As the first post in my new blog (Blog 4.0), I find I am already stuck with writer’s block. Ha ha ha.
Anyways, while studying the ol’ Japanese iPod lessons yesterday, they covered some very helpful vocabulary with regard to the Internet that I wanted to pass along. You see, I work in the IT Industry,* and have for almost 12 years, but when I try to explain what the Internet is to my father-in-law, whose a down-to-earth, blue-collar fellow, my words fall short very quickly. So, let me share some useful Japanese vocabulary related to the Internet. If you already know this, my apologies. 
First is the word for Internet, which is intānetto (インターネット). Oftentimes, this is shortened in Japanese to just netto (ネット), which can be used for other words. If you have a friend on the Internet, this is netto tomodachi (ネット友達). Since most of my friends are now people I know through blogging or Buddhist forums, I can say I have lots of netto tomodachi.
To connect to the Internet, or any computer network (nettowāku, ネットワーク), is one of two verbs, depending on context:
- The verb tsunagu (繋ぐ) means to physically connect a wire, among other things. So if you’ve physically plugged your network cable into an ethernet jack, this the verb to use, as in keiburu ga tsunaideiru (ケーブルが繋いでいる).
- The word setsuzoku (接続) means to be connected in a more abstract, but still technical sense. So, if your home internet service is working, and you’re connected to the Internet, you can say intanetto ni setsuzokuchū (インターネットに接続中). To actively connect to the Internet, or some other network, you can change setsuzoku into a verb using suru as in setsuzoku suru (接続する).
Email is just meiru (メール). So if you’re writing email to someone, you don’t say “write email”, you say “do email” as in meiru suru (メールする). If you send an email however, the grammar is the same as english. You can say meiru wo okuru (メールを送る).
If anyone has more to add, please don’t hesitate to leave comments, or corrections. Enjoy!
Namu Amida Butsu
* – Many people have asked me over the years which one, and I prefer not to say aloud. It does happen to start with the first letter of the alphabet, but I will let you figure out the rest.
Hello, this blog is about my life as a father, Buddhist and Japanophile / Koreaphile. Any useful information I can pass along will hopefully make the 
*Maybe you just answered that.
It is interesting to see how far technology has come. I just got a new smartphone and was talking to a retired gentleman who recently had his laptop stolen. He was amazed that most of what he used his laptop for could be done from a little phone. I’m a little amazed too. I’ve been playing with it since I got it Monday. Mostly just texting a certain young lady.
Does your wife use Skype or something similar to communicate with her family. We use Skype and it is the best. It is no cost, and my wife can see and talk to her family in Japan daily.
Yeah, we’re just catching on to Skype now. Despite being in IT, I am kind of a trogolodyte at home ironically. A couple days ago, I finally got it working with my Mac Mini (had to buy a camera/mic combination from the Mac Store online), and it’s been awesome. Baby was very happy to see me, blew kisses and all that. Lots of fun.
@Shinnyo: It amazes me too. I remember as a kid my dad’s really bulky cellular phone (he worked in real estate), and now compare it to the little phone in my pocket. Crazy stuff. I also remember his record player (on which we enjoyed Michael Jackson’s Thriller), which seems old-fashioned compared to my iPod now. Freaky.
My first computer was the TI99/4a. First game system Atari 2600. I remember the big cell phones and the bag phones.
Tornadoes28, what do you know about the Magic Jack? Just curious if it worked or if it was any good. I’m thinking about canceling my home phone that I rarely use.
Wow, TI99.
My grandmother, who was into computers at the time (no joke), had the Tandy Color Computer, which I then inherited from her. I think it was the second edition ones (I remember mine had 16K).