日曜日, 4月 29, 2007
My namesake in action
You have to check out this mash-up game video, hilarious entitled "Fuck Yo Mushroom Kingdom, Nigga", created in the M.U.G.E.N engine and featuring the original bad-ass gaijin visitor with a problem communicating.
土曜日, 4月 28, 2007
Days of the week
One of the great curios of learning Japanese, for me at least, was the similarity in the naming of the days of the week in Japanese and English:
I couldn't understand how this might have occurred unless by Japan adopting new names for the days of the week, and presumably a western style seven day week along with all the other things it took up during Meiji.
Well, as it happens the story is more interesting. The Japanese calendar is, surprise surprise, based on the Chinese calendar. The Chinese calendar is itself the product of a Babylonian influence on pretty much the whole world. The Babylonian seven day week, probably born from the 28 day lunar cycle and the need by early agrarian societies to meet to trade, was named after the seven bodies in the sky that were visible, ie the sun, moon and five planets.
In English this got corrupted as certain days of the week were re-associated with Norse gods, for example Thursday = Thor's Day, Friday = Freya's Day; but the sun and moon remained.
In Japanese, from Chinese, the relationships for the rest of the week are:
The observant might spot that these relationships are like the elements, and that's about it; in Chinese mythology the planets are associated with elements - for example the planet Saturn is associated with the element earth. Which is, lo and behold, found to be doyoubi, or Saturn's Day = Saturday.
On a related note, in written form the days in Japanese usually omit the you bit of the days of the week, so 土日、日日 etc would be common. This 曜(you) bit is a little odd as while in Japanese its use is limited to the meaning discussed here, in Chinese it means 'pretty bird' or something along those lines.
NOTE: this is predominantly pieced together from Wikipedia (here and here), which as we all know is an entirely unreliable source, but as the facts seem to hold together from various entries, and bare out a logical consideration of the facts, I'm content that in this instance it seems reasonable.
日曜日(nichi-youbi) literally translates as sun-day
月曜日(getsu-youbi) is moon-day, or Monday
(the bi bit is the part used for sun, one sun being a day, naturally)
I couldn't understand how this might have occurred unless by Japan adopting new names for the days of the week, and presumably a western style seven day week along with all the other things it took up during Meiji.
Well, as it happens the story is more interesting. The Japanese calendar is, surprise surprise, based on the Chinese calendar. The Chinese calendar is itself the product of a Babylonian influence on pretty much the whole world. The Babylonian seven day week, probably born from the 28 day lunar cycle and the need by early agrarian societies to meet to trade, was named after the seven bodies in the sky that were visible, ie the sun, moon and five planets.
In English this got corrupted as certain days of the week were re-associated with Norse gods, for example Thursday = Thor's Day, Friday = Freya's Day; but the sun and moon remained.
In Japanese, from Chinese, the relationships for the rest of the week are:
火曜日 (ka-youbi) or fire-day = Tuesday
水曜日 (sui) or water-day = Wednesday
木曜日 (moku) or wood-day = Thursday
金曜日 (kin) or metal/gold-day = Friday
土曜日 (do) or earth-day = Saturday
The observant might spot that these relationships are like the elements, and that's about it; in Chinese mythology the planets are associated with elements - for example the planet Saturn is associated with the element earth. Which is, lo and behold, found to be doyoubi, or Saturn's Day = Saturday.
On a related note, in written form the days in Japanese usually omit the you bit of the days of the week, so 土日、日日 etc would be common. This 曜(you) bit is a little odd as while in Japanese its use is limited to the meaning discussed here, in Chinese it means 'pretty bird' or something along those lines.
NOTE: this is predominantly pieced together from Wikipedia (here and here), which as we all know is an entirely unreliable source, but as the facts seem to hold together from various entries, and bare out a logical consideration of the facts, I'm content that in this instance it seems reasonable.
木曜日, 4月 26, 2007
On the JLPT trail (again)
It's the front half of the year still, so time to make some vague promises to myself to get JLPT3 again. That'll be four years then...
