Upon visiting any major city in Japan you will be intrigued and a little confused buy the clothing of female office workers. Japanese salary men tend to blend in with the dark gloomy landscape with there cheap black suits. Office ladies, on the other hand, are sort of neon-lights with the colorful eye-catching work uniforms. You will often seen large groups of OL’s (office ladies) walking around the streets during lunch hour. In a typically poetic way of classifying and symbolizing things unmarried female office workers are labeled “office flowers” – jimsho no hana. Jimsho means office and hana means flower. The connotation of this label is obvious – like flowers young Japanese girls decorate their workplace doing menial office work for a relatively short period of time. Then when their beauty fades they are discarded and new flowers are sought after. Pretty much the male mentality of Japan.

Women are treated like second class citizens in the workplace. They are paid less and usually offered only low-rung employment opportunities in most companies. Successful and powerful business women are few and far between, and are considered scary or intimidating by their male counterparts. However, the situation is changing rapidly and gaining momentum. Women are slowly finding or making their place in the workforce. If Japanese women had more opportunity and power it would do this country so much good. Japanese women are naturally more flexible, adaptable and usually more talented and inventive than the men. Japanese society would greatly benefit from female influence. They give society its color and taste, and are responsible for most of the creativity in the country.

It is time for Japanese women to blossom again. During the Occupation from 1945 to 1953 Japanese with their new found rights had an incredibly positive impact on a rapidly changing Japan. Without the cooperation and efforts of Japanese women, the Occupation would likely have been a long drawn-out disaster. Their aggressive willingness to work and change their traditional way of living, in large part, resulted in the consumer economy that now exists in Japanese society today. The growing labor shortage seems like the perfect opportunity for women to blossom again and fulfill long-suppressed ambitions in the upper echelons of business, science and politics.

Welcome to the first of many lessons that will help you to master and read Katakana. At this site you can learn how to read Katakana with video and audio lessons. We have a blog that we update regularly on things like the stroke order of katakana characters, correct usage and funny katakana words. You can also download Katakana cards, a Katakana chart and lots of other helpful learning materials.

Katakana is the second Japanese alphabet used to express non-Japanese words in written Japanese. The other alphabet is called Hiragana. Then there is Kanji. Hiragana is the basic alphabet that children first learn in order to read Japanese. As students progress, Katakana and Kanji is then introduced as the student’s vocabulary expands. For foreign students it makes sense to approach reading Japanese in the same way. Please visit our sister site ReadHiragana.com to learn how to read Hiragana.

Katakana is not just about English loan words.It also used for onowords, emphasizing words in manga and children’s books that would normally be written in Kanji or Hiragana, terminologies in the fields of study like science and medicine, and foreign names. If Kanji represents the traditional “language culture” of Japanese, then Katakana represents the modern and evolving “language culture”. In fact, Katakana is very much a part of the modern evolving culture of Japan as new words named after or tagged to new trends and cultural discoveries are usually always based on English words and written in Katakana.

Why is it import to learn Katakana?

Katakana, like Hiragana, is indeed worthwhile learning as it ensures you are speaking Japanese correctly. Often English native speaking students of Japanese make the mistake of half learning Katakana or skip learning it all together. Making the assumption that you can get by because most atakana words are English loan words is a big mistake. If you can’t read atakana you can be sure that you’re not pronouncing words well. If your pronunciation is slightly off you will have trouble being understood. So please come and visit us often. You can also sign up for a sample of our video course that helps you master and read Katakana fast. Juts fill in the forum below and check your email.

Learning katakana is not only about “loan words”. If Kanji represents the traditional “language culture” of Japanese, then Katakana represents the modern and evolving “language culture”.

