Welcome!
21 Dec 2010 Leave a Comment
in Notice
Welcome to Eternal Temporality!
Please excuse the mess as I work on the layout and rearrange the content. For those of you looking for the rest of the material, please see the Japanese link in the navbar above this post.
As a disclaimer: I am not a Japanese person, nor will I ever be one – so if you find some kind of glaring error, minor mistake, or just something that could be cleaned up a little(regarding my Japanese), don’t hesitate to say something! We’re all learners here; me most of all.
Zokugo 05 – Ways to Refer to People
29 May 2011 Leave a Comment
in Zokugo Tags: casual, colloquial, japanese, language, learning, pronouns, referring to others, second person, third person, zokugo
For today’s zokugo post, we’re going to look at casual ways to refer to people in the 2nd or 3rd person. While it isn’t really “zokugo”, per se, these words are extremely important for understanding and participating in casual conversation in Japanese.
Adverbs 03 – Doubtlessly Helpful Words
28 May 2011 Leave a Comment
in Adverbs Tags: adverbs, certainly, definitely, japanese, kanarazu, language, learning, mochiron, zettai
Today we’re going to look over some ways to express the feeling of “definitely” doing something or “certainly” being a certain way, and look into some of the more subtle nuances of the words and the different structures they can have.
NJK 08 – Bears, Deer, and Arrogant People, Oh My!
26 May 2011 Leave a Comment
in New Jouyou Kanji Tags: japanese, jouyou, kanji, learning, new jouyou kanji, throat
You’ll have to forgive my absolutely horrible naming scheme.
Today’s kanji are a few nouns, used for quite common words that you should definitely already know by now.
| 俺 | 訓読み・おれWe start off the day with yet another way to refer to youself – yes, another first-person pronoun. This time, it’s the one used mostly by young guys around friends. Not so much around superiors, as it is extremely casual and implies a level of closeness between the people talking.That said, you’ll hear it all the time in anime and video games. You probably already have, in fact. The kanji is a little weird looking, but it shouldn’t be hard to remember, especially if you read a lot. |
| 14/196 |
| 熊 | 訓読み・くまIt means “bear”! |
| 15/196 |
| 鹿 | 訓読み・しかIt’s a deer! |
| 16/196 |
Vocabulary
- 馬鹿（ばか） – yes, it’s the kanji for “baka”, or “stupid”, “idiot”, “fool”, etc. The kanji were made up after the fact solely to have the same sound, so the “horse deer” thing really holds no meaning.
Yes, that was the only vocabulary word, besides remembering the words おれ、くま、しか. Which you probably already have. So learn the kanji already!
New Jouyou Kanji 07 – Ways to Say “Aaah”
24 May 2011 Leave a Comment
in New Jouyou Kanji Tags: japanese, jouyou, kanji, learning, new jouyou kanji, throat
Two of today’s kanji refer to your throat, while the other one I just threw in there since it didn’t fit anywhere else. I’m ramping the posts up to 3 kanji per, so that it doesn’t take absolutely forever to get through all of them!
In regards to today’s word, 咽喉, it is worth noting that many kanji in the new jouyou set were added because the kanji of a commonly used word(one that’s usually written in the kanji) weren’t in the jouyou set already. We’ve already gone over 挨拶（あいさつ）, and there are plenty more, such as 嫉妬（しっと）, 沙汰（さた）, and 脊髄（せきづい）.
| 咽 | 音読み・インThis kanji, as well as the one below, means “throat”, and both can be read as のど, but this one is never used that way. Learn this character only in the context of the next one! A nice way to remember this character lies in the right element, which, read alone as 因, means the “cause of” or something that is “dependent on” something else – thus, your mouth is dependent on your throat for most of what it does. |
| 11/196 |
| 喉 | 音読み・イン 訓読み・のど This is the kanji most people think of when they think of the word “throat”, or のど. Interestingly enough, のど can also refer to one’s singing voice(i.e. something your throat is “for”, much the same way めがね can also mean “judgement”). |
| 12/196 |
| 臆 | 音読み・オクThis character stands for all that is timid and shy. An easy way to remember it, based on the components, is by looking at it as saying “being aware of your flesh”, using the components 月 for “flesh” and 意 for “awareness”. Enough to make most people self-conscious is their body, so it’s simple to remember! |
| 13/196 |
Vocabulary
- 咽喉（いんこう） – throat. The main reason for this post! This is essentially a “written” word more than a spoken one – when you want to refer to your throat, just use のど.
- 臆病（おくびょう） – shyness or timidity. It can also mean cowardice! A rather disconcerting, realistic approach to life, don’t you think?
This post was simple and easy to understand – much like most of the new jouyou kanji, so take heart!
Have fun with these kanji, and see you on Thursday!
Zokugo 04 – Neologisms
22 May 2011 Leave a Comment
in Zokugo Tags: agitate, google, harmonize, japanese, language, learning, neologisms, sabotage, verbs, zokugo
Today we’ll look at a group of words termed neologisms. If you don’t know what they are, then go apologize to your English teacher, then look up the Wikipedia article. Specifically, there are many strange-looking verbs gaining quite a bit of popularity in casual speech these days.
Adverbs 02 – How Not To Eat In Japan
21 May 2011 Leave a Comment
in Adverbs Tags: adverbs, eating, giseigo, onomatopoeia
Today we’ll look at a whole bunch of giseigo! Specifically, these all have to do with how one goes about eating food: and most of them are probably not polite! 56k users beware – images galore in the post below.
Recent Comments