This time I have a half-assed agreement with my buddy Rach to work together to achieve this. Not a bad idea. In keeping with my way of doing these things, my study buddy is in Japan - well, she is at the moment - I think she returns soon after two years over there.
I'm going to be interested in this as she won't be living near me, but we are going to be wokring together to achieve our goal. Collaborative learning online is the sort of thing that usually gets me exercised at Learning Rocks, but it will be interesting to see if I can bring a newbie along with me - I mean, she doesn't even have a blog...
This time I have a half-assed agreement with my buddy Rach to work together to achieve this. Not a bad idea. In keeping with my way of doing these things, my study buddy is in Japan - well, she is at the moment - I think she returns soon after two years over there.
I'm going to be interested in this as she won't be living near me, but we are going to be wokring together to achieve our goal. Collaborative learning online is the sort of thing that usually gets me exercised at Learning Rocks, but it will be interesting to see if I can bring a newbie along with me - I mean, she doesn't even have a blog...
火曜日, 4月 24, 2007
Kana or Romaji - that is the question
Tony (my muse it would seem) posits a valuable question about learning Japanese in his most recent entry.
Is it better to study wholly in the target language, using only kana and kanji, or is it more effective to rely on the prop of romaji (spelling Japanese words in Latin alphabet).
My old chum Olly, now a resident of west Tokyo, seemed to work by this rule. He worked heavily in romaji and this meant that he was often waiting for me to catch up when we studied for JLPT4.
On the other hand, Nigel, a friend from Japan (I met him there - obviously with a name like that he isn't actually from Japan), swears blind that you should work wholly in kana if you want to make the breakthrough.
On a personal level, I feel it is hard working with kana. Counter-intuitively, it became much easier for me once I started learning enough kanji. Kanji allow you to make sense of a sentence far more quickly than is possible in kana. Consider this simple line:
Below the kana the romaji interpretation on the other hand is instantly recognisable - three decades of decoding the characters means I don't have to think for one second what is being said. The act of reading does not present a barrier for me.
But does it help me "get in the Japanese frame of mind"? Moreover, would relying on the romaji slow up my development of the ability to read effectively in Japanese. I think the answer to this second question would overwhelmingly have to be yes - but it depends very much on what you are trying to achieve.
Nigel studied Japanese at university. His aim was academic attainment and he would be tested on his written as well as spoken ability. It was imperative that he develop his skills on all fronts. Olly, by contrast, had little need for written language skills - he needed the language to speak to his wife, or more importantly to his in-laws.
My situation, much as I fantasise about being able to take up a bilingual position in a Japanese company, is much closer to Olly's. Perhaps I should take a leaf out of his book (he is, after all, a PhD) and ditch the kana and kanji and focus on building the vocab the easy way.
I look forward to following Tony's progress and seeing how he does and how he begins to benefit from the intermediate boost when you start being able to apply more kanji. Maybe in a few weeks (at the rate he is learning) we'll see. I'm curious to find out.
Is it better to study wholly in the target language, using only kana and kanji, or is it more effective to rely on the prop of romaji (spelling Japanese words in Latin alphabet).
My old chum Olly, now a resident of west Tokyo, seemed to work by this rule. He worked heavily in romaji and this meant that he was often waiting for me to catch up when we studied for JLPT4.
On the other hand, Nigel, a friend from Japan (I met him there - obviously with a name like that he isn't actually from Japan), swears blind that you should work wholly in kana if you want to make the breakthrough.
On a personal level, I feel it is hard working with kana. Counter-intuitively, it became much easier for me once I started learning enough kanji. Kanji allow you to make sense of a sentence far more quickly than is possible in kana. Consider this simple line:
私は英国人です。The top line, with its kanji, has some shape and texture, and with a little familiarity with the few kanji are instantly recognisable. The second line is all very samey and this problem is accentuated by the fact Japanese doesn't have spaces between words (though often they are when using kana).
わたしはえいこくじんです。
Watashi wa Eikokujin desu.
(I am British)
Below the kana the romaji interpretation on the other hand is instantly recognisable - three decades of decoding the characters means I don't have to think for one second what is being said. The act of reading does not present a barrier for me.
