What Day Is It Today?

I didn't expect to be able to study Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I also didn't expect to get laid up with a sinus infection. The 26th, I could not think, let alone study. I'm a bit dazed, but I was at least able to eke out a little studying time today.

I studied for an hour and a half, reading a random blog entry and doing Anki (flashcards), and then chatting online with a Japanese friend (in romaji). I also spent 2 hours at least watching an anime (Rurouni Kenshin) and then started watching Kagemusha.

1st Day: 3 Hours

I studied approx. 3 hours today, copying out sentences, doing a Japanesepod101 lesson, and plugging new and old words into Anki and doing the flashcards.

New words/expressions:

いい気味 - literally, "good feeling," but it's what you say to yourself when someone you don't like gets what was coming to them. Kind of a smug "that's right."

無視する - to ignore

Daily Japanese Phrase: 注意

注意を払う

Look for the (once again familiar) translation and the hiragana in the comments.

Daily Japanese Phrase: 発明

必要は発明の母

For the surprisingly-familiar English translation, please see the comments below. Also below is the hiragana.

Daily Japanese Phrase: について

学校で日本語試験についての説明を受けた。

Hiragana and translation are in the comments below.

Daily Japanese Phrase: 期限

いつも期限ぎりぎりまで宿題を引きのばしにする。

(Hiragana and translation are in the comments below.)

JLPT 2 Kanji: 失

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:

• 〜が失せる
• 〜を失う

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 失敗, 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:

失敗 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

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.

Daily Bunshou: Backwoods Bloodshed

昨日、畑にカラスが死んでいたから たぶん、ハトがカラスに勝ったのだと思う。
母の愛は、強し？！かな。
でも、すっごく、ローカルな話。

畑（はたけ）- field

死ぬ（しぬ）- to die

昨日（きのう）- yesterday

勝つ（かつ）- to win

思う（おもう）- to think

母の愛（ははのあい）maternal love

強し（つよし）strong

すっごく（＝すごく）very

• The っ shows a more intense degree. Like when we, in English, elongate "very" into "verrrrrry".

ローカル - Japanese English for rural, country, etc.

Translation:

Yesterday, there was a dead crow in a nearby field, and so I think the pigeon might have won. A mother's love is strong, I guess... Anyway, this is a terribly backwoods story!



日本人のために：In English, we have several words to describe places outside the cities which lack sophistication. It's sad that Japanese chose to import "local." Local usually means "from this place," so if you use it when talking about Tokyo, it means city-like, not country-like. Here are some other words for 田舎：

1. backwoods (a backwoods town)
2. the sticks (I live in the sticks)
3. the boonies (I live way out in the boonies)
4. the boondocks (see above)
5. the country (see above)　　...probably the most useful. Instead of saying "It's so local" or "It's so countryside," please say this: "It's really country." Americans will understand you perfectly.

JLPT 2 Kanji: 似

似

onyomi: ジ
kunyomi: に(る), ひ(る), にた

RESEMBLE, becoming, imitate, look like

Mnemonic:
it looks near-ly the same as the other

Joshi (particle):
___に似る = is similar to ___

Google:
マイフィギュア「My Figure」 どれくらい似るの？

ALC:
飼い主に似る - resemble the owner
Funny how we think dog/pet owners begin to resemble their pets, yet in Japanese it seems opposite.

Common compounds:

• 疑似 [ぎじ]
  (n,pref) suspected; pseudo; sham; quasi; false; mock
  
• 酷似 [こくじ]
  (n,vs) resemblance; resemble
• 似顔 [にがお]
  (n) portrait; likeness
  
• 似顔絵 [にがおえ]
  (n) portrait; likeness
• 似合う [にあう]
  (v5u) to suit; to match; to become; to be like
  
• 似通う [にかよう]
  (v5u) to resemble closely
  
• 真似 [まね]
  (n) mimicry; imitation; behavior; pretense
  
• 真似る [まねる]
  (v1) to mimic; to imitate
  
• 相似 [そうじ]
  (n) resemblance; similarity; analogy
  
• 類似 [るいじ]
  (n) analogous

真似しないで is like "Stop copying me!" Say it when somebody repeats what you say. I've heard it many times (I'm a born copycat?), but Google says 真似ないで is more popular. Hmmm...

