In the 1981 novel “Red Dragon” — the first Thomas Harris thriller featuring archvillain Hannibal “the Cannibal” Lecter — the Sino-Japanese ideograph 中 (read naka or chū, and meaning center ...
Today, we will introduce the adjective おかしい (funny/strange), and compare it with another adjective おもしろい (funny/interesting).
More than 3 million children under the age of 5 die annually of malnutrition, the U.N. food agency and World Health Organization said on June 12. "Malnutrition is responsible for ...
A Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker apologized on June 23 for shouting a sexist remark at a female colleague from Your ...
One of the things the Japanese media love to discuss is kazoku no hōkai (家族の崩壊, collapse of the family) — ...
Today, we will introduce the expression X(verb)っぱなし, comparing the expression X(verb)まま.
Much has been made of the alleged difficulty of the Japanese language for non-native and even native speakers. My personal impression is that this view is most commonly cherished by two types of people: those who don’t know much Japanese (or any at all), ...
Today we will introduce some expressions that describe the behaviors, physical features or attributes that characterize a person and X(noun)らしいY(noun) is one of these expressions, as in Ms. Tamachi's 男（おとこ）らしい人（ひと）( a manly person) in Situation 1, or as in 先生（せんせい）らしい態度（たいど）(The attitude that is appropriate ...
The world's oldest man died at the age of 111 in New York on June 8, leaving a Japanese man, also aged 111, as the world's oldest.
I first started studying Japanese the summer after my first year of college. I was still promising my parents that I would take the med school prerequisites and eventually become a doctor, but I knew going in to college that all I really wanted ...
Today, we will introduce the use of がる/たがる, which shows a person's desire or feeling.
Each year, alcohol kills 3.3 million people worldwide — more than AIDS, tuberculosis and violence combined — the World Health Organization said May 12, warning that booze consumption is on the rise.
Last month, a most peculiar word, dotakyan, popped up repeatedly in the media in reference to former Beatle Paul McCartney, who was forced to cancel his entire schedule of concerts due to health concerns. Mainstream news organizations reported this as 全公演中止が決まった (zen kōen chūshi ...
Today, we will introduce some usages of なるほど and たしかに, which are used as あいづち.
A Kyodo News survey said 48.1 percent of the public opposes allowing the government to legally exercise Japan's right to collective self-defense and 39 percent support it.
This is the story of a 39-year-old female runner who works in advertising and runs six times a week. Actually I was flattered when asked to recount my story, because in Japan, no one wants to hear from an obasan (おばさん, middle-aged woman), least ...
Protesters and police clashed in Sao Paulo on May 15, as demonstrations against the World Cup and rallies calling for improved public services erupted in several Brazilian cities.
