Archive for the ‘日本語’ Category

Rikaichan: Perfect Tool for Japanese Learners

Sunday, July 5th, 2009

The Rikaichan Project is a Firefox plugin which pops up translations information for Japanese characters. Usage: Install the Rikaichan plugin. Restart your browser. Navigate to a page with Japanese characters. Right-click on the page and select Rikaichan (see image below). Hover the mouse over characters to see a pop-up translation.

Japanese Monster (Yunnie VLog)

Friday, February 22nd, 2008

I came across a series of Japanese videos on YouTube. Initially, they appear to be rather mundane and cute. By the 11th video, things take a different turn, and by the 12th video, they're downright weird. The videos seem to be a promotion for Gears of War ...

Ebisu Beer and Katakana

Thursday, February 21st, 2008

While at lunch with coworkers, I was looking at an Ebisu beer flyer and noticed something odd: the katakana began with ヱ. But I've never seen that character before! As it turns out, it's an obsolete character for 'we'. In this usage, the 'w' sound would be dropped, ...

The Tale of Genji – choosing a translation

Wednesday, January 30th, 2008

I've heard about The Tale of Genji, and thought I might like to read it. However, there are a daunting number of translations available! They're enumerated in the Wikipedia article. Here's my rough summary: 0) Murasaki Shikibu - the original Japanese author. 1) Kencho Suematsu - first translation, considered ...