10 most important Keigo words in Japanese Posted by keiko on May 31, 2016
When it comes to Japanese Keigo(敬語、けいご), (types of honorific, respectful language), it is never enough in terms of learning various expressions. I was born and raised in Japan and speak fluent Japanese, but I still struggle every now and then using Keigo, sometimes unsure which expressions to use in certain situations. In today’s blog…
All about Japanese Katakana Posted by keiko on May 28, 2016
As you might already know, Japanese has 3 main writing styles, Hiragana(ひらがな、平仮名), Katakana(かたかな、片仮名), and Kanji(かんじ、漢字). Hiragana is the basic writing form of Japanese, and that perhaps you should learn that first. Katakana is probably the second writing style you want to learn, in my opinion, as most of English words are written in Katakana in…
Japanese Vocabulary Building Exercise Posted by keiko on May 25, 2016
As I was brainstorming my next topic to post in this blog, I thought about creating this questionnaire about “reading books (ほん, hon). We each have different reasons when we pick up a book to read. I personally feel that I don’t spend enough time reading books these days as I tend to read more off…
10 most commonly used Japanese words for expressing surprise Posted by keiko on May 19, 2016
When it comes to expressing your emotional feelings,there are many ways of expressing them. In today’s post, I would like to cover “expressing surprise” in Japanese. Many of these expressions are very short, so you can master them all very quickly. Read on~! 1. えーーー？！ (Pronounced as ehhhhhh~) – meaning “What?” This expression…
What is Haiku? Posted by keiko on May 12, 2016
Have you heard of Japanese poem called, Haiku? Haiku is a very traditional form of poem we have in Japan since Meiji era. It is very easy to create your own, and you can be very creative as to which words to use, etc. The only catch to this is that you have to…
How to write letters or emails in Japanese? – with Seasonal expressions Posted by keiko on Apr 30, 2016
When writing letters or emails, it is nice to add some intro or ending with some seasonal comments. I have covered the topic of “writing business emails in Japanese” in the past. Check out here if you would like to read it again or find out what I have posted regarding composing business Emails in Japanese…
How to tell location in Japanese – 2 Posted by keiko on Apr 26, 2016
How to tell location in Japanese – Part 2 Part2 of this series is all about the details. If someone asks you, “Where is the bank?”, would you know how to respond to the question? If the bank is located right in front of your eyes, it is easy to point to the…