Thursday, June 7, 2007

JLPT 2 Kanji: 失



onyomi: シツ
kunyomi: うしな(う)、う(せる)

LOSE (something), (something is) LOST,
error, fault, disadvantage, loss, disappear

Mnemonic: It kind of looks like the 先 in 先生, so I'll remember:
The absentminded sensei is always losing シツ.

Joshi:
  • 失せる
  • 失う
Regarding 失せる:

A Google search turns up many variations of (plain form verb) + 気 + 失せる
  • 読む気が失せる
  • 買う気が失せる
  • やる気失せる
There seem to be two ways to say that you lost your appetite:
  • 食欲が失せる
  • 食べる気失せる (See this post for a discussion of losing one's appetite in the summer. The post also contains 敗, a compound meaning "failure".)
Regarding 失う:

失う is for when a person or thing loses something else. It can be a quality, an item, etc. Example sentence comes from ALC:

仕事を失う(こと)ほどストレスの大きいことは、そうそうない。

See that page for many more examples.

Compounds:

敗 しっぱい failure.

JLPTの試験に失敗しないでください!

プロジェクトは失敗するのが当たり前!? - @IT情報マネジメント

Sunday, June 3, 2007

Daily Bunshou: Fad Fire


日本では、何か流行りだすと、
火をつけたように皆同じことをしたが
るようだ。
ファッション、食べ物、持ち物。
流行しはじめると

あっという間にみんな同じものを求める。

流行り はやり fad, trend, popular thing

だす  literally: to get out. In this instance: to appear suddenly
  • When trying to exit a building in Japan, look for 出口. The same kanji, 出, goes along with だす. The feeling is that, all of a sudden, something happens. 思い出す, to remember all at once, is just one example of where だす is employed.
火をつける to ignite a fire

皆 みな everyone/everybody. (Why's it sometimes みな and sometimes みんな?)

同じ おなじ the same (opposite of 違う)

したがる  (he/she/they) want to do
  • We all know したい, right? Well, したい is for your own desire to do something. When you talk about other people's desires (third person), use 〜たがる.
  • したい ー> したがる
  • たべたい ー> たべたがる
  • さむい ー> さむがる
  • Ah, what's that last one? An adjective? That's because the 〜たい form of verbs is quite like an い-adj. Form the がる form by knocking off the い of い-adj and attaching がる.
食べ物 たべもの stuff you can eat (as opposed to 食品, which is more like ingredients)

持ち物 もちもの stuff you have, possessions

あっという間に A phrase, idiomatically meaning "quite quickly"
  • あっ - the shortest pronunciation of あ (as if cut off in the middle of vocalizing the sound)
  • と言う - say, plus the quoting particle と
  • 間に まに during, in the time when
  • あっという間に - in the time it takes to say あっ
求める もとめる to seek

Translation:

In Japan, whenever something popular comes out, it seems like everyone wants to do the same thing, as quickly as a fire starts to flame. Clothing, food, possessions. When a new fad starts, everyone goes after it before you can say "Tickle-Me Elmo."


日本人のために:
"Before you can say ___" can have anything inserted into the blank. Usually it should be appropriate to the situation. "Tickle-Me Elmo" was a very, very popular toy a few years ago, and I still remember how many people ran to the stores to get one for their children. Fads can be very dangerous things; 気をつけてね.