But does it help me "get in the Japanese frame of mind"? Moreover, would relying on the romaji slow up my development of the ability to read effectively in Japanese. I think the answer to this second question would overwhelmingly have to be yes - but it depends very much on what you are trying to achieve.
Nigel studied Japanese at university. His aim was academic attainment and he would be tested on his written as well as spoken ability. It was imperative that he develop his skills on all fronts. Olly, by contrast, had little need for written language skills - he needed the language to speak to his wife, or more importantly to his in-laws.
My situation, much as I fantasise about being able to take up a bilingual position in a Japanese company, is much closer to Olly's. Perhaps I should take a leaf out of his book (he is, after all, a PhD) and ditch the kana and kanji and focus on building the vocab the easy way.
I look forward to following Tony's progress and seeing how he does and how he begins to benefit from the intermediate boost when you start being able to apply more kanji. Maybe in a few weeks (at the rate he is learning) we'll see. I'm curious to find out.
水曜日, 4月 11, 2007
A true challenge
I struggle with Japanese. Not so much the language itself, it's fairly logical, though I'd be the first to suggest I'm not so good at it.
No, I struggle to make the time for the study it requires. I labour and tussle with my time and never seem to make time for what is arguably the most important change I could make to my domestic arrangements. In this I suffer in learning the vital parts of the language that I need to be able to communicate - my vocabulary is terrible and without it, for all my understanding of the various tenses and conjugations, I understand very little of it.
In all my time (about six years now) I have only achieved the very modest level of JLPT4. Pathetic.
So it is some admiration that I look at my friend Tony of Englishman in Japan fame who is just now embarking on a crash course in Japanese at university in Kanazawa. He is expected to reach JLPT2 this year. A chum from my time in Japan, Nigel, struggled to get 2-kyuu after a year of living there, and four years of study at university here in the UK, so I appreciate it is one hell of a challenge that Tony has had thrown at him.
I'll be watching his progress closely.
No, I struggle to make the time for the study it requires. I labour and tussle with my time and never seem to make time for what is arguably the most important change I could make to my domestic arrangements. In this I suffer in learning the vital parts of the language that I need to be able to communicate - my vocabulary is terrible and without it, for all my understanding of the various tenses and conjugations, I understand very little of it.
In all my time (about six years now) I have only achieved the very modest level of JLPT4. Pathetic.
So it is some admiration that I look at my friend Tony of Englishman in Japan fame who is just now embarking on a crash course in Japanese at university in Kanazawa. He is expected to reach JLPT2 this year. A chum from my time in Japan, Nigel, struggled to get 2-kyuu after a year of living there, and four years of study at university here in the UK, so I appreciate it is one hell of a challenge that Tony has had thrown at him.
I'll be watching his progress closely.
月曜日, 4月 02, 2007
Try a Japanese second life!
One of the great ways to learn a language is to emmerse yourself in it, spend time amongst the natives and soak it up.
Easier said than done when your language of choice is Japanese and you live in the UK. So rather than give up, here's a way to do it: www.splume.com.
This is an emmersive online world much like Second Life, but aimed at the Japanese market and, apparently, following a somewhat different design philosophy. Whatever, I'm sure it would be fun.
Easier said than done when your language of choice is Japanese and you live in the UK. So rather than give up, here's a way to do it: www.splume.com.
This is an emmersive online world much like Second Life, but aimed at the Japanese market and, apparently, following a somewhat different design philosophy. Whatever, I'm sure it would be fun.
火曜日, 1月 23, 2007
Facing the challenge!
Okay, so I need an external motivator to get me to study. How about this one?
I've signed up for the free san-kyuu kanji email service from the Japanesepage.com, - this will operate as my external force - and I am entering them in to my brilliant kanji drilling tool from Declan (see Nihongojira passim).
This will force me to at least get exposure to the basic kanji, without my own useless sense of study gold-plating ("can't move on till I understand, dammit!") interfering to block my progress. In fact, as I signed up to the list a few weeks ago, I will have to more than keep up! I need to go faster to catch up!
I've signed up for the free san-kyuu kanji email service from the Japanesepage.com, - this will operate as my external force - and I am entering them in to my brilliant kanji drilling tool from Declan (see Nihongojira passim).
