どのように\どのように\how
迷う\まよう\to lose
道に迷う\みちにまよう\to lose one's way
先輩\せんぱい\senior
まるで\まるで\just (as in 'X' is just like 'Y')
明るい\あかるい\cheerful
性格が明るい\せいかくがあかるい\cheerful personality
父親\ちちおや\father
母親\ははおや\mother
親しい\したしい\intimate; close
湖\みずうみ\lake
目指す\めざす\aim at; have one's eye on
命\いのち\mortal life
お節料理\おせちりょうり\traditional food served during New Year's
初詣で\はつもうで\first shrine visit of New Year
畳\たたみ\tatami
座布団\ざぶとん\square sitting cushion
床\ゆか\floor
正座\せいざ\seiza sitting position
お辞儀\おじぎ\bow in greeting
作家\さっか\writer, author
~中\~ちゅう\while~
留守中\るすちゅう\while out
一杯\いっぱい\full, crowded (stomach, places, containers)
どんなに\どんなに\however; no matter how
立派な\りっぱな\wonderful, grand
欠点\けってん\failing; shortcoming
~過ぎ\~すぎ\past, after, gone
似合う\にあう\suit; look good in
それで\それで\so; therefore
お礼\おれい\thanks; appreciation; reward
ポイント\ポイント\key point
内容\ないよう\contents
聞き取る\ききとる\to comprehend by listening
表現\ひょうげん\expression
迷う\まよう\to be unable to decide
AかBか迷う\AかBかまよう\can't decide between A or B
部分\ぶぶん\part
市民\しみん\citizen
会館\かいかん\assembly hall
市民会館\しみんかいかん\community center
伝統的な\でんとうてきな\traditional
実際に\じっさいに\actually
そういう\そういう\that kind of
普段\ふだん\ordinary; usual
何とか\なんとか\somehow or other
イントネーション\イントネーション\intonation
奨学金\しょうがくきん\scholarship; bursary
推薦状\すいせんじょう\reference; letter of recommendation
交流\こうりゅう\social intercourse (hawhaw)
交流パーティー\こうりゅうパーティー\get-to-know-you party
司会\しかい\presiding over (a meeting; a social event)
目上\めうえ\higher ranked superior
断る\ことわる\refuse
引き受ける\ひきうける\accept
31 July 2010
29 July 2010
日本語ができますか?
I thought I'd compile a little list here of the different tools I've used - or even some that I've made - for learning Japanese over the years. I'll list websites with links, books with ISBNs and links to Amazon, and I will link you to apps and crap I've compiled for learning Japanese. - I won't be finished this post today because I have a fat happy exam to take tomorrow, but I'd like to get it started at least. Expect it to be finished over the weekend :3
<3<3<3<3<3
Tae Kim's Guide to Learning Japanese - This is pretty much all of the essential daily use grammar, explained in English, along with examples for usage. The ONLY fault I can make for Tae Kim's guide is that I'd like more examples for some of the grammar, along with more pragmatics in some of his explanations. Like, when would you use A over B, that kind of thing. I can't really even call it out on those "faults" because as an online textbook and quick reference guide, it's incredibly thorough and concise. It also features a great forum where you can ask questions about Japanese, or just sift through other people's questions and answers. My favourite and most-oft visited forum link is this: Guide to Japanese Transition Words. A totally exhaustive list of the Japanese Conjunction Junction song to help your spoken and written language flow better.
Ah, but you might have noticed that that list is ENTIRELY in Japanese, and uses a lot of kanji! What to do if you can't read it? Rather than the tedious copy and paste dance, I really recommend getting the Firefox Extension Rikaichan. This addon has really increased my reading speed - I can basically understand almost any Japanese text with this addon, and it really does help you learn the reading for kanji you don't know. My recommendation for using Rikaichan is to go to a Japanese blog or newssite you're interested in, and use your mouse to hover over the words and kanji you don't know, and read the full sentence, and translate. Then go back and do it again, this time just reading it in Japanese, using Rikaichan to help you with the readings. Then make a THIRD pass over the sentence, and see if you can read, in Japanese, without assistance. It really will help you improve.
