I am a digital nomad and entrepreneur specializing in the curation of online information focused on the fields of business and travel. I run numerous websites, including MBA Depot, MBA Boost, Management Ideas, dado que and Lengthy Travel. I received my MBA from the University of Texas at Austin.
2005 is the year of the Rooster. The Japanese use animal zodiac symbols like the Chinese. Learn more about the zodiac symbols (like what they say about your personality) and some Japanese expressions including bird names.
Source: About.com / Namiko Abe | Subject: Culture
Shogatsu (New Year’s holidays) is a time when everybody takes a few days off to celebrate the arrival of the new year. Find out more.
Source: About.com / Namiko Abe | Subject: Culture
WaKan is a freeware tool to assist in learning the Japanese and Chinese languages. It contains a character dictionary, a word dictionary, a vocabulary manager, a translation tool, a simple text editor and many other helpful functions, including the printing of flashcards.
One of the main goals of this project is to enable students to read Japanese or Chinese text with minimum knowledge of the … [ Read more ]
Source: Filip Kabrt | Subject: Software / Tools
The Japanese send New Year’s cards rather than Christmas cards. Try sending them to surprise your Japanese friends!
Source: About.com / Namiko Abe | Subject: Culture
This site is incredibly useful – just paste a URL or selected Japanese text, hit Go and you will see your page or text reproduced but with a twist – when you mouse over a word you will see a definition and readings for that word.
Note: POPjisyo.com offers more or less the same thing and is, apparently, an imitator of this site. You can’t go … [ Read more ]
Source: Todd David Rudick | Subject: Translate
This site is quite distinct from other dictionaries of kanji. It provides students of Japanese with unrivalled opportunity to focus on the most important things. To make the task of learning characters manageable only most frequently used words are presented here to illustrate character usage. The almost 1,700 words illustrating usage of the first 200 most basic characters at level 1 are definitely “must know” … [ Read more ]
Source: Alexander Parshakov | Subject: Kanji
Illustrated information about Japanese green tea, covering production, varieties (such as bancha, matcha, and genmaicha), nutrients in tea, serving, and the tea ceremony. In English and Japanese. From the World Green Tea Association.
Source: World Green Tea Association | Subject: Food
It seems that every culture has lucky numbers and unlucky numbers. Seven appears to be a universally lucky or holy number. Find out how the number seven is used in the Japanese language, including Shichi-fuku-jin (the Seven Gods of Luck in Japanese folklore).
Source: About.com / Namiko Abe | Subject: Culture
The difference between written language and conversational language in Japanese is much greater than in English. Japanese letters often use classical grammar patterns which are seldom used in conversation. Although there are no particular rules when writing to close friends, there are many set expressions and honorific expressions (keigo) used in formal letters. A conversational style is not usually used when writing formal letters.
Source: About.com / Namiko Abe | Subject: Miscellaneous | Other
This site offers numerous music downloads covering JPOP, JROCK, KPOP, and CPOP. Some videos are also available.
Source: Hyde | Subject: Music – General
This site offers daily comments in Japanese (left) and romaji (right). You can hear the entries as spoken .wav files by clicking the links under the romaji.
Source: Miyuki / JREF (?) | Subject: Reading Material
Yoji-jukugo are idiomatic expressions made up of four kanji characters. Japanese is normally written with three types of scripts: kanji, hiragana and katakana, but these idiomatic words are written in kanji only and with no kana between them.
Yoji-jukugo contain classical wisdom or morals in short phrases. In English there are words that people use which make them sound intelligent or denote higher education. … [ Read more ]
Source: About.com / Namiko Abe | Subject: Vocabulary / Phrases
Namiko Abe describes the different kinds of ghosts in Japanese culture and even includes an interesting famous short story (in romaji and English translation) called “Bancho sara-yashiki (The Story of Okiku)”
Source: About.com / Namiko Abe | Subject: Culture
“Blog for news stories from Japan that might or might not gain coverage in English-language sources. If you’re examining social trends in Japan and don’t have the primary language skills, let me know. Maybe I can help.”
Source: Lawrence J. Howell | Subjects: Blogs, News / Magazine
Let’s learn common expressions used on the phone. Don’t be intimidated by phone calls. Practice makes perfect!
Source: About.com / Namiko Abe | Subject: Vocabulary / Phrases
J2E is a Java 2 applet flashcard program based on the wordlists in the Yookoso! textbook series. Right now, there are wordlists for chapters 3-7 (approx 350 words), with more wordlists and features planned. Features include score counts, kana/kanji hints and kana/kanji input support. There is no romaji support nor any plans to include it.
Note: This program requires true Japanese text support. … [ Read more ]
Source: Sary | Subjects: Language Study, Vocabulary / Phrases
This site is a companion to a Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) program about “commanding shoguns and fierce samurai warriors, exotic geisha and exquisite artisans all [of whom] were part of a Japanese renaissance between the 16th and 19th centuries.” The site features a timeline, a map and images of travel along the Tokaido road, information about characters of the period, and interactive activities. Also … [ Read more ]
Source: PBS | Subject: History
Particles are probably one of the most difficult and confusing aspects of Japanese sentences. A particle (joshi) is a word that shows the relationship of a word, a phrase, or a clause to the rest of the sentence. Some particles have English equivalents. Others have functions similar to English prepositions, but since they always follow the word or words they mark, they are post-positions. There … [ Read more ]
Source: About.com / Namiko Abe | Subject: Grammar
The Japanese word for a firefly is “hotaru.” In some cultures hotaru might not have a positive reputation, but they are well liked in Japanese society. Find out more.
Source: About.com / Namiko Abe | Subject: Culture
This site features interactive tours of gardens in or near Kyoto, Japan, most of which are located at Zen Buddhist monasteries. The site provides “the visitor with an opportunity to visit each garden, to move through or around it, to experience it through the medium of high-quality color images, and to learn something of its history.” Provides general information about Japanese gardens, a bibliography, and … [ Read more ]
Source: Bowdoin College | Subject: Travel & Tourism