Learn Japanese by watching a Crazy Japanese Politician – Mac Akasaka

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Having trouble staying interested while watching Japanese Dialogues?

Fear Not!  Mac Akasaka has got you covered!  And he wants you to smile too. An official member of the Nihon Smile Party, Mack just wants you to smile.

The learning comes in in the type of speech he delivers.  Mack talks simply and slowly, at the perfect pace for a small japanese child, or a foreigner learning the language.  I still can’t believe that this is real.

From Wikipedia: He was born in Nagoya and attended Kyoto University. He spent 25 years as an executive at the trading company Itochu before retiring to become a politician.[1] He now manages the Smile Therapy Association in Akasaka, Tokyo.[2] Akasaka claims to have personal assets of billions of yen from trading in rare earth metals, which he uses to cover the cost of his political campaigns.[3]

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Japanese Cooking Series: Peanut Butter Pancakes

Ok, so there is nothing Japanese about these pancakes except for the fact that we are living in Tokyo and so the ingredients are from Japan (for the most part).

With this Japanese cooking series, I will be attempting to cook Japanese local dishes as well as Western dishes (British dishes mostly since I am half British, and maybe the odd hamburger for Sam, being an American and all).

I call this dish Natalie’s Peanut Butter and Granola Pancakes. They are delicious and nutritious, and will fill you up until lunch.

Ingredients

Pancake Ingredients

Servings enough for 2 people (if you want to make more than just double the amount size)

1 cup Granola or oats of your choice

1 cup of All purpose flour

1 or 1 1/2 tablespoons of Brown sugar

1 teaspoon of baking powder

1 tablespoon peanut butter

1 teaspoon of olive oil

1 large egg

1 cup of milk

a pinch of salt

2-3 drops of vanilla flavouring

Method:

Mix all the dry ingredients together in a mixing bowl. That includes; flour, granola, brown sugar, baking powder.

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Next, add all the rest of the ingredients into the same mixing bowl and mix together with a hand whisk until it’s a lumpy gloopy mixture.

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Now! for the real art of pancake frying. Heat a frying pan until the pan is hot, then add a knob (teaspoon sized lump) of butter into the pan until it melts. Turn down the heat to low and pour a small amount of pancake mixture into the frying pan. If you want the pancake to be bigger than pour a bit more.

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There is a fine line between perfectly gold brown and substantially chalky black burned, and it’s all due to timing. You want to flip the pancakes right before you see bubbles on the top. So, the opportune moment is when the cooked side is cooked enough to flip over without breaking apart. You can test this by lifting up a little bit of the side of the pancake with a spatula, seeing whether it sticks to the spatula or not. The pancake side literally cooks for about 5-8 secs so you have to keep your eyes on the pan at all times. Then flip over, wait five seconds, flip onto a plate and then repeat.

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You can add whatever toppings you want like, cream, butter, fruits, syrup, honey or all of the above!

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This recipe is SUPER EASY. Happy Cooking!

Learning Japanese Through Anime – Ace of Diamond (Diamond no Ace) – ダイヤのA

Do you like to watch anime?  Do you wish you could just absorb Japanese by watching anime?  … You can’t.

BUUUUTTTTTT…

You can strengthen your listening comprehension, and learn some new vocabulary.

It’s 2015 in Japan, which means I have had a few hours here and there to dump into mindlessly entertaining myself.

I have been watching Ace of Diamond, an anime about high school baseball. Also known as, ダイヤのA,  The series follows a high school baseball team on their quest to compete in the national tournament.

This particular anime is good for learning because there is a lot of heavy narration, and literal dialogue.  Most of the language is very literal and there is a lack of idiomatic language.  The main characters are also young and normally quite upbeat, so the dialogue that does take place does not have much emotional depth or highly technical language / language with subtext.

You can check out the first episode here: 

Leave a comment and let us know if you’ve watched the series / have a suggestion for an anime to use in your quest to learn japanese?

5 Second Review: JapanesePod101.com

If you’re learning Japanese, chances are you’ve checked out Japanesepod101.com or listened to the free podcast feed on itunes.

Here is all of the information you need to know before paying for a subscription in 5 seconds.

Does it help you learn Japanese?

Yes.

End of Review….

Just Kidding:

Pros:

  • Largest and most frequently updated content library for Japanese Learning Online.
  • Most Complete Learning Solution, Flashcards, audio + video lessons, dictionary, vocab lists, everything.

Cons:

  • Lack of 1-1 speaking practice.

Conclusion:  If you’re looking for the most bang for your buck and the most comprehensive learning system, this beats rosetta stone by a mile.

Let’s Learn Japanese – Drinking Game!

Are you a Japanese Learner?

Have you seen the famously bad ‘Let’s Learn Japanese Basic I’ Video course?

It is so horrible, so violently terrible, so amazingly hilarious, that it’s also one of our favorite ways to learn Japanese.

One night we were sitting around and decided that the only thing thing that would make it even better… is alcohol!

Scroll down for the rules, as well as an episode to get you started.



Take 1 Drink……..

Whenever:

Mary Althouse looks like she is frustrated/says something condescending.

Mary Althouse speaks Japanese.

Yan pretends to be excited and points at something.

They show stock footage that seems unrelated.

Yan meets someone.

Someone bows.

A pencil is shown.

Someone has a perm.
——————-

Follow these rules and you’ll be speaking Japanese in no time.