勉強しましょう!
I have a couple of posts on Microsoft Word but I don't think they're worth posting here. If anyone wants to hear about the 写生会, you can ask me.
Right now I don't have anything in particular to do, and I don't feel like painting which is the one thing that has any sort of deadline (Friday, sort of). So I'm going to be unoriginal -- I bet most people who go to a country that speaks a different language and post about it do this at some point -- and give a little crash course in Japanese phrases. This is for your own good, o hypothetical reader who doesn't already know Japanese: the crash course is based on things I might have occasion to type on here in Japanese and not bother to translate. So this is your reference if you ever want to know what something means. I'll also include some random words I happen to like.
At Tokyo orientation, one of the speakers said that after being in Japan for a few years, he sort of lost touch with most of his friends who didn't know Japanese. He said it just became too hard to relate. Well, I don't intend on dropping people from my life just because they don't know Japanese. However, I can understand where he's coming from. When you start to think and react in another language, it can feel hard talking to someone who doesn't understand you when you say "sou ka" or "dou shiyou kana..." or "komatta na". Things that have no idiomatic equivalent in English.
So what I'm sayin' is, if you want to stay friends with me, learn to recognize the following words! ;-P
Places
香住 : Kasumi, where I live
村岡 : Muraoka, half an hour away, where some other JETs live
豊岡 : Toyooka, half an hour away, a bit more built-up
一中 : Icchuu, the bigger school right near me
二中 : Nichuu, the smaller school fifteen minutes away
Greetings
挨拶, aisatsu : greetings (includes things you say when you leave)
おはよう（ございます）, ohayou (gozaimasu) : Good morning
こんにちは, konnichiwa : Hello
こんばんは, konbanwa : Good evening (note: nichi = day, ban = evening.)
（どうぞ）よろしく（おねがいします）, (douzo) yoroshiku ((onegaishimasu)) : lit. something like "please be good to me," it's said all the time, whenever you first meet someone, or whenever you embark on a project with someone, or just pretty much when you feel like being polite.
じゃあ、またね, jaa mata ne : see ya later. Note: you can drop "jaa", "mata", or "ne", depending on exactly what mood you happen to be in. So "mata ne," "jaa ne," and "jaa mata" all work fine. Also, "mata", which just means "again", can be followed by something specific, like "tomorrow" or "next week" or "later".
おやすみ（なさい）, oyasumi (nasai) : Goodnight
失礼します/失礼しました, shitsureishimasu/shitsureishimashita : literally "I'm about to be rude" and "I have been rude," you say the first when you enter, say, an office, and the latter when you leave. It's really cute when the students pop into the teachers' room just for a few seconds to fetch a key or something, and announce "shitsureishimasu!" as they step into the room and seconds later "shitsureishimashita!" as they leave. Also note: you don't walk out of rooms forward, when they're someone else's room. You turn to face the interior of the room and say the proper 挨拶. And bow, of course.
Phrases/Reaction
そう（です）か, sou (desu) ka? : "Is that so?", but used about fifty times more than that English phrase. This is the all-purpose reaction. With proper tone of voice, it can be a response to absolutely anything anyone ever says to you. Well okay...that's a lie. It does sort of imply that you've received information you didn't already know. If somebody says to you "2 + 2 is 4" and you say "sou ka", you either sound sarcastic or like you missed a few days of kindergarten. So what if someone tells you something you already know?
そう（です）ね, sou (desu) ne : "Yeah, that's true isn't it..." Except that translation sucks. But this is for those times when someone tells you a simple arithmetic fact (you know it happens sometimes). Or generally when you want to confirm that you share in the sentiments or beliefs just expressed. In addition, it's a staller when someone asks you a question you don't know the answer to. So it works equally well for "2 + 2 is 4" and "how many Sylow-p subgroups are there in GLn(Zp)?" And speaking of stallers, here are the two most prominent ones:
えーと, eh-to : I probably completely made this distinction up for no reason, but I think of えーと as a sort of intellectual hesitation: when you're trying to remember a word, or think about Sylow-p subgroups, or figure out the most clever way to phrase something. But honestly, you can pretty much say it whenever. Preferable to "uhh" and "umm" when speaking Japanese.
あのう, anou : This one I think of as a more sort of personal, emotional hesitation, like you're trying to figure out what you want to say, or you're feeling sort of shy and hesitant about talking to someone, or you're nervous or awkward. But again, you can really say it whenever you want.
すみません, sumimasen : "sorry/excuse me", a good all-purpose polite word. Say this whenever you accidentally bump into someone, inconvenience someone, insult someone, whatever. Also when getting someone's attention or asking a favor.
