A verb.

You write 暴れる with the following kanji radicals:

日一｜｜一ハ水


Make a little guard between the heat from the sun(日) and the water (水) or it will react violently.


少年は暴れたら、叱って。
Shounen wa abaretara, shikatte.
If the boys get worked up, tell them off.

This is a post where I’ll answer questions submitted through tumblr. Use the form at the side of the tumblr to ask a question and I promise I’ll answer it to the best of my ability (and that of my poor old native speaker friends).


I’d like to apologise for a pretty big mistake on Word of the Day #009. I used the word ‘possibility’ instead of ‘crow’, due to changing the word of the day at the last second. Thank you to everyone who told me of my mistake, it is fixed now!

ablogusandapug asked:

” I love you’re Tumblr! How long do you think it would take to learn Japanese without being in Japan but instead the U.K? Thanks! (^^) “

Hello! I’m so glad you like my tumblr!
I’m sorry sometimes the updates are infrequent, but I’m doing my best to get back on track and serve up a word every day.
How long… This is a really tough question, and one that varies from person to person. Fortunately, I can consider myself somewhat of an expert on trying to study Japanese in the UK, seeing as I live here too!
British high five!

It really depends on how good you want to be. I honestly would say it is very, very easy to start learning Japanese (even on your own with the assistance of some basic ‘teach yourself Japanese’ books) - you can build yourself up to about a primary school kid’s level in in a year or even less.
(This doesn’t sound like much, but kids know a lot of language, as I’m sure their parents will testify)

From what I’ve gathered, I’d expect it takes about 3-5 years of study to use Japanese really effectively, but most people recommend living in a country for a long time (2+ years) to get truly fluent. Also, you can keep up pretty good conversation and survive in the country with as little as 18 months of study!

A verb.

You write 違う with the following kanji radicals:

韋 辷


A powerful（力) error from just one(一) mouth(口) can cause a year(年) down the wrong road（辷）.


「オーストラリアの首都はシドニーだ。」「ええ、違うじゃん？先生はカンベラだって。」
‘Oosutoraria no shuto wa shidonii da.’ ‘Ee, chigau jan? Sensei wa kanbera datte.’
‘The capital of Australia is Sydney.’ ‘Eh, that’s wrong isn’t it? The teacher said it’s Canberra.’

A noun.

Rather than using the kanji to write it, karasu is usually written in katakana: カラス. This is because a lot of kanji for animals are complex, but this one is actually quite easy!

You write 鴉 with the following kanji radicals:

牙 鳥


The cat sank its fangs（牙） into the bird(鳥）, but it crow（鴉）ed so loudly that it ran off.

うるさいじゃない？鴉の「かあ、かあ」。黙って欲しい。
Urusai ja nai? Karasu no ‘kaa, kaa’. Damatte hoshii.
Isn’t the ‘caw, caw’ that a crow makes annoying? I wish it’d shut up.

An adjective. It can be used with な(na) or の(no).
It’s comprised of two kanji.

当 (とう；tou), meaning appropriate, right. It can be written as a verb:

1. 当たる（あたる；ataru) - to apply to, to match, to hit/strike.

然 (ぜん；zen), meaning if so, in that case.

You write 当然 with the following kanji radicals:

｀｀´ ヨタ犬、、、、　(Pardon my terrible approximation of converted fire radicals)

当然さ、執事のせいだったよ。
Touzen sa, shitsuji no sei datta yo.
Naturally, it was the butler’s fault.

This is a post where I’ll answer questions submitted through tumblr. I’ll do my very best to answer, using both my knowledge and that of my friends who are native speakers!

dangodear asked:

” :D I am sooo very thankful I found you! I’m 16, and I’ve really been interested in learning japanese. My school doesn’t offer much opportunity in language learning so this is perfect! Being someone who cannot take a class, what is your advice on learning this language? What’s it like learning in a university? I will be in one next year, as a duel enrolling student. I might have opportunities there! “

Hello there! I’m really glad you’re finding the tumblr useful!
First off, having an interest in the language is your biggest friend. Part of why Japanese is such a great language to learn is because there are so many fun ways to keep up your study - videogames, films and manga are all fairly easy to obtain in their original language.

However, let me just say that jumping straight in and expecting to understand an entire volume of manga is setting yourself up for a fall - you have to do a bit of background work first! I recommend About.com’s guides to grammar and basic kanji, I used them myself when I was self-studying.

It might also be worth investing in a basic language book just to get you started. I used one like this while I self-studied and it’s a nice, easy start to learning.

Watching films or dorama (Japanese drama TV shows) are better aural practice than anime, because the language used is more realistic, but all practice is good. Try and listen to some Japanese every day to build up your ability to differentiate words!

Basically, in preparing for college, I would give this advice:

• Learn the hiragana writing system! It’s fairly simple and easy to learn.
• Listen to Japanese music or some children’s programmes and try to write down words you hear.
• Don’t get discouraged! Learning a language has challenges, but it’s worth it!

