“Flower” in Japanese is 花 (hana), and boy, does Japan have a lot of culturally significant flowers! You can see this in especially 生け花 (ikebana), or the Japanese art of flower arranging. In this article, I’ll introduce you to some interesting linguistic and cultural aspects of flowers in Japan and where to see them. I…
You may have heard of Japan’s so-called “penis” festivals (yes, plural) – the most famous being the Kanamara Matsuri, visitable easily from Tokyo. But what are these actually about? Attending festivals (祭り, matsuri) is a great way to use your Japanese language skills and participate in the culture. I visited two during my years living in Japan: the…
“Water” in French is Eau (pronounced /o/). Eau often goes with a definite or an indefinite article, so you’ll mostly see it as de l’eau, d’eau, or l’eau. It’s a useful word in many situations — whether you’re traveling in France, eating at a French restaurant, or renting a house from a French-speaking person! As a French graduate, here is my handy vocabulary…
Bastille Day, or la fête nationale (“the National Day”) as it’s known in France, takes place on July 14th. It marks the storming of the Bastille prison in 1789, a key moment in the French Revolution. National days like this are packed with history, culture, and useful vocabulary — which are always interesting for learners.As a French…
The Greek language is not short of cool names. You’ve probably heard of Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty; or Zeus, the god of the sky. These names only scratch the surface — since Greek is one of the oldest languages in the world, its ancient mythology, epic tales, and modern history are full…
The most common word for “friend” in French is ami. As with every other French noun, ami also has masculine and feminine forms — un ami is a male friend and une amie is a female friend. Similar to how “buddy,” “pal,” or “mate” also mean friend in English, French also has other words for friend. For example, for your male friends, you…
Imparfait is the French imperfect tense, and you’ll hear it often in daily life. It’s used for ongoing actions in the past, similar to the English past continuous tense, such as “I was doing,” “I was going,” and “I was studying.” But that’s not it — it can also mean “to be used to” depending on…
Le subjonctif, or the “French subjunctive” can be tricky. Is it a tense? Not really. Is it conjugated like the tenses? Yes, we can say so. But what is it? The most appropriate way to define the subjunctive would be that it’s a verb mood. It’s used to express some feelings, such as uncertainty, emotion, doubt,…
First things first: To sound fluent in Japanese, you’ll need to master Japanese sentence structure. Now, a language like Japanese might seem really difficult at first (especially to English speakers!), but don’t worry – it’s a very logical language! And I should know – I’ve been learning Japanese since I was an early teenager, lived…
There are several different ways of saying “thank you” in Turkish — the mainstream teşekkür ederim, the informal sağ ol, and even elinize sağlık, a special phrase used when thanking someone for a meal! Teşekkür ederim works in all cases, but learning about the nuances of different ways to say thanks in Turkish will get you one step closer to fluency. As a Turkish…
