Category Archives: Japanese

The Madness of Learning Two Languages

This is kind of like part two of a post I wrote previously. As I continue to study 2 languages at once, I realized that I took on a big project doing this. Contrary to what some people might read … Continue reading

Posted in Buddhism, Japanese, Korean, Language, Latin, Religion, Theravada | 1 Comment

Language Studies: Keep It Simple, Stupid

Recently I was inspired by this website, which shows how to learn Welsh language. Welsh is a language I don’t know anything about, but the page’s offer provided very simple solutions to learn the language. The first one that struck … Continue reading

Posted in Japanese, JLPT, Korean, Language | 2 Comments

Practicing your Japanese and Korean handwriting

I spend a lot of time lately trying to improve my writing skills in both Korean and Japanese. My wife, who has had considerable training in Japanese calligraphy, gave me some good advice a while back, and said that even … Continue reading

Posted in Japanese, Korean, Language | 1 Comment

More Good Advice for Studying

Here’s more advice from Xunzi, which is a follow-up to my last post. I was surprised to see how popular that one was. Anyhow, this is from section 2: A thoroughbred can travel a thousand li in one day, yet … Continue reading

Posted in Confucius, Japanese, Korean, Language, Religion | 2 Comments

Japanese and Korean, A Second-Pass Comparison: Verbs

This post is dedicated to reader “Jan”, who expressed an interest in both languages. I’ve wanted to write this for a while, but waited until I had more information. Anyway, a while back, I posted a kind of first-pass comparison … Continue reading

Posted in Japanese, Korean, Language | 2 Comments

Good Advice for Study

After finishing the book on Han Feizi, I started reading the book written by the famous Confucian scholar Xunzi (荀子, 312–230 BC), particularly the Burton Watson translation. Xunzi is pronounced like “shoon-tsih” by the way.1 Like all Confucian scholars, he … Continue reading

Posted in Confucius, Japanese, Korean, Language, Literature | 4 Comments

Discouraged in my Korean Studies

Hey all, Need some advice. Lately, I’ve been pretty discouraged while studying Korean language. I started a kind of intensive 4-month project, and overall I’ve been pretty disciplined about it (better than I expected ), but I’m frustrated with my … Continue reading

Posted in Japanese, Korean, Language | 15 Comments

My First Interview

Hi all, I’ve been honored to have been interviewed by a reader recently on this blog. The interview is here. I don’t have a lot of juicy, interesting things to talk about, no secret children, no wild parties, or anything … Continue reading

Posted in Buddhism, Japanese, JLPT, Korean, KPop, Language, Music, Religion | Leave a comment

Big Bang and 2NE1 on Japanese TV

Credit goes to my wife for finding these, but we like to watch Japanese TV on the Internet, and she knows a lot of TV shows I don’t. One show is called しゃべくり007 (shabekuri 007), which is a variety show … Continue reading

Posted in Japanese, KPop, Language, Music | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Cute Pictures by my Daughter

I just felt like posting a few pictures my daugther made: This drawing is something she made a couple months ago. It is hanging on my wall at work. She is eating a strawberry with her friend and they’re talking … Continue reading

Posted in Family, Japanese, Language | 4 Comments