http://www.seekjapan.jp/on-japan Late 30's, have lived in Asia for a lot of my life. GMT en-us http://www.seekjapan.jp/article/2181/J-myth+10:++"Japanese+English"+exists+ http://www.seekjapan.jp/article/2181/J-myth+10:++"Japanese+English"+exists+ Tue,21 Jul 2009 GMT We've all heard of terms like “American English,” “British English,” “Australian English,” “Irish English,” and the like. You've probably even heard of things like “Indian English” or “Singlish” (Singaporean English). Here in Japan, conferences about linguistics and/or foreign language teaching might bring up the concept of “Englishes,” ... http://www.seekjapan.jp/article/2166/Kanikosen+steams+on;+J-youth+take+a+hard+left+turn http://www.seekjapan.jp/article/2166/Kanikosen+steams+on;+J-youth+take+a+hard+left+turn Fri,3 Jul 2009 GMT Japanese booms are funny things: on one extreme, they sometimes seem to finish almost as quickly as they begin, and on the other extreme, they can become long-lasting or even permanent parts of the culture. In my last article on the proletarian literary classic Kanikosen (http://www.seekjapan.jp/article/1638/Kanikosen:++a+proletarian+literature+classic+comes+back+to+life), I wrote that the Shinchosa Publishing Corporation had raised their annual number of copies ... http://www.seekjapan.jp/article/2013/death+metal+in+the+dentist's+office http://www.seekjapan.jp/article/2013/death+metal+in+the+dentist's+office Sun,29 Mar 2009 GMT I went to the dentist a couple of times recently ... http://www.seekjapan.jp/article/2012/Japanese+multiculturalism:++yes+they+can!++ http://www.seekjapan.jp/article/2012/Japanese+multiculturalism:++yes+they+can!++ Sat,28 Mar 2009 GMT Here's a belated follow-up to the Soul Flower Mononoke Summit/Oki show in Kyoto last month.  Friggin' badass show, as one would expect.  Probably the best part of it is that Oki got up and jammed with Mononoke on a few songs near the end of the show, and you got this really interesting and beautiful mishmash of music and culture.  See, Mononoke has always been about dispelling the myth that Japan is monocultural, and their music celebrates Okinawan, Ainu, ... http://www.seekjapan.jp/article/1986/"racism"+vs.+racism http://www.seekjapan.jp/article/1986/"racism"+vs.+racism Thu,26 Feb 2009 GMT I have a lot of friends in Japan who are like me:  predominately white native English speakers from Western countries.  I've also had friends who are part of much larger ethnic minority groups in Japan:  ethnic Koreans, Chinese, Okinawan, Brazilian, Peruvian, etc.  Both groups are prone to complain about racism here in Japan.  However, what really strikes me is the different issues they complain about.  Examples from English speaking ... http://www.seekjapan.jp/article/1950/The+Asian+Stare http://www.seekjapan.jp/article/1950/The+Asian+Stare Mon,26 Jan 2009 GMT The first time I ever came to Japan, I was living in Taiwan at the time. One of the things I found quite refreshing about Japan was that, compared to Taiwan, hardly anyone seemed to stare at me. Most Japanese people appeared to completely ignore me, which was a relief after Taiwan, where visible foreigners tend to attract a lot of attention, for better or worse.   Now, the statement “hardly anyone seemed to stare at me” might come as a surprise ... http://www.seekjapan.jp/article/1942/neo-trad+music+double+bill:++Soul+Flower+Mononoke+Summit+w/Oki+ http://www.seekjapan.jp/article/1942/neo-trad+music+double+bill:++Soul+Flower+Mononoke+Summit+w/Oki+ Sun,18 Jan 2009 GMT Recently, there have been a couple of compilations of Japanese music released internationally: namely, the new edition of The Rough Guide To The Music of Japan and Soundtrip Japan. For expat Westerners living in Japan, these might prove to be a bewildering listen, because the music on these compilations, featuring musical acts like Chanchiki, Soul Flower Mononoke Summit, the Oki Dub Ainu Band, Ryukyu Underground and veteran Okinawan singer Seijin Noborikawa sound nothing like ... http://www.seekjapan.jp/article/1787/Kanji+Comeback http://www.seekjapan.jp/article/1787/Kanji+Comeback Tue,2 Sep 2008 GMT Jouyou Kanji, or "common-use Chinese characters," are the group of standard characters that are taught in the Japanese public school system.   The list originated from language reforms that were carried out in the early part of the 20th century, making the language easier to read and write by reducing and simplying the Chinese characters used in Japanese.  Since then, the list has been revised every few decades, reflecting changes in the Japanese ... http://www.seekjapan.jp/article/1723/Japanese+Pronunciation+Pt.+4:++non-initial+"consonant"+sounds http://www.seekjapan.jp/article/1723/Japanese+Pronunciation+Pt.+4:++non-initial+"consonant"+sounds Wed,23 Jul 2008 GMT In this installment I'm going to look at 3 more features of Japanese pronunciation that all involve non-initial “consonants.” I'm putting the word “consonant” in quotes here because these sounds are actually quite difficult to simply categorize.   First, we have the semi-vowel spelled as y in romanized Japanese, and found in the hiragana characters や、ゆ and よ. I discussed this sound used as an initial “consonant” in ... http://www.seekjapan.jp/article/1716/Kazuhide's+Linguistic+Myths http://www.seekjapan.jp/article/1716/Kazuhide's+Linguistic+Myths Sun,13 Jul 2008 GMT In college, I majored in TESOL. As such, I ended up taking a fair number of linguistics classes. I ended up really loving studying linguistics, and so I've kept on studying on my own throughout my life. I'm the kind of person who will actually buy linguistics textbooks to read for entertainment—a little weird, I know, but different strokes for different folks, no? Despite all of this, I'm very far from being any kind of expert on language, but I have picked up a fair amount of ...