I would love to attend a Japanese idioms class :)

Do you have any experience with any common idioms already? It would be a very interesting project to take up and I could happily prepare a class for it. Let me know! :)

What sort of idioms are we talking about, anyway? As a non-native who’s nonetheless studied for years, I’m curious what people are trying to learn with this.

I was thinking just common ones to begin with — one’s that do pop up fairly often in media and conversation, like 自業自得、七転び八起き、猿も木から落ちる…. those kinds. You can learn new vocabulary, of course, but as a class I would expect it to focus as much on culture as language, since these sayings do give interesting illustrations of how Japanese have traditionally viewed the world around. But maybe it’s all just 馬の耳に念仏! :)

…So I actually looked those up after some reflection. That reads like, reaping what you sow, seven falls eight rises, even monkeys fall from trees, and praying to a horse’s ear (which is like ‘talking to a brick wall’)?…

The fact I’ve spent so much time with the Japanese language means I can “think in Japanese” pretty well, even if I haven’t heard a particular idiom before. It’s a really valuable translation skill. I never dreamed of applying it to an idioms class like this. Maybe I should have.

I’ll have to look up 慣用語句 (idiomatic phrases, in kanji) and see what I can find sometime…

Well, I’m glad they provided some food for thought! There are some fun ones out there. But I am such a 三日坊主, so we’ll see if I ever get a class together! ;)

That is such a colorful idiom for a “short-timer.” This language is even more fun than I knew.

Hahaha, I’m very glad you think so. But, oh dear, I’m giving away all of my idioms. 多言は身を害す, after all.

Okay, I should probably stop. :D And get on with actually planning classes, not just making the forums into my own informal ones! But I do love to share….

I’d need 200 or 300 to write a book about Japanese idioms, I think. ….And the thought has idly crossed my mind.