Daily Bunshou: Birdfight

うちの庭には大きな木が一本あって、そこにはハトの巣がある。近所のおじさんいわく、先日、カラスがハトの巣の中ある卵を食べようとして、ハトの親とけんかになったそうだ。

うち - home

庭（にわ）- garden

一本　(いっぽん）one (long, thin, cylindrical thing). Refers to the tree here.

ハト（鳩）- pigeon

• Note: this is in katakana instead of kanji. Why? A common excuse I hear is that the kanji for certain animals is hard to remember. Then, why not hiragana, since these are native Japanese words? It's just a mystery we shall have to accept. Same goes for ネコ and other animal names.

巣（す）- nest

• You can almost see this one in the kanji. Above the tree (木) is a box of sticks with a few sticking out.

近所（きんじょ）- neighborhood.

• Made of 近い (near, nearby) and 所 (ところ, place).

いわく - say, report

• This is different from 言う. It's a little older, a little more formal, and it indicates a statement from an authority. It's a little humorous in this situation to use this word. It's practically archaic, like "Confucius say, weather today is nice."

先日（せんじつ）- the other day (vague)

卵（たまご）- egg

食べようとして - tried to eat, seemed to be trying to eat

親（おや）- parent(s)

Translation:

In my garden there is a tree, and in that tree is a nest of pigeons. An old man who lives nearby imparted to me that, the other day, he saw a crow trying to eat the eggs inside the pigeons' nest, but then it seemed that the mommy and daddy pigeon fought with the crow.

JLPT 2 Kanji: 歯

歯

onyomi: シ
kunyomi: は、よわ(い)、よわい、よわい(する)

TOOTH, teeth, cog

common use: 歯を磨く、to brush one's teeth

ALC
目には目を、歯には歯を
An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
-How nice that we can translate that sentiment...

Blogsearch

アメリカ生まれのホワイトニング歯磨き、
「スーパースマイル 」のサンプルが届きました♪

"A sample of the American-made whitening paste 'Supersmile' has found its way into my hands♪"

Compounds

• 歯医者 [はいしゃ]
  (n) dentist
  
• 歯科 [しか]
  (n) dentistry
  
• 歯向う [はむかう] or 歯向かう [はむかう]
  (v5u) to strike back at; to bite back; to turn on; to rise against; to oppose; to defy
  
• 歯止め [はどめ]
  (n) brake
  
• 歯車 [はぐるま]
  (n) gear; cog-wheel
  
• 歯切れ [はぎれ]
  (n) the feel when biting; manner of enunciation
  
• 歯痒い [はがゆい]
  (adj) impatient; tantalized; chagrined; vexed
  
• 虫歯 [むしば]
  (n) cavity; tooth decay; decayed tooth
  

Some of these are really interesting. A cavity is a bug in the teeth (虫歯). The feel of biting into something (歯切れ) must be one of those senses that the Japanese passionately enjoy about eating.

I need more detail on some of these.

向かう means face, go towards. So, facing with teeth is a strike back? A blogsearch got me here:

歯向かうのとは違うけど、従順であることをやめる。

"It's not really that I'm striking back, but I am ceasing to be obedient." [TN: This blog looks really personal...]

歯切れ looks like a good vocab word for speaking about your 発音 (pronunciation). From ALC:

歯切れが悪い - being unclear, slurring one's words [what we do]

歯切れの良い話し方 - articulate way of speaking [what we aspire to do]

Okay, that'll do it for a first JLPT 2 post.

Daily Bunshou: A Different Time

今日の朝は時差ぼけで、９時半まで寝ていました。
隣りに住んでいる弟一家が遊びに来て、一緒に昼ごはんを食べに行きました。

時差ぼけ（じさぼけ）jet lag. Break down the kanji, and you get "time difference." I'm not sure about the ぼけ part.

