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In the newsletter this month, I looked at 伺う (ukagau) a broadly useful "humble" keigo verb, and on the blog I looked at the other kanji that help ukagau expand its meanings. On the podcast, I talked about keigo more broadly. It's often overcomplicated and intimidating. Students need an easy way in, and I think there's a way to create a simple binary for many keigo verbs. Give the episode a listen and let me know what your own keigo experience has been like!
Feel free to reach out with any questions or 悩み事 to [email protected].
You can also follow How to Japanese on Substack, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.
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確か (tashika) and 確かに (tashika ni) seemed impenetrable to me when I first started studying; somehow they're nearly identical but meant the exact opposite? I found that I was able to crack the code by "brute forcing" this an other impossible pairs. Read more in the newsletter, and check out the blog for a link to the Kakuta Mitsuyo reading I mentioned and to find a link to my Japanese reading group.
Feel free to reach out with any questions or 悩み事 to [email protected].
You can also follow How to Japanese on Substack, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.
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確認 (kakunin, confirm/check) is one of the most flexible words in the language. This month I go over all the different usages. Check out the newsletter for the prefixes/suffixes it connects with and how it's an extremely effective tool in work chats. On the blog, I've got more in depth discussion of 確認 and how it can set a template for conversations.
Feel free to reach out with any questions or 悩み事 to [email protected].
You can also follow How to Japanese on Substack, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.
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It's been three years since I restarted my kanji study, and unfortunately it's languished over the past year. I take a look at the recommendations I made last year to see if they still hold up and provide an alternate method of creating your own manual spaced-repetition system. Check out the newsletter for the details and the blog for a look at how much a draft of Norwegian Wood might have weighed.
Feel free to reach out with any questions or 悩み事 to [email protected].
You can also follow How to Japanese on Substack, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.
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Do you have an 推し? Do you do 推し活? Have you been on a 聖地巡礼 as part of this? Do any of the words I just wrote make any sense at all? If not, tune in for details on how the language of fandom is mutating into more mainstream topics. In the newsletter I look at how having an 推し is good for language study, and on the blog check out a very funny use of 推し活 in marketing.
Feel free to reach out with any questions or 悩み事 to [email protected].
You can also follow How to Japanese on Substack, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.
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This month I looked at the 文壇 (bundan, literary world) and 文芸誌 (bungeishi, literary journals) thanks to the 120th anniversary issue of Shinchō. Murakami Haruki has a short story, but the real reason to pick up the issue is the 随筆 (zuihitsu, nonfiction essays/miscellaneous writing). Tune in to learn why, and don't forget to check out the newsletter and the blog.
Feel free to reach out with any questions or 悩み事 to [email protected].
You can also follow How to Japanese on Substack, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.
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How do you improve your ability to understand Japanese sentences on your own? And to craft structurally sound Japanese sentences? I have a theory that sentence diagramming is a great step along the way, and I wrote about it this month in the newsletter. Plus, I provide a great way to increase your exposure to trending news articles in Japan. Read more over at the blog.
Feel free to reach out with any questions or 悩み事 to [email protected].
You can also follow How to Japanese on Substack, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.
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The word 角ハイ (kakuhai) kind of formed in my mind without me even consciously realizing what it was, so I explored that for the newsletter and the podcast this month. Turns out, it's related to Suntory, Japan's whiskey history, and the booming highball market since 2008. Check out the blog as well, where I look at お湯割り (oyuwari, cut with hot water).
And at the end I include a grab-bag of いろいろ content, including a Mercari recommendation for all my fellow used book sickos!
Feel free to reach out with any questions or 悩み事 to [email protected].
You can also follow How to Japanese on Substack, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.
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This month I continue the conversation about value in Japan with a close comparison of the 1,000-yen men's haircut and the 2,000-yen men's haircut. The former has terrible value, while the latter has great value. I also get into some good haircut vocab and talk about the interesting customs of men's barbers, which I expanded on over at the blog. For the newsletter, I wrote about the verb まとめる (matomeru, bring things together). Give it a read!
Feel free to reach out with any questions or 悩み事 to [email protected].
You can also follow How to Japanese on Substack, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.
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明けましておめでとうございます！ New Year, New Murakami. We're getting a Jay Rubin translation of Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World in September. I talk about the market for used Birnbaum translations and go over some of the details that Rubin revealed about the translation in a talk at Wellesley last April.
