Inemuri translates roughly to "snooze" or "doze". There is no dirrect translation, however "sleeping while being present" or having some awareness about you while you sleep is potentially more accurate. It very common, in fact, an every day experience, to see Japanese people sleeping in public places. Most regularly, on trains. It is quite alarming … Continue reading Uniquely Japanese- Inemuri 居眠り
If I had have seen the info graphic on how long different languages take to master before embarking on my language journey, would I have chosen the language which takes longer than any other, by far? Maybe... I like a challenge. I could have become fluent in French, German, Spanish and Italian in the time … Continue reading Climbing Mt. Fuji… Metaphorically
Have you ever wondered at why every Japanese person has exquisite handwriting, when writing in English? I believe it is because they have finely honed fine motor skills, due to the fact that they practice calligraphy throughout their schooling life. Last time we were in Kyoto we were fortunate enough to experience a calligraphy homework … Continue reading Calligraphy
Some Japanese words have no English equivalent. This is the case for many languages, where there is no literal translation, or if there was, it would not make sense. Many of the Japanese words, that are not in the English language are beautiful, some tragically so. Today, I am going to talk about my favourite … Continue reading Uniquely Japanese- Tsundoku
Last Friday night, the 31st of March, I went to Melbourne University to see Adam Liaw speak. Adam was the second winner of Masterchef Australia, in 2010. He was born in Malaysia, his mum is Singaporean-English and his dad is Hainese Chinese. Formerly a lawyer for Disney in Tokyo, Adam started learning Japanese in order … Continue reading Adam Liaw, ambassador of Japanese Cuisine
When I first started learning Japanese, I was very intimidated by the concept of learning so many Kanji. A basic knowledge is about 2000 characters, but there are loads more!!! I am reading a book about learning Japanese, which is written by a man whose father was a newspaper editor. He believes his father's repertoire … Continue reading Kanji, how does it make sense?
My first time in Japan, I totally fell in love. With the country, with the culture, with the food, with the people. The language barrier was not a major issue, we never went hungry or got lost, however I felt that I was unable to understand many subtle, and many not so subtle, aspects of … Continue reading 日本語ーok? On learning Japanese