This will force me to at least get exposure to the basic kanji, without my own useless sense of study gold-plating ("can't move on till I understand, dammit!") interfering to block my progress. In fact, as I signed up to the list a few weeks ago, I will have to more than keep up! I need to go faster to catch up!
The sad truth
Inspired by the fact that I noticed that I hadn't posted for several days (well, you can count it in weeks actually), I thought to do a quick check on exactly how much Japanese learning I actually do. After all, this blog is supposed to be about helping me study Japanese, right? So why wasn't I learning anything, or at least, why wasn't I learning anything worth posting about?
Well, a week and a bit on, I think I have found the root cause. I'm not studying.
I have been keeping a record of how much learning (any subject), running (for my 10k in April) and writing (of any sort) I am doing*. Well, I didn't really even need to make the cursory glance that I did make to reveal the cold hard fact that I spent NO time engaged in Japanese study at all. In fact, without much flexing of the old grey matter, I can safely say there has been no casual study at all in a month or so, and no serious, books out study since, well, probably last autumn.
Sad really.
*these, sadly, are the goals I must set myself in order to feel successful.
Well, a week and a bit on, I think I have found the root cause. I'm not studying.
I have been keeping a record of how much learning (any subject), running (for my 10k in April) and writing (of any sort) I am doing*. Well, I didn't really even need to make the cursory glance that I did make to reveal the cold hard fact that I spent NO time engaged in Japanese study at all. In fact, without much flexing of the old grey matter, I can safely say there has been no casual study at all in a month or so, and no serious, books out study since, well, probably last autumn.
Sad really.
*these, sadly, are the goals I must set myself in order to feel successful.
土曜日, 12月 30, 2006
The glaze under scrutiny
It would seem the glaze is less to do with my fundamental resistence to Japanese and more to do wiht the fact I can't even read hiragana very quickly. How do I know? Because I tested myself on here:
Hiragana game
and for those of you readers in Japan wisely boning up on your katakana, there's one for you to:
Katakana game
Apparently the record times are under a minute. I got 257s on my first go, so perhaps I need to work at this...
Hiragana game
and for those of you readers in Japan wisely boning up on your katakana, there's one for you to:
Katakana game
Apparently the record times are under a minute. I got 257s on my first go, so perhaps I need to work at this...
Fuyu-yatsumi
It's been ages since I wrote on any subject at all. That's because Tomo is on holiday so I have a lot less free time. I'll be back on it again, soon.
金曜日, 12月 08, 2006
The glaze...
Am I the only one to suffer the glaze?
The glaze strikes me every time I sit down to study Japanese - my eyes pass over Japanese text as if it were nothing more than a nice pattern on the paper. Kanji entries in my text books are passed over in favour of Romaji - against the protests of my brain that wants the challenge. "NO!" my reading muscle yells, casting me down in to a world of lost meaning and competing spelling (it's shi, surely - it doesn't even sound like si!)
It takes an act of concentration of great magnitude to shift the glaze. I stare intently at the page as if trying to make sense of one of those stereograms that were on every pot smoker's bedroom wall in 1995.
But it's not limited to vision. My ears tune out Japanese TV as if it were nothing more than white noise. To me Jpod101 sounds like trying to pick up Radio Caroline on AM band radio in a winter storm - calming hum with the odd word floating out of the murk. To listen in I have to stop walking and stare in to space to rob my brain of input and free up the bandwidth.
It's hopeless...
The glaze strikes me every time I sit down to study Japanese - my eyes pass over Japanese text as if it were nothing more than a nice pattern on the paper. Kanji entries in my text books are passed over in favour of Romaji - against the protests of my brain that wants the challenge. "NO!" my reading muscle yells, casting me down in to a world of lost meaning and competing spelling (it's shi, surely - it doesn't even sound like si!)
It takes an act of concentration of great magnitude to shift the glaze. I stare intently at the page as if trying to make sense of one of those stereograms that were on every pot smoker's bedroom wall in 1995.