The other "secret" (which isn't really a secret at all) that I use to remember Kanji is that I know what most of the radicals represent! About.com's Guide to Japanese Kanji Radicals and Alan Miller's Guide to Japanese Kanji Radicals are great resources to get you started. So, kanji like 機械 aren't just a mess of lines to me anymore. I see tree, thread, thread, spear, person for the first one, and tree, spear, grass for the second one. I think it's really important to try to understand kanji the same way we understand how a word is formed. If yuo cna raed tihs tahn I tnhik yuo cna laren knaji. It's not just a "picture," it's a sum of its parts, just like words are in the roman alphabet. Being able to understand the parts, and making some conjectures to how they are related to the meaning of the kanji, is completely essential. So 機械 is kikai, meaning machine. It's formed of two kanji, the first meaning mechanism (in both the technical sense and the abstract sense, like, mechanism as a machine, and chance/opportunity being a a mechanism of fate) and the second means contraption. With the parts, tree, threads, spear, and person, you can visualize "mechanism" - tree, because wood would have been the prime material for simple machines like a mill or cart in the old days, threads to represent fine details and connecting parts (or connected to fate if you know the Japanese saying about the red thread), spear gives the sense of something practical and useful, and also imparts the notion that it is something that is weilded by man, who is also represented within the kanji, and machines are what have made man what he is today. The second one is similar in its construction, and can be broken down in much the same way. It seems complicated perhaps at first, but after you get acclimated to the radicals the same way you are acclimated to roman letters and latin roots, it gets easier and easier to remember how to write kanji and also what they mean. The last caveat I have to offer is that you don't need to PERFECTLY understand the radicals. Maybe the radical for grass really looks like a picket fence to you. If you can consistently remember it as the "picket fence" radical, and can logically include that image when you're breaking it down into its parts and attributing the meaning to the sum of those parts, it really doesn't matter WHAT you think the radical is, as long as you can consistently remember it and what it means to you and how that meaning relates to the word.
I should also mention that doing this does help you read kanji as well, because often the reading of the kanji is based on just one or two radicals. Let me give you an example: 効 絞 郊 狡 校 佼 - these kanji all have a different meaning, and yet they all share the same on-yomi reading of "kou" (though the last three have a second on-yomi option, probably from the older go'on yomi reading, of kyou, but they don't deviate from these two options. It's 95% of the time, in a kanji-compound word, only ever going to be read as "kou" or "kyou") and they all have this character, comprised of two radicals, in common: 交 - which is also read "kou." This makes reading Japanese a lot easier than it might seem at first blush. Look for these patterns when you study Japanese. If you notice a relatively simple kanji, and see it being repeated as a part of a more detailed kanji, it could be the key to unlocking the reading of a lot of different kanji compound words.
TO BE CONTINUED...
<3<3<3<3<3
Tae Kim's Guide to Learning Japanese - This is pretty much all of the essential daily use grammar, explained in English, along with examples for usage. The ONLY fault I can make for Tae Kim's guide is that I'd like more examples for some of the grammar, along with more pragmatics in some of his explanations. Like, when would you use A over B, that kind of thing. I can't really even call it out on those "faults" because as an online textbook and quick reference guide, it's incredibly thorough and concise. It also features a great forum where you can ask questions about Japanese, or just sift through other people's questions and answers. My favourite and most-oft visited forum link is this: Guide to Japanese Transition Words. A totally exhaustive list of the Japanese Conjunction Junction song to help your spoken and written language flow better.
Ah, but you might have noticed that that list is ENTIRELY in Japanese, and uses a lot of kanji! What to do if you can't read it? Rather than the tedious copy and paste dance, I really recommend getting the Firefox Extension Rikaichan. This addon has really increased my reading speed - I can basically understand almost any Japanese text with this addon, and it really does help you learn the reading for kanji you don't know. My recommendation for using Rikaichan is to go to a Japanese blog or newssite you're interested in, and use your mouse to hover over the words and kanji you don't know, and read the full sentence, and translate. Then go back and do it again, this time just reading it in Japanese, using Rikaichan to help you with the readings. Then make a THIRD pass over the sentence, and see if you can read, in Japanese, without assistance. It really will help you improve.
