14 posts tagged “japanese language”

Picked up son yesterday from his other high school after his Japanese class was over. He's got the same teacher as he had last year which I thought unusual since for as long as he's been going to that school, the upper level Japanese courses have been taught by another instructor, a Japanese woman.

Get an answer during the back to school night and thought as we drove back to his home school, son might be interested in knowing why.

"Mr. L told us why he's teaching Japanese IV this year instead of Ms. T"

"Because he's getting more money for teaching Japanese IV?"

(As compared to teaching the lower levels)

"No! He told us he made a special request to the school to continue to teach your class because he enjoys being your instructor."

I guess there's a certain, odd charm in observing how simply he still views the world.

Had another reminder of the great swings in the Japanese language from being  anally precise (i.e.,  counters一本、一枚、一匹、など) to being maddeningly vague.

Got up early this morning, again, fixed breakfast and cobbled together from last night's chicken leftovers, a bento with assorted veggies and since we used up all the rice last night, a couple of scoops of freshly-made rice、topped with  2梅干.

Wife comes down, looks at the bento, sees the steam rising for the rice and starts on about what am I thinking by putting 熱いご飯　with　冷たいご飯, and how doing so will create spoilage.  'Huh?', was my reaction as in my pre-coffee haze, I did not recall putting cold rice next to hot rice.  '馬鹿じゃない？ご飯 means food'.

Yeah it can also mean that and perhaps its a sign of why I need coffee in the morning/my Japanese getting rusty, but she could have been more precise and used おかずinstead  ofご飯.

With no job prospects on the horizon, I've defaulted to the option of sending son away to a small college in Ohio, which is offering 2-week Japan language, cultural program/camp. 

Think I may have voiced some reservations earlier that the camp also invites Japanese high-schoolers to participate and that it all could turn out to be a 2-week babysitting/hand-holding exercise for the American kids. Still a son hasn't even thought about college visits, and this will give him a taste of a small college/small town environment and whether it suits him or whether a mega-school is more his speed. It'll also be a chance for him, if he's ambitious, to explore his roots as unbeknownst to me, this was the school my maternal grandparents graduated from.

The program is coed of course and though there are strict rules about allowing someone of the opposite sex in the dorm room. He's also going to be on his own for the very first time and while he has very good sense of what to and what not to do, but when it comes to hormones, anything could happen. So I am debating whether to slip into his things,  some 'protection' and a note telling  him I don't expect him to take this as lisence to go forth to soweth his wild oats, but at the same time he's also waay to young to be a father, and I don't look forward to being grandfather yet.  And STD's are one of the very last things he needs to deal with too.

Son has his Japanese finals today and for a part of it, he has to read and record a script he wrote, as a check on his reading ability ( not where it could be) and his enunciation (slam dunk).

So last night, I go about the house to see if we still have a working tape recorder (we do) and start to look for a tape cassette.

In the mist of all of this, son looks at me and says,

'Daaaad, all I have to do  see if I need to download a recording program to the computer, bring up my Xbox headset, plug it in, make the recording, save it on a flash stick, bring it in and give it to the teacher.'

Jaw dropped and believe I aged a bit in that instant.

For those of us who have siblings it is amazing at times how different we are in outlook, life paths and life styles:  my younger brother, who I call pound salt, is no exception.

He now lives in the Midwest and yesterday an e-mail from a small regional university, announcing a 2-week Japanese study program, for which my son could potentially earn 4 university credit hours.  It sounds appealing as I've been trying to get son out to visit colleges (has yet to visit one),  it would be a gentle nudge out of the nest, and since there would be a contingent of Japanese high school students he could get a slight recharge  with the other part of his heritage.

As pound salt is in the general area, I asked him what he knew of the university and mentioned I was thinking of having son participate in it for the reasons just outlined.  While not his most immediate reaction, he quickly told me it'd be great chance for 'your boy can get himself some P***' 

What?!! Hell, I'm not a prude.  My son is what he is and is as old as he is and given the right mix, that could happen, but having that near the foremost on the mind and using that as a point to 'sell ' the idea to my son is a bit jaw-dropping.

