DISQUS

Awesome! Thanks for the hint. Not only can I watch Japanese TV now, but also American TV, even though I assume that you can't watch all available channels, 'cause I don't see ABC or NBC. Great anyways. ^^

I must also thank you for the links now, i didn't know any of the other sites, including WhatJapanThinks. As I browsed through them I found some very interesting stuff, which otherwise I wouldn't.

Wow, did you hire something to vote for you or something like that? ^^ j/k
Was a big suprise to see 141 votes for tofugu (congratulations), since when i voted yesterday you had only 21.

By the way, I like how you changed the design now. I think the lighter blue in the header section is more convenient. Also the "Tofugu.com" writing fits better as it is now, in my opinion. However, personally I liked the transition from header to content in the background better the way it was before, even though then it wasn't even a transition, but a break with a black line. ^^ Matter of taste of course.

(Sorry for the reverse double post ^^)
In the post below substitute "something" with "someone".

I guess it can't be emphasized enough how important hard work is, eh?

Regarding "pre-learning" for university, I'd agree with Koichi. Also at my university it's a prerequisite for the Japanese course being able to read and write both, Hiragana and Katakana! (I'm studying in Berlin, Germany) So it's probably a good idea to learn them, which is not very difficult in my opinion, it just takes time and regular repetition.

As for learning Japanese by watching Anime (apart from the fact that the language used in Anime is supposed to be different from normal Japanese language (I can't tell, but was told)), it might work if you are young enough, at least to some extent. I have a friend in denmark, where on TV they often show simply English shows and movies with subtitles. And my friend stated that he could speak and understand English even before having the subject in school, just by watching TV as a child, so to say. Same thing for his friends. Of course I can't know whether this is true or not, but there might be a chance, since as a child (around 3 years of age I think) you have to greatest potential for learning new languages. Also his English is excellent in every aspect, especially pronounciation.

However, that shouldn't encourage you to try learning Japanese by watching Anime for some reasons that Koichi already mentioned in some post I can't find right now, especially since most of the readers of this blog are already older than 6 years. ^^ So, i suppose it will take almost everyone simply plain hard work to achieve their Japanese learning goals.

Good article. :)

Since i didn't know any of the other blogs before I voted for tofugu. Good luck! ;-)

I like the new design very much! Maybe you could experiment with the header background color (brownish?), but the blue as a contrast color is actually good.

I think the left part of the header with that speech bubble and "tofugu.com" above it could be improved...in some way, i don't know, since I'm not a webdesigner.

Overall it's already good as it is! Great work.

So, while waiting for your next post I'm going to browse through those other Japan blogs.

The illustration is awesome!

As I'm on one of the very lower steps of the Japanese stairway i can't say too much i guess.
But to me learning hiragana, katakana and the grammar (so far) of Japanese was the easy part.

What really troubles me are all the homophones and homonymes of Japanese, and of course all those Kanji.

Regarding the homophony problem take a look at the following quote from http://www.kanji.org/cjk/reference/japhom.htm:

[----------- QUOTE -------------------------------------------------------------------------------]

Here is an example of how complex the problem is. Let us say take the phrase Hi no sasanai yashiki (A Mansion with no Sunshine), which could be the name of a novel or a film. Here are twelve legitimate ways (some more likely than others) of how to write this.

1. 日の差さない屋敷
2. 日の射さない屋敷
3. 日のささない屋敷
4. 日の射さない邸
5. 日の差さない邸
6. 日のささない邸
7. 陽の射さない屋敷
8. 陽の差さない屋敷
9. 陽のささない屋敷
10. 陽の射さない邸
11. 陽の差さない邸
12. 陽のささない邸


We did a survey on six native Japanese speakers, some of whom are professional translators and writers, asking them how they would write the above phrase. Surprisingly, we received six different answers, none of which matched the "standard" form found in dictionaries (#1 above). Clearly, even native speakers of Japanese cannot possibly be expected to know which specific variant is used in the official title.

[----------- END OF QUOTE ------------------------------------------------------------------------]

The illustration is awesome!

