What Can You Find Here?

You can click on the category titles to see the posts under the category:

Korean Through Hanja 한자어 정선: Each blog post will have some Sino-Korean words with a common Chinese character. If I were to learn 5 new Sino-Korean Words a day, that means I can learn more than 1800 words a year.
All entries will use Traditional Chinese, the standard used in Korea. Take note that there will be differences with Japanese Kanji and obviously Simplified Chinese.

Canto Mando Menu 菜單指南 I love Chinese food, and eventually I would like to learn how to read a Chinese menu entirely and be able to order in Mandarin and Cantonese. Blog posts will be in English and Japanese.

Yoji-Time 四字熟語: Learn how to use some common 4-character Japanese idiomatic expressions.

Kotowaza Corner ことわざ・コーナー Learn how to use some common Japanese idiomatic expressions.

Observations on Language Learning: Just as the title says!

Please visit my all-Korean practice blog by clicking here..
Go to my personal blog by clicking here.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Korean Through Hanja 한자어정선 # 2



습관 habits, customs, practices
나는 늦게까지 자는 습관이 있다
I have a habit of staying up late.
私は遅くまで寝ない習慣がある。

習得 습득 to learn, to acquire a skill perfectly
어학 습득 방법은 다만 연습에 있을 뿐이다.
Practice is the only way of mastering a language.
語学習得の方法はただ練習するしかない。

The Thousand Character Classic 千字文 Part 5

Here is part 5 of the Thousand Character Classic

閏餘成歲, 律呂調陽

Mandarin: rùnyú chéngsuì lǜlǚ diàoyáng
Japanese:
ジュンヨ セイサイ リツリョチョウヨウ
Korean: 윤여성세, 율려조양


Monday, November 2, 2009

Sino-Korean Vocabulary 1 - 學 (학)


to study, to learn (배우다 / 학)  / simplified variant:


學校 학교 がっこう 
a school

生 학생 がくせい 
a student

學習 학습 がくしゅう 
to study

學級 학급 がっきゅう 
a year level (in school)

學部 학부 くぶ 
a school, faculty (discipline)

Japanese Self-Introduction 日本語での自己紹介

This my first self-introduction video in Japanese. I and other ALTs were invited to a Japanese couple's house and had us wear some kimonos. Since there couldn't be anything more Japanese than a kimono, I thought I would make my self-introduction on the spot. It was very impromptu and casual so you could see some of them laughing...

Here is the English translation for the video:

Hello everyone, I'm Nick. I have made quite a few videos on youtube in the past, but now for the first time, I'd like to make a Japanese self-introduction video.

I have lived in Tokyo before as an exchange student, but now I work as an ALT in Minami-Alps City which is in Yamanashi,Japan. I teach English at elementary and junior high school. There are a lot of challenges everyday but I am having fun for the most part.

I am very interested in learning languages. I am interested not only in Japanese, but also in Chinese and Korean. In the future, I'd like to use these languages and teach at university, or work as a translator.

In the future I'd like to make more videos about language learning on youtube, so if you have time please check them out. Thank you!


Sunday, November 1, 2009

The Thousand Character Classic 千字文 Part 4

Here's part 4 of the Thousand Character Classic

寒來暑往, 秋收冬藏

Mandarin: hánlái shǔwǎng qiūshōu dōngcáng
Japanese: カンライ ショオウ シュウシュウトウゾウ
Korean: 한래서왕 추수동장

Saturday, October 31, 2009

The Thousand Character Classic 千字文 Part 3

日月盈昃 辰宿列張

Mandarin: rìyuè yíngzè chénxiù lièzhāng
Japanese: ジツゲツ エイショク シンシュクレツチョウ
Korean: 일월 영측 진숙열장

Friday, October 30, 2009

The Thousand Character Classic 千字文 Part 2

This is the 2nd phrase for the Thousand Character Classic:

宇宙洪荒


Mandarin: yǔzhòu hónghuāng
Japanese: ウチュウ コウコウ
Korean: 우주 홍황

The Thousand Character Classic 千字文 Part 1

So I was browsing through random language-related articles in wikipedia today when I stumbled upon something called the Thousand Character Classic or 千字文 (Mandarin: qiānzìwén, Cantonese: cin1dzi6man4, Japanese:千字文, Korean: 천자문). Basically it was first written for the prince of a certain Chinese dynasty so that he could practice calligraphy. It was then used as a primer for children to learn the 1000 basic Chinese characters necessary to be literate. It is no longer used now as modern Chinese is structured differently to Classic Chinese. However most characters have roughly the same meaning either in Classic Chinese or Modern Chinese. If you have been reading this blog you know probably already know just how addicted I am to the Chinese characters. Therefore learning the Thousand Character Classic is a must!

Since the classic is broken down into 4-character phrases, I plan to learn a phrase a day. I will write down the phrase and provide the Mandarin, Japanese and Korean pronunciation using many online resources of course. I plan to include the Japanese onyomi pronunciation just so I could learn them but reading Classical Chinese in Japanese is quite complicated, so I will not deal with that here.

Here is the first phrase:
天地玄黃
Mandarin: tiān dì xuán huáng
Japanese: テン チ ゲン コウ
Korean: 천 지 현 황

Saturday, October 17, 2009

The Origin of Hiragana Characters あいうえお

Hiragana is one of the scripts used to write the Japanese language. Japanese was first written using "Kanji," which are what Chinese characters are called in the Japanese language. As Chinese characters were not completely suitable as the sole medium for writing Japanese, scripts such as Hiragana and Katakana were developed.

In this video series I'd like to show you the Chinese characters from which Hiragana originated. Hiragana are the simplified cursive form of the Chinese characters they originate from.