皆さん、初めまして。英(はなぶさ)いつきです。私は、幼い頃から日本語に関する勉強が好きで、以前は高校で国語教員をしていました。このブログを通じて、皆さんと一緒にことばの面白さを分かち合えたら嬉しいです。 では早速、今回は「高い」という表現について考えてみましょう。 「背が高い」とは、どういう意味でしょうか？　「高い」は「下から上への距離が大きく離れること」を意味しています。だから、「背が高い」とは定規で地面から測っていくと上の方で目盛りを読む状態を指しています。  では、「鼻が高い」とは、どういう意味でしょう？　頬から鼻の先まで測ってみると長いのでしょうか？　いいえ、日本語では「得意になっている様子」を表わしているのです。皆さんも誰かに褒められたり、自慢できることがあったりすると胸をそらして上の方を見ませんか？　そうした仕草をしているとき、鼻は普段より高い位置になりますね。 では、「目が高い」はどうでしょう？　目が顔から飛び出すくらい上の方にある状態？　想像すると面白いですね。「目が高い」とは、日本では「良いものを見分ける能力に優れていること」を意味しています。  さらに、「声が高い」はどうでしょうか？　ソプラノの声のこと？　いえいえ、「声が大きいこと」を表わします。でも、大きな声で話そうとすると不思議と少し音程が高めになりますね。  日本語を学習している皆さんが高いもの…それは「志（こころざし）」、つまり自分を高めようとする熱意です。  ======================================================== Pleased to meet everyone – I’m Itsuki Hanabusa.... 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. Our first forum spotlight post explaining particles for beginners of Japanese comes from Bueller_007さん. This was posted in response to a listener who said that they were having trouble keeping all of the particles straight. は (wa) marks a topic, emphasing what follows it as being specific to that topic. There is no real equivalent in English, but people often say that "AはB" = "As for A, B". The "topic" is often the grammatical subject, but can be anything (including the grammatical object, and sometimes the verb), and it may also follow some other particles. Grammar Bank が (ga) marks... Show more

Top Secret Project with the Legendary Jim Breen Finished! Well, it’s done, and it’s alive! Mr. Jim Breen, Innovative Language Learning, and JapanesePod101.com, are happy to announce that EDICT, Jim Breen’s legendary Japanese to English dictionary, now has… Audio clips for all entries! So what exactly am I going on about? First, let me back up a second. If you’re studying Japanese, you’ve encountered Jim Breen’s EDICT Japanese to English dictionary, whether directly at WWWJDIC or through another Japanese language learning tool. (Many popular Japanese language learning tools use EDICT.) Having used the dictionary at WWWJDIC countless times during my Japanese studies, I’m a huge fan of the site. Last November, I... Show more

Mina-san, Marky here! As you can probably tell, JapanesePod101.com is truly a labor of love for us! We love learning and teaching Japanese and honestly, we’re having a lot of fun. But we’re always trying to think of ways to improve what we’re doing or thinking “how can we do something different?” And often the best ideas come from you all! Introducing 2 new Tracks added to the Premium Feed! The Review Track A lot of people have asked us to leave some blank space when introducing vocab so they could have some time to repeat and practice. Well, if you’ve been with us a while, you know we tried a while back. We had some good feedback about that, but it dragged the podcasts on with silence and ate up time for going through... Show more

Someone asked on a recent post at Japanesepod101.com what なつこ先生's name was in 漢字. I said that it was 夏子. I'm pretty sure it's 夏子, in all of the early PDFs, she is listed as 夏子. Almost all Japanese people have 漢字 names, and all family names are 漢字. The last time I went to Japan, I was quite fluent with my 漢字 from my Chinese study, but I still found common Japanese names very interesting. Whenever I'd go into any shop, I'd make a point of reading the various workers' namecards. I found the names fascinating. To someone used to dry, uninteresting Chinese names, Japanese names are a breath of fresh air. They sound like they were made up by hippie parents. Take 夏子 for example (the name, not the lady!) The first character is 'summer', the... Show more

Some of us don't get the opportunity to use what we learn in Japanesepod101.com lessons; Japanese speakers just aren't everywhere. But there is one avenue that we can take advantage of, one which is often overlooked. Our teachers mention it in almost every podcast. It's the message board. In case you haven't noticed, there is a separate message board for every individual lesson at the Japanesepod101.com website. It is where users can post anything. Recently, I have made a conscious decision to post something every day. It wasn't easy at first, but it's getting easier and easier. One of my first problems was not a language problem, but what to post. But once you get your creative side working, it gets easier gradually. Also, after... Show more

I was just 5 minutes ago talking to someone on MSN about one of my vocab memorization techniques. The conversation started, as one usually does on MSN, as 'what are you doing'. It took me a while to explain, but my friend thought it was a good idea. He's learning English, but the principle is the same. I do it whenever I'm trying to memorize a lot of words. Maybe it'll work for you! Step 1: Open a search engine. For Chinese, I use 百度, for Japanese, one might try google.co.jp. Step 2: Click on the 'images' tab (remember it probably won't be in English though!) and write in the word. Let's take something from today's lesson; おめでとう meaning 'congratulations'. Step 3: Feast your eyes on all the lovely pictures. Each one has something... Show more

Learn advanced Japanese with JapanesePod101.com. Today we introduce you to Japanese riddles! This is sure to boggle your mind. Not only did we bring you a great riddle, we brought in a true pro to do the reading! You don't want to miss this chance to get used to a type of voice you probably don't get to hear everyday. Answer in the comments! Good Luck!

Learn Japanese from other listeners of JapanesePod101.com!! Today we want to thank Minty Fresh-san and Frank-san from Canada for providing two great learning resources! Minty Fresh-san provided us with this hilarious video! I didn't know if they were serious or not, until half way through. Very, very funny! (first video) You definately want to see this! Thank you Minty Fresh-san! Please keep up the great participation! Frank-san provided us with this great article related to "Osu". This is an amazing article, well written, informative and well worth the read! We highly recommend that you check it out. Thank you Frank-san! Please keep the great participation coming! Appropriate Usage of "Osu" by: Rob Redmond