365 Days of Japanese Day #28

Yesterday I talked a little about post in Japan, particularly focusing on the postal symbol 〒.

I promised that it had some relevance to this entry.

That relevance is that today I am doing a small “reader mailbag” article!

郵袋
“yūtai”
mail bag

コメントする
“komento suru”
to comment

Today marks the 28th day of my “365 days of Japanese” series. That’s four weeks!

四週間
“yon-shūkan”
four weeks

I have had some amazing feedback and support from readers, both friends/family and totally new and unexpected readers.

Thank you, everyone!

The comments have been very varied, but all extremely positive.

To start with there have been people who have not commented on the blog itself, but messaged me personally to say nice things.

I am sorry if this sounds like blowing my own trumpet, but I want to show appreciation for their support.

“Wow – a brilliant quartet of posts today!”

These people were all very kind to send such messages.

優しい
“yasashī”
kind

Another type of comment I have had has been correction on things I have written. These are hugely appreciated because although I may talk a big game about my Japanese ability, truly I am in the category of “fake it ’til you make it, playa”.

訂正
“teisei”
correct

補正
“hosei”
correction

Note that the second one is unusual and likely only used in certain contexts. It was the word I originally included but – ironically – it was then corrected to the more general term above it. I include it anyway for interest.

I have mentioned Locksleyu before, but their contributions in comments have been substantial and much appreciated. I count so far 1, 2, 3, 4 comments clarifying, correcting, and elucidating. Thank you Locksleyu! Their blog Self Taught Japanese is a constant source of inspiration and encouragment.

In the same category has been my friend Philip Garrett, who knows an awful lot of Japanese (indeed my first proper Japanese “teacher” – though we are I think only one day in age apart) and has made similarly insightful comments.

先輩
“senpai”
senior (older student often assuming a mentor-like role)

The final category are those who have suggested topics or future posts.

Philip has been great at this, essentially providing a mine of material for me to repost and expand on down the line.

My father, Patrick Miles (who has his own blog Calderonia) has also been excellent at posing questions that can (or already did) serve as material for future entries.

One last person to mention is Kotobites (Steph) who often “likes” the entries on here and runs a brilliant blog herself over at kotobites.wordpress.com.

It has been a great first month and I look forward to pushing on. Thank you again to all who have given feedback/support and please excuse the indulgence of this entry!

I have only a vague idea what I will talk about tomorrow, but plenty of possible topics…I wonder what it will be?