Thursday, October 31, 2013
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
Pronunciation help for dating in Japanese
Pronunciation help for dating in Japanese
As hard as you try, without helpful feedback your Japanese pronunciation is never going to be the same as a native speaker’s. If you've found it difficult to perfect the way you say Japanese words and phrases, this lesson will help you.
As hard as you try, without helpful feedback your Japanese pronunciation is never going to be the same as a native speaker’s. If you've found it difficult to perfect the way you say Japanese words and phrases, this lesson will help you.
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
The History of Origami in japan
The History of Origami in japan
The technique of paper making, which was introduced into Japan from China during the early seventh century, underwent considerable changes in its manufacturing process in Japan giving rise to a type of paper possessing dual qualities of resilient sturdiness and softness which prevents tearing when it is handled, Washi, a unique and distinct type of Japanese paper kindled many forms of cultural creativity, among them origami.
Unfortunately, it is not clear when origami in Japan first originated, However, what is known is that from old, letters and paper to wrap items in were folded. A well-regulated lifestyle came with the advent of samurai society which gave rise to the art of paper folding for practical and formal purposes. Recently, however, particularly from the onset of the Showa period (1926-1989), the art has rapidly passed into oblivion, but a vestige of its former use can still be seen in the noshi, a decoration of folded red and white paper attached to a gift.
Origami made to assume concrete shapes of, for example, a crane or boat is regarded as origami for pure enjoyment. However, I feel that these were probably once made for the purpose of bearing the illnesses and misfortunes that befell a person. They began to be made sometime around the beginning of the Edo period (1600-1868) which coincided with an age in which mass-produced, low-priced paper came to be widely used among the people.
During the Genroku era (1688-1704), origami of the crane and several varieties of boats used as designs on clothing became fashionable, and they were also reproduced with great frequency in Ukiyoe prints. Origami rapidly came to have a wide following during this period.
About a hundred years later, books and printed matter devoted exclusively to origami were published, creating a diverse and advanced form of origami. They were not only a form of children's amusement, but because they were also intended for adults, many of these origami were difficult to make and incorporated many complicated steps.
The technique of paper making was introduced into Europe in the twelfth century producing a distinct form of origami. However, origami was not taken up by a large number of people as it was in Japan.
During the Meiji period (1868-1912), origami was used as a teaching tool in the kindergarten and elementary school levels. Japan's origami was greatly influenced by Friedrich Wilhelm August Fröbel (1782-1852), a mid-nineteenth century German educator's method of teaching derived from European traditional origami, which further developed into folding to make various geometrical shapes, and was widely adopted particularly in the Japanese kindergartens.
During the Meiji period alone, there were many new origami creations conceived by numerous unknown inventors. However because origami required following precise directions, origami was not well received during the Taishou period (1912-1926), a time when educators favored placing importance on originality and creativity. Origami was deemed as lacking in these qualities. However, braced by a long history, origami once again regained its popularity.
Not only are there now many imaginative and novel origami creations, but its educational worth and immense potential have been also reconsidered and recognized. Origami has gained a widespread following as a hobby among adults. There are now many origami associations that have been formed overseas by origami enthusiasts.
History of the Japanese language
History of the Japanese language
An Overview of the History of The Japanese Language
Theories have sprung up to explain the origin of the Japanese language until they have become as varied as the seasons. In fact, Roy Miller, a profuse writer and well-respected authority on this language, says with respect to unraveling its ancestry, "Only one [predominant] language of one major nation remains today without clarification of its origins — Japanese" (Miller 1980, 26). In this paper I will explore the major theories attempting to connect Japanese to other known languages, after first presenting some of the changes from Old Japanese to Modern Japanese, including both the written and spoken forms.
The Point of Reference: Japanese Today
In order to track this journey through the history of the Japanese language, I'll start with the end result: Modern Japanese. Although the spoken language and the written language have obviously influenced one another, they each have their own unrelated histories. Japanese writing is clearly taken from Chinese, but the language itself (i.e. speech) is a mystery.
