Sunday, June 10, 2007
New beginnings
Tomorrow is the big day -- the day that I officially become part of Tokyo's corporate world. Starting from tomorrow I will become one of 'The Suits', the nameless, faceless, black-suited mass of worker bees that run like hell through the train station as though their life depends on it. I'm excited but also nervous! Rush hour in this city can be overwhelming, and the stories about 'chikan' or 'perverts' on the train grabbing your bamsee during the morning commute are world famous. That's why in the morning, they have the Women Only train compartments. I know which compartment I'll be lining up for tomorrow!
Monday, June 04, 2007
Kanji of the Day
Now that it has been decided that I am definitely staying in Tokyo for at least another year (if things go well with the new job), I have really got to buckle down and get my rear in gear with this whole language learning business. To live and succeed here, I simply must learn, speak, and read more Japanese.
When I first arrived in Japan I studied quite a lot. The first thing I learned how to do was to read hiragana and katakana. These are the Japanese phonetic alphabet, which means that one 'letter' corresponds to one 'sound' and follows an order and style, such as 'ka ki ku ke ko', then 'sa shi su se so', and so forth.
Here's hiragana -
And katakana -
The funny thing about these alphabets is that hiragana is only used for Japanese words, while katakana is used for foreign words. This means that, for example, the word 'samurai' is written in hiragana, but 'Coca Cola' is written in katakana. This can sometimes make reading a sentence easier, but sometimes it makes it worse because the foreign word is written phonetically in Japanese pronunciation. For example, on the train, you might see this word:
バレーボール
which says 'ba-re-bo-ru'. Even though it may be a word you know, you may stand there scratching your head, thinking, 'what the heck is ba-re-bo-ru?' (volleyball). So when it comes to katakana, you have to start thinking in the Japanese accent!
The toughest part about learning Japanese - but the most crucial part - is learning kanji. Kanji are the Chinese symbols that that Japanese stole and incorporated into their own language ages ago. They are complex and number in the thousands. I see my students practicing writing these complex symbols over and over and over again. It's been said that you need to read over 1000 kanji just to understand a newspaper. So, I've got a looooong way to go.
Even though learning kanji is so daunting and at times seems almost impossible to get a grip of, I have made a pact with myself that every day I will try to learn two kanji symbols, because I doubt that it is possible to remember a bigger group and I would rather not put too much on my plate. Baby steps.
I can read a few kanji already... such as the days of the week... (yes, I am a dirty internet thief, I apologize).
These symbols are meant to represent the elements of the earth.
Sunday - nichiyobi - SUN
Monday - getsuyobi - MOON
Tuesday - kayobi - FIRE
Wednesday - suiyobi - WATER
Thursday - mokuyobi - WOOD
Friday - kinyobi - GOLD
Saturday - doyobi - EARTH
And I know the basics of numbers...
So today's Two Kanji of the Day is to further my knowledge of numbers by including the following:
千 = 1000
万 = 10,000
Like I said, baby steps!
But it is not hopeless. Recently I met a guy who told me that for his entire first year here, he never studied, and couldn't even read the phonetic alphabets, and could barely speak. During this second year in Japan he started studying, and now he is entirely fluent. So, maybe within a year I'll have the hang of this language after all.
When I first arrived in Japan I studied quite a lot. The first thing I learned how to do was to read hiragana and katakana. These are the Japanese phonetic alphabet, which means that one 'letter' corresponds to one 'sound' and follows an order and style, such as 'ka ki ku ke ko', then 'sa shi su se so', and so forth.
Here's hiragana -
And katakana -
The funny thing about these alphabets is that hiragana is only used for Japanese words, while katakana is used for foreign words. This means that, for example, the word 'samurai' is written in hiragana, but 'Coca Cola' is written in katakana. This can sometimes make reading a sentence easier, but sometimes it makes it worse because the foreign word is written phonetically in Japanese pronunciation. For example, on the train, you might see this word:
バレーボール
which says 'ba-re-bo-ru'. Even though it may be a word you know, you may stand there scratching your head, thinking, 'what the heck is ba-re-bo-ru?' (volleyball). So when it comes to katakana, you have to start thinking in the Japanese accent!
The toughest part about learning Japanese - but the most crucial part - is learning kanji. Kanji are the Chinese symbols that that Japanese stole and incorporated into their own language ages ago. They are complex and number in the thousands. I see my students practicing writing these complex symbols over and over and over again. It's been said that you need to read over 1000 kanji just to understand a newspaper. So, I've got a looooong way to go.
Even though learning kanji is so daunting and at times seems almost impossible to get a grip of, I have made a pact with myself that every day I will try to learn two kanji symbols, because I doubt that it is possible to remember a bigger group and I would rather not put too much on my plate. Baby steps.
I can read a few kanji already... such as the days of the week... (yes, I am a dirty internet thief, I apologize).
These symbols are meant to represent the elements of the earth.
Sunday - nichiyobi - SUN
Monday - getsuyobi - MOON
Tuesday - kayobi - FIRE
Wednesday - suiyobi - WATER
Thursday - mokuyobi - WOOD
Friday - kinyobi - GOLD
Saturday - doyobi - EARTH
And I know the basics of numbers...
So today's Two Kanji of the Day is to further my knowledge of numbers by including the following:
千 = 1000
万 = 10,000
Like I said, baby steps!
But it is not hopeless. Recently I met a guy who told me that for his entire first year here, he never studied, and couldn't even read the phonetic alphabets, and could barely speak. During this second year in Japan he started studying, and now he is entirely fluent. So, maybe within a year I'll have the hang of this language after all.
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