Japanese is one of those languages that is seen as mysterious and exotic to many Westerners. It may seem that way, but if you've read Part 1 and Part 2 of my "Borrower Language" series, or if you are familiar with … [Read more...]
Want to read part 1 of this series? Read it here - Japanese, The Borrower Language part 1: Where the Japanese Language Came From. The phenomenon of language borrowing is in no way unique, but it seems to stand out more … [Read more...]
Many people have heard of the Japanese creature known as the gyaru (Japanese pronunciation of "gal"). They are born as normal humans, but show their true colors around adolescence as their hair and eyes grow lighter, their … [Read more...]
Words words words! Tofugu has done various posts about various types of wordplay in the past, but I thought that I would contribute my own compilation of fun things that you can do with those (Japanese) sounds that make … [Read more...]
English loanwords in Japanese are often a source of amusement for native speakers of English learning Japanese as a second language. There’s so many of them, it seems like if you don’t know a word in Japanese, you can just … [Read more...]
“Takai desu ne.” This is one of the first sentences I ever learned from my adventures with “Mary-san” via the Japanese textbook Genki. If any of you have used that textbook, you’ll know the story of my good old pals … [Read more...]