Keigo (敬語けいご) is difficult even for those who have been working in companies for a long time, in particular when answering a phone because it is not able to communicate by seeing each others’ face and body language. Undoubtedly, how people answer phone calls is very critical for the corporate image. Today, I will introduce […]
Japanese is famous for their extremely strict punctuality because punctuality is regarded as a virtue in Japan. The most well-known example is the train (電車でんしゃ). The standard error of the train schedule is 1 minute. More amazingly, Shinkansen (新幹線しんかんせん), known as the bullet train, has the standard error of only 15 seconds. Japanese usually get […]
Don’t be surprised. Yes, I’ll introduce the etiquette for using the umbrella today. Unlike Australia, Japan doesn’t have wide roads or spacious sidewalks but with a relatively large population. It is quite annoying walking on the congested streets particularly in rainy days where everyone uses an umbrella. Hence, people are usually careful about not bothering […]
Have you ever thought about the difference among “気持ち”, ”機嫌” and ”気分”? Do you fully understand which word is the appropriate one under what situation when you want to express “feeling”? Today, I’ll show you how to distinguish these 3 words. With 3 words, “気持ち” is the word with the broadest meaning. In general, […]
In general, one of the phrases that a Japanese learner learned in the very first stage is “はじめまして”. However, in terms of Kanji, which one do you think is appropriate for this phrase: 初めまして or 始めまして? Personally, I thought it should be “初めまして”. The reason is that… well… somehow… I don’t know… it should […]
Don’t be surprised! Yes, that’s right. Many students misuse these two words because they both mean “happy”. From this week I will introduce how to distinguish the difference. Let’s first go through 4 typical misused examples to consider why they are not appropriate. Example 1 オウ：先生、キムさんは昨日、久しぶりにチンさんと会えました。 (せんせい、キムさんはきのう、ひさしぶりにちんさんとあえました) Kim-san met with Chin-san yesterday since a long […]
Hi, guys! How is your guess doing? I will introduce the answer for the 4 examples. Example 1 うれしい/楽しい is used to express ONLY the feeling about the speaker, that is, it is not appropriate to describe the feeling of the third party. Thus, you could adjust the phrase as below to describe キムさん’s […]
Continuing our topic, I will introduce the last two vocabularies about wife: 家内(かない) and かみさん. 家内(かない) 家内(かない) used to mean “inside the house”. However, interestingly, a huge “revolution” happened to this word in 明治時代(めいじじだい, 1868 – 1912). During that period, Japan had gradually transformed to have the same social system as western countries. […]
Last week we have learned about the history of妻(つま), 嫁(よめ). Do you still remember the difference? 妻(つま) is the female who is permitted by parents to live with a male. 嫁(よめ) is “son’s wife”. Today I will introduce女房(にょうぼう) and 奥さん(おくさん). 女房(にょうぼう) In 平安時代(へいあんじだい, 794 – 1192), there had always been several mates working […]
I believe many of you have learned vocabularies about “wife”. As shown in the title, there are a lot of different ways to call “wife”. I know. I know. Quite confusing, right? In the following weeks, I will introduce the history about where these “wives” come from and when to use of each of them. […]