-
奨学金・しょうがくきん・1) scholarship, stipend, bursary; 2) student loan
It feels weird to use the same word for these two senses, but both are quite literally “money for encouraging studies”. I guess it’s a bit like the Swedish “studiemedel”, which can consist of a combination of an allowance part and a loan part.
Doing a bit of searching, I get the feeling that sense 1 is more common these days, while sense 2 is more commonly referred to as a 学生ローン. -
私語・しご・whispering, murmur
-
次第・しだい・as soon as, upon
-
喉仏・のどぼとけ・Adam’s apple, laryngeal prominence
-
拒否・きょひ・refusal, rejection, veto
Keyword mnemonic: The first thing that comes to mind is that it sounds like コーヒー but shorter. It’s like half of the コーヒー is gone.
If you offer me half a coffee, I will refuse. I want the whole thing! -
貞節・ていせつ・chastity
Keyword mnemonic: My tea sets are all modeled after the Blue-Eyes White Dragon*.
A woman recently asked me if I would like to engage in carnal impropriety, but I turned her down, as I was worried that the vibrations might damage my tea sets. I must protect my tea sets (貞節を守る) at all costs.
Kanji etymology for 貞: Idiogram showing somebody performing divination (卜) over a bronzeware pot (員).
Kanji mnemonic for 貞: I do divination (卜) with shellfish (貝). I hold up an oyster, ask “Does my crush like me back?”. Every time so far, the oyster has told me “No”. I guess I’ll remain chaste forever. -
惚ける・とぼける・to play dumb
Commonly written in kana, perhaps in part to distinguish it from 惚ける.
The kanji 惚 can be used to describe the act of growing senile (惚ける), the act of playing dumb (惚ける, or the act of falling in love (惚れる). After all, the effect of all three is to make you act irrationally.
This kanji contains two hearts and one wing. Ideally, you want a single heart with two wings so that it can soar, but these two hearts are very foolish. -
待ち惚け・まちぼうけ・to wait in vain, to be stood up
The 惚 is commonly written using kana, leaving 待ちぼうけ.
恥垢
I’ve been learning Japanese through hentai. So I’ll be ready to go to Japan once things open back up.
きっしょ - creepy, disgusting
タピる - to drink bubble tea
あたおか - crazy
マジまんじ - serious
i met my japanese friend recently and he was like yOu NeEd To LeArN sLaNg
Ummm??? Not sure what to say to this tbh lol
That’s the first word that came to mind, because I haven’t been learning many new words lately, since I am already pretty good at reading ero manga.
Trying to learn the lyrics to Stand Proud (JoJo OP3), since I hear it quite often. It turns out a lot of the words are familiar to me, but I have trouble making them out in the song (including the English ones).
-
集い・つどい・meeting, get-together (e.g. among friends)
Ren’yōkei of 集う. Used in expressions such as ゴッシプの集い (gossip session) and 社交の集い (social gatherings). -
絡む・からむ・1) to entwine, to entangle; 2) to pick a quarrel, to find fault; 3) to be involved in
Intransitive. The transitive equivalent is 絡める.
Can be used in phrases like 私に絡んでください。 (Stick with me!) and その事件にやくざが絡んでいる。 (The Yakuza are involved in that incident.). -
絡み合う・からみあう・to be(come) intertwined/entangled
-
宿命・しゅくめい・fate, destiny, predestination
In the song, this word is pronounced カルマ. Apparently, in Chinese, this word is used to refer to karma, rather than fate in general. 宿 has an association with predestination and the memories of past lives, presumably because it is something that dwells within you. -
断つ・たつ・1) to sever, to cut off, to dismember; 2) to eradicate; 3) to abstain from
Keyword mnemonic: Hearing this word immediately makes me think of 竜 and 立つ. When a dragon rises, that’s your chance to sever it. -
定める・さだめる・1) to decide/determine; 2) to establish, to prescribe; 3) to bring peace (to), to make peaceful
Can be used to describe setting up things like 税率 (tariffs), 憲法 (constitution) or 官制 (government organization). -
定め・さだめ・1) law, rule, regulation, arrangement; 2) destiny, fate, karma
In the written lyrics, they write 運命, but they pronounce it like 定め. -
拳・こぶし・fist
Wiktionary suggests that this may be a combination of 小 + 節. As a mnemonic, I’ll think of it as my little bushi.
