A recent teaming-up with Wonky Tofugu saw Koichi and I giving a special Edufire Superpass class on bizarre Katakana words in Japanese! It was such a success that we felt it wrong to deprive everyone who missed out, so here it is, in a special 2-part blog post split across Tofugu.com and Gakuranman.com!

Welcome to the first in what I hope will become a long-running series on this site – Japanese One Point Lessons! Today’s lesson is an obscure and fairly recent bit of Japanese I discovered on Twitter – the word なう (Nau).

I came across this fantastically hilarious Super Mario World parody today. It’s an original song by Hyadain which I enjoyed so much that I subtitled and turned into a special Gakuranman Japanese lesson for you! Men compete with their heart!

Have you ever wondered how to read the headlines in Japanese newspapers? They’re so chock-a-block full of kanji that it seems like an insurmountable wall to scale. And that’s not to mention the split sentences. What do all those mysterious sentences that end on a particle mean?! I take you through some examples.

“I’m disinclined to acquiesce your request, dear Sir.” We all have times when we need to politely refuse requests. But how to turn someone down without upsetting the balance or damaging the trust in the relationship? Here are some useful expressions to help you turn someone down, Japanese style.