Most recent Japanese word you've learned?

痙攣 けいれん

Learned this a couple of days ago and I really like the kanji.

The first kanji has a conveyor belt, just like Mega Man 2 / Metal Man stage.
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Ah yes, the litmus test word for if someone learned Japanese by reading VNs.

If they say it’s common, they did.

If not, they didn’t.

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I wouldn’t want to have to try to write those kanji! That’s a lot of strokes.

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A recent one I see more often is 魔性(ましょう). Tripping on the reading, maybe more like 根性(こんじょう) or 性分(しょうぶん).

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My exposure to that word was from reading アンダーグラウンド by 村上 春樹 :frowning:

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Saw the word 顔パス recently which literally put is just face-pass, as in “being let in because one is recognized”.

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密林 = Amazon.co.jp

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レッチリ = Red Hot Chili Peppers (the band) :face_with_hand_over_mouth:

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ガラス = Glass (material), derived from Dutch

Still confused and saying it グラス, which apparently is used to refer to wine glasses and such

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I had trouble with this one too.
It sounds more like Grass than Glass.

I did not know it was derived from dutch.
I’m Dutch. “Glas” is a glass cup/bottle used for drinks.

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Okay, I knows I knows… They should have imported it as スティクラ instead! (from the Romanian “sticlă” for the glass material) :rofl:

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I am more used to 硝子(ガラス) and knowing that グラス means something else.

I think there is also コップ🥤/カップ☕️ (smart IME)

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:face_with_spiral_eyes:

and also “monk for three days” 三日坊主, “a person who can’t stick to anything”

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読んでいる短編集の中の一編のタイトルは「石の十字架」だが、この「十字架」の意味が分からなかった。調べてみると、「十字」は「10字」という意味ではなく、「十」の形を指す言葉だった。確かに論理的だね!

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I notice there’s a lot more expression involving the shapes of characters in Japanese. Makes sense because in English we don’t have very many options.

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Before this post I was sure 八の字 means “figure eight”, as in 8/∞ shaped something, but now I looked it up, and according to the dictionary, it can actually mean both 8 and 八 shapes. I wonder how common is the latter one.

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My cat (visible in my profile pic) is named “Bee” because the shelter we adopted him from went “oh, his forehead is shaped like 八, and 八 sounds like 蜂, and 蜂 in English is “bee”” so I ended up with the hunch that Japanese would think of 八 before 8

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医食同源いしょくどうげん: a balanced diet leads to a healthy body, healthy food both prevents and cures sickness

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I was also confused by this one, thought it came from cup but it comes from the Portuguese word for glass tumbler, copo

The novel I’m reading now (旅猫リポート) references a cat named ハチ because he had a 八 shaped mark on his forehead! I wonder if that’s a common cat name in Japan, or at least not entirely unique.

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