There’s a neighborhood in Kawasaki called Mizonokuchi. At first I thought it was Mi*zu*nokuchi, or literally “mouth of the water”… maybe where a creek emptied into a river, or a river into the ocean. Romantic. Poetic. Then I looked up the kanji:
溝ノ口
It turns out mizo actually means “ditch”. Mouth of the ditch.
Not so poetic.
When I first started studying Japanese I watched a lot of anime. I got hooked on the likes of Cowboy Bebop, Inuyasha, Fruits Basket, and Escaflowne, all with English subs. Some fansub groups write transliterations of song lyrics so you can sing along even if you can’t read Japanese. It can be hard to follow, though:
Nee, aishitara dare mo ga konna kodoku ni naru no?
Nee, kurayami yori mo fukai kurushimi dakishimeteru no?
Nanimo kamo ga futari kagayaku tame, kitto
Blech. I would loop the song over and over, trying to get my tongue to match the crazy mashup of letters. I went over it enough that I ended up memorizing the sounds but had no idea what I was saying.
Every once in a while after that I would go through the original lyrics and see how much I could read. The Japanese looks much prettier, by the way:
ねえ 愛したら誰もが
こんな孤独になるの?
ねえ 暗闇よりも深い苦しみ
抱きしめてるの?何もかもが二人輝くため
きっと
As the years went on I grokked more and more. Today I reached a milestone – I can read and write all of the lyrics. The last kanji to fall was 闇, or darkness. There is a whole lot more to Japanese than a single song but I still feel like I conquered a small, personal corner of the language.
Oh, I couldn’t leave you without the song! It’s the opening for Escaflowne and is called 約束はいらない or “No Need for Promises”. All of the spoilers are in the last 30 seconds if you care about that kind of thing.
The song lyrics are here, along with a translation of passable quality.
Haven’t felt much like blogging lately. I’ve been on a real study kick, trying to squeeze a bunch of new kanji and vocab into my brain. I’ve taken to tackling lists of things I think I should know – government ministries, planets, major organs. I’m discovering some neat things while I’m at it. Example: I’ve always associated Venus with love and pretty goddesses, but in Japanese the word is 金星 or “gold/money planet”. Now I picture the goddesses’ pockets overflowing with cash.
Another cool word – appendix (the one in your gut) is 盲腸 or “blind intestine”. Fitting as long as you don’t think about it too hard.
I’m not only studying lists, of course. I’m working my way through a novel and some test prep books as well as watching a bunch of tv… even getting into anime for the first time in years. The first show I’m watching is called 君に届け or “Reaching You” and is a high school love story. Exactly my sort of thing.
The second is just weird. Six hot guys are physical manifestations of stations on Tokyo’s Ooedo subway line that ride around on a “miracle train” and solve people’s problems. To see the Japanese definition of hot guys watch the intro:
The show itself is littered with facts a train nut would love. Did you know that Roppongi’s Ooedo station is the deepest in Japan at 42.3 meters (138 feet) underground? The train trivia even leaks into the characters. Shinjuku is the most visited station on the line, so Mr. Shinjuku is the most popular guy in the group. Shiodome station was the last to be completed so he’s played by what looks like a 14 year old. And so on.
I think part of me is just thrilled that I can understand most of what’s being said. It’s brain candy. Sweet, romance-soaked brain candy.
Nom.
合格（ごうかく, goukaku） means “pass”. As in, I passed level two of the JLPT, the test I failed by a few points last December. Woo! No time to rest, though – on to level one!
Photo by MrWabuSurgery went well – I love my doc and my hospital. Just about everyone in dermatology is female, really good vibes there. A couple of points I wanted to write down before I forget:
- In the States a doctor says, “This shot might sting a little bit” to get you ready. There’s usually a “might”, “maybe”, “could” or other hedge. Here in Japan my doctor said, “This is going to hurt. Prepare yourself for it.” It did and I did.
- When all was said and done the nurse held up a tiny bottle of liquid with a thing in it. “It’s your mole! Wanna look?” It’s thicker than I expected. I paled. “Guess not,” she replied.
- I learned a new word I love – 消毒 (しょうどく、shoudoku). Literally erase-poison… disinfectant. So. Cool. I love this language.
Tomorrow I go back so the doc, Fujida-sensei, can make sure it’s healing well and show me how to change the dressing. It’s a 9 am appointment so I’m planning on treating myself to a breakfast out afterwards. Tea and pastries, I’m thinking.
Today the longest total solar eclipse of the century will pass right over Japan. A few lucky people on some very remote islands will get to see the full shabang but near Tokyo we’ll still get roughly 75% totality. Not bad. That is, if we could see it. The view from my window not five minutes ago:
Can’t exactly tell from the pic but there’s rain falling, too. Ah well.
The word for solar eclipse in Japanese is 日食（にっしょく、nisshoku）. The two characters mean sun and eat/food, respectively. So… the sun is being eaten! Ahhh!
The JLPT is over and I couldn’t be more happy. I haven’t had a drink in a long time (I had to keep my mind clear to study!) so tonight it’s plum wine, knitting, and mindless tv. Woo!
Thanks for your well wishes, I think they did me some good! I’ll let you know the test results as soon as I get them… in September. Just enough time to forget I took the test in the first place. -_^
..and studying.
Adding cards to Anki, an amazing open-source flashcard program.
The Japanese Language Proficiency Test (日本語能力試験、or JLPT) is coming up in 11 days so I’ve been hitting the books pretty hard. I passed a practice test but I want to give myself some more breathing room so kanji and vocab it is.
I originally thought reading was my problem but when I looked at the questions I got wrong vocab was the actual culprit. I have kanji-based words down but all the linking words get me into trouble. You know, all those words that connect sentences, make a paragraph cohesive… and get tested on.
Luckily I found a book in the Kanzen Master series that covers all of those annoying important points. I also got a kanji workbook that I work through during my breaks at work. This weekend I’ll take another practice test and see exactly how much good all of this has done.
~Karla cracks open a book with one hand while holding a cup of tea in the other~
Now that I’m typing more Japanese I’m finding I make different kinds of typos. In English I mostly make letter order mistakes, such as liek for like. Every once in a while I make a “visual” typo like replacing a p with a b.
Here’s a Japanese phrase I was trying to punch in just a few minutes ago:
じょし せいと (joshiseito) – female student
There are many, many places this can go wrong:
transposition/the dyslexic ‘oops’ – swap the syllables in joshi (女子, female) and you get shijo (子女, child)
long vs. short vowels – lengthen the short to of seito (生徒, student) and you get seitou (政党, political party) or seitou (正答, correct answer) or… well, have a look.
The most disturbing typo I make is the aural mistake. The Japanese “alphabet” is a phonetic system. Voiced and unvoiced sounds can look similar.
ひ – hi
び – bi
ぴ – pi
They’re all basically the same sound–the way the tongue and lips move changes the way it comes out.
Typo-wise this creates some really weird mistakes. In my mind I’m saying the right thing but my fingers don’t obey. Here I made じょし(joshi, female) into しょし(shoshi, 書誌, bibliography).
I consider myself a visual person but for whatever reason when I type Japanese my internal ears fail me. What kind of typos do you find yourself making?