Learn about three scary monsters in Japan
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
| Hi, everybody! |
| Do you know what monsters Japanese people are scared of? In this lesson, you'll learn about three scary monsters in Japan. |
| Let’s start with the most popular monster. |
| 幽霊 |
| [slowly] 幽霊 |
| It means ghost or spirit of a dead person. |
| A yurei is the restless spirit of a dead person. A barely visible ghost of a dead person wanders the earth until they're appeased. Usually, they have unfinished business on earth or were sent off without proper death rites. |
| That sounds pretty scary, right? |
| You might have heard about the next monster. The next one is... |
| 天狗 |
| [slowly] 天狗 |
| It can be translated as tengu in English. |
| The tengu is a demigod or demon with magical powers. |
| These evil creatures are shape-shifters who do evil deeds, such as kidnapping and killing children. They have supernatural powers and are normally found in the mountains. |
| Okay. Here's the last monster. |
| 轆轤首 |
| [slowly] 轆轤首 |
| Have you heard of this monster? This is the pulley neck. |
| The rokurokubi is a female monster who was formerly human. By day she's a woman, and by night she's a monster. She stretches her neck out or her head falls off. Sometimes rokurokubis just cause mischief, but other times they do bad things. |
| Let's wrap up this lesson by recapping what we've learned. Listen to the names of each monster and repeat after me. |
| ghost, spirit of a dead person |
| 幽霊 |
| * beep |
| 幽霊 |
| tengu |
| 天狗 |
| * beep |
| 天狗 |
| pulley neck |
| 轆轤首 |
| * beep |
| 轆轤首 |
| Well done! [pause] |
| Did you know there is a holiday to honor the dead in Japan? |
| The Japanese have a festival similar to Halloween where they honor the spirits of their ancestors. It is called the Obon Festival, and it's celebrated in July or August every year. |
| And that’s it! You just learned about three of the scariest monsters in Japan and about Obon, the Japanese festival similar to Halloween. Now, learn Japanese twice as fast by downloading all your PDF cheat sheets, including survival phrases, pick-up lines, business etiquette, and more! Check out the description below and go to JapanesePod101.com now. |
| I'll see you next time. またね！ |
Comments
Hide