As for studying in a University, it definitely varies. I study at the University of Leeds, which is a University with a very steep learning curve (but overall it’s a great Japanese program - they really make you learn the material).
By contrast, a Canadian friend of mine studying Japanese has a seemingly slower-paced course; in their second-year level class, they were studying material we had completed as first years.

Regardless of your university, it gives you a lot more focus and drive to learn. There’s nothing quite like getting feedback on your learning process, after all.

Good luck studying Japanese!

A noun.
It’s comprised of two kanji.

戦 (せん；sen), meaning fight, battle, match. It can be written as a verb:

1. 戦う（たたかう；tatakau) - to fight.

争 (そう；sou), meaning argue.

1. 争う（あらそう；arasou) - to compete, argue, quarrel.

You write 戦争 with the following kanji radicals:

｀｀´ 田十戈勹ヨ亅

初音ミクによると、「恋は戦争」だよ。そうなら、核戦争みたいな恋があるかしら？。
Hatsune Miku ni yoru to, ‘Koi wa Sensou’ da yo. Sou nara, kakusensou mitai na koi ga aru kashira?
According to Miku Hatsune, ‘Love is War’. If that’s so, I wonder if there’s love that’s like nuclear war?

An adverbial noun.
It’s comprised of two kanji.

結 (けつ；ketsu), meaning tie, fasten, join. It can be written as two verbs:

1. 結う（ゆう；yuu) - to braid, fasten, connect.
2. 結ぶ（むすぶ；musubu) - to bind, link. Also can be used as ‘to bear fruit’: 実を結ぶ（みをむすぶ；mi o musubu)

局 (きょく；kyoku), meaning conclusion and also office, affair.

You write 結局 with the following kanji radicals:

糸士口尸勹口

結局、電子辞書を買うことにした。
Kekkyoku denshi-jisho o kau koto ni shita.
I decided to buy an electronic dictionary in the end.

This is a post where I’ll answer questions submitted through tumblr. I’ll do my very best to answer, using both my knowledge and that of my friends who are native speakers!

noorinmanc asked:

“hi! i’m really excited fuckyeahdevelopmentalbiology linked you :) could you maybe do a little lesson on pronunciation? or what kanji means? XD thanks! “

Hello! I’m really grateful for the link from fydb, too! A lesson on the basics is no problem at all.

First of all, Japanese is a really merciful language when it comes to pronunciation. The pronunciation of the vowel sounds is exactly the same, 99.999& of the time.

‘a’ sounds like the ‘ah’ of ‘father’.
‘i’ sounds like the ‘ee’ of ‘elite’.
‘u’ sounds like the ‘oo’ of ‘glue’.
‘e’ sounds like the ‘eh’ of ‘shelf’.
‘o’ sounds like the ‘oh’ of ‘over’.

These pronunciations stay the same even when paired with a consonant - sounds such as ka, ke, ku, ke and ko (kah, kee, koo, keh, koh).

Sometimes an ‘i-stem’ (like ‘ki’) will be paired with a ‘y’ and another vowel. This results in a sharp, quick meshing of the sounds above - for instance, 今日（きょう；kyou） should sound more like ‘kyoh’ than ‘kee-yoh’.

Occasionally, paired vowels will occur, but the sounds remain consistant. ‘ei’ as in 影響（えいきょう；eikyou) is pronounced eh-ee, but more fluently, making it sound a little like the ‘ay’ of ‘tray’. The same goes for double vowels!

There’s also ん（’n’）, which sounds a little more nasal than our equivalent. When pronouncing Japanese ‘r’s you should aim for a middle sound between an ‘l’ and an ‘r’ - this can usually be achieved by lightly tapping the tip of your tongue against the roof of your mouth.

This is only a basic pronunciation overview - I’d recommend this page for further instruction.

The written language of Japanese has three written forms.

1. hiragana, for spelling out Japanese words
2. katakana, for spelling out foreign words or emphasising Japanese ones
3. kanji, for differentiating amongst words spelt the same way in hiragana

As an example of why kanji are so useful, take the word ‘kami’. The word kami can be written in hiragana like this: かみ. The problem arises when you realise kami can mean god, hair, paper, and many other things!

With kanji, you can differentiate. If you write kami with different kanji, it means different things, like so:

• 紙 (paper)
• 神 (God)
• 髪(hair)

I hope this helped!

A noun.
It’s comprised of two kanji.

粗 (あら；ara), meaning rough, simplified. Its 音読み(onyomi) is そ(so). It can be written as an adjective:

1. 粗い（あらい；arai) - rough,　basic.

筋 (すじ；suji), meaning muscle, sinew and also plot.

You write 粗筋 with the following kanji radicals:

米目一 竹月力

A fun way to remember 筋　(Which means not only muscle and sinew, but also plot) is the plot of the famous Japanese fairytale, 竹取物語（たけとりものがたり；taketorimonogatari). If you look it up, you can see it has a few powerful (力) symbols, including bamboo (竹) and the Moon (月).

その竹取物語の粗筋はちょっと簡単すぎるだろうね。
Sono taketorimonogatari no arasuji wa chotto kantan sugiru darou ne.
That synopsis of the Tale of the Bamboo Cutter is a bit too simple, don’t you think?