Special Emergency Episode: The English translation of Murakami's The City and Its Uncertain Walls will be published on November 19, so I'm re-running my review episode of the Japanese version that I posted last year. I'm adding 20 minutes of additional content as an introduction to discuss a couple of the reviews that have already been published. Check out the blog for links to the reviews and to the one I wrote.

Feel free to reach out with any questions or 悩み事 to howtojapanese@gmail.com.

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In the newsletter this month, I looked at 伺う (ukagau) a broadly useful "humble" keigo verb, and on the blog I looked at the other kanji that help ukagau expand its meanings. On the podcast, I talked about keigo more broadly. It's often overcomplicated and intimidating. Students need an easy way in, and I think there's a way to create a simple binary for many keigo verbs. Give the episode a listen and let me know what your own keigo experience has been like!

Feel free to reach out with any questions or 悩み事 to howtojapanese@gmail.com.

You can also follow How to Japanese on Substack, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.

確か (tashika) and 確かに (tashika ni) seemed impenetrable to me when I first started studying; somehow they're nearly identical but meant the exact opposite? I found that I was able to crack the code by "brute forcing" this an other impossible pairs. Read more in the newsletter, and check out the blog for a link to the Kakuta Mitsuyo reading I mentioned and to find a link to my Japanese reading group.

Feel free to reach out with any questions or 悩み事 to howtojapanese@gmail.com.

You can also follow How to Japanese on Substack, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.