Why are 前 and 後 used backwards from how I would expect on this site?


I was practicing katakana reading
[here](http://www.textfugu.com/season-3/learn-katakana/2-4/), and noticed at
the very bottom of the page that the "forward" and "back" buttons have the
characters I understand to mean "after" and "before," except that "before"
points to the next page and "after" points to the previous.

Shouldn't it be the other way around? If not, why not?

Edit: I guess they also mean "front" and "behind," which does make
sense....but aren't the dual meanings kind of contradictory in this context
then? It's like the buttons are indicating that _you_ , the reader, are before
what is to come, but after what is behind you.




前 refers to the "front" of tangible objects (eg, a car) or the "forward"
direction, but when it refer to time, 前 means "～ ago" or "previous(ly)".

>   * 10年前 ten years ago
>   * 前に聞いた話 a story I heard a while back
>   * 前の記事 previous article
>   * もっと前の出来事 an event that happened even before it
>

So when I see a button saying 前 on a tutorial site like TextFugu, I would
expect it's the link for the previous (older) post/chapter/lesson. Apparently
the 前 button in your page links to the next (newer) item, which I think is
strange.

However 前 can be a bit tricky because it refers to newer items on a page where
new items come first (e.g., blogs, search results, ...). On the [question list
of Japanese Stack
Overflow](https://ja.stackoverflow.com/questions?sort=newest) (sorted by
newest to oldest), the `次へ` button corresponds to older questions, and `前へ`
corresponds to newer questions. Well, you can say `prev` corresponds to 前
anyway.

後 means "rear" (spatially) or "later" (temporally). I don't see it often on
navigation links, but it should be a link for the newer item (the item created
_later_ than the current one).

Here are other common and unambiguous phrases found on typical "old/new"
links.

  * older 
    * 古い○○
    * 以前
    * 過去
    * 昔
  * newer, recent 
    * 新しい○○
    * 最近の○○
    * 新着

In addition, 戻る ("back") and 進む ("forward") can be used on a tutorial- or
novel-type site. Perhaps TextFugu have clumsily translated "back/forward" to
"後/前" instead of "戻る/進む".




前 refers to the "front" of tangible objects (eg, a car) or the "forward"
direction, but when it refer to time, 前 means "～ ago" or "previous(ly)".

>   * 10年前 ten years ago
>   * 前に聞いた話 a story I heard a while back
>   * 前の記事 previous article
>   * もっと前の出来事 an event that happened even before it
>

So when I see a button saying 前 on a tutorial site like TextFugu, I would
expect it's the link for the previous (older) post/chapter/lesson. Apparently
the 前 button in your page links to the next (newer) item, which I think is
strange.

However 前 can be a bit tricky because it refers to newer items on a page where
new items come first (e.g., blogs, search results, ...). On the [question list
of Japanese Stack
Overflow](https://ja.stackoverflow.com/questions?sort=newest) (sorted by
newest to oldest), the `次へ` button corresponds to older questions, and `前へ`
corresponds to newer questions. Well, you can say `prev` corresponds to 前
anyway.

後 means "rear" (spatially) or "later" (temporally). I don't see it often on
navigation links, but it should be a link for the newer item (the item created
_later_ than the current one).

Here are other common and unambiguous phrases found on typical "old/new"
links.

  * older 
    * 古い○○
    * 以前
    * 過去
    * 昔
  * newer, recent 
    * 新しい○○
    * 最近の○○
    * 新着

In addition, 戻る ("back") and 進む ("forward") can be used on a tutorial- or
novel-type site. Perhaps TextFugu have clumsily translated "back/forward" to
"後/前" instead of "戻る/進む".

