Almost exactly a year ago I touched a little bit upon what the textbooks don’t teach you, with examples like 中途半端 (ちゅうとはんぱ, half-assed) and ド素人 (どしろうと, newbie). There are still countless examples of this kind of real Japanese, and I’d like to get back into them here, time permitting.
For now, I’d just like to list a couple of observations about Japanese that I’ve written down in my notepad.
Similarities between Japanese and English concerning abstract uses of language
Although Japanese and English are vastly different systems of language, there are certain words that adopt similar abstract properties across the language divide. Here are a few examples, with the important words in bold:
彼の姿は闇の中に吸い込まれていった。
The man was swallowed up in darkness.
Although slightly different (’swallow up’ versus ’suck in’), there’s a similar idea that darkness is the active agent consuming an object.
母がどんなに苦しんだかと思うと心が痛む。
It pains me to think of how much my mother suffered.
Clearly, there is a similarity in mental anguish where, despite a lack of a physical property, we still describe the feeling as ‘pain’.
彼の望みは砕かれた。
He had his hopes crushed.
In both Japanese and English, hopes and desires have the potential to be crushed, despite their lack of physical properties.
Wordplay as a mnemonic device
If you’re looking for a way to remember the words for ’satellite’ and ‘hygiene/sanitation’, 衛星 and 衛生 are so similar that it’s only logical to link them together. Think of it like this – To make a good 衛星 the scientists and laboratory must maintain clean 衛生. If you’re worried about mixing up the Kanji, just remember that ’satellite’ obviously needs a sun included. Both words are pronounced えいせい.
A funny saying
英雄色を好む。
All great men are great lovers.
There’s no way I could leave that one out of the “Victory Manual”.
A funny cultural observation
I found the following sentence in the Kenkyusha ‘Green Goddess’ Japanese-English dictionary:
日本人はノックしてトイレがふさがっているかどうか確かめるが、アメリカ人はドアの下を見て確かめる。
Japanese confirm that the toilet is occupied by knocking on the door, while Americans look under the door.
That makes Americans sound so perverted! It may just be me, but I take a locked door to mean the toilet is occupied. Public toilets typically remain slightly ajar when the door is unlocked, so if it’s shut all the way we can assume that it’s occupied. Knocking seems redundant.
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Alex. This article inspired me to add a post to my blog. In fact, your post got me to learn 4 new words in less than 5 minutes. If you get a chance please take a look and tell me what you think!
Thanks, Owen.
We’re on the same page, Owen. To my wife’s chagrin (she claims that she doesn’t like おやじギャグ and other forms of word play, I don’t believe her, but that’s another story) I’ve got quite a few self-made homophonic mnemonic devices and puns:
My personal best is 端から端まで箸で使った橋を走った。[はしからはしまではしでつくったはしをはしった。] (I ran from end to end over a bridge made of chopsticks.)
Here’s another one I rather enjoyed coming up with – 東大は当代、学界の灯台だ。[とうだいはとうだい、がっかいのとうだいだ。] (Tokyo University is a lighthouse in academia of the present age.)
And, on a sillier note (and second tier as a bilingual pun), my daughter loved this one that I came up with on the spot (again, my wife wasn’t as thrilled):
Q: クモはどんな味でしょうか。
A: すっぱいだ～！
The reason why the discrepancy in the door exists is because in general, in Japan, the door used to always SLIDE closed or open, as you may have seen and experienced. Only recently did the Western version of the SWINGING door was applied domestically. Yes, you can find LARGE GATES that swing to and fro at temples and castles and such, you never found it inside homes or buildings. It’s a cultural-experience type behaviour that the Japanese always knock, because usually, nobody would leave a sliding door open in the home, especially to toilets = because the toilets in them days really stunk (septic holes, etc). Also, there is a underlying joke about the West that the Japanese sometimes utter, and that is that the West are not very good at making things fit properly, and thus the idea of the poor construction or fit and finish.