Language | BILINGUAL Jul 14, 2023

Long story short, cont’d: Brevity rules in Japanese grammar

The Japanese don't just abbreviate their vocabulary, when you're short on time even grammatical structures can get the chop.

<em>Za</em> grammar notes: How to properly handle the 'the' in Japanese

Language | BILINGUAL Jun 9, 2023

Za grammar notes: How to properly handle the 'the' in Japanese

The Japanese have stripped "the" down to one or two of a greater number of tasks that the word normally does in English. We know this process as semantic narrowing.

Japanese mottos: Where there’s a will, there’s a <em>zayū no mei</em>

Language | BILINGUAL Mar 3, 2023

Japanese mottos: Where there’s a will, there’s a zayū no mei

Japanese business culture in particular is partial to the idea of a person being able to sum themselves up with a catchy — and insightful — phrase to live by.

Language | BILINGUAL Dec 2, 2022

The linguistic side-effects of yet another year with COVID-19

As we the end of our third year of life in the pandemic, it's time for a review of all the newly popular vocabulary that has sprung up as a result.

Don’t get confused using your <em>ei bii s(h)ii's</em> when writing Japanese

Language | BILINGUAL Nov 11, 2022

Don’t get confused using your ei bii s(h)ii's when writing Japanese

There are two systems in place to romanize Japanese. One way reflects how the language is pronounced today, the other might be more true to original Japanese.

Language | BILINGUAL Sep 2, 2022

Body language: Know your Japanese from head to toe

Whether it’s the leg of a chair or the ears of your bread, Japanese is just as prone to assigning human body parts to inanimate objects as English is.

Getting <em>‘hai’</em> is more difficult than you think

Language | BILINGUAL Jun 17, 2022

Getting ‘hai’ is more difficult than you think

It’s a simple word but sometimes using a well-placed “hai” is all it takes to facilitate a good conversation in Japanese.

Da trouble with <em>da</em>, the less formal cousin of <em>desu</em>

Language | BILINGUAL May 27, 2022

Da trouble with da, the less formal cousin of desu

The simple "da" in Japanese isn't so simple when you delve into the purposes it serves and the ways in you should be using it correctly.

Language | BILINGUAL Mar 26, 2021

Does Google Translate make foreign language learning unnecessary? Not quite

Idioms and other turns of phrase are often taken literally when left to Google Translate to make sense of things. That means translator jobs are safe for now.