The feature of spoken Japanese that applies most directly to my arguments is its vowel system, with open syllables. There are five vowel phonemes in Modern Japanese, namely /a/, /i/, /u/, /e/, /o/. Unlike English, lengthened vowels are important in distinguishing words. Japanese consists of evenly-stressed syllables, each of which ends with a vowel. Most also begin with a consonant. And so, we can form words like Na-ga-no and u-tsu-ku-shi-i (beautiful). I will discuss other details of the spoken language later.
The writing system of Japanese is probably the most famous aspect of the language because it is so complex. In fact, a regular sample of written Japanese contains a liberal mixture of three separate systems! One system is the kanji, which are the ideographs borrowed from Chinese. Each kanji is a character that represents a meaning. For example, the concepts sun, moon, fire, and water are each expressed in writing with a single kanji. Since each unrelated idea requires a separate character, thousands of ideographs are necessary for a sufficient writing system. That means that each character must be identifiably different from all the rest, so each individual character can be complex as well. Today there are about two thousand kanji in regular use in Japan.
The other two systems, which are generically called kana, are much more simple because they are both syllabic; this perfectly suits the phonotactic structure of the spoken language. Like capital and lowercase sets of letters in the Roman alphabets, the two kana systems cover the same phonetic territory but have different orthographic functions. Katakana, the first syllabary, is more angular and is used mostly for transcribing words of foreign origin, such as terebi (television). Hiragana is more cursive, and can be used for grammatical inflections or for writing native Japanese words where kanji are not used. Using the inflected verb kakimasu as an example, the root ka- would be represented by the kanji carrying its meaning (write), and the inflection -kimasu would be written with three hiragana.
Early Written Language
The Japanese had no writing system prior to the introduction of the Chinese one, which was originally used by Chinese people who lived in Japan during the early Christian era. Later, the educated Japanese used it to write the Chinese language. The earliest known examples of Japanese writing, dating back to the 5th and 6th Centuries A.D., are proper names inscribed with Chinese characters on a mirror and a sword. But by the 8th and 9th Centuries A.D., Chinese characters began to be used to represent the Japanese language. Since the two languages are so different in their syntax and phonology, Chinese loanwords and characters began to be "Japanified" for more convenient use (Encyclopædia Britannica 1997).
The earliest known Japanese records of any length are the Kojiki (A.D. 712) and the Man'y_sh_ (after 771) (Komatsu 1970). These works are valuable in revealing the evolution of the Japanese writing system from Chinese to a specialized system for recording spoken Japanese. The Kojiki largely maintains Chinese syntax, while using character combinations specific to Japanese for their semantic content. The Man'y_sh_, on the other hand, begins to use Chinese characters for their pronunciations to indicate Japanese words (Encyclopædia Britannica 1997).
Because of the complex nature of kanji, using them for phonetic purposes is not very convenient. So the two kana systems developed independently during the 9th Century, as two different methods to simplify writing. Hiragana arose as a cursive abbreviation for the kanji, and was used mostly by women, who were excluded from the study of Chinese characters. They used it mostly for poetry, diaries and novels. Katakana was the product of priests in Buddhist temples. As the priests read Chinese works, they translated them into Japanese and inserted these kana beside the kanji as a mnemonic device to help them with Japanese inflections that were not in the Chinese (Encyclopædia Britannica 1997).
As a result of this Chinese influence and domestic adaptation, Japanese writing developed into the threefold system it is today, with incredible complexity. Part of the reason for its complexity is the incongruity of the Chinese and Japanese spoken languages. Where every word in Chinese is a single syllable, Japanese is a polysyllabic language and requires open syllables. Each kanji has at least two pronunciations: one, an imitation of the equivalent Chinese word (the on reading), forced into the CV phonotactics of Japanese; and the other, a native Japanese word (the kun reading).
The Spoken Language: Internal Diachronic Changes
The ancient texts of Japan have lent to studying the diachronic sound changes in the spoken language. The most amazing discovery about Old Japanese lies in its vowel phoneme system. I for one had accepted it as an article of faith that Japanese has always been phonetically simple, with five "pure" vowels each falling neatly into one of the five Roman letters that we foreigners use today to represent them. However, the Man'y_sh_ provides a key that led to the discovery that Old Japanese had eight vowel phonemes!
