Japanese Mini Lesson 3 - Bicycle!

For some reason, the Japanese have (at least) 3 different ways to say bicycle, all interesting in their own way. The first way to say bicycle is 自転車・じてんしゃ・jiten-sha. The first part of the word, as I read it, comprises 自転 which means rotation on an axis. The last part, 車, represents vehicle. So it may mean "rotation-on-an-axis vehicle." The other way I could read it is by considering the 3 elements separately; 自(self), 転 (turning around), 車 (vehicle) giving "self-turn/ing-vehicle." Personally I prefer the second explanation as it sounds so logical.

The other two names for bicycle made me laugh when I first heard them, showcasing the humour found in the nomenclature of some Japanese words/expressions. The first is the name for the very common bike that has the¯\_-_/¯ のような handlebars (and often sports a smart-looking basket on the front). It is named "ママチャリ" which is composed of "mama" and "bike." A common misconception amongst learners of Japanese is that チャリ is derived from the borrow/外来 word チャリオット・chariot. チャリ actually comes from ちゃりんこ (a word that is interesting enough in itself and worthy of a different installation of "mini Japanese lesson"). This misconception has however opened up a hilarious vision/mnemonic that a few of us have been using. It gives us "Mama's Chariot," you know, the bike that mothers go out and do their errands (用事・you-ji) on. Haha.

The last name I have for you is ケッタマシーン・ketta-mashiin・"kicked-machine". I have been told that this is an expression used in Nagoya. It has purportedly been used since around about the late 60s and the term may not often be used anymore (Japanese source: http://oshiete.goo.ne.jp/qa/90451.html ). I would love to know in which spirit this name was actualised. I fervently hope it was a drunken coining at the meeting of a particularly genius brains trust.

Next time you tell your Japanese friend that you are "going by bike", which term will you use?

Until next time, happy studies.　じゃね～

Kanji by Kappa Edition 2: 梅雨

Mnemonics. You gotta love 'em; especially when using them to remember Kanji and the compound words that they make up. As was the case for 恥かしい, sometimes you get Kanji that have radicals, that when put together, can make a story to help you remember their meaning. This time however, we have a Kanji Compound word (a word that is composed of 2 or more Kanji) and rather than use the radicals of the kanji to remember the word, we will use the meanings of the individual Kanji. Also, we will use both the etymological origin of the word as well as a cheesy pun to remember the word even better.

So the word today is 梅雨 (tsu-yu), the rainy season in Japan. It is composed of the Kanji for plum, 梅, and the kanji for rain, 雨. In China (remember this is where Kanji come from), the rainy season commences in June which coincides with the ripening of the plums. The rains will tend to follow for ~3-4 weeks, though there are records of the season going for much longer. In fact, there exists an old proverb which goes, "When the rain falls on the ripe plums, there follows 40 rainy days".  So when we think of the order of the Kanji as the rain that follows the plum, we get a nice mnemonic for the rainy season.

Our second mnemonic relies on the pun of plum and plumb. Plumb has many definitions, but the one we need here is the adverbial meaning of "to a very high degree", "extremely" and "exactly." For example, "The king was plumb crazy," meaning he was completely bonkers. Fans of cricket (all 2 of you, woo!) will also appreciate that "plumb L.B.W." means, to be square and perfectly hit on the pads, directly in front of the stumps, leaving no doubt as to the batsmen being out. So when we think of plum/plumb rain, we can be assured that the rain is by definition, going to mean business/be the real deal. Therefore, the onslaught of 'plumb' rain will occur during the rainy season.

Ok, that wraps up another Kanji with me, Kappa! You'd better watch out for me and my brethren during 梅雨 as the bowing trick won't work as well on us because the rain will replenish the water that you so deviously make us lose. Better wear your running shoes, heh heh heh.

Introducing: Kanji by Kappa. Edition 1 導入している：カッパの漢字、第一。

Welcome to the first of my planned regular articles. As the name suggests, this section is all about Kappa introducing his favourite Kanji. Follow him as he introduces his tricks on how to memorise Kanji and Kanji words. Take it away, Kappa.
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Greetings land-dwellers and welcome to my Kanji clinic.
Today's Kanji word is 恥ずかしい (Hazukashii; Ha-zoo-ka-shee). The English equivalents for this word are embarassed, ashamed and shy. In it's function of "embarrassed" I have a special mnemonic using the two ideographs in the Kanji.
First, on the left side of the Kanji, we have the radical representing 'ear' and 'hearing': 耳
Secondly, on the right side we have the radical representing 'heart': 心

OK, so if you can imagine an embarassing situation, what can you HEAR your HEART doing? It is thumping really hard isn't it. So next time you see 恥ずかしい、think of the ear hearing the heart, and you will remember this with no problem.

Peruse my example sentence:

プレゼンテーションの間に、ズボンが突然、落ちちゃったのでほんまに恥ずかしいになりました。
Purensenteeshon no aida ni, zubon ga totsuzen, ochichatta node honma ni hazukashii ni narimashita.
During the presentation, my pants suddenly dropped to the floor so I became very embarassed.

This concludes the first edition of Kanji with me, Kappa. I must get home now before Kangaroo eats all my cucumbers. Until next time, 又今度！