでしょう？　目が顔から飛び出すくらい上の方にある状態？　想像すると面白いですね。「目が高い」とは、日本では「良いものを見分ける能力に優れていること」を意味しています。 Read the rest of this entry »

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The Kanji for this week are as follows: (Remember, each compound must use the Kanji in the brackets [ ].)

Kanji Scrabble #05 : [学] 　年、立、長、大、語、社、入、国、会、見
Kanji Scrabble, a JapanesePod101.com original game. (Learn How to Play Here)
To start, all you need is a Twitter account and to follow our Twitter account @japanesepod101 (What’s Twitter you ask? Read our guide here.)

Answers: Read the rest of this entry »

Welcome to Forum Spotlight! Here we’ll be introducing interesting and useful posts made by members at our very own JapanesePod101.com Forum.
Our first forum spotlight post explaining particles for beginners of Japanese comes from Bueller_007さん. This was posted in response to a listener who said that they were having trouble keeping all of the particles straight.

Read the rest of this entry »