I also talk about the 見積もり (mitsumori, quotes) involved in moving apartments. Check out more on Murakami over at the blog, and details on quotes/estimates and shopping for appliances at the newsletter.
Feel free to reach out with any questions or 悩み事 to [email protected].
You can also follow How to Japanese on Substack, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.
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We made it! 2023 is a wrap. Life sometimes seems busy and overwhelming, but we can have it all--including our language goals. This month I take a look at Japanese recipe creators that you can rely on for simple meals while studying the language. I also do an assessment of the state of Japanese social media platforms and their use as corpora of language usage examples. Check out the newsletter for a deeper dive on the phrase I'm looking at this month, そうこうしているうちに, and the blog for some いろいろ. See you in 2024!
Feel free to reach out with any questions or 悩み事 to [email protected].
You can also follow How to Japanese on Substack, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.
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This month I analyze the subtitle translation for the latest John Wick movie, which came out in Japan in September. The episode includes one spoiler, but I frontloaded additional content and provide a spoiler warning if you'd like to skip. The core part of the podcast addresses collocations, what they are, how they work, and how we as students of the language can take advantage of them in our study. As always, check out the newsletter and the blog for additional content.
Feel free to reach out with any questions or 悩み事 to [email protected].
You can also follow How to Japanese on Substack, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.
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This month I talk about 非外来語のカタカナ表記 (non-gairaigo katakana notation). When and why do Japanese users choose to write kanji and hiragana words using katakana. As always, check out the newsletter and the blog for additional content.
Feel free to reach out with any questions or 悩み事 to [email protected].
You can also follow How to Japanese on Substack, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.
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This month I take a look at the really excellent little conjunction それが and how it can be used to efficiently express subversion of expectations. I also follow up on Anki and writing kanji based on some interesting tweets and potentially even give myself a new Japanese project. Ask me in a year if I've kept up with it. Check out the newsletter and the blog for additional content.
Feel free to reach out with any questions or 悩み事 to [email protected].
You can also follow How to Japanese on Substack, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.
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のだ is one of the subtler, more difficult-to-use Japanese grammar patterns, but employing it in your spoken Japanese is a quick way to sound more natural. This month in the podcast and newsletter, I look at how to use it in written Japanese. I also have a follow-up on kanji from last month and a (mostly) spoiler-free review of 君たちはどう生きるか (The Boy and the Heron) at the end. Check out the newsletter here and the blog for additional content.
Feel free to reach out with any questions or 悩み事 to [email protected].
You can also follow How to Japanese on Substack, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.
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The podcast is back as a monthly accompaniment to my newsletter. This month I'm talking about kanji study and how to use SRS (spaced repetition software) to optimize your passive recognition and active production of Japanese. Check out the newsletter here and the blog for additional content. And I'd love to hear from listeners/readers: What has worked well for you? Do you have any decks that have been helpful? Strategies for deck creation?
Feel free to reach out with any questions or 悩み事 to [email protected].
You can also follow How to Japanese on Substack, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.
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It took me two months, but I read the book (in 25 days) and then spent the rest of the time playing Zelda and trying to write my review. Here are some of my thoughts. The first few minutes are spoiler free, so feel free to drop in and then check out. Head over to the blog for links to my review on Medium and some additional thoughts on Substack.
Feel free to reach out with any questions or 悩み事 to [email protected].
You can also follow How to Japanese on Substack, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.
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Haruki Murakami's new novel is out in Japan! I've read the first two chapters and give my immediate impressions divided into three sections: spoiler free, loose suggestions about content, and spoiler-palooza.
Feel free to reach out with any questions or 悩み事 to [email protected].
You can also follow How to Japanese on Substack, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.
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We're 24 hours away from the publication of Murakami's latest novel! In this episode, I go through a laundry list of vocabulary that ties together Murakami's fiction over the years, run through a set of predictions I made (both prior to and after the title announcement), and then dig deep into spoiler territory about how exactly the new novel might be connected to Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. Check out the links I mention on the blog.
Feel free to reach out with any questions or 悩み事 to [email protected].
You can also follow How to Japanese on Substack, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.
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This week I go through all the books--fiction, nonfiction, and translations--that Murakami Haruki published from 2006 to 2023. Take a look at the blog post for all the links I mentioned, and follow along during the podcast using the Google Sheets spreadsheet I created with all Murakami's publications: https://bit.ly/MurakamiBibliography
Feel free to reach out with any questions or 悩み事 to [email protected].
You can also follow How to Japanese on Substack, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.
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