But speaking of sex, and sex for the first time, a cousin of mine, older than I,  has strongly suggested I have a talk with son about such to tell him that the woman involved will expect in her words, "The small white house surrounded by the white picket fence, a small dog running around in the yard", i.e., he'll be around forever and ever. 

I can't agree or disagree:  I never had any sisters and have just but one child, a son. Nor I am taking a stand against the commitment my cousin says my son should expect will be expected of him the morning after, but she, my cousin that is, came of age much earlier, late 50's, early 60's, when things were supposed to be different.    Perhaps some things remain the same no matter what?

Noticed the other day that while it may be totally coincidentally German and Japanese seem to have parallels in how non-native words are incorporated into their respective languages.

Japanese of course, has katana, which despite some howls I've heard about it representing linguistic apartheid, is a quick and convenient way to blend in ever-changing words into the language.

There was a sign posted at a lab, in English, Spanish, French and German and I noticed that in the German translation, there were a number of original English words- defibrillator is the one I remember clearest, still very recognizable- the word just had a German suffix tacked on.

There are languages, French and Chinese that I am aware of, which go into sometimes unbelievable contortions to make a borrowed word its own.  For Chinese I suppose it is because linguists are stuck with the writing system they have and have no other way to express a new term.  For French- and this is an observation, not a slam (a Francophobe I am not) - I've seen the need to 'Franconize' borrowed language create some pretty grotesque terms. A far instance; air bags, like to ones in your vehicle to protect you in a collision, is translated (by French Canadians at least) as 'sac gon inflatable'- and I wonder if that is realy readily understandable in French.

Very foggy this morning as I drove wife to work and was driving a bit slower than I normally would  in case a pedestrian or jogger decided to cross in front of me.

Mentioned  to her son had said to me once,  after I pointed out to him that he needed to be more aware of pedestrians, that he had said that it would not be that big a deal if  he hit a pedestrian and he/she was at fault.  My reply to him  that was even if you were not deemed at fault, would you want this on your conscience for the rest of your life?

That drove (no pun intended) wife into her あら捜し mode. About how son should not be getting his license yet and what sort of child has be become, blah, blah blah.  Also opined that even if he'd have to deal with a lawyer if son struck a pedestrian because of  前方不注意.

True, I can imagine the struckee hiring a lawyer to press a claim in a civil suit, but the rules here are a bit different.  This isn't as she still has trouble realizing, Japan.   

In the U.S., while one is licensed to drive a motor vehicle, having one is more or less an inalienable right. In Japan, I was told over and over by Japanese no less , that the underlying principle is that the individual should not own a car, much less operate one. Hence  前方不注意,  a Japanese word I the meaning of which I conceptually understand, but find it awkward to put into English. To me前方不注意 is a furoshikui-like word and concept to put the onus/responsibility on a driver for an accident, even when short of being clairvoyant and having supernatural reflexes, the accident was unavoidable.  And this was more than an abstract situation for me, as I did own cars(2) and drove while in Japan. 

Perhaps前方不注意 grows out of cultural concepts on sharing responsibility for something gone wrong and/or  protecting the weaker party. Perhaps that culturally Japan just does not accept that it is a motor vehicle society now. 

But again, while I certainly would not want to hit a pedestrian who crossed in front of me as I drive, I am glad the rules here recognize that fault does not always lie with the operator of a motor vehicle and that unfortunately not all accidents are avoidable.

In an article yesterday on developments at Large International Automobile Manufacturer #1, there was mention of  the use of  くんas an honorific.  Now this puzzled me as it been my understanding that as a general rule  くん is used by a person addressing another person who is deemed socially 'inferior' (yes, I also realize it's used by parents to a young boy, or between close friends as a term of endearment). Thus as opposed to さん,様, or  殿 it does not elevate the person addressed but rather 'puts them in their place'.

