Do you plan to spend the holidays in Japan? Maybe you have a Japanese pen pal who you want to wish an enjoyable winter holiday? Saying ‘Merry Christmas’ in Japanese is very easy: merii kurisumasu (メリークリスマス)! The English phrase has no direct translation in Japanese, because the holiday was only adapted from the West during … Read more
Can you hear the jingle bells coming this way? Like many places around the world, Japan also celebrates Christmas, although there may be huge differences in their beliefs and traditions during the holidays. Roughly 1% of Japan’s population associate themselves with Christianity, but even so, Japanese from all over the country celebrate Christmas as a … Read more
As the only language on Earth that combines 3 writing systems at once, it’s no wonder Japanese gets a reputation for being a difficult language! So how hard is it to learn Japanese anyway? Writing systems aside, the pronunciation is easy for most! Japanese has just half as many sounds as English. Compared to many … Read more
If you’ve watched some anime or Japanese drama, you might’ve noticed that the characters tend to apologize a lot. A few familiar words for sorry in Japanese might be gomen nasai (ごめんなさい) or sumimasen (すみません). While the words for ‘sorry’ in Japanese vary in degree, there are also physical ways to express your sincerest apologies, … Read more
There are tons of sources out there that can give you a number in hours, days, months or years for how long it takes to learn Japanese. If you’ve googled it, you’ve probably seen anything from 90 days to 5 years! While it’s definitely possible to learn some Japanese in 90 days, how do some … Read more
Close friend, best friend, childhood friend, BFF – we describe our friendships in English using adjectives before the word ‘friend’. We can also use other words for people we know from work and school, such as colleague, acquaintance, peer, and so on. So it should come as no surprise that Japanese has more than one … Read more
Ever wondered what to do when celebrating your birthday in Japan? Or how the Japanese celebrate birthdays? Or most importantly – how to say ‘happy birthday’ in Japanese? We’ve got you covered! Up until the 1950s, celebrating birthdays in Japan was not customary. In fact, they considered every new year a common birthday for everyone! … Read more
When we say ‘yes’ in Japanese, there is actually more than one way to express our agreement depending on the situation and who we’re talking to! The first word we encounter when we’re learning how to say ‘yes’ in Japanese is hai (はい). But there are many other words and phrases you can use together … Read more