But it's not limited to vision. My ears tune out Japanese TV as if it were nothing more than white noise. To me Jpod101 sounds like trying to pick up Radio Caroline on AM band radio in a winter storm - calming hum with the odd word floating out of the murk. To listen in I have to stop walking and stare in to space to rob my brain of input and free up the bandwidth.
It's hopeless...
火曜日, 12月 05, 2006
Yeah Reysol!
日本で住んでいるとき千葉県の柏市で住んでいました。 あの時に柏のサッカーチームはJ1でいました。柏レソルはグレートチームでわありませんから去年J2に入りました。
始めから６週までレソルはJ2の一番でしたから私はとてもしあわせでした。１０月にはレソルのシーゾンが枯れていました。Yokohama FCもVissel古部は追い越しました。ひどかったよ。
しかし土曜日にしょなんに勝ちましたから二番目に乗りました。サイコウよ。
もう一度つぎシーズンにわJ1である。
始めから６週までレソルはJ2の一番でしたから私はとてもしあわせでした。１０月にはレソルのシーゾンが枯れていました。Yokohama FCもVissel古部は追い越しました。ひどかったよ。しかし土曜日にしょなんに勝ちましたから二番目に乗りました。サイコウよ。
もう一度つぎシーズンにわJ1である。
金曜日, 12月 01, 2006
Gimme gimme IME
In an earlier post I mentioned a couple of shortcuts for Global IME, the tool for inputting Japanese on a western version of Windows. This has so far garnered my only peice of feedback (from a friend, via SMS hence not showing here) so I felt duty bound to give my audience what it likes.
Here is a more comprehensive list of tips from the people at the brilliant Declan software house.
If you've not seen their software you are missing out. The flashcard tool is amazing - quite the most fully featured I have seen. I first used it a couple of years ago and recently downloaded the latest version on my laptop. The improvements, incremental though they are, make it indispensable now.
Here is a more comprehensive list of tips from the people at the brilliant Declan software house.
If you've not seen their software you are missing out. The flashcard tool is amazing - quite the most fully featured I have seen. I first used it a couple of years ago and recently downloaded the latest version on my laptop. The improvements, incremental though they are, make it indispensable now.
水曜日, 11月 29, 2006
More quality materials
For Nihongojira it's my desire to plug only the finer sites that can help in the quest to learn.
Another one I have found, thanks to those wonderfully contributors on the JPod forum is this little place: the JLPT Study Page.
It is specifically geared to the most widely (only?) recognised exam for students of Japanese. Lots of useful references and a system that links to the best grammar resource on the web, Tae Kim's, mean it is a great place to check your level. I'm pleased to see it also references Jim Breen's JDic and Meguro Language Centre.
That's pretty much all the places I recommend too.
Another one I have found, thanks to those wonderfully contributors on the JPod forum is this little place: the JLPT Study Page.
It is specifically geared to the most widely (only?) recognised exam for students of Japanese. Lots of useful references and a system that links to the best grammar resource on the web, Tae Kim's, mean it is a great place to check your level. I'm pleased to see it also references Jim Breen's JDic and Meguro Language Centre.
That's pretty much all the places I recommend too.
金曜日, 11月 10, 2006
OK, I'm getting serious
My recent regular attendance at Bristol Japan Club is spurring me on, and conversations with other learners have encouraged me. So I've joined JapanesePod 101.
Check it out if you haven't already.
Check it out if you haven't already.
月曜日, 10月 30, 2006
Candidate for guruship
Down the list at the side you'll spot the name Tae Kim. For me, this guy's work is an invaluable tool for learning Japanese. His guide to Japanese is simply one of the most interesting and thoughtfully constructed intros to the language you will find anywhere (I'd be lying if there wasn't a small part of that in the genesis of this site).
The guide is, however, only part of the story. He also contributes to a site called 3Yen which is a blend of the obvious, the dull and enlightening. That last category is pretty much served exclusively by Kim. He answers queries, posts his own musings and apologises for not having blogged as frequently as he would like (yeah, I'm like him in one respect then!)
The malaise that has hampered my learning of late is in no small part down to some of the problems discussed in this entry on his blog at 3Yen, Tips for Learning.
