Japanese Writing Practice: Nihongo Nikki Note

With computers, cellphones, e-mail, and whatnot, is Japanese handwriting over-rated these days? It seems as if even the Japanese are having trouble writing by hand nowadays.

From beginners to advanced being able to write even close to native Japanese level is a quite difficult, if not impossible task. However, being able to get your point across in a legible and meaningful manner is not. Enter Nihongo Nikki Note from ALC (にほんご日記ノート – ISBN: 978-4-7574-1555-3). Nihongo Nikki Note is a multi-language writing guide designed to teach you basic grammar principles through daily diary writing practice.

Writing Japanese by hand, combined with on-screen composition and maybe a service like Lang-8, would be an excellent way to improve your Japanese writing. World of Choko Choko has a wonderful review of Nihongo Nikki Note, while Nihongo Nikki Note can be ordered at beNippon for worldwide shipping.

Kanji Fail: Shokotan-hen

The other morning multi-talented and cosplay loving Japanese idol/singer/illustrator, Shoko Nakagawa (中川 翔子) was on TV, where she discussed a concert she held at the Budokan in Tokyo. The concert series was entitled, “Cho-Donyoku Matsuri” (Super Insatiable Festival???), but the tickets were ended up being printed wrong (see above).

If you look closely, 貧 (hin, bin, mazu-shii) is used instead of 貪 (tan, ton, musabo-ru). So if you haven’t broken out your Japanese electronic dictionaries yet, the meaning on the ticket means roughly, “wanting to live in extreme poverty!”

Wow, talk about a kanji fail! Remember kids, anyone can make mistakes. But, I wonder if some poor proofreader got shown the door.

Image source [heyheytaxi]