ごめん（なさい）/ごめんね, gomen (nasai)/gomen ne : "I'm sorry", a bit more intense apology flavor to this one. So, uh, use it when you want to apologize.
残念ね, zannen ne : "that's a shame." But again, you don't actually say that in English. So this is really more like "aww, darn" or "that sucks". But more fun to say.
どうしようかな, dou shiyou kana : lit. "I wonder what I'll do now..." It just sort of means "now what?" or "what should/can I do?" I find it a useful phrase. As a question, it's rhetorical: the "kana" at the end is usually translated as "I wonder..." and basically indicates the sentence as an internal monologue, addressed back at the speaker more than anyone else.
困ったなぁ, komatta naa : lit. "I/we are in trouble," colloquially more like "aww shit" or "that sucks", but with a different flavor from "zannen ne".
楽しみ（にしている）, tanoshimi ni shite iru : "I'm looking forward to it." Often shortened to just "tanoshimi", which means like "enjoyment/pleasure".
Okay I'm getting slightly bored with this so you must be too. (Isn't that how it works?) Also, learn hiragana. Because why not? There are only 46 of them. And they're pretty.
Did I mention (probably not) that one of the second-year classes at 一中, when told to come up with questions for me, asked me what my favorite Japanese word was? I couldn't think of an answer. Words I happen to like, such as "uketsuke" (reception desk), or "kekkyoku" (after all), popped into my head...but they're so random! I just like them because they're fun to say. Well, this evening I remembered what I should have said. So here's the Japanese word(s) of the day:
風, kaze : wind. Can also be pronounced fuu, as it usually is in compounds; on its own as fuu it means, like, "way/manner". You actually know a word with this kanji already -- can you guess? A word involving strong winds with the sound "fuu" in it? Give up? 台風, taihuu = typhoon. Also note: the word for "cold", as in the sickness, is also pronounced kaze. However, it is written 風邪. That second kanji, usually pronounced "ja", means evil/wicked. Heh. And a fun tangent about that kanji: when you enter someone else's house you say お邪魔します, ojama-shimasu. Idiomatically it means "I'm intruding." Etymologically, the kanji are evil/wicked and magic/demon. So, based on the kanji, you're saying "I'm being an evil demon!" Just what we all want to hear when someone enters our house...
船, fune : ship/boat. I don't know any fun stories about this kanji really, except that it's in the idiom 黒船, kuro-hune, black ship, which means something about meeting a foreigner for the first time. (If you're confused about why sometimes I type something as an h that I'd previously typed as an f, don't be: there is no f in Japanese, but when h's begin words it's often written f. Just consider them the same.)
The punchline:
風船, fuusen : balloon. Wind ship. Isn't that cute? This is what I should have answered. ^_^ And in case you're thinking "well that's pretty literal if it's talking about hot-air balloons," it's not. This is the word for like, balloons like you have at birthday parties. Hot-air balloon is a different word: 熱気球, netsukikyuu, hot-air-sphere. Not nearly as cool.
For anyone still bothered by the h/f thing: in English, /f/ is a labiodental fricative, where air is pressed out between the bottom lip and upper teeth. In the Japanese syllable /hu/, the consonant is pronounced as a bilabial fricative, which we don't have in English: air is squeezed out between the upper and lower lip. Subtly different from /f/, but close enough that we talk about Mount Fuji and not Mount Huji. (Note that if you spell it with an "h", you'd want to pronounce it as some sort of fricative back in the throat, which isn't like the Japanese at all.) When /h/ in Japanese is followed by other vowels, however, it is closer to the English /h/; hence Hiroshima, Hokkaido, but Mount Fuji, Fukushima. So there's your Japanese phonetics lesson for the day.
Also, did you know that originally, back in the day, the technique of having books with little moving parts and flaps and things that popped up was reserved for serious scholarly works, on like, astronomy and physics and such? It wasn't until the eighteenth century that people thought such things might be a nice harmless diversion for little children. And now, when I was little I got to play hide-and-seek with Spot and friends, and yet *none* of my science textbooks have had interactive tabs or pop-up features. I see this as a problem. I am (now) of the opinion that at the very least multivariable calculus textbooks and topology textbooks need to be pop-up books. It might be slightly harder to incorporate the technology into such things as number theory and abstract algebra -- although having a pop-up tower of fields has been suggested. In any case, listen up future textbook writers! I'm serious. Textbooks need to be more playful. And you have historical precedent on your side! Go for it.
Okay I tire of this post. Speaking of tiring, here are some lyrics that amuse me (I haven't translated the whole song; this is the very end):
あと 2回 寝返りしたら 試しに起きてみよう
あと 3回 寝返りしたら 今度こそ起きてやろう
After falling back asleep twice, I'll try to get up...
