I’m transitioning from textbooks (Tobira) to general japanese media for my studying and I’m trying to learn words that Japanese people use everyday but I haven’t learned in class. For example, I remember the first time I watched Terrace House, I was wondering what this やばい word meant considering th…

ボケット. I guess it would be translated as “staring off into space.”

壁ドン is a fun one that prolly isnt in any textbooks.

Now I’m wondering in Japanese has a word for every kind of anime/drama trope.

We get 呆ける at level 54, which I believe is the same root.

I’m pretty sure that one was a real-word trope first. But yeah, Japanese pretty much has a word for everything. Except schadenfreude. They use the German word for that.

Japanese onomatopoeias are fun!

I second that! I hear a new 擬音語 almost every day… they are used a lot in daily conversation. There’s a great article on Tofugu which covers loads of them. In a similar vein to やばい is おもろい、a shortened (casual) version of 面白い、meaning funny/hilarious/weird.

Animal onomatopoeia words have been my favorite so far: ニャンニャン、ワンワン

Then I’m sure you’ll be pleased to hear about ニャンコ and ワンコ. Haha.

いわれてみれば “speaking of which…” or “now that you mention it…” ちなみに “by the way…” Those two expressions are used a ton everyday here in Japan. Very useful in conversation and messaging!

Favorite japanese words you ~probably~ won't learn in a textbook

Japanese Language

ABCDEFGHIJ April 5, 2019, 4:20am 2

A recent one I learnt was 相合傘 (I like that there is such a word :)). I don’t think there is an English word for it though.

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Favorite japanese words you ~probably~ won't learn in a textbook

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