Featured

linguistics (Page 12)

Should you say “Itadakimasu,” Japan’s pre-meal expression of thanks, when eating by yourself?

Our Japanese-language writer used to give himself a pass, until he encountered a woman who changed his mind.

Read More

12 strange Japanese names for Western sports, from “fighting ball” to “reject ball”

Are you ready for some armor ball?

Read More

Grammar Nazis exist in Japan too! “Ra-nuki” fanatics get put in their place by Twitter user

No “ra-nuki” for you! No “ra-nuki” for you!

Read More

Kyoto accidentally calls all old people “terrible drivers”【Why Does Engrish Happen in Japan?】

Japan’s most polite city inadvertently throws shade on elderly motorists.

Read More

Words they don’t teach you in Japanese class: How to say “straw man” in Japanese

Could a straw man survive the attack of even a single sumo wrestler?

Read More

Only one out of five Japanese people can pronounce these hiragana — can you?

Wait, what? These weren’t in chapter one of Genki….

Read More

Japanese, Korean, and Chinese speakers pronounce English words in their native languages 【Video】

The word “transformer” does a lot of transforming in these languages!

Read More

Westerners in Japan – Can they speak Japanese?【Video】

Nicknamed the “Devil’s Tongue” by Jesuit missionaries, Japanese is one of the most difficult languages to learn. So, how many Westerners in Japan can really speak it fluently?

Read More

Pokémon politics: Proposed Pikachu name-change sparks protests in Hong Kong 【Video】

Pikachu and Nintendo find themselves in the middle of a cultural controversy in Hong Kong.

Read More

Why Does Engrish Happen in Japan? – Breakfast buffet edition

Is there a better way to start your day than with a nice plate of Italian wind saladt and “near the broil with salt?”

Read More

Why does Japanese writing need three different sets of characters? (Part 2)

We’re back and ready to take on the third, and most puzzling, type of Japanese text: katakana.

Read More

Why does Japanese writing need three different sets of characters? (Part 1)

No, it’s not because the Japanese language hates you.

Read More

Sure, Pizza Hut, but do you English?

Read More

Illustrated English teacher suddenly has legions of fans and even an unofficial theme song, but her visual creator is hoping the good-time ruckus won’t lead to a backlash by parents and educators.

Read More

English textbook characters get anime-style makeover to appeal to linguists and otaku alike

Learning aid looks like it could be a hit animated series.

Read More

To –san or not to –san? Should you use the Japanese honorific suffix when speaking English?

For roughly the past two decades, I’ve woken up every morning and asked myself the question “How can I use more Japanese vocabulary today?” That desire was the major reason I decided to study abroad in college, plus move back to Japan after graduation, and I’ve actually reached the point where I’ve got a pretty sizeable stockpile of Japanese words I wish I could import into my native language.

And yet, often when I hear someone use the Japanese honorific “-san” when speaking English, it feels awkward and superfluous to me. But it turns out there’re actually a few compelling reasons behind English-speakers peppering their speech with “-san,” as it solves a couple of linguistic limitations of the English language.

So what are the pros and cons of importing the word into English? Let’s take a look.

Read More

Sometimes, the Japanese language is a pain in the butt. Seriously, how is it that in the millennia over which it evolved, no one ever said, “Hey, guys, why don’t we come up separate words for ‘leg’ and ‘foot’?”, which are both ashi in Japanese?

But speaking Japanese isn’t all frustrating head-scratchers. As we’ve talked about before, it also has some handy, expressive terms and phrases that don’t have direct English equivalents. So today we’re dipping back into our Japanese dictionaries for another batch of words we’d love to import into English.

Read More

No good at saving money? You may have your mother tongue to blame for that

Do you find yourself living in the now, enjoying the time and money you have presently without worrying so much about putting away for the future? According to one economist, the language you speak may play a role in how well you’re able to save money. Speakers of Norwegian or Japanese, for example, are more likely to save more money per year, and have more money saved up by the time they retire, than are speakers of, say, English or Greek.

But what is it exactly that differs between these languages, and most importantly, what relation does that have to money?

Read More

The science behind why English speakers can’t pronounce the Japanese “fu”

Learning a foreign language is hard. Even if you master all the vocabulary and grammar, there’s still no guarantee that you’ll ever achieve a native-like accent. For Japanese learners of English, differentiating between the “l” and “r” sounds and pronouncing the “th” sound correctly can be tricky them no matter how many years they’ve been practicing.

But have you ever wondered what it’s like the other way around? What sounds do we English speakers make that sound strange when we speak Japanese? Well it turns out the sound that we mess up the most is one you might not have expected: “fu”.

Read More

Do you use these “Philippine English” words and phrases?

Here at RocketNews24, we spend a lot of time talking about language–particularly Japanese and English in Japan. It’s no secret that English is a difficult language to learn, and not just for folks from Japan. Part of the reason for the difficulty arises from the numerous variations English has–from American to Australian to Singaporean. But one country in particular that stands out is the Philippines, which the BBC recently called “the world’s budget English teacher.” While it’s not exactly the most complimentary title, it certainly is true that the country takes English as one of its official languages (along with Filipino, which is basically a standardized form of Tagalog). Of course, in a country with around 170 living languages, it should be expected that Philippine English is quite a bit different from English in the US or the UK.

But just how different is it?

Read More

  2. 1
  3. ...
  4. 6
  5. 7
  6. 8
  7. 9
  8. 10
  9. 11
  10. 12
  11. 13