If one more person asks me if I “speak Indian,” I’m going to lose my fucking mind.
“How English sounds to non-English speakers”
English speakers, I assure you that this is very accurate! I can understand English much better now, but this is pretty much what I was able to get when I started to slowly learn your language: I suppose it’s normal, but I could just understand sentences like “yeah sure” (or “fucking asshole”, since swear words are always the easier to learn) and an occasional word here and there.
I wonder how much they studied to be able to build this little movie, because it’s really impressive and well done!WE SOUND LIKE SIMS
JAPANESE ONOMATOPOEIC WORDS 101!
1. イライラ (ira ira) - Irritated/Frustrated
ex: メッセージは送られない！イライラする！
(“Message not sent! Annoying!”)2. すやすや (suya suya) - sleeping soundly
ex: 猫はすやすやと寝た。
(“The cat slept peacefully”)3. ぺこぺこ (peko peko) - Hungry/Famished
ex: お腹がぺこぺこ！
(“My stomach is hungry!” or “I’m hungry!”)4. グルグル (guru guru) - turning motion/going around
ex: 頭がグルグル回る！
(“My head’s spinning and turning!”)5. ジリジリ (jiri jiri) - Impatience
ex: 急が！ジリジリになってるよ。
(“Hurry! I’m getting impatient!”)6. ドキドキ (doki doki) - Heart beat
ex: あいつだ！心がドキドキ！
(“It’s him! My heart’s pounding!”)7. さらさら (sara sara) - Silky/Glossy
ex: 彼女の髪はさらさら。
(“Her hair is silky”)8. ぴかぴか (pika pika) - Shine/Shining
ex: ぴかぴかなコイン
(“Shining coin.”)9. ワクワク (waku waku) - Uneasiness/Nervousness
ex: うわー！ワクワク！
(“Uwaa! I’m nervous!”)10. もやもや (moya moya) - gloomy/to be depressed
ex: 振られたんだ。もやもやする…
(“I got dumped. I’m feeling down…”)Photo from: nihonshock.com
Roleplay Guide 023: Writing, Without Rambling (Para Guide)
Do you sometimes find yourself trying to achieve asinine wordsmith skills in your writing that feel less like important parts, and more of a rambling mess only used to get you over a certain word count? In this guide I’ll talk about how to cut the rambling shit down, and how to maximize your paragraphs so they are hefty and without the clutter! (Includes helpful links)
Textbooks:
- An Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese
- A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar
- A Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar
- Read Real Japanese Fiction
Dictionaries:
- ALC (I use this everyday)
→Expression encyclopaedia- Goo dictionary
- Weblio
- WWWJDIC (with audio clips)
- JWPce (downloadable dictionary for Windows)
- JEDict (downloadable for Mac users)
- Idiomatic Expressions
- Idioms dictionary [Japanese only]
- Counters dictionary
- Hovering dictionaries:
→Rikaikun for Chrome
→Rikaichan for Firefox
→Floating Dictionary for Mac- Current Affairs dictionary
For kanji.
- Jisho (I use this for spelling kanji for if I can’t read it)
- Yamasa (I use this for learning to write)
- A Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters
- Associative Kanji Learning (stroke orders)
Online reading:
- Hukumusume Fairytales
- 竹取（Bamboo-Cutting） (vertical writing)
- 吉田秀幸の日記（Hideyuki Yoshida’s Diary） (recipes)
- Chokochoko’s reading texts to help with JLPT
- TED Talks (with Japanese subtitles and transcripts)
- Learning through Films [Japanese subtitles/scripts]
Manga.
- Free online manga
- Vomic (free online manga with voice actors)
- Sound Effects (in manga, etc)
Improving your speaking:
- Japanese pronunciation guide
- Interactive Hiragana Pronounciation table
- Topics for Language Exchanges.
- Bubbly (a Twitter-like app where you can record yourself)
- Audioboo (similar to Bubbly, but also a website)
Listening:
- “Real World” Japanese
- 泣きたいときのクスリ 2007 - ‘08 (radio drama)
Writing practice:
- Lang-8
- www.Japan-Guide.com
- 原稿用紙の使い方 (How to write an essay with Japanese writing paper)
- Shiritori (Japanese word-chain game)
News:
- NewsWeb Easy
- NHK News (audio news with speed controls)
- Mainichi Primary School student Newspaper
YouTube:
- Afternoon Hirusagari
- Jet Daisuke
- バイリンガール英会話
- Analog TV Forever (collections of adverts)
Japanese sign language.
