Let me tell you a little bit about what made Kublai Kahn such an impressive leader, even by our modern standards.
Kublai Kahn united China, in spite of being a foreigner, and despite that his own country was in civil unrest at the time. Furthermore, he was tolerant of the Chinese culture and did not [...]
Posts Tagged as ‘Study’
July 1, 2008
Kublai Kahn
June 29, 2008
Japanese history through manga
When someone says “comic book” in English, I’m guessing most people, like me, think of Superman, Spiderman, Batman, X-Men, or some other super-hero (powerful-sounding-word+man) based storyline. The Japanese version of comics (manga) are completely different, though.
I found a compact series called 「マンガ、日本の歴史がわかる本」 (Which is hard to translate as it comes out as something like [...]
June 26, 2008
Ambiguity in English
I continue to realize the existence of problems in English the more I study Japanese.
Of course, I’m sure everyone already knows the problem with the sentence, “The boy watched the girl looking through the telescope.” Was the boy using a telescope to watch the girl? Or was the boy watching a girl who [...]
June 3, 2008
Yet another story of super kanji to the rescue
Yet another story of how kanji saved my life…would have sounded a lot more dramatic and probably would have been a more interesting read. But, seriously - Kanji rock. Kanji are superheroes. In fact, in the upcoming 8th season of Smallville (yeah, I watch it - What’s it to you?!), we find [...]
May 31, 2008
Kanji - The Layman’s Best Friends
Sesquipedalian. I don’t think I’ll ever fall out of obsession with that word. The definition is itself. It is its own definition. There’s something so satisfying about that. But that’s not what this is about.
Sesquipedalian is far from being a common vocabulary term. The same holds true of its [...]
May 28, 2008
Vocabulary Pack 001
Let’s see what happens when I try to use 25 target vocabulary words in one short composition in an attempt to solidify the terms into my long-term memory.
Jack, our redoubtable leader
It was the accolade that Jack had been aiming for; the reason he had been so meticulous in maintaining his magnanimity. A fortuitous sequence [...]
May 26, 2008
Japanese Homophones - A Blessing or a Curse?
I have the impression that most foreigners who study Japanese get frustrated by the inevitable homophones which accompany a language with so few vowels. However, I prefer to think of them as very useful tools - Mnemonic devices!
I’ll repost my most recent mixi.jp entry below as an example of this.
外国人にとって、日本語の同音異義語は、意味の誤解になる原因だと言われているが、
一方では記憶術として使えるので、便利だと思う！
「東大は学界の灯台」
日本語では分からないが、灯台は英語にするとa light houseで、船を案内する機械という意味だけではなく、「案内して、明らかにすること」という定義も持っているので、「東大は学界の灯台」といったら、「東大は学界の一流」という意味になる。
引き続き、「東大は当代の学界の灯台」もできる。
Toudai in Japanese [...]
May 24, 2008
Knee-deep in terms
I’ve got a goal of going through a list of 6,500+ English vocabulary terms over 261 days (comes out to about 25 words per day). Of course, this project is running parallel with Japanese studies, so my head feels like a mashed-potato-filled beach ball. The English terms themselves are in the incipient stages [...]
May 1, 2008
Love for Japanese proverbs.
Very unabashedly, I love Japanese proverbs, even the ones that contradict each other.
十人十色 - Literally meaning, “10 people, 10 colors.” This phrase emphasizes the individuality of humans. “As many opinions as people.”
出るくぎは打たれる - Literally, “The nail that sticks up is hammered down.” Contrasting the proverb above, this expresses the idea that it [...]
April 28, 2008
弁
Here’s some of the local 弁 (dialect) that I’ve come to love and utilize.
つかっちゃ Meaning “I’m beat [tired]“, derived from 疲れてしまいました.
どうスッペ? Meaning “What should [I/We/You] do?”, derived from どうする？
さすけね Meaning “No worries / Not a problem”, derived from (the old term) 差支えがない.
These terms will not benefit me at all on the JLPT [...]