One of the comments seems strangely familiar (don't learn off the wife - I covered it a few posts back myself), but really the whole thing resonates as I am aware that for all the progress I made initially, and the claw back at the beginning of the year, once again my Japanese is stagnating and in decline. It's perhaps because as it stands right now, the chance of returning to Japan seems to be fading and I'm getting a little bummed by that.
The guide is, however, only part of the story. He also contributes to a site called 3Yen which is a blend of the obvious, the dull and enlightening. That last category is pretty much served exclusively by Kim. He answers queries, posts his own musings and apologises for not having blogged as frequently as he would like (yeah, I'm like him in one respect then!)
The malaise that has hampered my learning of late is in no small part down to some of the problems discussed in this entry on his blog at 3Yen, Tips for Learning.
One of the comments seems strangely familiar (don't learn off the wife - I covered it a few posts back myself), but really the whole thing resonates as I am aware that for all the progress I made initially, and the claw back at the beginning of the year, once again my Japanese is stagnating and in decline. It's perhaps because as it stands right now, the chance of returning to Japan seems to be fading and I'm getting a little bummed by that.
月曜日, 10月 16, 2006
Why this doesn't work
I set this whole blog up as a tool to encourage me to study more and use a blog more often (I have a certain professional interest in their use applied to learning you see).
So much for that plan.
The actual effect was to stop me both writing any blog or studying. This comprehensively did for my attempt at the 3級.
Nevermind, since we're so broke we aren't likely to be going to Japan any time soon, there's always next year.
So let's kick off Ninhongojira once again, this time with the kind of insight that makes sense wihout studying the damn language.
If you use the ever-so-useful IME to type your Japanese, you may not know that you can easily switch between English and 日本語 input simply by pressing left Alt+shift.
Makes life a lot easier.
So much for that plan.
The actual effect was to stop me both writing any blog or studying. This comprehensively did for my attempt at the 3級.
Nevermind, since we're so broke we aren't likely to be going to Japan any time soon, there's always next year.
So let's kick off Ninhongojira once again, this time with the kind of insight that makes sense wihout studying the damn language.
If you use the ever-so-useful IME to type your Japanese, you may not know that you can easily switch between English and 日本語 input simply by pressing left Alt+shift.
Makes life a lot easier.
水曜日, 6月 21, 2006
Pay dirt!
I used to visit the Meguro Language Centre site quite a lot to get hold of material to prep for JLPT4, but the last time I went there some of the material I had used previously had disappeared, so I stopped going.
Imagine my excitement then when I found that in fact the amount of stuff available has blossomed! I was particularly after the JLPT3 adjectives summary - a weakness of mine - but you could spend hours looking through it all.
If you are interested in JLPT the absolute best start you can make, and I mean anywhere, is to check out the guides to each level that you'll find at the bottom of the page linked above.
Imagine my excitement then when I found that in fact the amount of stuff available has blossomed! I was particularly after the JLPT3 adjectives summary - a weakness of mine - but you could spend hours looking through it all.
If you are interested in JLPT the absolute best start you can make, and I mean anywhere, is to check out the guides to each level that you'll find at the bottom of the page linked above.
火曜日, 6月 20, 2006
Exam Time!
Argh. (Spell that in Japanese! アルグ？！）It's exam time on my evening class course. Tomorrow I'll treat you to my attempts to write something.
日曜日, 6月 18, 2006
Starting out
イギリスに帰った後で日本語勉強を始めました。
The example above shows how to get around the tricky aspect of saying the you started doing something. In English, you use the verb 'to start' and the action verb in the gerund or the infinitive.
Easiest way to avoid this in Japanese is find a way of not using a verb it would seem.
家に帰って食事を始めました。
Don't think about the verb (食べる) and just start the meal.
Easy.
The example above shows how to get around the tricky aspect of saying the you started doing something. In English, you use the verb 'to start' and the action verb in the gerund or the infinitive.
Easiest way to avoid this in Japanese is find a way of not using a verb it would seem.
家に帰って食事を始めました。
Don't think about the verb (食べる) and just start the meal.
Easy.
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