JapanSugoi

Beginner’s learning Japanese can easily begin to learn numbers and telling the time.

This is especially important when you want to make a date with a hot Japanese girl- don’t tell her the wrong time!.

How to tell time in Japanese

If your kids watch NHK childen’s programs they will have come across this really fun and popular song and  animated video わらウんだWA (Going to Laugh) which is based on the drawings of  Lila Prap (Lilijana Praprotnik Zupančič)  a Slovenian born artist and writer.  The song and video is about how all the animals have a different language for themselves, but they all understand a smile, so they all smile to each other. Then it goes on to progress to the children, where it teaches that everyone is a little different in their own ways but everyone’s the same. It’s a very cute and endearing song that is  really catchy and addictive.  They might even have the song at your local Japanese karaoke box!

Little Einsteins is a favorite for kids around the world.  The Japanese version is aired on the Playhouse Disney (Japan).   Is your Japanese good enough to watch the Little Einsteins in Japanese? (their voices sound even cuter!)

How does a cartoon like Handy Manny おたすけマニー translate into Japanese?  Does Manny have a Mexican accent in Japanese?  Watch Handy Manny in Japanese to find out!

Halloween special

Planning a holiday to the beach resorts in Okinawa this summer? Did you know that in Okinawa they have they own language “Uchina Guchi 沖縄口” that is very different from standard Japanese? In the following clips Byron Fija and Sugiko Moromizato explain the differences and teach us a few phrases.

More info here about Bryon and his show here.

Like most gaijin who travel to Japan not having bothered learning any bit of Japanese, ET quickly gets in trouble with the locals!

Although the kids cartoon My Friends Tigger and Pooh ended last year after a run of 66 episodes, you can still watch it on DVD.  The cute cartoon was shown in Japan on Disney Playhouse and dubbed in to Japanese of course!  Is your Japanese good enough to watch a cartoon?

Rabbit concert

Want to impress your Japanese girlfriend? Learn more Japanese!!  While the pronunciation stays the same, Japanese use 3 types of characters when writing. These being Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji.

Hiragana: Is used for native Japanese words ie words that Japanese already use in their native language. Example: cat – ねこ (neko)

Katakana: Is used for foreign words, words that are introduced from outside Japan. Example: television – テレビ (terebi)

Kanji: Is the writing system that uses Chinese characters. While the kanji is the same as Chinese, it is generally pronounced differently in Japanese. Example: cat – 猫 (neko)  Read more...

So you think you know your Japanese?  Is your Japanese good enough to understand a Japanese comedy skit?  Watching Japanese comedy skits are a good way to test your understanding of Japanese language and culture.   UNJASH アンジャッシュ (Un-jash) are a very funny and talented Japanese comedy duo (Ken Watanabe  渡部建 and Kazuya Kozima 児嶋一哉) who often do skits entirely based on misunderstandings.

The duo (who were high school classmates) formed in 1993 and have won various comedy awards and appeared in 10 DVDs.

The following are clips found on youtube with English translations.  If you still don’t understand, ask your Japanese girlfriend!  Read more...