Dr. Shinkichi Hashimoto discovered that characters thought to represent the same sound actually occurred in complementary distribution-- i.e. they were contrastive (_no 1970, 99). The Man'y_sh_ used kanji not for their meaning, but for the sounds they represented. For example, one character (house) pronounced ke was used in certain words to represent the phonemes /ke/. However, another character (spirit or steam) also pronounced ke, was used in entirely different contexts. Dr. Hashimoto found that these characters did not overlap in their phonetic usages. In fact, he found the same phenomenon across all instances of syllables ending with /e/, /i/ and /o/, in the Man'y_sh_, in the Kojiki, and in other documents of the 8th Century. This clear distinction between two types of vowels shows that Old Japanese also had the phonemes /ï/, /ë/, and /ö/, in addition to the five vowels of Modern Japanese (_no 1970).
Before proceeding, I want to share a personal observation. In my comparison of the histories of Japanese and English, I have come to the conclusion that there is a linguistic homeostatic relationship between (a) a change in the number of vowel phonemes, and (b) a new distinction between other attributes of vowels. In other words, when (a) occurs, (b) will result to compensate. Modern Japanese (a) has lost three vowels since Old Japanese, but (b) has gained a distinction between long and short vowels that did not exist before. The development of English (which used to differentiate between short and long vowels) shows a similar change in the opposite direction. In order to compensate for (a) the loss of vowel duration as a phonemic factor, English (b) has developed a new distinction between tense and lax vowels, which has given rise to new phonemes. It could be said that English and Japanese have traded places with respect to vowel length and number of vowel phonemes.
After Dr. Hashimoto had shown that Old Japanese had eight vowels, Dr. Hideyo Arisaka and Professor Teiz_ Ikegami proved that the result was vowel harmony (_no 1970, 107). This is a phonological principle that permits combinations of "harmonious" vowels in a given word, but excludes other combinations. Below is _no’s (1970) chart illustrating vowel categories.
Group A: /a o u/
Group B: /ë ö ï/
Group C: /e i/
A word may contain more than one vowel from Group A, or more than one from Group B: kuro "black"; isago "sand"; kökörö "heart." Vowels of Group C can appear with those of either group. However, vowels from the first two groups rarely appear in the same word. In fact, /ö/ and /o/ never coexist in the same word (_no 1970).
Vowel harmony is common in Altaic and Uralic languages, such as Turkish and Finnish, and later I will show how it has been used to support theories relating Japanese to these groups.
Spoken Language: Attempts to Classify
Japanese is not conclusively linked to any other language or family of languages. It has remained a mystery despite all these centuries of research, and continues to prod the people who speak it to seek out their identity. (Since their anthropological indentity is also vague, Miller (1986) recommends keeping the people's anthropological roots out of the issue of the roots of the Japanese language. Therefore, I have not included any evidence from that field.)
Despite the ambiguity of its ancestry, theories about Japanese have been whittled down over the last few centuries to two of the most prominent and promising prospects. Today, Western linguists believe it is related either to Korean, which is a geographic neighbor, or to the Ural-Altaic family, or to both. Like Japanese, Korean is an orphan, and most advocates of Japanese-Altaic also propose that Korean belongs to its Altaic friends.
Before I proceed to discuss Korean and Altaic ties, I will touch lightly on one member of the wide assortment of other theories that have tried to explain the origin of Japanese. Some have suggested that Japanese is related to the Austronesian or Malayo-Polynesian languages because of their phonotactic similarities. For example, they share all 5 common vowels, as well as the attributes of open syllables and no diphthongs (Komatsu 1962, 52). These traits and others show a remarkable correlation between Japanese and languages of the isles of the sea, and linguistic contact probably would have been geographically possible. However, I feel this overlooks the historical 8-vowel system of Old Japanese. None of these theories seem quite as feasible as Korean or Ural-Altaic.
