News

Wanted New Teachers!

Posted on December 31st, 2018 by ajadmin

Japanese Teachers

We are looking for friendly and committed Japanese teachers. Our students are wonderful and enthusiastic so you will have lots of fun working for us and we are looking for excellent teachers who can support them on their learning journey!

We are looking for new casual and part-time native-speaking Japanese teachers. Ideally, you will have experience teaching and tutoring in Japanese but we will offer training and support for the right candidates. Contact us Today!

Chinese Teachers

We are also looking for friendly and committed Chinese Mandarin teachers to join us. As we grow our Chinese teaching and tutoring services you will have lots of fun working for us.

We are looking for new casual and part-time native-speaking Chinese teachers. Ideally, you will have experience teaching and tutoring in Chinese but we will offer training and support for the right candidates. Contact us Today!

Korean Teachers

We are also looking for friendly and committed Korean teachers to join us. As we grow our Korean teaching and tutoring services you will have lots of fun working for us.

We are looking for new casual and part-time native-speaking Korean teachers. Ideally, you will have experience teaching and tutoring in Korean but we will offer training and support for the right candidates. Contact us Today!

Contact: awesomejapanese@gmail.com

Matcha flavored food and real matcha taste completely different?

Posted on March 31st, 2018 by ajadmin

Matcha flavored food has become more and more regular in recent years. People always consciously want to taste this slightly bitter taste. What are the impressions of the matchmakers and tea store owners who sell Matcha? There is a survey targeting these people finds out how they perceive the matcha flavored food. The main comments from them are as follow.

– Matcha and Matcha flavored food are different things.
– Hope everyone knows the true taste of matcha.

The survey also reveals that people who are engaged in Matcha related work also seem to regularly eat Matcha-flavored food. Their favorite matcha flavored food is matcha chocolate pastries, followed by Matcha shaved ice. Some of them also nominated “Nissin Cup Noodle Matcha Seafood Flavor”.

On the other hand, due to the influence of matcha flavors food (pastry and desserts), overseas widely believe that matcha is sweet. It seems that many people have complex ideas about this. After all, the traditional matcha industry believes that matcha and matcha flavored food are different things. Since the matcha flavored food combines the original charm of matcha, I believe that the relationship between the two will continue to be maintained in the future.

Why are Japanese fruits so expensive?

Posted on March 25th, 2018 by ajadmin

In fact, the intake of the fruit of Japanese seems to be less than that of other countries. The United States is twice as Japan, and Italy and France are also higher than Japan. Why do Japanese eat less? Maybe because the fruit price is high in Japan.

Then why are Japanese fruits so expensive?

1. The appearance of fruits matters.
The high price of Japan’s fruits is because of the emphasis on the appearance. Most fruits sold in department stores or famous supermarkets are very well-formed. Because of this, the price is higher than in discount supermarkets. Apples and other fruits with poor appearance or damage are basically sold at discount supermarkets, sometimes are used to make juice.

2. Different cultivation methods.
Japan’s fruit is cultivated with time and dedication. Unlike some other countries which pesticides are used to grow fruits casually, Japan’s fruits are cultivated by using methods such as pesticide-free, organic cultivation, which is costly. Strawberries and other fruits are also grown in greenhouses, so prices skyrockets. People also take time and labor to improve varieties of fruits such as strawberries, grapes, etc. Recently, advanced fruits have become branded. TV program has introduced that one single piece of brand strawberry is sold for thousands of yen. It’s like a gem.

3. Protection agricultural system for farmers’ interests.
The fundamental reason for the high price of Japanese fruits is to maintain the income of farmers. Japan has been maintaining a special tariff system for agricultural products. The tariff is not a fixed percentage of taxes but instead refers to the shipping prices of Japanese domestic farmers. This is mainly due to the fact that the population of Japanese agricultural families accounts for about 7% of the total population which is slightly higher than other developed countries. Due to its highly united organization, national and local agricultural associations have unified voices and they have geographical advantages in the election, no political party can dare ignore the farmers. The LDP (自民党, じみんとう) has also maintained a good relationship of mutual assistance with the Agricultural Association in the past decades. The average annual income of Japanese farmers exceeds 7 million yen, which is roughly equivalent to that of local civil servants. However, Japan does not have a large area of land, so in order to increase the income of farmers, the prices of agricultural products such as fruits will be expensive

What is the opposite word for 若い(わかい, young)?

Posted on March 17th, 2018 by ajadmin

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” and “expensive” with corresponding opposite words of “low” and “cheap”.

However, if you use the opposite words without prudence, you might make such funny mistake. Some students probably would say “このジュースはさむいです(The juice is freezing. Here the correct word is 冷たい(つめたい) not さむい)” or “父(ちち)の背(せ)がやすいです(My father is cheap. The correct word is ひくい, not やすい)”.

Meanwhile, have you ever thought about the opposite words for 若い? The opposite word should be “old” in common sense and “old” means “古い”. So if you want to say “He is old”, it supposes to be “彼は古い人だ”. But, you’ve just made a horrible mistake because it’s extremely rude to elderly people.

Unfortunately, there is no opposite word for 若い. The possible reason might be due to the politeness and prudence of Japanese. People usually avoid direct expression in terms of age. Instead, the negative form a word would be the opposite meaning. Hence, the previous example should be “彼は若くない”. In addition, people usually use “お年寄り” as the respected expression of elderly people.

However, why 若い doesn’t have opposite word? I want to know why as well.

Enjoy your weekend.

Which one is heavier? 重(おも)い or 重(おも)たい?

Posted on March 10th, 2018 by ajadmin

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 than 重い.

So, the “difference” is that 重たい is usually used in spoken Japanese to express the fact that something truly integrates with their feelings.

Now let’s have a look at the words with “たい”. 冷(つめ)たい, 煙(けむ)たい, じれったい, やぼったい, etc. You might have found that such words tend to be negative words from the overall point of view. For instance, “この料理(りょうり)は胃(い)に重(おも)たいね” means “this dish is heavy on the stomach”. Similarly, 煙たい is more odious than 煙い.

On the other hand, there is a very confusing question that why there is no such word called “軽たい” corresponding to “軽い”, and why no “冷い” for “冷たい”. Why? Even Japanese are not able to answer the question. What a shame…