So You Want To Learn Japanese

Editor’s Note: I post this despite the protests I know it will inspire in many. It is a strange, but interesting piece. As the author states at the end, the essay is a joke and should be taken like one. Anyway, I don’t specifically endorse anything said but neither do I apologize for posting it.
So You Want To Learn Japanese.
You’ve eaten at a few Japanese … [ Read more ]

Making love in Japanese

An article on the topic of how to speak about sex in Japanese and, at least as importantly, how to avoid accidental misunderstandings. [Hat Tip to Nihongojouzu.com]

Manifestations of Gender Distinction in the Japanese Language

Present day Japanese has evolved very differently from European languages. One relatively unique aspect of Japanese is the diversity of its gender specific constructs and their usage. In the current state of Japanese and its many dialects, speaker gender plays an important role in word choice, sentence structure, tone of voice and more generally the ways in which a person can present him/herself with the … [ Read more ]