We recently got back from a trip to Tokyo, and half of my heart is still there.
Japanese words to understand the Japanese mind
Tag: Japanese
すみません vs. すいません
So, I'm not crazy. I was re-watching きみはペット (incidentally, one of my favorite Japanese dramas) and I confirmed a long-standing suspicion. A lot of Japanese people pronounce すみません as すいません. For years I've thought my brain was somehow not computing the み sound correctly until I actually saw it spelled with い in a manga I was reading. The [...]
Language Tag
Well, this is fun! Riccardo of Kaito Monogatari tagged me in this language learning questionnaire. Of all the people I know studying Japanese, Riccardo is the most prolific reader of Japanese literature that I know of. I hope I can be just as good some day. Anyway, thanks for tagging me, Riccardo! I'm always happy to talk about myself [...]
Blogging resolutions for 2016
I'm not a fan of New Year's resolutions, mainly because I think people can and should resolve to improve themselves throughout the year. (Besides, most people end up giving up on their resolutions mere weeks into the year, so why set yourself up for failure?) Dividing up time into years and such is a human construct [...]
積ん読
I stumbled across the Japanese word tsundoku some time ago on Buzzfeed. It was one among several Japanese words included in a list (listicle?) of "untranslatable" words from foreign languages. First things first: This is a cool word. I feel particularly attached to it because it describes an act that I commit with alarming frequency. For various reasons, have [...]
명심 해야 할 속담
So I have a job and, aside from that, I have a million other hobbies. Korean and Japanese are my more serious hobbies (I'll be taking TOPIK for the first time this year!) I'm pretty bad at sitting down and studying everyday but my everyday life is inundated with those languages. I wouldn't have it any other way. [...]
Cécile Corbel & songs in foreign languages
Good music makes me so, so happy. I've been listening to a lot of "experimental" electronic, indie rock, and singer/songwriter type music these days. When I listen to music in a language I can understand (English, Korean, and some Japanese), lyrics are often the most noticeable element of song for me and vocals tend to stand out [...]
Inspirational Japanese
Just popping by to share one of my favorite tumblrs out there, Inspirational Japanese. (click) If you're ever down, there's really nothing better than scrolling through a few of their posts. It really leaves you feeling um... inspired... about life... ;D
Lang-8
As always, I've been trying to find more outlets to use Korean and Japanese and recently I started using Lang-8 for that very purpose. Lang-8 is a social networking site for language learners where you can basically maintain a blog in the language you are attempting to learn. Native speakers can then correct your entries and [...]
Diminutives
Yesterday, I finished watching Devil Beside You - which, quite possibly, might be the last Taiwanese drama I'll ever watch. For reasons I won't go into here. Heh. Anyway, I watched DBY with little to no knowledge of Chinese, other than basic "A is B"-type sentences so I was intrigued by the way the characters [...]