９時半（くじはん）9:30

隣り（となり）next to, next door, neighboring

住む（すむ）to live (at/in a place, house, city, country)

弟（おとうと）younger brother

一家（いっか）a family, one family

弟一家 - the brother and his family

遊びに来る（あそびにくる）to come to play/hang out

• 遊ぶ does not mean literally "to play" in the context of two adult friends getting together. Then, it means to spend time pleasantly with.

一緒（いっしょ）に - together (with)

食べに行く（たべにいく）to go to eat

• an elegant and effective way to join two actions together: ＿＿に行く or ＿＿に来る mean to go to __ or to come to ___. Use the -masu stem of the first verb; the -masu stem is the way the verb is conjugated for polite speech (遊ぶー＞遊びます) minus the ます.

Translation:

Because I was jet-lagged, I slept until 9:30. My brother and his family, who live next door, came over, and we went to get lunch.

Daily Bunshou: See, You Have To Be Careful You Set the Alarm for AM, not PM...

昨夜は徹夜で仕事をした。朝起きたら、11時5分前だった。やっちゃった！国際便は、出発2時間前までに、搭乗口に着いていなければならないのに、もう間に合わないかも。最悪だ!

昨夜　さくや - last night. Much more elegant than 昨日の夜.

徹夜　てつや - all night. Note the same kanji as above, but different reading.

仕事　しごと - work

朝起きたら　あさおきたら - たら indicates supposition, 朝, morning, and 起き, waking up.

やっちゃった！ - Done! や reminds me of やる"to do" and ちゃった is the progressive stative casual form (or something)

• The connotation here is "Oh no! I did it!" "It's done and can't be undone!"

国際便　こくさいびん - international flights

出発　しゅっぱつ - departure

搭乗口　とうじょうぐち - point of departure

間に合わない まにあわない - negative form of the verb "to make it" (on time)

最悪だ！　さいあく - the worst evar

Translation:

I stayed up all night working last night. When I was supposed to wake up early, it was 5 minutes to 11. I can't believe it! For international flights, you must always arrive at the terminal two hours before takeoff, and I can't even make that. This is the worst!

Daily Bunshou: Get Down to Business

お客様へのお知らせ
平素は大変お世話になっております。
さて、急ではございますが、弊社の提供するサービスに関し、今年２００７年７月１日付で変更がございます。

お客様 - customer

• In Japan, traditionally, the customer is God. Seriously. This doesn't mean you can walk out of their store with whatever you want for hyakuen, but it means you leave feeling like you own the place.

お知らせ - notice

平素 - ordinarily, in the past

大変 - serious, diffficult

• What a useful word. Use it whenever you want to comiserate with someone:
  「まだ仕事がある。」
  “大変ですね。”

お世話 - aid, assistance

お世話になっております - Thank you for your help.

• Incredibly common business phrase, found at the top of almost every formal letter, email, conversation, etc.

さて - This acts as a marker for when the real content of the letter begins.

急 - sudden, urgent, steep

• Note: same kanji as in 急ぐ

弊社 - this company

• This is a lowering of the company, because the notice is directed to the almighty Customer. Rikaichan-users: if you hover your mouse over the word, then hit shift, you can see the meaning of the first kanji is quite low.

提供する - to offer, to tender

に関して - like について, it means regarding

７月１日 - ひちがつ　いっぴ

付で - "as of"

変更 - change, alteration

Translation:

A Notice for Our Most Highly-Valued Customers:
Thank you for your generous support in the past...
Now, to get down to business. I know this is sudden, but, as of July 1, there will be a change in our company's service.

Daily Bunshou: A Hard Guard

甲：山本君は敏子さんのこと、どう思っているの？

乙：気になる存在。一度デートに誘ってみたい、と思っているところ。

甲：ふーん。彼女一見遊び人のように見えるけど、割とガードが固いよ。

君 - male suffix, casual, diminutive

山本君は - (so, who do you think Yamamoto is? A? B? C? See below for the answer.)

気になる - be on one's mind

存在 - existence

気になる存在 - irresistible, inevitable, you cannot just pass (this person) by

一度 - if there's a chance/opportunity

誘う - invite, court, woo, call on, ask someone out, lure, seduce

と - you use と here to mark what you are thinking, like a quotation mark or thought bubble

思っているところ - thinking right now.

