Japanese learning blog
Practical guides on speaking, grammar, pronunciation, listening, and study planning, written for learners who want to use Japanese in real life.
All articles · Page 114
Countries and Nationalities in Japanese: Names, -jin and -go
Most country names in Japanese are katakana loanwords, and two suffixes, -jin for people and -go for languages, turn almost any of them into the words you need.
9 min readJapanese Nature Vocabulary: Mountains, Rivers, Sea and Sky
Japan is mostly mountains and coastline, so nature words come up constantly, from place names and train announcements to the way people describe a weekend away.
9 min readJapanese Illness and Symptoms Vocabulary: Netsu, Seki, Zutsū
When you feel ill in Japan, a few dozen words let you explain what is wrong, how long it has lasted and what you need, whether to a doctor, a pharmacist or your boss.
9 min readJapanese Cooking Verbs: Kiru, Yaku, Niru, Ageru and More
Japanese recipes are short and predictable, and about twenty verbs, a few cutting styles and a handful of measures are enough to follow most of them.
10 min readJapanese Stationery and Office Vocabulary: Pens, Fusen and Hanko
Japanese stationery words are a mix of kanji compounds, English loanwords and a few surprises, such as hotchikisu for a stapler and fusen for a sticky note.
10 min readJapanese Personality Words: Describing Yourself and Others
Japanese has a compact set of personality words that people use every day, and knowing how to soften the negative ones matters as much as knowing the words themselves.
10 min readBeautiful Japanese Words for Seasons, Nature and Light
Many of the most beautiful Japanese words are small pictures built from two or three kanji: cherry blossoms falling like a snowstorm, a wind that strips the trees, fire that blooms like a flower.
11 min readJapanese Words for Love: Ai, Koi, Suki and Ren'ai Explained
Japanese has two main words for love, ai and koi, and a whole family of words built from them, from falling in love at first sight to confessing your feelings.
9 min readCommon Japanese Surnames: Satō, Suzuki, Tanaka and Their Kanji
A small group of surnames such as Satō, Suzuki, Takahashi and Tanaka covers a surprising share of Japan, and once you know a dozen name kanji you can read many of the rest.
10 min readShibui Meaning: Astringent Taste, Understated Cool and Shibushibu
Shibui starts in the mouth, with the dry, puckering taste of an unripe persimmon, and ends up as one of the highest compliments you can pay a person's taste.
12 min readMono no Aware Meaning: The Gentle Sadness of Passing Things
Mono no aware is the small ache you feel watching cherry petals fall: the thing is beautiful partly because it will not last.
11 min readYūgen Meaning: Mysterious Depth in Noh, Poetry and Japanese Today
Yūgen is the beauty of what you cannot fully see: mountains half hidden in mist, a Noh actor moving slowly in dim light, a poem that leaves more unsaid than said.
10 min readPractical guides
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