After falling back asleep three times, this time for sure I'll get up...
Ahh, we've all been there... ^_^
Right now I don't have anything in particular to do, and I don't feel like painting which is the one thing that has any sort of deadline (Friday, sort of). So I'm going to be unoriginal -- I bet most people who go to a country that speaks a different language and post about it do this at some point -- and give a little crash course in Japanese phrases. This is for your own good, o hypothetical reader who doesn't already know Japanese: the crash course is based on things I might have occasion to type on here in Japanese and not bother to translate. So this is your reference if you ever want to know what something means. I'll also include some random words I happen to like.
At Tokyo orientation, one of the speakers said that after being in Japan for a few years, he sort of lost touch with most of his friends who didn't know Japanese. He said it just became too hard to relate. Well, I don't intend on dropping people from my life just because they don't know Japanese. However, I can understand where he's coming from. When you start to think and react in another language, it can feel hard talking to someone who doesn't understand you when you say "sou ka" or "dou shiyou kana..." or "komatta na". Things that have no idiomatic equivalent in English.
So what I'm sayin' is, if you want to stay friends with me, learn to recognize the following words! ;-P
Places
香住 : Kasumi, where I live
村岡 : Muraoka, half an hour away, where some other JETs live
豊岡 : Toyooka, half an hour away, a bit more built-up
一中 : Icchuu, the bigger school right near me
二中 : Nichuu, the smaller school fifteen minutes away
Greetings
挨拶, aisatsu : greetings (includes things you say when you leave)
おはよう（ございます）, ohayou (gozaimasu) : Good morning
こんにちは, konnichiwa : Hello
こんばんは, konbanwa : Good evening (note: nichi = day, ban = evening.)
（どうぞ）よろしく（おねがいします）, (douzo) yoroshiku ((onegaishimasu)) : lit. something like "please be good to me," it's said all the time, whenever you first meet someone, or whenever you embark on a project with someone, or just pretty much when you feel like being polite.
じゃあ、またね, jaa mata ne : see ya later. Note: you can drop "jaa", "mata", or "ne", depending on exactly what mood you happen to be in. So "mata ne," "jaa ne," and "jaa mata" all work fine. Also, "mata", which just means "again", can be followed by something specific, like "tomorrow" or "next week" or "later".
おやすみ（なさい）, oyasumi (nasai) : Goodnight
失礼します/失礼しました, shitsureishimasu/shitsureishimashita : literally "I'm about to be rude" and "I have been rude," you say the first when you enter, say, an office, and the latter when you leave. It's really cute when the students pop into the teachers' room just for a few seconds to fetch a key or something, and announce "shitsureishimasu!" as they step into the room and seconds later "shitsureishimashita!" as they leave. Also note: you don't walk out of rooms forward, when they're someone else's room. You turn to face the interior of the room and say the proper 挨拶. And bow, of course.
Phrases/Reaction
そう（です）か, sou (desu) ka? : "Is that so?", but used about fifty times more than that English phrase. This is the all-purpose reaction. With proper tone of voice, it can be a response to absolutely anything anyone ever says to you. Well okay...that's a lie. It does sort of imply that you've received information you didn't already know. If somebody says to you "2 + 2 is 4" and you say "sou ka", you either sound sarcastic or like you missed a few days of kindergarten. So what if someone tells you something you already know?
そう（です）ね, sou (desu) ne : "Yeah, that's true isn't it..." Except that translation sucks. But this is for those times when someone tells you a simple arithmetic fact (you know it happens sometimes). Or generally when you want to confirm that you share in the sentiments or beliefs just expressed. In addition, it's a staller when someone asks you a question you don't know the answer to. So it works equally well for "2 + 2 is 4" and "how many Sylow-p subgroups are there in GLn(Zp)?" And speaking of stallers, here are the two most prominent ones:
えーと, eh-to : I probably completely made this distinction up for no reason, but I think of えーと as a sort of intellectual hesitation: when you're trying to remember a word, or think about Sylow-p subgroups, or figure out the most clever way to phrase something. But honestly, you can pretty much say it whenever. Preferable to "uhh" and "umm" when speaking Japanese.
あのう, anou : This one I think of as a more sort of personal, emotional hesitation, like you're trying to figure out what you want to say, or you're feeling sort of shy and hesitant about talking to someone, or you're nervous or awkward. But again, you can really say it whenever you want.
すみません, sumimasen : "sorry/excuse me", a good all-purpose polite word. Say this whenever you accidentally bump into someone, inconvenience someone, insult someone, whatever. Also when getting someone's attention or asking a favor.
ごめん（なさい）/ごめんね, gomen (nasai)/gomen ne : "I'm sorry", a bit more intense apology flavor to this one. So, uh, use it when you want to apologize.
