Friday Favorites #5
Learning Japanese is not easy, but the internet is a great place to find tips and tricks to help you out
An experience Japanese speaking foreigners find annoying – and Japanese don’t understand?
After I came to Japan my experiences with talking to Japanese people obviously got a lot more and even though in general the conversations were (and are) really pleasant, I did find myself occasionally in odd situations.
An experience japanese speaking foreigners find annoying
Something that comes up time and again while speaking with foreigners that live or traveled in Japan (who speak japanese) is a certain experience. Let me give you an example. I was just on my way to the station when a friendly middle-aged japanese Lady stopped me. “Excuse me, どこの国から来ました？” (Excuse me, what country are…
Word of the day: フワフワ (fuwafuwa)
フワフワ (ふわふわ) = fuwafuwa = fluffy, light, airy After looking through my pictures I felt that this is exactly what I need right now, a big fluffy pillow to cuddle with. My husband is away on a business trip and the weather has me so sleepy and with headache that there’s nothing I’d rather do…
Word(s) of the Day: うらやましい (urayamashii) & 欲しい (hoshii)
羨ましい（うらやましい） = urayamashii = jealous, envious When I see all the pictures my husband send me from Japan, especially from all the – oh so good – looking food, there is but one word that comes to mind: urayamashiiiii (note the long “i”? yeah, it’s for emphasis, because I’m really really really jealous). Though in…
Word of the Day: 失笑する (shisshou suru)
The first charakter 失 can be translated as “loss”, while the second one 笑 is the one for laughter, so it really is “losing laughter”, which describes having a fit of laughter perfectly. I admire people who can lose themselves in laughter so completely. They usually have also a laugh that is very contagious. I…
Word of the Day: 雷雨 (raiu)
picture source: tpsdave (pixabay) Yesterday evening was one of the worst thunderstorms I have ever experienced. The lightning didn’t even pause for thunder, the wind was so strong that trees, if not uprooted entirely, were split in half or lost countless branches. Bricks were flying and crashing onto cars and in the region at least…
Six (and a half) essential resources for learning Japanese
Learning japanese is an affair of the heart for me so I’m always reading through learning tips and try out new websites or Apps. This article from Philip Kendall over at RocketNews24 is very good so I thought I might share it. I absolutely agree with his list and found imiwa and rikaichan extremely helpful…
Four ways Japanese isn’t the hardest language to learn
I absolutely agree with this post. When asked I often point out exactly these reasons why I think it’s very manageable to learn Japanese (if you do in fact just this: learn)
Learning Japanese online
The last days I have been obsessed with learning japanese. With my trip to Osaka coming up I wanted to brush up my japanese as good as possible with the time restraint of a full-time job. Of course when trying to effectively learn or build up your language skills one first needs to be honest…
I lost my heart in Japan 