An Introduction to Kurimango
If you’ve been reading my monthly slang reviews, you’re probably no stranger to the kuriman community. I’ve mentioned this group of linguistic innovators multiple times across my explanations of terms like 全ア, モロチン, and だ㌔, but presenting these as individual words has always been a bit of a mistake. While these are, in theory, distinct…
Japanese Slang Review – May 2026
And it’s time for the fifth Japanese slang review of 2026 (see all prior posts here)! In these posts I deep dive into the world of Japanese terms you probably won’t see in a textbook, looking at what they mean, how they are used, and where they came from. Sources and definitions for the terms…
Japanese Slang Review – April 2026
And it’s time for the fourth Japanese slang review of 2026 (see all prior posts here)! In these posts I deep dive into the world of Japanese terms you probably won’t see in a textbook, looking at what they mean, how they are used, and where they came from. Sources and definitions for the terms…
Five Things I Recently Learned About Japanese: Episode 10
Did you know that I don’t know everything there is to know about Japanese? I know, I’m surprised too. They actually let people get PhDs without checking if they know everything there is to know these days, what a world! Here’s another secret: if I don’t write things down, I sometimes forget them. Another unconscionable…
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About Me
My name is Wes Robertson, and I’m a lecturer in Japanese Studies @ Macquarie University. My research applies sociolinguistic perspectives to the study of writing systems, with a focus on Japan. I spend WAY too much time thinking about script use in Japanese.
My first book, Scripting Japan, is currently available via Routledge. My second, Peripheral Linguistic Brutality, is available via University of Hawai’i Press.
I also cohost Lingua Brutallica, a podcast on language use in extreme metal. Check us out on Spotify, Podbean, or YouTube.
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Scripting Japan 