Damn it! ^^

Sex sells! Even Tofugu seems to understand that. ;-)

But this post for sure came unexpected. First that vending machine thing and now that... - wait - i think i got an idea for a new vending machine...

I heard about that already a while ago, but i still can't believe how that shall work. As you said they are relying on something that isn't really existent yet.

Alone the height of nearly 4 kilometers!... hardly possible to imagine that for me!

Lol the first video is ridiculous! ^^

Great News! I read about Obake in a book about Shinto, and it is often refered to them in Japanese movies, like in もののけ姫. However, if you’re not Japanese you usually have no clue about them. (Like me ^^)

[img]http://junktown.bunkernetz.de/upload/mononoke_hime.jpg[/img]

I can’t wait for the Obake series. :D

P.S.

What means “TLA”?

Wow that's mean. But i don't trust any statistic or survey. Unless you really have asked every single person living there, you can't be sure that it's representative, can you?
Apart from that, whether you find people attractive or not is highly subjective.

However, regarding Viet's comment: LOL ^^

It's pretty weird. Sometimes the ads are displayed, sometimes not. I can see the ads on your recent Japanese lesson, but not on this page and your most recent article Restaurant: Ninja Akasaka.

It's really magic! It must be! o.O

I'm using Firefox 2.0.0.5 and i see nothing. There are several JavaScript errors displayed, maybe that's the problem. However, i've found out that there should be ads, i don't mind if i can't see them. ^^ I suppose the problem is on my side of the line, so don't worry.

Haha I agree on that one. B)

By the way, what is going to appear below the “Yahoo!” heading in the sidebar?

One last time regarding the old theme, being not "so clean" was what I personally liked about it. It looked a bit frisky. ^_^

Great news! :)

Let me please give my opinion about the changes.

Regarding the account thing: If you have cookies enabled you do not actually have to type in your name and address each time, it is saved automatically. However, with avatars the whole thing makes sense.

If it comes to the theme, to be honest, i liked the old one better. Mainly due to its color it looked kind of.... i don't know... more inviting and friendlier, i guess. Also that square fish, which really looks neat, has lost the focus in your header because of the the dark background. Well, it's a matter of taste anyway.

I'm sure the guest writers will help to make this blog even better than it already is.

Mostly I'm looking forward to Tofugu Live Japanese Lessons!
Trying to create real lectures is a noble goal, though it might be hard to live up to your readers' expectations. Simply because teaching isn't too easy in my eyes. However, if you are good at it please give it a try, because I'd really like to see that. In that case you would have to start from a rather low level and begin teaching the basics, since there are way more people who want to start learning Japanese than people who actually did it.

Personally i'd also like to see you reporting about modern Japanese language as spoken by the youth, even though it might contain not so proper Japanese (slang). Maybe you could try to combine cultur and traditions with language lessons by reporting about certain Japanese traditions and explain some Japanese terms alongside. Like if your talking about food, tell us what "to eat" means, and how certain dishes are called. If you talk about tv, tell us what "to watch TV" means and so on. Well, i don't know if that's a good approach, i'll leave that to you. :-P

Just my two pounds of cents. ^_^

Firstly, i want to say: I love your blog and your channel at YouTube!
Since I'm a kid I'm interested in the Japanese language and culture. Unfortunately i never had the chance to visit Japan so far, and even though I have been trying to teach me Japanese on my own for almost a year now, I still really suck at it. However, i plan to take a Japanese course as soon as i start studying at the university. Thus your blog/YouTube, which i discovered only recently and only because of that Godzilla feature (i liked that very much btw), really arose my interest. Keep on the good work. :)

It is really hard to believe that you are one of those hammered down nails, since in your videos you seem to be very outgoing. Just as you, i was raised to be rather modest and I'm actually more reserved than outgoing (I'm not American though). I think that's one of the traits i like about Japanese people. Being humble,regardful and polite is something that appeals to me, even though it might not be honest in some cases.

Ah, one more thing - that video is hilarious! xD "He's a retard!" lol