Tag: Japan

This week for my SoraNews24 W.T.F. Japan article, I wrote about the top five most confusing Japanese compound words.

Just like in English, many words in Japanese are made up of putting two words/prefixes/suffixes together. For example, “biology” is the “ology” (study) of “bio” (life), and in Japanese seibutsugaku is the gaku (study) of seibutsu (living things).

Most of the time, the compound words make sense like that. But sometimes, they can mix together in strange and mysterious ways that make no sense at first glance.

What are five of the most confusing ones? Well I’m glad you asked!

Read the article here.

This week for my SoraNews24 W.T.F. Japan article, I wrote about the top five hardest Japanese habits to break.

It wasn’t until I wrote this article that I realized just how many of my habits were actually things I picked up while in Japan. I’d just thought they’d been a part of me for my entire life… nope! Japan tricked me into doing them.

I can’t really say much more without spoiling what those habits are, so go ahead and give the article a read!

Read the article here.

This week for my SoraNews24 W.T.F. Japan article, I wrote about the top five nicest sounds in Japan.

A few months back I did the top five most annoying sounds in Japan, but since this country has more than its fair share of pleasant sounds too, I felt like it was only fair to devote an article to those as well.

When most people who have never been to Japan think of “Japanese sounds,” they might imagine gongs or chopsticks against bowls or karate wails and grunts. But the actual day-today soundscape of Japan is so different than that, and so different from what you’re probably used to in your home country.

It can be hard to imagine living in a place surrounded by unfamiliar sounds, but you quickly get used to them, and then when you go home, suddenly realize that you miss them just as much as the people and places you visited while there.

Read the article here.

This week for my SoraNews24 W.T.F. Japan article, I wrote about the top five confusing Japanese Internet slang words.

Internet slang can be confusing even in your native language. For example, do you know what TIL or MFW mean?

It’s like you’re learning a whole new language, and when you have to learn internet slang in a foreign language, it’s like you’re learning a whole new language… inside a whole new language!

To make it a little easier, this week I took a look at the top five most confusing Japanese internet slang words and did my best to explain them.

Even if you don’t know any Japanese at all, you’ll probably have fun seeing just how crazy some of them can get.

Read the article here.

This week for my SoraNews24 W.T.F. Japan article, I wrote about the top five Japanese spring foods.

I’ve previously done the top five autumn and winter foods, and people seemed to enjoy those articles, so why not continue with the season where stuff actually starts to grow back out of the ground again: spring!

The spring foods article is probably the most unique one yet. While a lot of foods in the autumn and winter lists probably look familiar to those outside of Japan, there are a ton of spring-only food items that would baffle people around the world.

What are these mysterious Japanese spring foods? Only one way to find out!

Read the article here.

This week for my RocketNews24 W.T.F. Japan article, I wrote about the top five best Tamagotchi releases.

This month marks the 20th anniversary of the Tamagotchi’s release in the U.S. back in 1997, so let’s take a look at the best that the past two decades have brought us.

I’ve never personally owned a Tamagotchi myself. I got into Pokémon right about the same time they came out and that kind of took over my life for the next… well, it still hasn’t stopped.

But my wife has owned many different Tamagotchi, and in doing this article I learned a lot about all the differences between the versions and what makes them unique and special.

Which Tamagotchi release stands supreme? It may not be what you think!

Read the article here.

This week for my RocketNews24 W.T.F. Japan article, I wrote about the top five “shikata ga nai” (“it can’t be helped”) situations in Japan

This was a fun article to write, mostly because all of the situations are really little more than mild inconveniences, so I went all-out in exaggerating the kind of reactions people can have to them. I think there are more bald eagles in this one article than every other I’ve written thus far.

What does that even mean? Only one way to find out!

Read the article here.

This week for my RocketNews24 W.T.F. Japan article, I wrote about the top five kanji with the longest readings.

I love doing articles on “the most ___ kanji ever” because I used to get asked those questions so often by my students. And back then I didn’t really have any answers besides what Google brought up, and that wasn’t always the most reliable source.

But now, thanks to my readily-available references in Japan, I can write articles to give any enterprising Japanese students the answers they desperately need. Which kanji are the most difficult? Which kanji are the strangest?

We now know the answers to those very important questions, and now the answer to which have the longest readings can be yours to know too.

Read the article here.

This week for my RocketNews24 W.T.F. Japan article, I wrote about the top five confusing Japanese hand gestures.

A few months back I did the top five hand gestures that Japanese people don’t understand, which people seemed to like. So it felt like time to do the reverse of that and show off some Japanese gestures that we have trouble understanding.

There’s a couple of gestures on this list that are either identical or very close to gestures we do outside of Japan, so it’s fun to see how they have different meanings in another culture

Although even better than those are the gestures that simply don’t exist outside Japan and confuse the heck out of anyone seeing them for the first time.

What are they? Find out!

Read the article here.

This week for my RocketNews24 W.T.F. Japan article, I wrote about the top five most difficult Japanese tongue twisters.

Even if you don’t know any Japanese, it’s still fun to try out tongue twisters in another language. After all, it’s not like the tongue twisters themselves make a whole lot of sense anyway, it’s just sputtering the sounds out that counts.

In fact, since your non-native tongue is trained in different ways, it may even make it easier! …or not!

Either way, there’s only one way to find out.

Read the article here.