Video vocab suggestion

[summersprite]

Could you make video vocab for items that are more traditionally Japanese and less familiar to foreigners, e.g. traditional Japanese food? I got this idea while listening to audio blog S2 #2 which mentioned Japanese dishes such as "oden" and "motsunikomi", and I wish I could see what they look like, and what they're made of. I also remember that when I was studying abroad in Tokyo, I ran into many types of uniquely Japanese snacks, cooking ingredients, etc. whose names I had never heard of. Terms like "okonomiyaki" and "taiyaki" might be familiar to Japanese students, but terms like "chikuwa" might not.

This kind of vocab would be pretty specialized, so perhaps mostly advanced students would be interested, but I think they could further help students expand vocabulary, and learn more about Japanese culture and way of life. One major benefit might be that we understand more food items on the menu!

[Jessi]

That's a great idea I think it would work well as a video because everyone could see what they look like, as you said. We'll keep this idea in mind!! Thanks!

[sakurakofahl]

To continue the topic, I also would like more videos with specialised vocabulary, both typical Japanese things and universal ones. The latter ones mainly because I have many times found it hard to find the (most) exact translation of a word from Swedish (my mother tongue) to Japanese, because I often have to go via English, which causes trouble when there are several translations of one word that may not even have an exact counterpart i Japanese (for example in Swedish we don't distinguish between "priest", "minister" and "clergyman", but they are all called "präst", so what would the most suitable translation be in Japanese?). I'm sure I'm not the only one here with another mother tongue than English.
In such cases I think it's easier to look at vocabulary pictures to see if there are more than one translation/counterpart, and in that case pick the most suitable one.

Here are some suggestions:

Different kinds of streets and roads
Ditto buildings and houses (temple, shrine, apartment, villa, office building...)
Traditional clothes (kimono, hakama, momohiki, haori, tabi...)
Flowers and trees
Animals (categorised into for example mammals, birds, reptiles, fish, mammals in the sea, animals on certain continents etc)
Mythical creatures
The planets
Jewels
Religions and their special vocabulary, for example religious holidays or items and persons in the temple/mosque/church/(...)

And if some of the words have counterparts in both kanji and katakana (like "milk" can be both "gyuunyuu" and "miruku") , I would like to see both words.

What do you think?

[Jessi]

Thanks for your suggestions, sakurakofahlさん We still have a lot more vocab videos coming up so we'll keep those suggestions in mind!!