Today I’d like to talk about the word 縁 (en) which is tied to concepts dear to Japanese sensitivity and philosophy. We find it used in everyday conversations, however its original meaning is the “edge, hem of a cloth” and it designates the Japanese veranda-style porch you see in old houses, usually called 縁側 (engawa). In addition […]
Over the last few Japanese linguistics posts, I’ve been focusing on some major differences between Japanese and English/French perceptions. It’s important to keep in mind that since Japanese culture and customs are so very different, it often means we don’t say the same things in the same ways, which directly impacts the language and grammar. Direct translations […]
🇺🇸 peach / 🇯🇵ピーチ (piichi) / 🇫🇷 pêche 🇺🇸 These three words meaning “peach” come all from the Latin word “(malum) persicum” which means “(apple) from Persia.” Originally there were no peaches in Antique Rome, however the emperor Trajan in the second century brought them from Persia, and that’s how they were named like that🍑 […]
In my initial post about Japanese linguistics, we took a look at the important grammatical differences in emotional expression between English/French and Japanese languages. In the second post, we saw the differences in establishing viewpoint and perspective. Today, I’d like to talk about another difference: the time perception. This can be a strange concept, since many assume time should be […]
🇺🇸 In a previous post, I discussed how the perspective differs between Japanese and English languages. Today, I’d like to share two more examples that are areas where students often make mistakes. Quiz time: how would you translate these two phrases into Japanese? 1) “My friend and I swam.” Many students are tempted to do […]
🔹If you are interested in getting my latest linguistic gems, please consider becoming a premium subscriber here: https://www.patreon.com/join/yukikeiser Since the pandemic hit last year, many new words have appeared in French — as well as in all languages. One of the difficulties for a new word in French is how to pick its gender. Whether to […]
🔹If you are interested in getting my latest linguistic gems, please consider becoming a premium subscriber here: https://www.patreon.com/join/yukikeiser 🇺🇸 Today, I’d like to share a Japanese poetic word, that has some wisdom too. 言霊 (kotodama) This word is formed with the kanji 言 which means “say, speech” and 霊 which means “spirit, soul“. It literally […]
Japanese words are all very similar due to the limited number of syllables. That is why it is easier sometimes to learn the kanji, in order to be able to distinguish similar sounds and memorize them better. These adverbs below are particularly confusing for students, so today, I’d like to go over them: mada, mata, […]
🔹If you are interested in getting my latest linguistic gems, please consider becoming a premium subscriber here: https://www.patreon.com/join/yukikeiser Earlier I wrote a post about how emotion can heavily impact Japanese linguistics. Today, I’d like to talk about how viewpoint is also incredibly important to understand since it influences the language differently than it does from others such […]
🔹If you are interested in getting my latest linguistic gems, please consider becoming a premium subscriber here: https://www.patreon.com/join/yukikeiser For this initial post, I want to give a brief introduction to the Japanese language, because its system and logic are very different from Indo-European languages. I will go over grammar topics in future posts, but first […]