I asked the in-house cultural expert and got a tirade of 'How long did you live in Japan/have you spoken Japanese?!, which was not helpful, but 'くん is an honorific, dummy'.  Technically I guess it is, but I can't get past the cultural, social connotations either (If the truth be known though, when I was a  係長 at Large International Automobile Manufacturer #1, it was a secret wish to call my  部下asくん . ;-)  )

And there's the humorous aspect too.  At Large International Automobile Manufacturer #1, there was a   課長who we foreigners dubbed ばかもん M., Not because he was stupid, but because he had a very, very short fuse and we knew this fuse was lit when he would shout, ばかもん ! at the unfortunate soul standing before him.  The thought of me going up to him and saying     あの、Ｍ君、相談がありますが。  and visualizing the look on his face is enough for a whole day of inner grins.

A western guy who  has now nearly 20 years at Large Multinational Automobile Manufacturer #1 in Japan. wanted to set up within a professional networking site, a group, composed of OBs from same said employer, which I guess  I'm going to be managing.

Anyway,  I asked, as I occasionally do, 'What's up?' over there and in the course of his reply, he mentioned a word  now in vogue, 'Hakken giri'. Now he typed in romanji and because of that I guess, the meaning puzzled me.  I was fixated on the word 'giri' as in 義理, but no,  it's not that.  The word's  true meaning is, as I was told, to cut part-time workers, so I guess the word is written as , 派遣切り

Things  must be tough all over

One of the things I have observed, learned in working for 2 Japanese companies in both Japan & America, is that when something goes wrong, it is a very rare case when blame can be 100% pinned on actions (or inaction) of a single person. And since the phone call last Friday, I have thought more on what happened in my son's Japanese language class, and written this letter, which will be in his teacher's e-mail box on Monday morning.   親ばか I may be, but I think my son's instructor could have thought the assignment out more thoroughly as well.

Mr. ________,

As per your telephone call  of Friday, 01/30/2009, I have spoken to ______ about his using the work of another person to complete the Japanese III class project you assigned.  I have reiterated  to him that this action can be grounds for a 'F' in a college class, and if egregious enough, cause for expulsion.  Also that using another person's work as your own can lead to problems at work; one of the reasons I dismissed a person who reported to me was for that reason.  I also believe ______ knows now that he is not to do this again.

That said, before you speak to ______ on Monday, I would like to add the following.  This is not to ameliorate what _______, or the actions of other students in your class who did the same thing. However, after reviewing the assignment, I am concerned that the nature of the assignment was not as controlled as it could have been and this may have contributed to what _______ did.

My understanding is each student had 4 choices for this project, among which was to translate a Japanese song into English.  As students of the Japanese language, I think we both can agree that translating Japanese into English requires a good vocabulary, knowledge of the writing system, with heavy emphasis on knowing a significant number of Kanji (Chinese characters), cultural knowledge and very importantly knowledge of the subject.  I with my background, I could readily tackle a Japanese to English automotive translation task, but would probably botch up a transition task that requires a bio-medical background.

I asked _______ if any guidance was given as to selection of a song (if this option was selected) to translate.  I was told 'no'.   This I believe was a problem.  There are songs and there are songs.  From what I have seen of _______'s  homework assignments,  I beleieve attempting to translate a long and complex Japanese pop song into English, is beyond what a student at that class level is equipped to handle, which I think in _______'s case at least,  may have led him to do what he did.  Had  it been required of students who selected the option of translating a Japanese song into English, to first come to you to review and approve the selection, material that was way above Japanese III level could have been weeded out and the student directed to material more in line with course expectations.

In closing,  you will note I have cc'ed Mr. ________ on this e-mail, as he is the contact point at _______ for guidance.  If you would like to discuss this in person, I would be more than happy to come in for a conference.

Regards,