October 27th, 2007
The most difficult thing in learning Japanese is probably learning the multitude of Kanji. If with some effort and perseverance, it is quite possible to learn how to read the Japanese Kanji, it’s much harder to learn how to write the Japanese Kanji. The main reason being that there are very few circumstances where you actually need to write Kanji by hand. Most of the time you will just work on a computer and use it to transform the reading of a Japanese word to its writing in Kanji. Even the Japanese have to resort to using their mobile phone to check how to write some of them. As far as I am concern, I usually rely on the computer or on my electronic dictionary that I always carry with me. However, there are some situations where the use of such devices is either forbidden or inappropriate. I am thinking of note taking during a meeting at work, or more radical, the occasional examinations in one’s business carrier. In the first case, I skip the most difficult Kanji and just write them in hiragana or translate on the spot in either English or French. For the examinations that are not based on a mark-sheet, there is no escape. So I took the decision to practice the writing of Kanji before facing such a situation. For that, I got a Nintendo DS with a bunch of softwares.
In the next few days, I will review each of the software that I bought. Here is the list :
If you have a question, feel free to post it to the comments. I will do my best to answer them when reviewing the Nintendo DS softwares for learning the Japanese Kanji.
Posted in Language, Technologies, Practical | 47 Comments »
June 3rd, 2007
While I was strolling around 川崎 “Kawasaki”, which will be the subject of the next podcast, I found an interesting Kanji that I didn’t know of : 蛤. It is made of the combination of Kanji for 虫 “Insect” and 合 “joint”. Given that the classification of animal species is far from being consistent, it is useless to look for an insect. Looking up in my japanese dictionary reveals that this Kanji is used for clam and that it is read はまぐり. This reading is due to the fact that due to its color and shape, the japanese clam is sometimes called 浜栗 “the seashore chestnut (seashore + chestnut)”.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Language | 2 Comments »
February 22nd, 2007
I have been living in Japan for several years already. First I was living in Sendai, north-east of Japan and in the Chiba area since october 2006. This is a different Japan. By comparison, Sendai, despite its one million and a half inhabitants, could be mistaken for the country side. Just an example that says a lot : it did not take more than 4 months here to witness for the first time the attack of a 痴漢 “pervert” on a japanese highschool student.
Sushi tin can
Here, most of the japanese take the train to go to work. I some company, you are even told that 原則 “as a rule” you should not drive to the office with your car. You can choose to come by bicycle but then as long as the distance is fair, it won’t be the case for the rent. As a result we all ride the same train and get off at the same stations. This like the carnival of Dunkirk where we are all すし詰め “jam-packed” and gently pushes each others but without the colorful masks or the smiling faces. In fact, the crowd movement only happens when everybody get off the train due to some who bring their starting blocks. Everybody run to catch the express for Tôkyô about to leave on the other platform. The podium for the winners of the race is a seat. To hell with the 高齢者 “elderly” or 妊婦 “pregnant women”, they should have run too !
Indifference
This certainly explains the reason why nobody helped the student to bring the pervert to the station attendant. She tried to bring him outside the train while shouting at him 来なさい！ “Come with me !”. He answered with a voice that did not persuade 何もしてないのに “I did nothing…”. Well, he was not alone. Except running, they did nothing too.
I don’t run. I don’t need to because I am lucky enough to work outside of Tokyo. My train always arrives empty and everyone has a seat. “Allez hop”, I grabbed the pervert by his arm and pull him out of the train. A few minutes later, others students came along. The station attendant was in sight. As I did not really had a valuable 証言 “testimony”, I just left them, got on board of the train, got my seat and started to write this article.
Kanji companion
痴漢 “Groper” is composed of 痴 “disease + wisdom” and 漢. The use of 漢, that generally means china or something chinese, in the word for groper is suprising to say the least. In fact, this Kanji has a second meaning that I did not know : guy, man. The usage of 痴漢 “Groper” is therefore limited to men. Even if there are female groper, the word 痴女 “female satyr” does not exist. It is likely that the word 性犯罪者 “sex offender” would be used instead.
Posted in Language, Misc., Society | 11 Comments »
