Category: Japanese (日本語)

Mobile novels

By Simon

Recently the first Mobile Phone Novel Awards were held in Japan. The winner was a woman from Osaka, whose novel concerns a love affair between a schoolgirl and a gigolo. You can see a Japanese version of the report here. The Japanese have apparently been reading novels and manga on their phones for a few years, though this is the first time I’ve heard of this phenomenon. Some of the authors of these novels apparently write them entirely or partly on their phones as well, which must lead to very sore thumbs!

I think such novels are quite popular in China, but do you know if they have caught on elsewhere?

Have any of you read a mobile novel like this? Are they written in a different style to printed books?

Japanese for kids

By Simon

The son of one of my friends has decided that he wants to learn Japanese and his parents have asked me if I can recommend any suitable courses for him. I thought of the Talk Now! series, but they only teach you a limited number of words and phrases, and the lad, who’s 10 years old, wants to learn more than that. I also suggested Pimsleur.

Have you any suggestions?

Nihongo

By Simon

This morning I had a long chat on Skype with a Japanese lass from somewhere near Tokyo. We talked in a mixture of Japanese and English, and I was pleased to discover that I can still speak Japanese, inspite of many years of neglect. There are many words I’ve forgotten, and I tend to get the word order wrong sometimes, but I can still communicate, and it was starting to come back to me slowly as we talked.

今朝は私がスカイプで日本の女性としゃべた。私たちは日本語と英語に話した。彼女はイギリスに二年の間に英語を勉強しただから、英語が上手だ。私は大学を卒業後、日本語を話す機会が少なかったたから、今は日本語が下手になる、然し今でも日本語に通信することが出来ます。

Word of the day – 嵐 (arashi)

By Simon

嵐 (arashi), noun = storm

Examples of usage

嵐が来そうです (arashi ga kisō desu)
It looks as if a storm is going to come

嵐が治まりました (arashi ga osamarimashita)
The storm abated

男たちは嵐の夜に出てきました
(otokotachi wa arashi no yoru ni detekimashita
The men went out on a stormy night

This character is a compound of two characters: on top there’s a mountain (山 – yama) and under that there’s the character for wind (風 – kaze). Storms are common in the mountains, so this combination makes sense. Knowing the meanings of the individual parts of compound characters like this can help you to remember them.

In Mandarin this character is pronounced làn means mountain mist, mountain haze, mountain vapor or mist.

Another, more common, Japanese word for storm is 暴風 (bōfū)

Word of the day – 風

By Simon

風 (kaze, fū), noun = wind, breeze, air, appearance, manner, bearing, atmosphere

Examples of usage
強い風がふている (tsuyoi kaze ga futeiru) = There’s a strong wind blowing – this is certainly true of Brighton today, hence my choice of this word.

どこからともなく風が花の香りを運んできた　(doko kara tomo naku kaze ga hana no kaori o hakondekita) = The fragrance of flowers was bourne on the spring breeze

Compounds with 風
台風 (taifū) typhoon
扇風機 (senpūki) electric fan
風潮 (fūchō) tide, trend, tendency
風俗 (fūzoku) manners, customs, public morals
風景 (fūkei) scenery, landscape, view
風車 (kazaguruma) windmill
神風 (kamikaze) divine wind, kamikaze

In Mandarin this character is pronounced fēng and has more or less the same meanings. The simplified version of the character is 风

Word of the day – 自動販売機

By Simon

jidohanbaiki - Japanese vending machines

自動販売機 (jidōhanbaiki),
noun = vending machine

Breaking this word down into its compontent parts we get:
自動 (jidō) automatic (self move);
販売 (hanbai) selling;
機 (ki) machine.

This word can also be shortened to 自販機 (jihanki), which demostrates a typical method of abbreviating words in Japanese: you get rid of the second character in each pair.

Vending machines are ubiquitous in Japan – everywhere you look you’ll see one, or a whole bank of them, even on top of mountains! They sell an incredible variety of things, including hot and cold food, drinks (tea, coffee, beer, whiskey, etc), flowers, clothes, cigarettes, rice, eggs, jewellery, videos and comic books. According to Wikipedia, there’s one vending machine for every 23 people in Japan.

Related words
自動ドア (jidōdoa) = automatic door
自動車 (jidōsha) = car – in Chinese a car is 汽車 (qìchē) lit. “spirit cart”
自動操縦装置 (jidōsōjūsōchi) = autopilot