For Every Grain of Rice You Waste, a Farmer Sheds a Tear

I just read an excellent Japanese-instructional post about もったいない and 申し訳ない. The author then relates what her parents used to say when she would be wasteful (もったいない) and not finish her rice. They would say

「お百姓様に申し訳ない」

That is, they would apologize very politely to the farmer (who had worked so hard to harvest those grains).

This reminded me that, while in Japan, a fellow expat gaijin told me the adage that is the title of this blogpost. Thus, I try never to spill rice when I'm pouring it, and I always try to finish every grain.

(... even though I have no idea if this is an actual saying or not.)

補 - SUPPLEMENT Your Clothing and Cover That Rip

Readings & Meanings:

おぎな（う）

ホ

to supply, to compensate, to supplement

Common Usage:

補う

補給

補聴器

Examples:

ポットのお湯が少なくなってきたので、水を補っておいた。

ポットのお湯が少なくなってきたので、水を補給しておいた。

耳が遠くなってきたので補聴器を買った。

Translations:

I refilled the water in the pot because it was getting low.

I refilled the water in the pot because it was getting low.

Because I was started to lose my hearing, I bought a hearing aid.

Radical:

Koromo-hen on the left. 衣 gets squished into that shape. It's not the same as the radical in 礼, which is a squishing of 示. You can tell because Koromo-hen has one extra tail on the right: see below in red.


甫 on the right is a phonetic element. It shows a field with a seedling growing up out of it. One seedling. The field looks empty, so you get the sense of the field being big. Therefore, this element adds a sense of wide, spread-out.

How can we put 衣 and 甫 together and get the idea of "compensate" and "supplement"?

Think of a piece of clothing, spread out. Why is it spread out? Because there's a hole in it that you need to repair. Add/overlay another piece of cloth to patch it up. You're thereby supplementing that piece of clothing.

A stretch? Perhaps. But that's Kanji Networks's idea.

Bonus: Far Ears

耳が遠い is kind of an elegant way of saying someone is hard of hearing. If their "ears are far," it's understandable that they ask you to speak louder.

References:

http://www.kanjinetworks.com/indices/radindex.html
http://www.thejapanesepage.com/node/kanji/o.htm

Japanese Idiom: Something's Wrong with My Ki...

Get it?

Look at the kanji.

What's wrong with it? Other than having been drawn by a 外国人.

長いですね。だから、気が長い。

き が ながい is an idiom for having a lot of patience. You can use it when your friend buys a Bonzai tree kit, or in the negative when you go to a Japanese post office.