A while back, someone asked in a group chat what ‘katakuriko’ meant. Of course, I turned to my favorite Japanese dictionary site, jisho.org, to find out. Turns out that katakuriko, or 片栗粉, means potato starch. Eh? Potato starch? But potato is じゃが芋 (jagaimo)… How did potato starch become 片栗粉? So I did my research. Not that I have to look far though, because… Read more »
This entry provides a parallel translation of the passage used in the reading and comprehension practice 1. 私わたしは動物どうぶつ大好きです。 I love animals. 家いえで兎うさぎと犬や飼かっています。 I keep rabbits and dogs at home. 鳥とりもう飼っています。 I also keep pet birds. 兎は二匹にぴきいます、犬いぬも二匹います。 I have two rabbits ad two dogs. 黒くろいのはクッキーちゃん、白しろいのはゆきくんです。 The black rabbit is called Cookie, while the white rabbit is called Yuki. ワンちゃんはかわいいトイプードルのあきちゃん、と忠実ちゅうじつの秋田あきた犬しばちゃん。 The cute… Read more »
Hi everyone, it’s kanji spotlight time! The kanji that I’ll be focusing on today is 忍. Anime and manga fans would probably have seen this word before… Yup, that’s right, this kanji is pronounced as ‘にん, nin’, as in ‘忍者, ninja’. Let’s look at the definition of 忍 first. This word is actually an old word, one that is hardly used on… Read more »
Read the following passage and answer the questions in the quiz. 私は動物大好きです。家で兎と犬や飼っています。鳥もう飼っています。兎は二匹います、犬も二匹います。 黒いのはクッキーちゃん、白いのはゆきくんです。ワンちゃんはかわいいトイプードルのあきちゃん、と忠実の秋田犬しばちゃん。 毎晩私はあきちゃんとしばちゃん一緒に公園で散歩します。あきちゃんはボールの遊び大好きですが、しばちゃんはフリスビーほが好きです。公園で広いの原ありますから、ワンちゃんたちは原で暴走する事も大好き。ワンちゃんとすごす時間はたまにちょっと大変けど、すごく楽しいです。 [os-widget path=”/coolohoh/comprehension-practice”]
The basic building block of the Japanese language, hiragana is a must for every Japanese learner!
Japanese honorifics are a huge and important part of Japanese socialinguistics. If you have watched any sort of Japanese show or anime (in Japanese of course!) you’d probably be familiar with some of the most common honorifics used. Unlike in many other cultures or languages, a name is almost always followed by an honorific. The only cases when honorifics are… Read more »