Everything Japanese - Latest Comments in General

Re: Today’s Super Suiyoubi Sale

iamclayb — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 22:11:45 -0000

Neat. There are a bunch of bilingual books--especially mukashi banashi--like this one. One thing that makes the Graded Readers so great is they are graded (made specifically for various levels of Japanese learners). I will look into getting books like this, though.

Re: Today’s Super Suiyoubi Sale

Musouka — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 19:49:17 -0000

Thanks for the offer. I've bought the whole lot. Should keep me busy for a while :)

Speaking of readers, I have bought some small bilingual readers from J-List a couple of years ago. They come with an audio CD as well. Each reader is about one particular story. They might be quite simple but they do have a culture significance in addition to the language. J-List only had a few of them (out of 36 volumes). I wonder if you would start selling some of them (in case they are still in print).

You can see scans of one of them below (my scanner is a bit dirty, though):

http://www.musouka.com/images/jreader/A1.JPG

http://www.musouka.com/images/jreader/A2.JPG

http://www.musouka.com/images/jreader/A3.JPG

Re: JLPT Revision Updates

iamclayb — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 05:46:03 -0000

Sounds like the July test will only be JLPT 1 and 2 too. Interesting to see how things will turn out.

Re: JLPT Revision Updates

Musouka — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 05:37:09 -0000

You're Welcome :)

They will start offering the test in July in limited locations (mainly Japan, China and other places where there is high demand). I guess they will expand later.

I only wish they would make it computerized like the TOEFL, GMAT and the like. One would then be able to take it any time of the year (or at least more frequently) at specialized centers. Then again, it would probably become more expensive if they did that.

Oh well, back to studying...

Re: Four NEW JLPT Books with CDs

iamclayb — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 22:06:54 -0000

Thanks for that link! I knew about the change, but not some of these details.

We'll have to see in 2010 what happens :)

Re: Four NEW JLPT Books with CDs

Musouka — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 12:58:54 -0000

Maybe I should buy all levels soon because, according to JEES Website (http://www.jees.or.jp/jlpt/pdf/20080525_jlpt_ka...), this will happen when the new test go live in 2010:

Nondisclosure of test questions

In the past the questions of the JLPT have been published in the spring of the year
following the administration of the test. When the new test is introduced, however, the
questions will not be made public. Sample questions and profiles of the respective
ability levels (see Table 1) will be published instead. The reason why the questions will
not be made public is to ensure the quality of the test. Thus, TOEFL and other language
tests do not make public the questions to ensure their quality. This measure is necessary in order to make the JLPT a test whose quality is of world class standards.

Re: Casio XD-GW9600 Kanji Learner’s Expansion Card

Anu — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 23:59:11 -0000

Hi Clay,
I have purchased this dictionary and simply love it. I was wondering though if I can use use any generic SD card or do I have to use the Kanji Learner's Expansion Card. I want to use the dictionary to revise my grammar patterns. Can I use the Dictionary/generic SD card to do it?

Re: Today’s Adventure: Passport, Pizza, and…

iamclayb — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 13:26:22 -0000

Sorry for not replying quickly!

Yes, I speak English with him and my wife speaks Japanese. His Japanese has improved a lot since we've been in Japan, but we will be heading back to the US next month. I'm sure his English will catch up then.

Please keep us posted on how you are doing!

Re: Today’s Adventure: Passport, Pizza, and…

kyubisharingan — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 20:22:37 -0000

just curious, does Makoto-chan also speak some english? Im just pretty interested in your family becuase i hope to marry a japanese women and have children, so i wondered how its like raising children who are half american, half japanese.

Re: On Sweet Coffee

iamclayb — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 10:10:09 -0000

ha!

Re: On Sweet Coffee

askeladd — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 01:51:05 -0000

Coffee is nasty no matter what ;) !

Your description reminds me of the joke my dad used to use to tease my grandmother, who was a coffee drinker: "She likes her coffee like she likes her men - hot & black." Of course, it was outrageously funny because that statement was true only for coffee :) I never saw her use sugar or cream in her brew.

Re: Learn Hiragana — Our Free 35 Page PDF

iamclayb — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 01:07:10 -0000

Hmmm... For some reason the download section here is broken. Must have happened during the last update.

For the time being, please go here and click on the 'Hiragana Downloads':
http://www.thejapanesepage.com/download

Sorry!

Re: Learn Hiragana — Our Free 35 Page PDF

Manju — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 00:36:12 -0000

The download isn't working. I'm getting a 403 error.

Re: Cat, Grandma, and Poop

Jesse_Dylan — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 14:02:43 -0000

Oh goodness. I'm glad I'm not the only one who ends up saying weird stuff. If kids do it too, hopefully I won't have to feel so goofy.

Hehe, yeah, cats are desert animals, where leaving a log out in the open can mean trouble. I can see where the comparison would come in with embezzlement and the other examples!

Re: Cat, Grandma, and Poop

iamclayb — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 05:04:16 -0000

Thanks!

You are right. I'll correct that right away.

Re: Cat, Grandma, and Poop

Al — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 04:15:24 -0000

On the page you linked to it has 猫舌 as "sensitive to cold things." I believe that is the opposite. I'm pretty sure that 猫舌 means you can't eat or drink hot things (especially hot tea).

Re: Today’s Adventure: Passport, Pizza, and…

iamclayb — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 11:06:56 -0000

Thanks! And thanks for stopping by :)

Re: Today’s Adventure: Passport, Pizza, and…

stshores24 — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 19:10:10 -0000

How cute! Glad you had a good time. (My first time here.)

Re: Small Earthquake and Old Apartments

iamclayb — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 06:04:16 -0000

hehe. Outside of Crayon Shinchan I'm pretty ignorant on manga. But I have read some Ranma.

Re: Small Earthquake and Old Apartments

Marian — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 22:57:52 -0000

I instinctly knew straight away there had been an earthquake. But as soon as I was more awake, I kept telling myself there are no such things as earthquakes in Belgium.
But sure enough it was on the news next day as well!

Re: Telemarketers are People too

mhammega — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 16:12:07 -0000

Priceless! :-D

Re: Small Earthquake and Old Apartments

Jesse_Dylan — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:03:21 -0000

Oh, and my point was the charming dwelling-space the characters share. :) Extremely old, wooden, WWI (I think?) era place.

Re: Small Earthquake and Old Apartments

Jesse_Dylan — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:02:33 -0000

Oops, sorry! I shouldn't assume that everyone in the world knows all the manga I know. :P Yep, it's a manga by Takahashi Rumiko, also made into an anime, about a college guy who is forced to live in an old "mezon"/maison and falls in love with the young, windowed manager. A comedy of errors, really, with some memorable, standout characters.

Re: Small Earthquake and Old Apartments

iamclayb — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 23:05:43 -0000

Sorry, what is a 'Maison Ikkoku'? I found a manga by that title in English: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maison_Ikkoku but the Japanese says めぞん一刻. Hmmm...

But that old apartment was indeed old. :)

Re: Small Earthquake and Old Apartments

iamclayb — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 23:03:23 -0000

This one was small. We weren't sure if it was an earthquake or a really large truck. But a few minutes after, the TV reported it.