残念ね, zannen ne : "that's a shame." But again, you don't actually say that in English. So this is really more like "aww, darn" or "that sucks". But more fun to say.
どうしようかな, dou shiyou kana : lit. "I wonder what I'll do now..." It just sort of means "now what?" or "what should/can I do?" I find it a useful phrase. As a question, it's rhetorical: the "kana" at the end is usually translated as "I wonder..." and basically indicates the sentence as an internal monologue, addressed back at the speaker more than anyone else.
困ったなぁ, komatta naa : lit. "I/we are in trouble," colloquially more like "aww shit" or "that sucks", but with a different flavor from "zannen ne".
楽しみ（にしている）, tanoshimi ni shite iru : "I'm looking forward to it." Often shortened to just "tanoshimi", which means like "enjoyment/pleasure".
Okay I'm getting slightly bored with this so you must be too. (Isn't that how it works?) Also, learn hiragana. Because why not? There are only 46 of them. And they're pretty.
Did I mention (probably not) that one of the second-year classes at 一中, when told to come up with questions for me, asked me what my favorite Japanese word was? I couldn't think of an answer. Words I happen to like, such as "uketsuke" (reception desk), or "kekkyoku" (after all), popped into my head...but they're so random! I just like them because they're fun to say. Well, this evening I remembered what I should have said. So here's the Japanese word(s) of the day:
風, kaze : wind. Can also be pronounced fuu, as it usually is in compounds; on its own as fuu it means, like, "way/manner". You actually know a word with this kanji already -- can you guess? A word involving strong winds with the sound "fuu" in it? Give up? 台風, taihuu = typhoon. Also note: the word for "cold", as in the sickness, is also pronounced kaze. However, it is written 風邪. That second kanji, usually pronounced "ja", means evil/wicked. Heh. And a fun tangent about that kanji: when you enter someone else's house you say お邪魔します, ojama-shimasu. Idiomatically it means "I'm intruding." Etymologically, the kanji are evil/wicked and magic/demon. So, based on the kanji, you're saying "I'm being an evil demon!" Just what we all want to hear when someone enters our house...
船, fune : ship/boat. I don't know any fun stories about this kanji really, except that it's in the idiom 黒船, kuro-hune, black ship, which means something about meeting a foreigner for the first time. (If you're confused about why sometimes I type something as an h that I'd previously typed as an f, don't be: there is no f in Japanese, but when h's begin words it's often written f. Just consider them the same.)
The punchline:
風船, fuusen : balloon. Wind ship. Isn't that cute? This is what I should have answered. ^_^ And in case you're thinking "well that's pretty literal if it's talking about hot-air balloons," it's not. This is the word for like, balloons like you have at birthday parties. Hot-air balloon is a different word: 熱気球, netsukikyuu, hot-air-sphere. Not nearly as cool.
For anyone still bothered by the h/f thing: in English, /f/ is a labiodental fricative, where air is pressed out between the bottom lip and upper teeth. In the Japanese syllable /hu/, the consonant is pronounced as a bilabial fricative, which we don't have in English: air is squeezed out between the upper and lower lip. Subtly different from /f/, but close enough that we talk about Mount Fuji and not Mount Huji. (Note that if you spell it with an "h", you'd want to pronounce it as some sort of fricative back in the throat, which isn't like the Japanese at all.) When /h/ in Japanese is followed by other vowels, however, it is closer to the English /h/; hence Hiroshima, Hokkaido, but Mount Fuji, Fukushima. So there's your Japanese phonetics lesson for the day.
Also, did you know that originally, back in the day, the technique of having books with little moving parts and flaps and things that popped up was reserved for serious scholarly works, on like, astronomy and physics and such? It wasn't until the eighteenth century that people thought such things might be a nice harmless diversion for little children. And now, when I was little I got to play hide-and-seek with Spot and friends, and yet *none* of my science textbooks have had interactive tabs or pop-up features. I see this as a problem. I am (now) of the opinion that at the very least multivariable calculus textbooks and topology textbooks need to be pop-up books. It might be slightly harder to incorporate the technology into such things as number theory and abstract algebra -- although having a pop-up tower of fields has been suggested. In any case, listen up future textbook writers! I'm serious. Textbooks need to be more playful. And you have historical precedent on your side! Go for it.
Okay I tire of this post. Speaking of tiring, here are some lyrics that amuse me (I haven't translated the whole song; this is the very end):
あと 3回 寝返りしたら 今度こそ起きてやろう
After falling back asleep twice, I'll try to get up...
After falling back asleep three times, this time for sure I'll get up...
Ahh, we've all been there... ^_^
posted by Ashila at 7:17 AM
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