January 30, 2004
Kanji Practice Sheets
Nakama Kanji Sheets are available at University of Hawai site. If you use Nakama for your Japanese class and want to practice Kanji, these are perfect.
January 28, 2004
Nengajyo
Do you guys know a Japanese new year's card, Nengajyo?
Nengajyo is the most important greeting card in Japan. Japanese exchange the new year's card not only among friends and relatives but also among business people.
Check out this website to get more information about Nengajyo!
January 21, 2004
The Kanji Site
If you are intrested in Kanji, The Kanji SIte is a great page to start Kanji practice.
This site introduces the history of kanji and some tips to enjoy practicing kanji. Kanji have two kinds of readings, "On" readings and "Kun" readings. If you check out this site, you might understand what is the difference between "On" and "Kun".
January 15, 2004
Japanese Slang
Learning Slang is always fun. In my case, I tried to get as many English slang as possible when I started studying English first time. By using "good" slang, I could make my American friends laugh, and we could enjoy our conversation.
Laughing is the universal language, and that is why I think slang can be really cool tools to become confidential with your friend who speak different language. You don't need to remember many but some, and you can make your Japanese friends laugh, It makes you happy too right?
I found some nice pages introducing good slang, so check these out.
Japanese Slang
Japan Culture Club
Japanese Slang Links
January 14, 2004
Japanese Onomatopoeia
There are a lot of Onomatopoeia in Japanese, such as beron-beron (very drunk), kuta-kuta (dead tired). Those words consist of two syllables and imitate sounds. Japanese often use those words, and I think you guys want to remenber some of those. Those are very easy to remember and practical, so...
If you are interested in Onomatopoeia, check out this web page.
January 13, 2004
What is your blood type?
Some Japanese believe that a person's blood-type determines character. That is why some Japanese use the blood-type to determine compatibility for marriage and romance.... I don't believe that, but can't ignore that....umm
January 12, 2004
Engrish.com
If you go to Japan, you can find a lot of English mistakes that appear in Japanese product design, advertising, and so on. Go to the Engrish.com. You can find bunch of them.
Japanese often use English as a design element when they make products or advertising. Why? I don't know... but think English words bring a modern taste and impression. For example, most of the names for Japanese cars are English (or sometimes French). Accord (Honda), Legacy (Subaru), Land Cruiser(Toyoda)...
I guess it doesn't matter for Japanese whether they can understand those English or not. They just want to use Engrish! oh no English!!
If you guys know other fun websites, let me know.
January 11, 2004
YesAsia.com
If you are interested in Japanese pop music, YesAsia.com is one of the most popular sites where you can buy the CDs. I am not sure how much it cost for the shipping though. If you know something about this store, please post your comment. Also let me konw if you know other cool music store.
January 10, 2004
Vocabulary Quizzes
Japanese Vocabulary Quizzes (JavaScript)
If you want to built up your vocabulary, here is the site you can practice effectively.
January 08, 2004
Hiragana Megane
MEGANE means "glasses". If you can get magical glasses which allow you to read Japanese all in Hiragana, it makes things much easier, right? Check out this site. Oh yes, the dream comes true. This web site is the cool MEGANE to read Kanji.
This is how it works. Enter te URL of the Japanese website which you want to read. Then, HIRAGANA MEGANE automatically converts Kanji into Hiragana! Yes, only you have to know is how to read Hiragana.
Of course, you need to know the meaning of the words, but why don't you study Japanese with this great tool? It's gonna be nice exercises to read Hiragana. Don't you think so?
January 07, 2004
The Last Samurai
I was impressed by this film. This is the story of the beginnings of the modernization of Japan in the late 1870s. Tom Cruise as a united States Army captian is hired by the Japanese government and goes to Japan to train their troops of the emperor. During melee, Cruise is injured and captured by samurai. Then, he encunters spiritual life of samurai.
Usually I find many stereotypical depictions about Japanese when I watched Hollywood movies. For example, "Pearl Harbor", directed by micheal bay, was really bad. Japanese in this movie cannot speak Japanese well. There are a lot of bizarre scenes which I cannot understand. However, this movie is different.
But, who is the last samurai? ken Watanabe, Tom Cruise, or me??
Let me know if you can figure this out.
January 05, 2004
Online Dictionary
Anybody knows about handy Online dictionary?
Online Dictionary could be an useful tool for studying Japanese, but I haven't found the best online English-Japanese dictionary yet. This site is the one I know so far. This site has very simple interface, and searching speed is not too bad. If you can type only English, there is no problem. Ro-ma-ji works.