The other "secret" (which isn't really a secret at all) that I use to remember Kanji is that I know what most of the radicals represent! About.com's Guide to Japanese Kanji Radicals and Alan Miller's Guide to Japanese Kanji Radicals are great resources to get you started. So, kanji like 機械 aren't just a mess of lines to me anymore. I see tree, thread, thread, spear, person for the first one, and tree, spear, grass for the second one. I think it's really important to try to understand kanji the same way we understand how a word is formed. If yuo cna raed tihs tahn I tnhik yuo cna laren knaji. It's not just a "picture," it's a sum of its parts, just like words are in the roman alphabet. Being able to understand the parts, and making some conjectures to how they are related to the meaning of the kanji, is completely essential. So 機械 is kikai, meaning machine. It's formed of two kanji, the first meaning mechanism (in both the technical sense and the abstract sense, like, mechanism as a machine, and chance/opportunity being a a mechanism of fate) and the second means contraption. With the parts, tree, threads, spear, and person, you can visualize "mechanism" - tree, because wood would have been the prime material for simple machines like a mill or cart in the old days, threads to represent fine details and connecting parts (or connected to fate if you know the Japanese saying about the red thread), spear gives the sense of something practical and useful, and also imparts the notion that it is something that is weilded by man, who is also represented within the kanji, and machines are what have made man what he is today. The second one is similar in its construction, and can be broken down in much the same way. It seems complicated perhaps at first, but after you get acclimated to the radicals the same way you are acclimated to roman letters and latin roots, it gets easier and easier to remember how to write kanji and also what they mean. The last caveat I have to offer is that you don't need to PERFECTLY understand the radicals. Maybe the radical for grass really looks like a picket fence to you. If you can consistently remember it as the "picket fence" radical, and can logically include that image when you're breaking it down into its parts and attributing the meaning to the sum of those parts, it really doesn't matter WHAT you think the radical is, as long as you can consistently remember it and what it means to you and how that meaning relates to the word.
I should also mention that doing this does help you read kanji as well, because often the reading of the kanji is based on just one or two radicals. Let me give you an example: 効 絞 郊 狡 校 佼 - these kanji all have a different meaning, and yet they all share the same on-yomi reading of "kou" (though the last three have a second on-yomi option, probably from the older go'on yomi reading, of kyou, but they don't deviate from these two options. It's 95% of the time, in a kanji-compound word, only ever going to be read as "kou" or "kyou") and they all have this character, comprised of two radicals, in common: 交 - which is also read "kou." This makes reading Japanese a lot easier than it might seem at first blush. Look for these patterns when you study Japanese. If you notice a relatively simple kanji, and see it being repeated as a part of a more detailed kanji, it could be the key to unlocking the reading of a lot of different kanji compound words.
TO BE CONTINUED...
23 July 2010
...What time is it.
It's somewhere between consistent coughing, fever dreams, and general insomnia that I awake - again - and glance blearly at my faithfully ticking computer clock - again - and have my own little melange of bitterness, disappointment, exhaustion, and mild amusement at the fact that it is indeed just as 4AM as I thought it was and I am getting absolutely no sleep this night. To whatever powers that be that insist on keeping me sick for nearly my entire duration at Yamasa, I hope you choke on the multi-techni-coloured variety of pills and iodine gargle that the doctor I saw at the hospital today prescribed to me. An aside note: My penchant for dramatics and purple prose suffers the least of all my features during times of sleep deprivation. Good night - again.
12 July 2010
On the importance of being earnest...
Alas, aside from the title, I have no other intentions to make more allusions to Oscar Wilde or theatre for the rest of my post, but we'll see how it goes.
Getting back to the main point, I thought I might dedicate a blog post to the subject of Why am I writing a blog at all, and What do I hope to accomplish.
