JapanSugoi

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...

For those learning Japanese and living in Japan, there are many free or inepensve iPhone apps like you can download.  One free dictionary app based on the JMDict Project is the hefty (123MB) “Kotoba!”.

Besides English to Japanese, and Japanese to English, it also supports French, German and Russian.  The search function is fast and it comes with many examples that can be copied to the clipboard for further usage, such as Google searches or emailing. The biggest drawback is that it doesn’t have any voice features.

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So, you’re a Japanophile, a gaijin learning Japanese, watching anime and secretly viewing all the hot Japanese gravure idols on the internet but the problem is your girlfriend isn’t Japanese. What can you do? Well if she wants to please you, you could steer her to the fun videos from ThatJapaneseGirl that would show her how to talk and act like a typical Japanese girl by learning how to say “kawaii”, “sugoi” and “oishi” and how to carry a handbag Japanese style!

Saying Sugoi and Kawaii and clapping hands

How to carry your purse, knees together, V sign say “yay”
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Learning Japanese?  Miss living in Japan?  Want to see the latest Japanese TV shows?

Wish you could watch Japanese TV live, streamed right to your desktop for free?   Your prayers have been answered.  There’s Keyhole TV which works well but has a small screen or you can use Microsoft Media Player to view live TV via MMS streaming links listed here.

On both sites you can popular channels such as  TV Tokyo, TBS, Fuji TV, TV Asahi, NTV, YTV, MBS, TV Osaka, NHK, WOWOW and more.  Watch all your favorite  J-dorama’s, Jpop, wacky game shows, innovative kids tv, Japanese TV commercials, anime and otaku shows and late night TV shows.  Read more...

Japanese is a difficult language for many foreigners to learn. Besides tones,  katakana and hiragana, there are numerous expressions and slang to learn.  Japan based comedian “Ken Tanaka” (David Ury) and his assistant Remi February have a funny video on how to speak fluent Japanese without saying a single word and how to speak fluent Japanese by speaking English! Enjoy.

speak fluent Japanese without saying a single word

speak fluent Japanese by speaking English!

Learning Japanese?  Know how to say parts of the body?  Here are some basic vocabulary words.

1. Head あたま atama 2. Eye 目 me  3. Forehead ひたい hitai 4. Nose 鼻 hana 5. Chin あご ago 6. Eyebrow まゆげ mayuge 7. Ears 耳 mimi 8. Mouth 口 kuchi 9. Cheeks ほっぺ hoppe 10. Tongue  舌 shita 11. Hair 髪の毛 kami no ke – 12.  Shoulder かた kata 13. Arm うで ude 14. Elbow ひじ hiji 15. Hand 手 te -16. Thumb 親指 oyayubi 17. Chest 胸 mune 18. Stomach おなか onaka 19. Foot あし ashi  20. Eyelash  まつげ 21.  Toe つまさき 22. Underarm わきの下 23. Back 背中 24. Neck 首 25. Finger  指  Read more...