• ところ doesn't mean place here, or not in a literal sense. With verbs, tokoro indicates the closeness of the action to the present time. It refers to the state of the action, whether it is just past, current, or just about to happen, and it emphasizes this. Here, used with the present progressive, it means he is in the middle of thinking (something). Depending on context and the tense of the verb, ところ also means having just done something or being just about to do something. More on this at JapanesePod101.
  

ふーん - hmmm...

一見 - at first blush

遊び人 - a person who is not serious

割と - relatively

ガードが固い - to be well-defended, so as to let nothing in, to have one's guard up at all times

Translation:

甲: Say, what do you think about Toshiko?

Yamamoto: I can't stop thinking we should date. Right now I'm thinking, just once, I want to ask her out.

甲: Ohhh. You know, at first she looks so carefree and easygoing, but actually, she's a tough nut to crack, relatively speaking.

Daily Bunshou: Don't Go to Phoenix

(フェニックスの砂漠にて)

甲：どうやら道に迷ったようだ。

乙：もう水がない。このまま救助を待っていても、共倒れだ。

甲：どちらか元気な方が砂漠を歩いて、助けを呼びに行こう。

砂漠 - desert

にて - Another shortening; it stands for に於いて, which means at or in (a place).

どうやら...ようだ - it seems like, looks like, appears to be...

• You might know the よう formation from your textbooks, but did you know that Japanese often put どうやら at the front of the sentence, too? They also join どうやら to sentences with みたい (in the sense of "looks like").

道に迷った - to be lost, to have lost one's way.

このまま - as is.

• This is an example of one way to use まま. The verb form is slightly more difficult.

救助 - relief, aid, rescue

〜ても - however much one _(verb)_s, ____. An expression of helplessness.

共倒れ - mutual destruction, neither one reaching the goal, failing together

どちらか - whichever of us

• Note this does not refer to a place or direction but to the speakers themselves.

助けを呼ぶ - to cry/call for help

〜に行く - to go to ___

• 映画を見に行く - to go to see a movie

Translation:

(In the desert of Phoenix:)

A: Looks like we're lost.

B: Already, our water's gone. At this rate, no matter how long we wait for help, we're both goners.

A: Whoever's the stronger of us should walk through the desert and go get some help.

Daily Bunshou: A Geek Freaks Out

甲：伊藤君って知ってる？
乙：うん。あのコンピュータおたくの人のこと？
甲：そう。彼って短気で、すぐキレる。
乙：へえ、意外。一見、おとなしそうにみえるのに．．．

君 - くん - suffix for relatively young men (usually)

• This kanji, when used not after a name, can mean "you." It's then pronounced きみ and is either a very casual or a demeaning way to refer to someone. You can hear it used all the time in anime, such as in one of my favorites, Hikaru no Go. Hikaru and others in the Go organization refer to their subordinates or rivals as "きみ". Hikaru himself, rude boy that he is, frequently uses オマエ, and very inappropriately, too.

って - quotation mark

• In this case, って means "about." It's shorthand for について, which means "about."

コンピュータおたく - computer otaku, computer freak, nerd, etc.

短気 - quick temper

キレる - to cut well, to be cut, to snap

• This word in kanji is 切れる. Why, then, did our 文章 writer choose to use katakana? "It's more casual."
• What's being cut? Why, the string that Itou holds his patience with! See this bunshou for more on the 忍耐の緒 idiom.
  

意外 - unexpected

一見 - at first glance

おとなしそう - looks nice, looks docile, looks quiet

• 大人しい is "obedient, docile, quiet." Adding そう (and dropping the extra い from this い-adjective) creates a sense of appearance. You'll hear this constantly in 「おいしそう！」, referring to the appearance of deliciousness, as opposed to おいしい, which is said after you've already tasted it and confirmed the appearance.
• 大人 means "adult." 大人しい perhaps comes from the word for "adult." But perhaps not. True Japanese people do not speculate about the origins of their words, even if the sounds and the kanji are the same! I would love to do some heavy research on this, but I'm still somewhat too weak to read the material online. There is some discussion about it here.
  
