Japanese Me

When I first started studying Japanese I watched a lot of anime. I got hooked on the likes of Cowboy Bebop, Inuyasha, Fruits Basket, and Escaflowne, all with English subs. Some fansub groups write transliterations of song lyrics so you can sing along even if you can’t read Japanese.  It can be hard to follow, [...]

The Japanese Language Proficiency Test (日本語能力試験、or JLPT) is coming up in 11 days so I’ve been hitting the books pretty hard.  I passed a practice test but I want to give myself some more breathing room so kanji and vocab it is. I originally thought reading was my problem but when I looked at the [...]

I managed to cast off another pair of socks today.  Really small needles and really thin yarn equaled a really long, tedious knit.  Worth it, though. Prima Julia [ravelry]. In other news it’s Golden Week, an extremely well-placed series of national holidays.  This year they land so we get five days off in a row–sweet.  [...]

Part two of an ongoing series. The same Translator Cafe thread that inspired part one of this series has a bunch of good tidbits in it.  Here’s one from a Terry Waltz: Understanding everything is great — but you do realize that working in Asian languages you will have to go both ways, and that [...]

I’ve had a lot of free time since I’ve been home so I’ve been hitting the books pretty hard, cramming bunches of Japanese vocabulary into my brain.  I’ve also been roaming around on delicious looking for helpful websites and forum posts about achieving fluency in Japanese.  This translators cafe thread led me to the translation [...]

I am so happy I live in an age where I can use the internet to study Japanese–there are so many great tools out there!  Here’s one I discovered just yesterday:  Read the Kanji. It’s a flashcard website that tests your knowledge of kanji readings.  Its beauty is in its simplicity–no complicated preferences, no wading [...]

一生懸命 (isshou kenmei):  with all of one’s might; workin’ yer little heart out If you want to test your Japanese ability the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (日本語能力試験 or JLPT) is the most popular way to do it.  The levels range from 4 (“I can read a simple picture book”) to 1 (“I am completely fluent [...]

While I didn’t complete my first 101 in 1001 it did challenge me to do many things I otherwise may not have tried.  In that spirit here’s a new list to kick off the decade.  If you’re interested my previous 101 in 1001 it can be found here. The Next 101 in 1001 Start date: [...]