TV:
- Japanese subtitles for anime
- KeyHole TV (to stream Japanese TV and radio)
- 風雲LIVE日本語（Feng Yun LIVE Japanese） (to stream TV)
- 映画で学ぶ実践英会話
Tumblr:
- Kanji-a-Day
- Holy crap Japanese
- Nihongo ga Suki
- Jumpstart Japanese
- Nihongolog
- Nadine Nihongo
- That Japan Addict
- ChilliMuffin
- Japanese through Fandom
- F-Yeah Native Japanese
- J-Vocab of the Day
- ぶらりめし [Japanese only]
- Peaceful Chef [Japanese only]
Those studying in Japan.
- Japanicking in Yamanashi (at Yamanashi University)
- Samxuel (at Kyushu Sangyo)
- Katy in Japan Town (at NUFS)
- Chocotastie (at Seinan Gakuin)
- Kim in Sapporo (at Hokkaido University)
Blogging:
Learning websites:
- JapaneseClass.jp
- The Japanese Page
- Tae Kim’s Guide to Learning Japanese
- Erin’s Challenge (with listening and reading practice)
- Maggie Sensei
Other resources:I’ve added more to the list since first creating it. As always, if anyone has anything they would like to add, let me know!
Want to collaborate on a Google Doc with Nietzsche, Shakespeare, Dostoyevsky, Dickinson, Dickens and Poe?
Click here. Start typing. Enjoy the hilarity.
Ninja Update: Wanna see something fun? Mention Shakespeare in a sentence and see what happens.
Poe kept writing distinctly into my sentences so I wrote ”Edgar, you’re not funny” aND HE BLATANTLY DELETED THE NOT I AM SO DONE WITH THIS ASDFKJL
OH GOD IF YOU TYPE “EDGAR ALLAN POE” POE ADDS A :( AFTER HIS NAME PRECIOUS BABY
DICKENS SAID POE WAS A TORTURED SOUL AND I SAID DICKENS WAS RIGHT THEN DICKINSON CHANGED IT TO DICKINSON AND THEY JUST KEPT GOING BACK AND FORTH
THIS IS GREAT
I’m copypasting my porn into this and it’s FUCKING HILARIOUS
i said “What the Dickens?” and emily and charles just kept fighting over it between that and “What the Dickinson?” until charles changed it to “What the Oliver Twist?”
Blubbering: Unattractive, loud crying. Characterized by mutters, truncated, erratic breathing, clinched facial expressions and hunched posture.
Hyperventilate-Crying: Forceful crying causing heavy breathing, resulting in the inability to speak or produce sounds even resembling words.
Scream-Crying: Violent crying accompanied with bouts of yelling or sometimes shrieking. May also include slapping, punching or other physical expressions of distress.
Silent Tears: Soft, inaudible crying that does not draw attention; May manifest only in a single tear rolling down one’s cheek.
Sobbing: Heavy crying with a large volume tears flowing steadily; Generally audible but not inappropriately loud.
Sniveling: Audible, but soft crying, also prone to muttering and erratic breathing; May also show signs of drool or mucus.
Weeping: A gentler version of sobbing; Involves soft, steady stream of tears with some times lightly audible signs of distress.
Whimpering: Soft crying usually including few or no tears at all; Often incorporates muttering and/or high-pitched sighs.
Shakespeare plays and sonnets performed using 400-year-old Original Pronunciation.
This video demonstrates why historically informed performance can be so illuminating. Puns and lewd jokes, hidden in RP, leap out when performed in certain versions of OP. Rhymes that don’t work in RP, do in OP: love vs. prove, speak vs. break, etc. The ca. 1600 OP is so rich sounding; I would love to hear a production using it!
HBBO asked about unexpected “classics”. Here’s one.
YIIIIS. I use this in class and lost the video and now here that motherfucker is!
We were always taught by our literature lecturers to read Shakespeare in our local accent (Geordie) as our pronunciations are closer to OP than reading it in the classic “high art” style that you often hear in performances. Which helped a lot in understanding the text and jokes - though I suspect a performance in genuine OP would be even more enlightening.
video for my spanish 1 class. the directions were “to film a conversation between you and a family member using the basic greetings we have learned so far this year” so naturally i made this
