Welcome to Forum Spotlight! Here we’ll be introducing interesting and useful posts made by members at our very own JapanesePod101.com Forum. This week's forum spotlight post is by mtpiper, who asked about an appropriate wedding gift for a Japanese couple. This question was answered by both gerald_ford and hatch_jp, who had some great ideas to share! If someone you know is getting married, this would be a great post to read for some ideas! ============= Asking for advice ============= We have a friend in Japan that is getting married. We can't travel to Japan to attend the wedding, but want to send a gift. Sending cash in the mail is out of the question. What would be an appropriate gift to send? Something representative of our... Show more

Welcome to Forum Spotlight! Here we’ll be introducing interesting and useful posts made by members at our very own JapanesePod101.com Forum. This week's forum spotlight post is by reboundstudent, who asked about why Japanese people might be having trouble understand her when she speaks . Forum user Javizy responded with some possible reasons and gave advice on how to help remedy the problem. ====================== Asking for advice ====================== I am an American doing the JET program since about the end of July (so going on 2-3 months.) I was a Japanese minor in college, but my listening comprehension is dreadful, and my speaking is halted and usually filled with bad particles. My situation is, I speak and understand... Show more

Welcome to Forum Spotlight! Here we’ll be introducing interesting and useful posts made by members at our very own JapanesePod101.com Forum. This week's forum spotlight post is by mint, who asked how to buy tickets to the famous Ghibli museum (for the works of animator Hayao Miyazaki) in Mitaka, Tokyo. Forum users robopanda and fangorn responded with the answer and a useful link! ======= Question from mint ======= I'm trying to buy my tickets just now as i fly out in a week's time and havent got anything sorted out yet haha, Well i have my hostel's etc and rail ticket etc but no set plans on what were doing for 2 weeks... Anyone know where we can get them? I believe we can get some at Lawson's shop?? Im guessing Lawson's is... Show more

Welcome to Forum Spotlight! Here we’ll be introducing interesting and useful posts made by members at our very own JapanesePod101.com Forum. This week's forum spotlight post is by Taurus, who shared a great site that features Japanese songs lyrics in the original Japanese with nice English translations. After posting this, many other forum members jumped in with their own Japanese lyric site links. Singing in Japanese is actually a great way to improve your Japanese pronunciation, so why not give it a try! ==== Posted by Taurus: I'm sorry if this has been posted before but, inspired by my quest to find surprising karaoke songs, I've just come across a website that has a load of song lyrics in both Japanese and English. It might be... Show more

Welcome to Forum Spotlight! Here we’ll be introducing interesting and useful posts made by members at our very own JapanesePod101.com Forum. This week's forum spotlight post is by mikuji, who shared some useful ideas for remembering vocabulary and expressions with everyone. ====== I have a couple of tips I would like to share - it may help some of you. 1) When I find it difficult to learn an expression or a word, I use it as my screensaver password. I set the screensaver delay to a relatively short time so I am forced to use the expression several times a day. After a while my fingers remember it even if I don't! 2)I Use the slide-show feature on Window XP screensaver (or one could use free screensaver programs such as Flasher)... Show more

Welcome to Forum Spotlight! Here we’ll be introducing interesting and useful posts made by members at our very own JapanesePod101.com Forum. This week's forum spotlight post is a question asked by slehner about the various name suffixes that exist in Japanese that was answered by Psy. ======= Question： ======= I'm new to the Japanese language and I've seen a few suffixes used with names before but I do not know how to use them or understand the usage of them. I am familiar with "san" and and "sensei"** and their basic use but the ones I'm curious about I'll list below. I know its quite a list but I'm mostly looking for an understanding of what they mean and how they relate to ones name and the relationship it might place between... Show more

Welcome to Forum Spotlight! Here we’ll be introducing interesting and useful posts made by members at our very own JapanesePod101.com Forum. This week's forum spotlight post is a question asked by debondtjan about the best way to write out kanji and kana that was answered by Belton. ======= Question： ======= "For writing the kana/kanji, what would you suggest: a thick pen or a normal pen to practice? The bigger, calligraphic versions of kana & kanji (where they use a thick pen) always look so much better and easier to the eye than the smaller ones. One problem I currently see in my learning process, is that sometimes small hiragana (on screen) miss some pixels (that you clearly see on bigger hiragana) that aided me in... Show more

Welcome to Forum Spotlight! Here we’ll be introducing interesting and useful posts made by members at our very own JapanesePod101.com Forum. This week's forum spotlight post is a question asked by thegsusfreek about the Japanese writing system from a beginner's point of view that was answered by QuackingShoe. If you're a beginner who is confused by how the Japanese writing system works, you'll find some answers here! ===================== Question from thegsusfreek: ===================== I've just started using this program and I've signed up for the 7 day premium trial. I'm absolutely loving it! But, I have many questions about written Japanese. I hope that someone can help answer them. 1) In the first table of the "Kanji Close-up"... Show more

Welcome to Forum Spotlight! Here we’ll be introducing interesting and useful posts made by members at our very own JapanesePod101.com Forum. This forum spotlight post contains the final part of a list of new proposed Jōyō Kanji, which comes from Psyさん. What are Jōyō Kanji? The answer to that question along with the first installment of the list can be found here! For the second installment, click here. Here is part 3, the final installment of the new proposed Jōyō Kanji list. Next to each kanji, you will find the reading (onyomi is in katakana, kunyomi is in hiragana), the character's meaning, and a sample word using that kanji. No Kanji Reading Meaning Sample Word 126 諦 テイ・あきら（める）... Show more

Welcome to Forum Spotlight! Here we’ll be introducing interesting and useful posts made by members at our very own JapanesePod101.com Forum. This forum spotlight post contains part 2 of a list of new proposed Jōyō Kanji, which comes from Psyさん. What are Jōyō Kanji? The answer to that question along with the first installment of the list can be found here! Here is part 2 of the new proposed Jōyō Kanji list. Next to each kanji, you will find the reading (onyomi is in katakana, kunyomi is in hiragana), the character's meaning, and a sample word using that kanji. No Kanji Reading Meaning Sample Word 65 采 サイ dice; die 拍手喝采（はくしゅかっさい） 66 塞 サイ・ソク・ふさ（ぐ）・ふさ（がる） ... Show more