During my ten years in Japan I lived in a number of cities and smaller towns. The hardest thing I found was deciphering the different local dialects and colloquialisms. This made learning Japanese interesting yet laborious. At times I found it almost impossible to understand the local country bumpkins in my neighbourhood. Unfortunately, this meant most of my wife’s family.

Why You Should Learn Japanese Slang

Like with most languages, you’ll only discover Japanese slang in Japan. While there are books and websites dedicated to the subject, you need to see Japanese slang in use in order to understand it. I don’t think I knew a word of Japanese slang before I left for Japan many years ago. Now, I find most of my Japanese conversations are littered with slang words. My wife is so funny! She’ll be speaking slang all day for months to me and my son, but whenever she she meets a Japanese person for the first time she is all polite and bowing like a chicken.

Learn Japanese Slang

You should learn Japanese slang. It will really do wonders for you conversational ability and impress Japanese. Most Japanese slang isn’t rude language, it is just very casual and expressive language. I must say I miss listening to the many hundred’s of colloquialisms and slang words Japanese say and invent. Also, learning Japanese slang will give you a better understanding of the Japanese mindset and how certain social situations require a certain different language.

Examples of Japanese Slang

Here are a few Japanese slang words you must know. Just be careful of when and who you say them to.

Baka = A fool / idiot / imbecile
Dasai = Nerdy, out of fashion
Darui = Sluggish
Busu = An ugly looking girl
Debu = A fatso
Kakkoii = Cool

Sugoi  = Cool, fantastic, wow!

Pittari = A perfect fit
Maa maa = So so
Kusojiji = An old fart
Kusotare = A shithead
Ijiwaru = Cruel
Mechakucha = Huge / extremley
Shibui = Smart, fancy
Chikushou = Shit!
Hentai = Pervert
Sukebe = pervert

Japanese Slang Expressions

Damare! = Shut up!

Baka yarou! = You are really stupid!

Masaka! = No way! / That can’t be!

Yatta! = I did it!

Kusoooo! = Shit!

Chikushou! = Shit! / Damn it!

Shimatta! = Damn it!

Hayaku shine! = Drop dead, bastard!

Uso tsuki! = Liar!

Busu! = You’re so ugly!

Bikkuri shita! = WOW! (Total shock or surprise)

Hottoke! = Lay off! / Stop bugging me! / Bug off!

Baka!  = You idiot!

Baka mitai! = You really look stupid!

Gaman dekinai yo! =I can’t stand it!

Nani sun da yo! = What the hell are you doing?

Tanoshimi yo! = Let’s Party!

Well, that should be enough to get you started. Learning and using Japanese slang is lots of fun. Enjoy!

Japanese Phrases Lesson

In this lesson you will learn how to ask and answer questions relating to hobbies. We have upload many videos to youtube. Video language lessons are a great way to learn Japanese. We hope you like this one. This is a basic Japanese lesson, but hopefully you will learn something.

Structure

私のしゅみは……………です。

Watashi no shumi wa……desu.

My hobby is………………

My hobbies are………….

Vocabulary

Grammar Note

verb　+　こと

Adding “koto” will nominalize the verb; change it into a noun.

たべる　－　Eat  ;   たべること 　－  Eating

After watching the video try to read the sentences and questions below.

（あなたの）しゅみは何ですか。

わたしのしゅみは、すしをたべることです。

私の趣味はらくがきをすることです。

私の趣味はかるく、うんどうすることです。

私の趣味はギターをひくことです。

私の趣味はピアノをひくことです。

趣味はないですよ。

趣味のじかんがない。

趣味とまではいかないけど、どくしょがすきです。

ねることがわたしのしゅみです。

Why do you want to take Japanese Language Lessons?

One question you can ask yourself right now is.. Why do you want to learn Japanese Japanese?  For example, maybe you are planning a holiday to Japan and just want to learn the basics. Or, maybe you want to become a translator or interpreter and live long term in Japan. Whatever your goals are you should make sure that the money you invest in Japanese language lessons set you on the right path to achieve your goals.

So, what are you goals

I want to learn the basics of Japanese because I intend to travel in Japan

If this is you then I recommend you get on Youtube and take a look at all the growing database of free Japanese lessons you can access.  We are so fortunate to have the internet. You could pretty much learn the basics on Japanese at Youtube. I would encourage you to make so  Japanese friends or try to find a Japanese meet-up group. It really is important to start practicing what you learn with native speakers. Group Japanese lessons are an option. You might find your local community offers lessons at very affordable prices. I do not recommend private Japanese language schools or colleges unless you happy to spend money on lessons you could find on the internet and in podcasts.

