JapanNewbie blogger, and soon-to-be-interviewed on Nihongojouzu fairly-long term resident of Japan Harvey has produced a new blog based on the idea of learning Japanese through print ads and posters. Japanese Ads features one ad per post and Harvey's dissection of the meaning and cultural nuance therein. It is, like all great ideas, simple in its elegance and a great way to learn Japanese in the context of real word usage. For example, a JR ad featuring the wonderful Yukie Nakama:
「急に」means “suddenly”. This a very useful phrase. You can say things like, 「急に電車が止まって乗っている人が全員倒れた。」”The train stopped suddenly and everyone riding fell!” Or, 「今週は急に忙しくなったから疲れたよ。」”I suddenly got really busy this week so I’m tired.”
「出張が決まった」
「出張」is a business word which means “business trip”. For example when I would go to work in Tokyo whlie I was based in Osaka, that would be a 「出張」. The verb is 「決まった」which means, “was decided”. The meaning of this is that the fact that Yukie Nakama needs to take a business trip was decided. Probably decided by her boss.
See the original poster here.
Harvey does a great job of explaining how Japanese actually works and has a good time in the process. And he likes Yukie Nakama - the man has taste.
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