On the one hand, honestly, I've always wanted to be a writer. My secret little heart of hearts taps away at the tiny keyboard in my mind and offers me up rough drafts for books, plots for movies, jokes for comedy routines, explanations for text books, and so on and so forth. The resultant mess has made brief forays out of my mind and allowed itself to be tasted by others, but eventually, and inevitably, it dries up rather quickly before its been allowed to amount to much of anything, ending up stale, flavourless, and forgotten. This little phenomenon can easily and probably entirely be attributed to a combination of fear and self-doubt. I'm afraid of sounding hackneyed, or trivial, or dull. I'm afraid to be unoriginal or boring. I'm afraid of being disliked. And to cap it all off, I have such little faith in myself that I am just about positive I'll be all of the above. Moreover, I am terrified of what people will think of me if I am honest.
Nonetheless, when I decided I was definitely going to keep a blog at least, I had a drafted set of rules in my mind, and numero uno was that I would have to be honest to a fault on whatever the subject was. I hoped to sort of scare-tactic my brain into production rather than submission, but it's rather had an opposite effect. When I write, I am being honest, but I'm choosing my topics based on how "Safe" I think they are for me to be honest, and I'm writing a lot less than I originally intended to because of it. So I think another approach is in order. I was thinking perhaps I could start keeping a list of topics I would like expand on, no matter how Safe or Unsafe they are (and I am welcome to any suggestions, too, of course), throw them in a hat (or whatever hat-shaped object I have at hand, since there is a woeful dearth of hats in my dorm room), and choose three at random, and then commit to writing on whichever one is speaking to me the most that day. Or something.
Oh, and the reason for keeping a blog on the other hand? It's a safe place for self-indulgent yammering under a thinly veiled guise of keeping in touch with loved ones. Love you guys <3
Getting back to the main point, I thought I might dedicate a blog post to the subject of Why am I writing a blog at all, and What do I hope to accomplish.
On the one hand, honestly, I've always wanted to be a writer. My secret little heart of hearts taps away at the tiny keyboard in my mind and offers me up rough drafts for books, plots for movies, jokes for comedy routines, explanations for text books, and so on and so forth. The resultant mess has made brief forays out of my mind and allowed itself to be tasted by others, but eventually, and inevitably, it dries up rather quickly before its been allowed to amount to much of anything, ending up stale, flavourless, and forgotten. This little phenomenon can easily and probably entirely be attributed to a combination of fear and self-doubt. I'm afraid of sounding hackneyed, or trivial, or dull. I'm afraid to be unoriginal or boring. I'm afraid of being disliked. And to cap it all off, I have such little faith in myself that I am just about positive I'll be all of the above. Moreover, I am terrified of what people will think of me if I am honest.
Nonetheless, when I decided I was definitely going to keep a blog at least, I had a drafted set of rules in my mind, and numero uno was that I would have to be honest to a fault on whatever the subject was. I hoped to sort of scare-tactic my brain into production rather than submission, but it's rather had an opposite effect. When I write, I am being honest, but I'm choosing my topics based on how "Safe" I think they are for me to be honest, and I'm writing a lot less than I originally intended to because of it. So I think another approach is in order. I was thinking perhaps I could start keeping a list of topics I would like expand on, no matter how Safe or Unsafe they are (and I am welcome to any suggestions, too, of course), throw them in a hat (or whatever hat-shaped object I have at hand, since there is a woeful dearth of hats in my dorm room), and choose three at random, and then commit to writing on whichever one is speaking to me the most that day. Or something.
Oh, and the reason for keeping a blog on the other hand? It's a safe place for self-indulgent yammering under a thinly veiled guise of keeping in touch with loved ones. Love you guys <3
08 July 2010
Well it was bound to happen
I finally managed to get sick, though there's little mystery as to the hows and whys. I had lunch with a classmate one day, where she shared 2 pieces of sushi with me (using the end of the chopsticks she had previously eaten with - a minor faux pas I wasn't even about to quibble about in my endless quest to try to get people to like me, haha), and the next day she was dreadfully sick, blowing her nose all day in class. She sounded pretty bad, and I was worried about her, but the little devil on my shoulder was nonetheless whispering to me that I was next. And the little bastard was right. Fortunately, the morning I woke up sick was a field trip day - going on those is voluntary and not compulsory, and it was mainly just a trip to the Toyota Factory and a Hatcho Miso (a {delicious} special miso around here) factory so I didn't mind it too much. I drank tons and tons of fluids, took vitamins, drank a hot Airbourne "cocktail," and pretty much exclusively ate soup, vegetables, and dango. I slept plenty, and when I woke up the next day...
