Nahhh, get outta here!

Na. Or rather な. I just had a mini revelation about something that is probably common knowledge amongst those with basic Japanese. If you take away the squiggly bottom right hand side from hiragana*, な (na), you get katakana** ナ (na). I mean, duhh!! I have noticed other relationships betwen hiragana and their katakana counterparts, but am surprised I didn't catch this one earlier on. Ha!

*hiragana is the normal Japanese phonetic script
**katakana is the phonetic script used for borrow words (and sometimes for other purposes such as for animal names)

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BONUS
I'll keep this blog content light, so I will end by mentioning that upon further (2 minute) research, I learnt that the hiragana are indeed, derived from chinese characters. Interesting!! There is a nifty chart showing a 3 step evolution from chinese characters to hiragana  found in the hiragana entry over at Wikipedia.

Japanese Mini Lesson 4: You can really sink your teeth into this Japanese lesson

It doesn't matter where you live, you'd be silly not to get out there and sample a variety of restaurants in your surrounding area. Going around and trying different cuisines at various restaurants makes the mandatory process of fueling your body that much more exciting after all. MASSIVELY OBVIOUS SEGUE ALERTZWORZ!!!

Soooo, should you count yourself as a bit of a restaurant-touring gourmand, perhaps this Japanese noun and it's following expression will come in handy:

食べ歩き(noun) 　
たべあるき
tabearuki

食べ歩きをする (verb)
たべあるきをする
tabearuki wo suru

So we literally have eat-walk/ eat-walk do. This expression means to go out and try food at various eating establishments. So if you're a bit of a foodie and you want to attest to that fact in Japanese, well then, you are now loaded with the know how.

 例文  /  れいぶん  /  Reibun （Example Sentence）:
僕は食べ歩きをすることが多いので、「ザ・グールマン」ってよんでいいですよ～
I often go out and sample various restaurants, so you may feel free to call me "The Gourmand" if you would like to.
Literally: Regarding me, walk-eat (going out to sample restaurants) do matter numerously exist therefore, "The Gourmand" call me agreeable (emphatically).
Literal translations like these are useful for you guys coming to grips with the order of verbs and objects etc. in Japanese sentences. They are often hilarious too, so that's a bonus.

But some of you beginners of Japanese might be thinking that something is up here. "Where's the る in 食べる/eat?" and "I thought walk was 歩く!" you may be asking and pondering respectively. Well, what we see here is an example of a (and I'm going to avoid technical terms for this one) "double verb sandwich." However this double verb sandwich has actually been altered to make it a noun. So there are two things funky going on with 食べ歩き. Before it gets too confusing, let's break it on down.

Funky 1. Double verb sandwiches (DVS)s are commonly formed in Japanese. When fusing two verbs together to make a DVS, you must think of the first verb in it's ーます form and proceed to rip off the ます, leaving the ます verb stem. So in the case of 飛び込む (to literally jump, leap, dive or plunge into something physical or conversely to figuratively leap, plunge into something intangible) we have taken 飛ぶ (to fly, leap etc.) put it into the polite/ます form, 飛びます, proceeded to cut off the ます (in working with my analogy, let's just imagine we're trimming off the bread crusts for our DVS) and we are left with the ます stem form, 飛び, rather than the dictionary form 飛ぶ. Place this together with 込む and you have your DVS.

Funky 2. Altering a verb to make it a noun: When you slice off the crusts of a polite/ます form verb to make a ます stem, you can "noun-ify" a verb. I am fairly confident in saying that you can't just use the ますstem as a noun for any old verb you choose because some sliced verbs may rarely or never be used in speech or writing and not be in circulation at all. With that said though, consider the very relevant 歩き. In this form, we have the noun, 'walk' as used in sentences such as "to go on a walk" or "this walk will go through the forest and take 5 minutes."

So, there you have it. 食べ歩き! Gourmands and Japanese scholars take note! Next time you are in Japan, make sure you indulge in 食べ歩き. It is indeed a very excellent part of the world to do it, thanks to the considerable regional variety.

Have fun learning Japanese! If you want to share some DVSs, drop me a comment! Cheers.
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Bonus Material

Why make DVSs in the first place? 
Well, I would say to add a dimension or flavour to a verb in order to create these cool all-in-one double verbs. The Japanese have been able to modify the first verb in DVSs with the second in order to (for example)

-modify the extremity to which a verb is done (particularly in the case of DVSs ending in ー込む- which can be used to say "do/done thoroughly")
-form a verb or noun that at once describes a process that comprises two (truly or roughly) simultaneous actions (today's 食べ歩き being a great example)
- otherwise add nuance or flavour to the leading verb
- plus (likely many) other purposes.

