An acronym is briefly defined as a shortened version of the various words that make up a meaningful phrase, with every first word of the phrase being abbreviated and then…
Category: Japanese
The Golden Week in Japan
From the 29th of April to the 5th of May each year, Japan and its citizens celebrate “Golden Week”. This period of festivities includes four very special holidays, which we…
Word Count for Japanese for Project Managers
For three years in the translation industry, I learned a trick or two on the peculiarities of working with Asian languages. Sometimes my quest for searching interesting and professional topics…
Translation Challenges: Itadakimasu – the Japanese way to live life with gratitude
There’s a Japanese saying that goes like this: “Seven Gods live in one grain of rice.” And what this means is that when one eats food, one should not waste…
What lies behind the names of Asian countries: Japan
What lies behind the names of Asian countries – Japan The land of the rising sun, Japan is home to a population of 126.3 million people. The country is known…
Kokeshi Dolls – the story behind these small beauties
While known for its anime, sushi vending machines, punctual public transport system, as well as other cultural aspects, Japan is an interesting country and other less known aspects about its…
Kaiju – the monster from Japan and China that took over Hollywood
Halloween took place just about a month ago, but we`re here with some spooky stories about monsters from another land. You might be surprised to find out that Japanese culture…
Kawaii: the Japanese art of being “cute”
If you are a fan of manga, anime or Japanese culture as a whole, then you know pretty well that kawaii is not just another Japanese loanword. Kawaii is an…
Ikigai – the Japanese “reason for being”
Every person has their own pace of life and each of us decides for themselves just how much work is enough work. There are some that prefer leisure to hard…
Exploring Japanese loanwords in English
Loanwords are words adopted from another language and there is almost no language that doesn’t make use of such terms. However, when such words are “borrowed” they do not necessarily…
A linguistic journey through Japanese restaurant culture
Naturally, wherever we travel, we want to get to know the local cuisine. But each country has its own rules and subtleties, even in such simple matters as going to…
Yuki Matsuri – the coolest festival in Japan!
Winter has come to Japan, and a great deal of fun arrived with it. Contrary to the common tourist beliefs, Japan is charming not only in the spring — during…
Why do Koreans and Japanese understand each other?
Japan and Korea have shared a common cultural tradition of broadly defined Confucianism, which in general is quite different from the Western tradition. Their modern fate diverged after the East…
Manga – a creative way to learn Japanese in Indonesia
We all know that Manga is one of Japan’s most popular genres, which is famous all over the world. An interesting Japanese occurrence that has its fans everywhere along with…
Why Japanese repair with gold?
“Again we travel to the land of the rising sun.” Have you ever heard of the term “kintsugi”? Even Japanese beginners can easily dissect the word – “kin” meaning gold…
5 peculiar facts about Japanese language you might find surprising
Asian languages have always intrigued and fascinated people. Some of them have been brave enough to try and learn an Asian language but most of us cowered before their complexity…