Today I learned the word 石油王(せきゆおう). It's not all that different from how it works in English, I just thought the use of 王(おう) was funny :D
It was also one of those rare cases where I could read the kanji and understand the meaning ("oil king"), but not immediately connect it to the actual concept.
Oh, and I guess I also recently finished all of the N2 Kanji :)
Today I learned ドパガキ, a fairly recent internet slang term derived from ドーパミン中毒のガキ. Apparently it's used to (mockingly) describe someone who's hooked on short-form content like TikTok or YouTube Shorts and struggles to stay engaged with anything longer XD
It originated from a single tweet back in 2024 [THIS ONE]. I guess it's similar to the English term "TikTok brain"
ポールおじちゃん (07月4日, 6:09)
Today I learned Ｗ杯(ダブリューはい). Yeah, I know, late to the party. Still, I have a hard time believing that anyone actually pronounces it “double u high”
I guess some people might If they know what it refers to, they'll usually just say ワールドカップ. I've seen lots of native speakers confirm this.
It's probably similar to how you'd pronounce WWI as "World War One", not "double-u, double-u, ai".
Today I learned that 昇龍拳 (しょうりゅうけん) means 「 昇る（のぼる） 竜（りゅう）の 拳（こぶし）」← this is how a native explained it.
I don't see it written down often and I'd never really thought about what the しょう meant up until now XD At least 波動拳 is pretty obvious if you know the word 波動
I learnt that verb + tai means "want to do that verb."
example: Tabetai means "want to eat". Nomitai means "want to drink". Ikitai means "want to go".
I have been creating simple Japanese storybooks using gemini(to create the story) and chatgpt(to create the actual pdf book to upload to a reader) . I just have to give titles and upload words/grammar that I want to learn to AI. It creates a beautifully illustrated book with vocabulary and grammar pitched to my preferred reading level.
I realise that I prefer reading so much more to memorising vocabulary and grammar rules. I find that I pick up grammar patterns from reading extensively and it is enjoyable too.
Today I learned of the Chinese saying Yǒu biān dú biān (simplified Chinese: 有边读边; traditional Chinese: 有邊讀邊; pinyin: yǒu biān dú biān; lit. '[if] there is a side... read the side').
I wondered if there was a Japanese version. After all, this strategy should work even better in Japanese than in Chinese. I was unable to find one, but I did get this elaborate pun: 雄弁(ゆうべん) 答弁(とうべん). So there’s that.
A nice idiom, thanks for sharing with us. But I think it is less applicable to japanese onyomi, which are more inconsistent, and probably the reason why, despite the love of 4kanji idioms, it isn't used in Japanese.
Yesterday I learned words related to Autumn and I did few translations practices. It's very autumn-ish in my country already, so I wanted to do break from regular learning to do something fun :) I've started doing my own list with Autumn words to help me remember them
It's also commonly written as カエル化, and used as a する-verb. It's usually about romantic partners, but the natives I heard it from where using it a bit more generally. So sense 2 from the dictionary, but it can be a completely one-sided (片思い) thing without the other person even knowing. I guess that applies more for fans of online personalities, actors, etc. Not that it's limited to those, the definition I found just says: 相手の嫌なところを見てしまい恋愛感情が冷める
As far as I know that's a misuse (誤用) of the term that got quite popular through social media, so it ended up sticking around. It's always interesting to see how Social media can shift the meaning/use of established terms.