 Here's a fun note on DVSs
You will often see double verb sandwiches with a に filling (has the analogy gotten old yet?? :p). For example, to go out (and have a good time/play/visit etc.) 遊びに行く is the phrase of choice. Here we have the ますstem of 遊ぶ (play, enjoy oneself etc.), the delicious に particle, with a slice of 行く (to go, proceed), so literally "to go and play." Here's another: 見に来る (見る's ますstem, に, 来る) so literally to see and come, meaning "to come and see."

Thanks for staying around! Love ya!
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Word of the day 差し込む. Brought to you by naughty 1年生

Oh brother! Those bloody junior high boys. I had a funny interchange with a little group of 1年生 boys in between classes. It went something like this (translated because I love you):

Boys: Uuwah, Danieru sensei. Haroo.
Me: Hello there. What are you up to?
Leader boy: Nothing. Oh! Come, come.
Me: Where? (suspiciously)
Leader boy: To the joseiben! (Girls' toilet)+(Probably thinking, heh heh, doubt he knows that word)
Me: No chance! Bad! Danger!
Leader boy: Haha (damn he knew it), come on! It'll be grand.
Me: No chance, mischief maker (I am fond of using the word 悪戯者・いたずらもの which can mean prankster, mischief maker--> be careful, it can also mean loose woman--> mental note to use this only to males, haha)
Me: So what's your next class?
Boys: Science!
Leader boy: Sashikomi, sashikomi!
Me: Huh? What's this sashikomi mean?
Leader boy: Mwuhaha, SASHIKOMI, SASHIKOMI!! Haha.
Me: (takes out electronic dictionary) Sashikomi, eh? Surely this is a dirty joke (下ネタ).
Boys: HahahahHAhHAhaha. He knows 下ネタ!
Me: Insertion. さすが (just as expected)
Boys: **ROFLing at my disappointed (but slightly amused) face**

So 差込 or 差し込む meaning to insert, "thrust in" etc. So to all my fellow ALTs on the frontlines, if you hear sashikomi, get ready to ask, 下ネタですか (shimoneta desu ka?). Little buggers will get a kick out of it, and so should you, seeing their reactions.

Haha, until next time!
Daniel.

Word of the day じんじん(と)

Hey! So whenever I hear a word that is new to me at school or otherwise, I'm going to start noting it down here so that I (and you diligent learners of Japanese) can come back and reference them.

So without further ado:

じんじん　A "と adverb" (an adverb that must be followed with と＋verb)
Meaning: tingling sensation, painful tingle, throb etc. ALSO ringing of the ears

So today, one of the students came into the school office complaining of an injured arm. The school nurse asked her something like:
どういうふうに痛むか?　--> Literally: In what style does it hurt?  --> Most naturally: What sort of pain are you feeling?
The response by the student was じんじんとする！痛いよ～

So there we go. In my formative (and shamefully, in my not so formative) clubbing years, I could certainly have used this expression to express the state of my poor ears following the many drum n bass, techno etc. parties I have been to. So, invest in ear plugs otherwise 耳がまさに、じんじんと痛むよ～

Cheers and study hard!

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～

Japanese Mini Lesson 2: ♥♥♥ Love at first sight / 一目惚れ♥♥♥

一目惚れ / ひとめぼれ / Hitomebore

一目惚れ means to be taken with someone at first sight and is very similar to love at first sight, though some academics argue that it is a slightly less powerful expression. In any case, it would be great to describe someone that was taken aback, had their breath momentarily stolen, deftly walked into a door (etc.) upon the first sight of someone that made their heart skip a beat. Please enjoy the example sentence below.

例 文  /  れいぶん  /  Reibun （Example Sentence）:
激しく雨が降っていたのでケンが傘をさしかけたところ、マイは一目惚れしてしまった。
It was pelting down with rain, and when Ken held out his umbrella to aid Mai, she experienced love at first sight.

Literally--> Violently raining (past) due to, Ken umbrella held out moment, Mai love at first sight did thoroughly.
Literal translations like these are useful for you guys coming to grips with the order of verbs and objects etc. in Japanese sentences.

Hope that was fun! Let's hope someone holds out an umbrella for you during 梅雨!
日本語に頑張ってください！

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.

Japanese Mini Lesson 1: How to use "Zuibun" / 随分の使い方

随分  /  ずいぶん  /  Zuibun

Zuibun is an adverb and na-adjective meaning very, extremely or considerably. I mostly see it used as an adverb and often paired with time expressions.

例 文  /  れいぶん  /  Reibun （Example Sentence）:
彼はカラオケボックスで、 随分遅くまで歌いました。\
Kare wa karaoke bokkusu de zuibun osoku made utaimashita.
He sang at the Karaoke Box far into the night.

Literally--> Regarding him at the Karaoke Box, very late until sang. Literal translations like these are useful for you guys coming to grips with the order of verbs and objects etc. in Japanese sentences.

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！