Wa and Ga Addendum - Atypical Noun Sentences
← 7. Other Usages and More は Structures Since writing A Guide to Wa and Ga, I’ve come to realize that some usages of が are difficult to explain with the typology given by Noda (野田 1996). Technically, his sentence typology covers most of the sentences I will explain in this chapter, but they function distinctly from typical sentences you will see in Noda’s categories, so I believe they ... Read more
A Guide to Wa and Ga in Japanese
This guide heavily borrows concepts and examples from Hisashi Noda’s (野田尚史) published works『｢は｣ と ｢が｣』(1996) and『文の構造と機能からみた日本語の主題』(1998), including his model for the nine sentence structures and their syntax. The flowchart model is loosely based on the flowchart in these books. Unless explicitly mentioned, all examples I feature here are examples from these two books. If you wish to go further... Read more
A Color Font for Mahjong Tiles | マージャン牌の色付きフォント
A while back when I was working on a translation of a Mahjong textbook, I modified an existing font (archived link) to match the style of the inline tile diagrams in the book. It came out better than I expected, so I decided to release for anyone to use. The tiles have a pink accent, and I think they look pretty neat! If your browser properly supports displaying Opentype-SVG web fonts, you wil... Read more
Studying Backgammon Positions with XG and Anki | XGとAnkiのバックギャモン勉強法
Here’s a simple Anki notetype which you can paste your backgammon positions in. Anki is spaced-repetition flashcard software which I highly recommend. You can configure it to use an highly-optimized algorithm (FSRS) to show you your flashcards before you forget them while minimizing workload. When I was first learning how to play Backgammon, this is how I would study reference positions. To im... Read more
Learning Stenoword with Anki and Plover | AnkiとPloverでステノワードを学びましょう
Stenoword (ステノワード) is a Japanese machine stenography system primarily used at NHK Broadcasting Corporation to provide live captioning for their programs. It was probably invented around 1995, when its parent company Speed-WP Inc. was founded.1 Information about the details of this system on the Internet is scarce, as with many other systems of Japanese steno. Since it’s caught the attention of ... Read more