I want to read and write Japanese

This was the goal I had when I first went to Japan. I was in love with Japan and wanted learn everything. Ambition can be your worst enemy. I had no real purpose to wanting to learn read and write Japanese, I just wanted to. I think my ego got the better of me and I wanted to impress myself, my family and friends. I had to spend many hours and invest a lot of money to achieve this goal. Looking back I something think I should have  my time focusing on spoken Japanese. So, if you want to learn to read and write Japanese be sure their is a why. You’ll be investing a lot of money in private lessons, text books, online Japanese language lessons and test fees, such as the JLPT.

To get started I recommend you take a look at our Youtube Japanese Lessons

Over the years I have tried many study methods in my pursuit to master both spoken and written Japanese.  I would like to share some alternative or unusual study methods I hope you find useful. I recommend you learn to read and write hiragana and katakana as soon as you can. This will really help you learn the phonetics and build you basic vocabulary quickly.

Watch a lot of Japanese dramas. I used to rent DVDs of popular dramas and watch the same episode over and over again. Some may argue that watching TV isn’t going to help  improve your Japanese. However, if you take notes and repeat what the actors say you’ll be amazed by how much you can learn.

The particle も can be used to indicate similarity as in the words ‘too’ or ‘also’. This particle replaces が or は, when used:

A: 私がえいがすきです。
B: 私もえいががすきです。
A: I like movies
B: I also like movies

This is a reasonably simple use of も, which can also be used in a double patternsuch as in the following sentence:

A: えいががすきですか、おんがくがすきですか。
B: えいがもおんがくもすきです。
A: Do [you] like movies, or do [you] like music?
B: [I] like both movies and music.

Remember that because も marks a similarity to something previously mentioned, you cannot use も out of the blue. It requires a prompt either by someone else, or by something you yourself just said.

A second use of も is after the て form of verbs and verbal adjectives. In this use, も acts as an emphatic contrasting particle, meaning something like the English “even [by/if] …”. The phrase below

“Even [by] leaving now, [you] probably won’t make it.” translates to いま　いっても　まにあわない　でしょう。

There are two special things that concern this particle. One, a special case of this use of も is in combination with the copula です, which becomes でも. We will look at this in a later post.

The second is this particle can be used with question pronouns. Have a look at the examples below:

なに　means “what”, なにも means “anything” when followed by positive verb or “nothing”, when followed by a negative verb.

どこ means “where”, どこも means “anywhere” when followed by a postive verb or “nowhere”, when followed by a negative verb.

だれ　means “who”, だれも means “anyone” when followed by a postive verb or “no one”, when followed by a negative verb.

This rule continues for words like どんな (what kind of?), どっち (which way?), いつ (when?), どうして (why?) and so forth and so forth.

As you can see the simple use of particles can greatly change the context and meaning of the Japanese language. If you have ever taken the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) before you will know one whole section of the grammar test is devoted to particles. Particles are important. So we will continue our study of them. Look forward to the next post on the particle の.

If you want to learn Japanese start learning onomatopeia.  Onomatopeia is often thought as children book or comic language by non-Japanese teachers and some linguist. This could be one of the reasons why Japanese onomatopeia is not taught in the classroom.

Japanese has a rich onomatopoeic vocabulary, with several thousand words to describe the various
sounds things make as in the “the cat goes mewo”. Also there is mimesis, words to describe the state
of things. For example, “the tree stood looming”. It is important to realize that onomatopoeia can be used to make both grammatical and natural sounding sentences or language. This is not the case for English.

One of the first times you’ll probably hear the use onomatopoeia is in relation to rain or water. There are hundreds of onomatopoeia to desrcibe rain and , namely how it falls and how it lands. In Japanese, a statement such as “the water went drip drip down the sink” can mean various different things depending on the exact choice of onomatopoeia for “drip drip”. One could for instance use “taratara” which is the sound of a steady regular dripping, or “daradara”, which is a heavier sound. One could also use “botabota”,which is a fuller sound and implies big drops, or “tarari tarati” which would imply it’s only dripping intermittently. One could even use “pisha”, so that it’s the sound of only a single drophitting something.

As you can see Japanese onomatpoeia is a very complex use of sound words, something which in English is simply impossible because it lacks both the vocabulary for it, as well as the acceptance of using onomatopoeia in regular speech.