Essays, technical articles, Japanese study journals and notes by Ashleigh Garnett.https://ashleigh-garnett.pages.dev/en-gbhttps://ashleigh-garnett.pages.dev/writing/a-word-for-the-space-between/https://ashleigh-garnett.pages.dev/writing/a-word-for-the-space-between/A fictional language-learning entry on 間, context, and resisting a too-neat translation while studying Japanese.Thu, 15 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT<p>A sample notebook entry, written to demonstrate English and Japanese on the same page.</p> <h2 id="looking-at-context">Looking at context</h2> <p>The character <span lang="ja"><ruby>間<rp>(</rp><rt>あいだ</rt><rp>)</rp></ruby></span> appears in <span lang="ja"><ruby>時間<rp>(</rp><rt>じかん</rt><rp>)</rp></ruby></span> and words connected with time, space, or an interval. A single English gloss cannot do every job.</p> <figure class="ja-sentence"><p lang="ja"><ruby>少<rp>(</rp><rt>すこ</rt><rp>)</rp></ruby>し時間をください。</p><p class="translation" lang="en">Please give me a little time.</p></figure> <p>For a learner, a useful habit might be to record the sentence alongside a translation, and return to both later. This is demonstration material, not a record of Ashleigh’s study progress.</p>