Today's kanji : 兄

This kanji as a whole describes "a person who has huge head".

A Child who should have a "good brain" is...


Can you guess the meaning?

See the comments page for the answer!

Today's kanji : 嫌

The blue part describes "woman".
The red part describes
"the hand + two rices = feel dissatisfaction".
(If it was just one rice, it should be easier. Why do I have to carry two rices? ...)

My girlfriend complains all the time!


Can you guess the meaning?

See the comments page for the answer!

NOVA's telephone number

NOVA is the biggest English conversation school company in Japan.
(They have 500,000 students now!!)
http://www.nova.ne.jp/

I remember NOVA’s telephone number, because it’s very easy to remember.

0120-324929

Can you guess why the number is easy to remember?

The reason is that in Japanese we can use number as “sound”.
In this case,

3 is “mi” : we say “mittsu” for 3 when we count something
2 is “ni” : 2 is “ni” in Japanese
4 is “yo” : we say “yottsu” for 4 when we count something
9 is “ku” : September is “kugatsu”
2 is “tsu” : 2 is “two” in English, “two” sounds like “tsu”

0120 is a common number for toll-free dial.
You can read 324929 “mi ni yokutsuku”.

身によくつく(mi ni yokutsuku) means “you learn a lot”.

Most of companies are trying to find a telephone number which customers can remember easily, right?
Do you know any other telephone numbers which have meaning like NOVA?

There are some other companies’ numbers.
If you don’t understand the sound, let me know!

REVE21 (Company for wig)
0120-783640
783640 : 悩み無用 (nayami muyoo)
“You don’t have to worry.”
http://www.reve21.co.jp/campaign/


Staff service (service for finding employment)
0120-022022
022022 : オー人事 オー人事 (o- jinji o- jinji)
“Oh Human Resources! Oh Human Resources!”
http://www.022022.net/


OCN (internet service)
0120-506506
506506 : コールコール (ko-ru ko-ru)
“Call call!”
http://www.ocn.ne.jp/hikari/application.html?gnavi1

Today's kanji : 神

Today's kanji is 神.

The blue part describes "altar / shrine".
The red part describes "lightning".

That's, so to speak, lightning in the shrine.

Can you guess the meaning?

See the comments page for the answer!

Ears on the wall.

There are a lot of idioms using a part of the body.
Today, I’m introducing you some idioms with “ears”.
Ear is "耳 (mimi)" in Japanese.

①　耳が遠い　(mimi ga tooi)
"The ears are far."
This means...
"cannot hear very well."

「私の父は耳が遠い。」
(watashi no chichi wa mimi ga tooi.)

"My father doesn't hear very well."


②　壁に耳　(kabe ni mimi)
"The ears on the wall."
This means...
"It's difficult to have a "secret meeting". There could be someone who is listening to what you are talking about behind the wall."

「壁に耳だから、ここでその話はやめよう。車の中で話さない？」
(kabe ni mimi dakara kokode sono hanashi wa yameyoo. kuruma no nakade hanasanai?)

"Someone might listen to our talking, maybe we shouldn't talk about it here. How about talking in my car?"


③　耳が痛い　(mimi ga itai)
"My ears are hurts."
This means...
"Someone's indication is very accurate and it's just what I have to improve."

「お酒の飲みすぎは健康に悪いよ。」
(osake no nomisugi wa kenkoo ni warui yo.)
「耳が痛いよ・・・。」
(mimi ga itai yo...)

"Drinking a lot is bad for your health."
"Yeah... I agree with your idea. That's exactly talking about me..."

Do you have similar idioms or expressions in your language, too?