• A similar-sounding word: 音無し, "silence, wait and see". This combines the kanji for sound 音 with the word for without 無し, literally meaning "without a sound." However similar, 音無 is completely unrelated to 大人しい.
  

みえる - to seem. Also the spelling of the potential form of 見る.

のに - although, but yet, in spite of (this is beginning to intermediate grammar, and I'm not quite sure how to use it yet)

Translation:

A: Do you know about Itou?

B: That computer geek? Sure.

A: About that guy... he's got a really short temper. He can just snap, like that!

B: Really? That's weird. And he looks so quiet and good-natured on the surface...

Notes:

1. 甲 and 乙 are traditional ways the Japanese can indicate Speaker A and Speaker B. I've seen it done in my Japanese class as ア and イ, but maybe that's because a lot of the students are uncomfortable with kanji.
2. You might have noticed that my translations are not word-for-word. That's because I hope to have as many Japanese natives as English-speakers reading these Daily Bunshous. A word-for-word translation is not useful to people learning English. For example, let's look at a word-for-word translation of the last line of dialogue: "Oh, (that's) unexpected. Although, upon first glance, (he) seems quiet..." That's terrible English. I hope that Japanese speakers can get a lot out of my translations, even if they are hard to understand. Plus, I try to carry the connotation of the original into the English, so Japanese learners can understand the general feeling.
   

Daily Bunshou: Small Talk with a Visitor

ア：こんにちは、ごぶさたしてまーす。元気でしたか？
イ：えー　まあまあ。
ア：だいぶ暑く
ってきましたね。日本では夏先取りの暑さ、だって聞きました。ところで、日本では今、何がはやっていますか？

ごぶさたしています - ご無沙汰しています - neglecting to stay in contact

• a little more formal than ひさしぶり, but you can use it in business, between friends, anytime except very formal occasions

だいぶ(ん) - 大分 - considerably, comparatively more (when something has gone up a level, like the heat)

暑い - hot (weather, NOT FOOD)
暑さ - heat (noun, used for weather, NOT FOOD)

なってくる - to become

• kuru is used here not in the sense of coming but in the sense of becoming, thus emphasizing the change in state

夏 - summer

夏先取り - early summer

• 先取り means "取りtaking" + "先first," or receiving in advance. Therefore, this word means taking in summer in advance)

ところで - by the way (an easy way to change the subject)

はやる - 流行る - to flourish, to thrive, to be popular/in fashion

Translation:

A: Hi! It's been a while, hasn't it? How've you been?
B: Well, pretty good, I guess.
A: It's getting really hot recently, isn't it. I heard that in Japan summer's coming early. Sooo, what's new in Japan these days?

Daily Bunshou: The Way of Yogurt

ヨーグルトの作り方
まずお鍋に牛乳を１L入れトロ火で６５Cになるまで温める。６５Cになったら火を止め、３７Cまでさます。（５月９につづく...）

方 - way. Used with verbs: 読み方: the way to read

まず - first, at first

お鍋 - pot (another example of selective honorifics: it's o-nabe, gohan, etc., because they are so highly valued in Japanese lives?)

牛乳 - milk

トロ火 - low flame, low heat

温める - to heat up ___, transitive verb. (this is the word that the コンビ二 clerks use when you try to buy the convenience-store gyoza from them: 「温めますか」. Don't be frightened, they just want to know if you'll let them heat it up for you. Say yes, unless you like yourr gyoza cold.)

さます - to cool (can also be used for spirits, in the sense of "put a damper on")

つづく - to continue. I couldn't make the kanji for this one because my keyboard wouldn't let me make a "zu" out of a "tsu." but here's the kanji, copied from JEDict: 続. Note the left-hand radical 糸, which, on its own, means "thread." When you continue something, you follow a thread... こんな感じ？

Translation:

Yogurt recipe:
First, pour one liter of milk into a pot. Then, over low heat, warm it up to 65 degrees Celsius. Cut the heat when the milk reaches 65 degrees, and let it cool down to 37 degrees. (Continued May 9th...)