Introduced at around the N4 level for the JLPT, the ようにしている grammar is extremely useful in a wide variety of expressions, but we’re going to look at some specific usages of this referring to habits and making effort to do things. 習慣的にしていることをいう表現An expression that refers to what you are doing…
梅雨（つゆ）とは、晩春から夏にかけて雨や曇りの日が多く現れる気象現象で、また、その期間をさします。「梅雨」に「梅」の漢字が使われた由来は、中国にあるといわれています。 中国の揚子江周辺では梅の実が熟す頃が雨期にあたり、そのことから「梅」の字を使うようになったとされているのです。ただ、中国から伝わったときは「梅雨(つゆ)」ではなく、「梅雨(ばいう)」として伝わったそうです。雨によって黴(かび)が生えやすくなることがあげられます。 そこから「黴雨(ばいう)」という言葉が生まれたというもの。ただ、語感が良くないので「黴」の字ではなく「梅」という字になったということです。 諸説ありますが、日本では江戸時代あたりから「梅雨(つゆ)」を使うようになったといわれています。その由来を2つご紹介しましょう。 まずひとつめが、「露(つゆ)」から派生した「梅雨(つゆ)」という説です。 6月～7月にかけては雨がたくさん降ります。すると木々に露がつくことから「梅雨(つゆ)」というようになった、という説があります。 ふたつめは、熟した梅の実が潰れることから「潰ゆ(つゆ)」という説です。梅の実の成長には雨の存在が欠かせません。6月の初旬はまだ実が硬くても、下旬には収穫を終えることがほとんどです。そのため、熟して潰れる時期でもあることから「潰ゆ(つゆ)」が「梅雨(つゆ)」になったという説があります。 「梅雨」のイメージにはどんなものがありますか？東日本では梅雨はシトシトと弱い雨が降ったり止んだりを繰り返しますが、西日本では勢いよくザーザーと雨が降り続けます。また、同じ日本でも北海道では気象庁に定義されるような梅雨はありません。本州に梅雨をもたらす梅雨前線は北海道に到達する頃には勢力が弱まり、本州のような雨を降らせない傾向があるのです。ただ全く梅雨がないわけではなく、年によっては雨が続く場合もありこれを「蝦夷梅雨」と呼びます。 If you found this lesson useful, I’d really appreciate a donation. It goes directly into supporting this website and me to produce more content that will help you improve your Japanese. If you’d like to have personalised Japanese lessons, be they 1-on-1…
School trips in Japan are something else. We’ve all been on a day trip to the zoo or a museum. Perhaps you don’t learn much on the trip. But school trips in Japan, especially those for high school students, are done by almost every school and last a whole week….
The te form is one of those topics that so many Japanese learners never get past. It involves some funky table, or a song, and it can’t really be translated into English. It ends up being the graveyard for many a Japanese learner. To spoil the ending, I never really…
If you’ve ever watched Japanese TV, you might be surprised at the amount of subtitles that you get on almost any show. The subtitles are not limited to the traditional closed caption subtitles for the hard of hearing, but are put on the show itself by the production team. There…
Counting and its various topics is generally going to be one of those areas that you’ll probably never get truly comfortable with in a second language. That doesn’t mean you should give up on the topic, but it does allow you to put into perspective what is achievable, and more…
Although social media is mostly a waste of time, from a language learning point of view, it’s a great way to get involved in conversations with natives and see the back and forth that can result. Seeing as most journalist’s attempt at research and investigation or original story writing involves…
School sports in Japan is an interesting setup, and I was fortunate enough to go to two different schools during my 10 month exchange in Japan, and of course even between schools in Japan there are large differences. I joined the table tennis club, 卓球部「たっきゅうぶ」, although there were many other…
I’m a reader. I like to read about technology, finance, politics, or anything that is well-written. One of the benefits to reading is you come across some fancy name for something that you figured already had a fancy name but you just didn’t know how to look it up. That…
One thing I’ve noticed as I’ve been studying Japanese, is that the influence of Buddhism in Japanese culture is massive. Of course, this filters down to the language as well, and any attempt at reading about Japanese history is going to throw you into a world of complex kanji and…