meaning: spring reading: シュン、はる 春秋（シュンジュウ）: spring and autumn, years, age春眠（シュンミン）春眠暁を覚えず（シュンミンあかつきをおぼえず）= In spring one sleeps a sleep that knows no…
ステッキ
Not many people use ステッキ any more, but can you work out what it is from the sound Katakana letters…
（×）日本語先生をなります
日本語（にほんご）先生（せんせい）をなります is NOT a correct sentence. So how would you fix it? If I ask my Year 12 students, they…
花
mearning: a flower reading: カ、はな（ばな） 花壇（カダン）: a flower bed花瓶（カビン）: a vase花鳥風月（カチョウフウゲツ）: the beauties of nature花粉症（カフンショウ）: hay fever (花粉=pollen)開花（カイカ）: flowering,…
to boil in Japanese
If you have followed a Japanese recipe, you might have noticed that 3 different verbs, 煮（に）る、炊（た）く and 茹（ゆ）でる, have been…
かわいいそうだ, かわいそうだ, かわいいらしい, かわいらしい – sound comparison
Today’s sound comparison is between かわいいそうだ, and かわいそうだ, as well as between かわいいらしい and かわいらしい. Listen and repeat the sound!
雪
meaning: snow reading: セツ（セッ）、ゆき 雪辱（セツジョク）する: to vindicate, to get revenge, to redeem oneself雪渓（セッケイ）: a snowy valley, a snowy gorge豪雪（ゴウセツ）:…
ファーストフード？ファストフード？
マクドナルドはファーストフード？それともファストフード？ The other day, one of may translation colleagues wrote about this in her blog. I used to think, and…
かわいい、かわいらしい、かわいそう
This post explains the difference between かわいいらしい and かわいらしい as well as that between かわいいそう and かわいそう. One more い can make a rather big difference!
雨
meaning: rain reading: ウ、あめ、あま 雨期（ウキ）: the rainy season (It can be written as 雨季)雨天決行（ウテンケッコウ）: No postponement for rain豪雨（ゴウウ）: a…
さしすせそ
さしすせそ is all the letters in the S column but in cooking さしすせそ has a special meaning: that is, to…
しかく、しっかく
Today’s set of similar sounding words are: 資格 (qualification), 視覚 (vision) (しかく) 失格 (disqualification) (しっかく) The caption says: パイロットの資格をとろうとしたが、視覚検査で失格になった。 I…
天
meaning: sky, heaven reading: テン、あめ、あま 天（テン、あめ）: the sky, the air, the heavens天下（テンカ）: the world, the whole land天才（テンサイ）: a genius天災（テンサイ）:…
ポーチ
Suppose you are somewhere in this picture and if your Japanese friend asks you “ポーチ(は)どこ？(Where is ポーチ?)” Where would you…
田
meaning: rice field reading: デン、た（だ） 田園（デンエン）: (dry) fields and paddies田地（デンチ）: a rice field, rice-farming land塩田（エンデン）: a salt farm, a…
Mirin, Mirin style flavouring and Cooking Sake
If you are cooking some Japanese food, you will need a few Japanese seasonings. The most common ones are 酒（さけ/sake…
川
meaning: a river reading: セン、かわ（がわ） 川柳（センリュウ）: a senryu – a style of Japanese poem similar to haiku but without…
ホッチキス
When I first went to America as an exchange student, I believed ホッチキス was an English word, so when I…
Beginners Guide to Happiness in Japanese
“happy” can be rephrased with many different terms in English, so there are many translations of “happy” in Japanese also. Here are some.
山
meaning: mountain reading: サン（ザン）、セン、やま 山地（サンチ）: a mountainous district山脈（サンミャク）: a mountain range富士山（フジサン）: Mt. Fuji 火山（カザン）: a volcano鉱山（コウザン）: a mine登山（トザン）: mountain-climbing,…