Katakana is used for:

1. Onomatopoeic words

2. Emphasizing words that would normally be written in Kanji or Hiragana

3. Foreign names

4. Terminologies?- words and phrases used in a particular subject or field.

Japanese are highly regarded for their commitment to work. Often putting work before family few Japanese take the paid holidays which they are legally entitled to. In my 10 years of living in Japan I have never known any of my Japanese friends to take more than a weeks holiday. Most Japanese will never use all their paid holidays and believe it is wrong to do so as it will cause trouble for fellow co-workers and so on.  Japanese may not take many personal holidays, but Japan celebrates many national holidays. Below is a list of the many national holidays Japanese take each year. Some of them sound a bit wacky like “Marie Day” or “Green Day”. However, most of these holidays are culturally significant in Japan. Some are in fact festival days. Setsubun and Hanabata are two very popular festivals widely celebrated in Japan  These days represent the few times most people can take a day off work without having to worry about what their co-workers are doing. Guilt free holidays! It would definitely impress Japanese if you were able to talk or ask questions about national holidays.

National Holidays

Greetings are usually the first thing a student learns when studying a foreign language. I am sure you probably already know several greetings in Japanese. In this lesson we will look at the standard “Good morning, good afternoon and good night” greetings, as well as a few greetings Japanese native speakers often use. As greetings are usually the first thing you say when meeting people it is important to pronounce them correctly. You may know that “Konnichwa” is “Hello” (good afternoon), but you are probably not pronouncing the word correctly.

Japanese soon compliment Japanese speaking foreigners on their…..”speaking ability” in social situations. They will most likely compliment your ability after you have exchanged greetings. This happened to me the first time I came to Japan and started working in a restaurant. A customer complimented on my Japanese. I didn’t understand what she was saying. Once I found out what she was saying I felt like a fool and pretty embarrassed. Keep this in mind when you meet Japanese.

Push the play button below and repeat the greetings after Kaoru Sensei. Try to get your prounciation to sound like Kaoru’s.

Bowing: Instead of shaking hands , the Japanese bow. They also express gratitude, apologies, and requests by bowing. There are different ways of bowing depending on the situation, shown by how deeply you bend forward.

Gifts: It is customary to bring a gift, such as a box of sweets with you, when you visit your acquaintances or those to whom you feel some obligation. When offering a gift, Japanese will usually say something along the lines of “this is just a little something” which expresses a self-effacing attitude.

Meishi: In business, people exchange namecards when they are introduced. This card is printed with name of the person, the company and his or her title on it. Japanese love to give their business card. I seem to accumulate hundreds every year.

One of the most frustrating things foreigners go through when trying to get settled in Japan is hoshonin. Hoshonin is the system of having a guarantor. As individuals are not often fully recognized as independent entities who are responsible for their own obligations a guarantor is required for just about everything.  Under this system, people who are willing to be held responsible for the actions of a second party can be become guarantors. The problem for foreigners  is finding someone willing to do this. Lets face it Japanese aren’t very trusting of  foreigners.

Even Japanese

Hoshonin also effects all Japanese and are required regardless of the position, character, or financial ability of the individual concerned. Some of the the situations that require hoshonin include buying something on credit, renting a house or an apartment, applying for visa or memberships in various organizations. Japan’s grouping syndrome impacts on every level of life in the country, in both personal and business matters. Trust and loyalty are primarily reserved for members of one’s own group. Whenever possible, members associate and do business only with members of their own group. This can make life very difficult if you are a foreigner.

Most foreigners requiring  official hoshonin depend on employers, the schools they want to attend, Japanese friends or contacts they have . Hoshonin documentation is extremely confusing and difficult to read ( if you can read Japanese) – extremely foreigner unfriendly. Having a middle name can also complicate things greatly. Establishing contacts and asking for help is about the only way to get around the hoshonin problem.

Despite being an innovator of technology Japan still has very old and almost backward systems for banking, public services or immigration . All these services are still paper based. Something as simple as changing and address can be very time consuming requiring an incredible amount of identification and documentation and Japanese “Inkan” seal. Getting a seal is an other story.

In an amazing quirk of fate that could only happen in Japan it has taken me weeks to have my private insurance canceled in Japan. I had to provide more identification and sign and stamp more documentation that I did when I applied for an insurance plan in the first place.

Takoyaki, Japanese fast food at its finest. Balls of water- or broth-based flour batter containing bite-size pieces of octopus (tako), green onion, ginger and tempura crumbs that are cooked in a special iron grill with round molds and then glazed with a sauce. Takoyaki is sold in shops and sidewalk stalls. They taste great and are very cheap. Lets find out how they are made and what they taste like.