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 125
Japanese Kitchen Tools and Tableware Vocabulary: Knives, Pans, Bowls
Japanese kitchen and tableware vocabulary splits neatly into tools you cook with, such as hōchō, furaipan and suihanki, and things you eat from, such as hashi, chawan, owan and sara, each with its own counter word.
13 min readJapanese Sports Vocabulary: Sport Names, Playing Verbs, Teams and Scores
Most Japanese sport names are katakana loanwords such as sakkā and tenisu that take the verb suru or yaru, while a few sports use their own verb, so you swim with oyogu, run with hashiru and do martial arts with narau or yaru.
13 min readJapanese Classroom Instructions: Teacher Phrases, Replies and Grammar Terms
Classroom Japanese is a small, fixed set of phrases: the teacher says kiite kudasai, yonde kudasai and pea ni natte kudasai all day long, and you reply with mō ichido onegaishimasu, wakarimasen or shitsumon ga arimasu.
13 min readJapanese Hospital Departments Vocabulary: Naika, Geka, Shōnika and More
Japanese hospital departments are named with the suffix ka: naika is internal medicine, geka is surgery, shōnika is paediatrics, hifuka is dermatology, ganka is ophthalmology and jibika is ear, nose and throat, and picking the right one is the first thing reception asks about.
12 min readJapanese Toilet Buttons and Signs: Washlet Controls, Flush Levers and Etiquette
The buttons on a Japanese toilet panel follow one fixed vocabulary: oshiri and bide wash, tomeru stops, kansō dries, oto or otohime plays a masking sound, and nagasu flushes, with dai and shō on a lever for a big or small flush.
13 min readJapanese Youth Slang (Wakamono Kotoba): Sore na, Wanchan, Emoi and More
Wakamono kotoba is the spoken slang of young Japanese people, a fast-changing set of words like sore na, wanchan and emoi that you will hear constantly among friends but should listen to carefully before you try to use yourself.
13 min readReading a Japanese Menu: Sections, Cooking Kanji, Set Meals and Price Notes
A Japanese menu becomes readable once you know two small sets of kanji: the section headings such as yakimono, agemono and menrui, and the cooking-method characters yaki, age, ni, mushi and nama that sit inside almost every dish name.
13 min readAsking for a Day Off in Japanese: Yūkyū Requests by Voice, Chat and Email
To ask for a day off in Japanese, say the date, then o-yasumi o itadakitai no desu ga, and finish with yoroshii deshō ka; that one pattern works in person, in chat and in email, and your boss will usually answer with a short daijōbu desu yo.
13 min readJapanese Business Trip (Shucchō): Applying, Booking, Greetings and the Report
A shucchō, a business trip, runs on a fixed sequence in most Japanese companies: apply with a shucchō shinsei, book through admin, greet the destination office with o-sewa ni natte orimasu, keep every receipt, and close the trip with a short shucchō hōkoku and a thank-you on return.
13 min readGiving Feedback to a Colleague in Japanese: Kōhai, Dōryō and Your Boss
To give feedback to a colleague in Japanese, open with a cushion such as sukoshi ii desu ka, name one specific thing, suggest rather than instruct with shita hō ga ii kamo shiremasen, and close with a forward-looking line; the register shifts with rank, but the shape stays the same.
13 min readJapanese Work Handover (Hikitsugi): Phrases, the Hikitsugisho and Clients
Hikitsugi is the formal handover of your work to a successor before leave, a transfer or resignation; you do it well by writing a hikitsugisho, walking the successor through it in person, and introducing them to every client with a short kōnin no go-shōkai message.
13 min readJapanese Performance Review (Hyōka Mendan): Self-Evaluation, Feedback and Pay
A Japanese performance review, the hyōka mendan, is a short structured talk about the goals you set, how you rate yourself and what comes next; you do well by stating results plainly, framing them with humble grammar and asking about pay and promotion as questions, not demands.
13 min readPractical guides
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