I was feeling pretty much the same, if not worse. So I ended up missing today too, a class day, which is something I really wanted to avoid. I am going to school tomorrow whether I like it or not, however, I will be courteous and don a surgical mask, which is the in thing to do in Japan when you're sick (or perhaps just having a bad breakout).
I could sum up the grosser parts of this particular illness with one word: loaded. That word itself can apply to so many LOVELY aspects of my current bodily functions, from the metric tons of variably watery to neon green streaked snot I'm producing, to the sheer amount of diarrhea I've had, to the number of times I was so sure I was gonna totally upchuck and have to run to the public dorm toilet (the thought of navigating changing my "bedroom and hall slippers" to the required "toilet slippers" of the bathroom while holding back a maelstrom of barf is somewhat amusing to me anyway) - only to be (fortunately) disappointed in this last one. Not that I relish frequent random bursts of nausea (with no "pay off" as it were) but I relish barfing in a public place even less. And having to change my shoes to do it, no less, hahaha.
Well, if it weren't already abundantly clear, I am obviously a total perfect lady, so it seems appropriate to also mention that I really like the kanji for diarrhea. It's comprised of two kanji, the first one being "down" or "lower" 下 (read in this case as "ge") and the second one being comprised of mainly two distinct parts, the first one being the radical that signifies sickness (image stolen mercilessly from Jim Breen's Multi-Radical Kanji Look-up)
and the second one being 利, meaning profit, inside the sickness radical, making: 痢 (read as "ri").
So. 下痢. Geri. Lower Sick-profit. If there was ever any wonder previously about why I like studying Japanese so much, let you not wonder anymore. I'm tickled pink by shit (harhar) like this. It seems so apt, really. The porcelain altar as indeed received many an illness-bourne token from down below from me today at least.
And dear, strong-stomached readers, let me leave you on that scatalogical note. Until next time, when hopefully I'll have something more witty and less shitty to say.
I was feeling pretty much the same, if not worse. So I ended up missing today too, a class day, which is something I really wanted to avoid. I am going to school tomorrow whether I like it or not, however, I will be courteous and don a surgical mask, which is the in thing to do in Japan when you're sick (or perhaps just having a bad breakout).
I could sum up the grosser parts of this particular illness with one word: loaded. That word itself can apply to so many LOVELY aspects of my current bodily functions, from the metric tons of variably watery to neon green streaked snot I'm producing, to the sheer amount of diarrhea I've had, to the number of times I was so sure I was gonna totally upchuck and have to run to the public dorm toilet (the thought of navigating changing my "bedroom and hall slippers" to the required "toilet slippers" of the bathroom while holding back a maelstrom of barf is somewhat amusing to me anyway) - only to be (fortunately) disappointed in this last one. Not that I relish frequent random bursts of nausea (with no "pay off" as it were) but I relish barfing in a public place even less. And having to change my shoes to do it, no less, hahaha.
Well, if it weren't already abundantly clear, I am obviously a total perfect lady, so it seems appropriate to also mention that I really like the kanji for diarrhea. It's comprised of two kanji, the first one being "down" or "lower" 下 (read in this case as "ge") and the second one being comprised of mainly two distinct parts, the first one being the radical that signifies sickness (image stolen mercilessly from Jim Breen's Multi-Radical Kanji Look-up)
So. 下痢. Geri. Lower Sick-profit. If there was ever any wonder previously about why I like studying Japanese so much, let you not wonder anymore. I'm tickled pink by shit (harhar) like this. It seems so apt, really. The porcelain altar as indeed received many an illness-bourne token from down below from me today at least.
And dear, strong-stomached readers, let me leave you on that scatalogical note. Until next time, when hopefully I'll have something more witty and less shitty to say.
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