-
芽・め・sprout, shoot, bud
-
信頼・しんらい・reliance, trust, confidence, faith
-
掘・ほり・moat, canal, ditch
-
万引き・まんびき・shoplifting
It’s easy to pull myriad things when you don’t have to pay. -
駱駝・らくだ・camel
Commonly written using kana. -
陰気・いんき・1) depression, gloom, melancholy; 2) spirit of yin
Learned this from Matthew Meyer’s yokai blog, where in today’s post he talks about 陰気 as a yokai.
I knew the opposite, 陽気, meant “cheerfulness”, but didn’t realize it could also mean “spirit of yang”.
Saw this recently in the Japanese version of the trailer for the new Dune movie (as one of a series of screens of text starting at about 2:13)
-
太もも・ふともも・1) thigh; 2) posterior, buttocks (colloquialism)
Keyword mnemonic: Princess Peach (もも) is thicc. Assuming I understand that expression correctly, that means she’s got back. -
圧し折る・へしおる・to smash, to break
The first half is commonly written using kana.
Seems to be used primarily to describe violently breaking somebody’s bones or other body parts, i.e. [首/腕/鼻]をへし折る. -
面目・めんぼく・face (figurative), honor, dignity, prestige
-
面目ない・めんぼくない・ashamed
-
品質・ひんしつ・quality (of a product or service)
-
撤回・てっかい・withdrawal, retraction, taking back something said
-
眉間・みけん・brow, glabella, area between the eyebrows
-
未見・みけん・not yet seen, unseen, unknown
The third eye on my 眉間 allows me to see 未見のthings. -
潜る・くぐる・1) to go under, to pass under, to pass through; 2) to dive into/under the water
Commonly spelled using kana, likely in part because 潜る can also be read もぐる.
Kanji etymology: Simplified version of 潛, made up of semantic 氵 + phonetic 朁.
The phonetic series of 朁 is prety useless in Japanese; apart from 潜, it seems the only members that get any amount of use are 簪 (“ornamental hairpin”), which never uses its on’yomi, and 蚕, which has simplified tot he point that the 朁 is irrecgonizable. -
潜水艦・せんすいかん・submarine
-
連れしょん・つれしょん・going to the bathroom as a group
I just unlocked 乱暴 (らんぼう)And I assume pronouncing it more like rambo wouldn’t be wrong, per se, so…the first Rambo movie could be called Violence: First Blood, and John Rambo’s name means John Violence, and I find that funny.
命令 (めいれい)
Means order or command
I CANNOT BELIEVE I MISSED THIS TRAILER COMING OUT LAST MONTH
Ugh… they just delayed the movie a year… But I guess it’s better for the financials.
-
ほにゃらら・something-something, blank, ○○
Learned from this video. It’s how he pronounces the ~, as in ~にともない. -
目上・めうえ・superior(s), senior(s)
-
目下・めした・subordinate(s), inferior(s), junior(s)
Mnemonic: I look up to my superiors and look down on my subordinates. -
異性・いせい・the other sex/gender
This is the same 異 that appears in the 異世界 genre of anime/manga. -
電子化・でんしか・digitalization
-
郷土・きょうど・1) native place, old home; 2) province, region, locality
Used in conjunction with other nouns to give a “local” or “folk” feel, as in 郷土料理 (local cuisine/food/cooking) or 郷土文学 (folk literature). -
郷土研究・きょうどけんきゅう・native research, folklore collection
Here is an interesting paper on the origin and use of this term. -
若干・じゃっかん・somewhat, a little; any, a few
-
接待・せったい・entertaining (e.g. a business entertaining important clients and business partners), wining and dining, treating to food and drinks
-
送迎・そうげい・1) seeing off and receiving; 2) transfer service, shuttle service
Example sentence: (from Weblio)
接待員は送迎に忙しい。The reception committee are busy welcoming visitors and sending others off. -
送迎バス・そうげいばす・shuttle bus, courtesy bus, connection bus
Also (and perhaps more commonly) called シャトルバス. -
一切・いっさい・whole, full (commonly used with a negative sense to mean “none at all, absolutely not”)
-
来館・らいかい・arrival to an establishment (e.g. a library, embassy, museum)
The context I heard it in was a very formal conversation confirming a booking at a fancy ryokan.
Well, I can’t complain too much because I probably wouldn’t be able to see it in theaters anyway.
