News in Slow Japanese / The Podcast

This is something a lot of us have to deal with–putting on weight too easily. Listen to this week’s contributor’s frustration with belly fat and learn the vocabulary associated with this kind of problem.

This is the native speed version of Episode 388:

In Japanese, Onomatopoeia can be divided into a few categories; they are called giseigo (擬声語), giongo (擬音語), gitaigo (擬態語), giyougo (擬容語) and gijougo (擬情語). As we learned in the previous episode, they are used to describe sounds made by animals, humans…

Onomatopoeia (オノマトペ) are words that represent sounds, and they are used in many languages to add more depth and texture to speech. However, Japanese onomatopoeia are unique in that they’re used more frequently and in a wider variety of contexts than in...