At the beginning stage of Japanese study, teachers usually would teach vocabularies with their opposite words together such as おおきい⇔ちいさい, あたらしい⇔ふるい, etc. Particularly, students need to be careful about “あつい” and “たかい”. あつい has a variety of meaning such as “hot” and “thick” with corresponding opposite words of “cold” and “thin”. たかい could be “high” […]
Have you ever thought of the difference between 重(おも)い and 重(おも)たい? This is a common question for most Japanese learners. Though Japanese seldom think about such thing, we still use it differently in the subconscious. For example, if just simply comparing which one is heavier between two pieces of luggage, people usually use 重たい rather […]
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. […]
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. […]
Toasting (乾杯) is a normal etiquette when people have formal dinner. However, what should those who do not drink alcohol do? Please try to guess which one of the following is the best way to refuse decently. 水が入っているグラスで乾杯 (Let me toast with a cup of water.) カラのグラスで乾杯 (Let me toast with an empty glass) 飲まないけれど、グラスにお酒を入れて乾杯 (Though I […]
In the beginning of learning Japanese, “こんにちは” is usually the first phrase that most people learn. However, why isn’t it “こんにちわ” for the pronunciation of “kon ni chi wa”? Why is it written as “は (ha)”? これは本です。 ko re wa, hon de su. In this situation, we use “は” not “わ” because “は” is a particle […]
For those who have learned a little Japanese, have you ever introduced yourself by saying “私は〇〇です。 “? I believe that almost every Japanese learner has once used this phrase to give a self-introduction. In fact, it’s a bit weird for Japanese people to hear that. But why do most Japanese learner talk like that? Here […]
Hi there, welcome to our one point lesson. We would like to introduce you to some words in Japanese that have the same reading but different meaning. For example: 紙 (かみ) kami “paper” 髪 (かみ) kami “hair” These two Kanji are different, but are spelled and pronounced the same. You have to figure out […]