虫唾 / 虫酸 (むしず stomach acid coming back up into your mouth, acid reflux, heartburn)
In this thread, I posted a link to a thesaurus entry for きらい, and one of the terms was 虫酸が走る which can be used idiomatically for hating something.
-
空欄・くうらん・empty column, emoty space (i.e. in a grid)
Collocation: 空欄を埋める – to fill in the blank(s), to fill in a grid -
欄干・らんかん・railing, handrail, guardrail, balustrade, parapet
-
概要欄・がいようらん・description box (i.e. for a YouTube video or a podcast episode)
Heard this word shortly before posting this, and was delighted when I realized that it’s the same 欄 that I started this post with. It was used in this episode of Nihongo Switch, where the host informs podcast listeners that they can find a link to the YouTube version in the episode description. -
感染・かんせん・infection
Being dyed in feelings may sound nice, but unfortunately those feelings are caused by a virus.
The disease with which one is infected is marked with に. -
自主隔離・じしゅかくり・self-isolation
Upon hearing this, I briefly wondered if it might be releated to 隠す, as they both have a かく. However, that’s a kun’yomi, and the one here is an on’yomi, so although there is an archaic word 隠る, this is no doubt purely coincidental. It does make for a decent keyword mnemonic, though: self-mastered concealment -
経過・けいか・1) passage of time, elapsing; 2) progress, development, course of events
Keyword mnemonic: This is like 結果, but more drawn out. -
参照・さんしょう・reference, consultation (used as a する verb to say things like “please reference/consult this table”)
-
悪しからず・あしからず・just so you know; unfortunately; don’t get me wrong, but …
Heard in this video, where Masahiro Sakurai explains that he is not hiring, and finishes off with a small bow and 「悪しからず」. -
苔・こけ・moss
-
苔生す・こけむす・to become covered in moss
生す is commonly spelled using kana … because, honestly, do we really need another reading for 生.
This reading, by the way, is connected to the words 娘 and 息子, and also to the むすび that sometimes sees in the names of various kami. -
掃苔・そうたい・1) visiting a grave; 2) removing moss from a grave
-
苔桃・こけもも・lingonberry
Normally written using kana, but I just love this word: moss peach
I don’t think it’s the most recent, but I learned ひとみ from reading the lyrics to the song Orion, and it’s sticking, so I’m counting it as learned.
(Pupil of the eye.)
- 宴・うたげ・party, banquet, feast
Kanji mnemonic: There’s a lid (宀) covering the sun (日). A woman (女) is trying to bring the sun out again. She knows the only way to do this is to hold a big party to make the sun jealous, just like when Ame-no-Uzume-no-mikoto did to lure Amaterasu-ōmikami out of Ama-no-Iwato!
-
堰・せき・dam, weir, sluice
-
堅固・けんご・solid, strong, firm
-
築く・きずく・to build, to erect, to construct
-
加護・かご・divine protection
Keyword mnemonic: People pray for basket (籠). Why would they do that? Well, this isn’t just any basket they’re praying for; it is the basket of divine protection, which God places over villages to protect them.
Incidentally, this basket is also known as “Kago, the bamboo dragon”, which is why “basket” is written 籠, even to this day. -
近世・きんせい・1) recent past; 2) early modern period
-
制する・せいする・1) to hold back, to rein in, to bridle; 2) to get the better of; 3) to control, to command
In the text I’m reading, this is used to described controlling or taming a river. -
洪水・こうずい・flood, flooding
-
儲ける・もうける・1) to earn, to profit, to gain; 2) to bear/beget a child; 3) to have a stroke of luck
Keyword mnemonic: モー蹴る. That’s right; I kick Moe, and every time I do, money comes out. Poor Moe; he’s had a rough life, and I hate to kick a man when he’s down … but I keep earning money.
- 儲け話・もうけばなし・get rich quick scheme
Just started trying to pick up Kanji learning again since I’ve been out of my language school for about 3 years now and even though my spoken Japanese is quite good (my wife is Japanese and through living in Tokyo /studying at language school for 2 years etc) I close to never have to read much Japanese or try to remember kanji.
But I did pick up a cute little saying a couple of months ago 余裕のよっちゃん → no problem/ piece of cake!
国立天文台 — well, I had to put it in Google Translate for the meaning, but I was so surprised when I realised I knew the reading! (Yes…it’s from News Web Easy )