Based on my own limited experience, Korean is my personal choice for a closest relative to Japanese. They just sound so similar! And beyond that, scientific evidence supports their relationship: both the grammatical morphology and the phonology of the two languages coincide. _no (1970) specifies several grammatical similarities. For example, word order is so similar that translation requires little rearrangement. Also, neither Japanese nor Korean has an article, but both have postpositions (as opposed to prepositions or inflections) to indicate grammatical function. Phonological correlations include the fact that neither distinguishes the liquids /l/ and /r/ (_no, 1970). Also, neither has initial /r/ except in more recent words, especially loanwords. There is even a historical parallel between the phonology of the two languages: where Japanese had vowel harmony until the 9th Century, Korean maintained it all the way up to the 17th Century (Komatsu 1962, 58). Because of all these similarities, nearly all theories incorporate Korean into the equation, even if their main thrust is another language group.
The majority of scholarly opinions point toward the Altaic family as the home of Japanese. _no (1970) indicates a number of reasons to support this theory. For example, Altaic languages include many cases of vowel harmony, like that found in Finnish. Also, like Japanese, Altaic languages have no grammatical distinction of number, nor of gender. Neither has relative pronouns or passive voice, but both have postpositions or particles instead of word order or declension to indicate function (_no, 1970). On and on trails the list of similarities between Altaic and Japanese. I find the sheer volume of evidence to be convincing by itself. But even more than that, the Altaic family shows the most promise because of the quality of the evidence. Many of these characteristics are not very typical in other language groups, especially Indo-European. The probability of Japanese and Altaic sharing an unusual trait is not very high, and when so many of them are combined, the probability plunges. So I see the abundance of improbable evidence as significant support for the relationship between Japanese and the Altaic languages.
The connection between Japanese and Altaic has been refined somewhat since it was first suggested almost 150 years ago. In 1857, the Viennese man Anton Boller proposed that Japanese was descended from the Ural-Altaic group of languages (Miller 1986, 34). Since that time, linguistic research has split that group into the Uralic and the Altaic families. Most Western scholars have dropped the theories that maintain Uralic in the family tree of Japanese, so that Altaic remains in the forefront. However, a few such as Kazár (1980) still fight for Uralic. As support, he cites the vowel harmony among Japanese, Turk, and Old Korean, as well as other languages. However, Korean is not valid for his argument, since no one knows whether it is a Uralic language or not; Kazár here relies on faulty support. Moreover, vowel harmony fuels the Altaic theory just as well. Although Kazár uses exhaustive specific examples, his arguments are nearly identical to the ones that support the Altaic theory. And adding further doubt to the Uralic connection, he quotes an objection to his own cause: the phonetic correspondences are not established, and if we accept Uralic, then Japanese can be compared to any language (Kazár 1980). The Uralic half of Boller's theory has given way to the Altaic.
But how is it possible that the language of Finland in Northern Europe can be related to the language of a Southeast Asian island chain? The distance is a daunting obstacle. But we can easily apply to Altaic what Kazár said of Uralic: the geographical distance between Japan and the sources of the Altaic languages is no greater than between Britain and India, both of which have Indo-European languages (Kazár 1980).
Miller believes so strongly in the Altaic connection that he has written a book entitled Japanese and the Other Altaic Languages (1971), as if there is no question regarding its classification. He reaches a compromise between most of the languages that can be tied to Japanese in one way or another by comparing to some Indo-European languages that we are more familiar with. The key, he says, is to understand that Japanese is not a "hybrid" language any more than English is (1986, 166-7). English is a Germanic language, despite heavy influences from two Italic languages, French and Latin, and from other languages more closely related to it (Norse). Likewise, advocates Miller, Japanese is an Altaic language, although its history includes heavy influence from a variety of sources. He says that speakers of the Altaic and Uralic groups had some "close association," and therefore "early linguistic contact" (1986, 53), but whether that implies actual linguistic ancestry or merely mutual influence is not critical.
Although there is somewhat of a general consensus in the West that Japanese is an Altaic language, that we cannot be absolutely sure where Japanese comes from. Numerous conflicting theories are still advocated, both here and in Japan. Japanese and Korean still are each usually classified independent of any other language.
Recent Influences
Today, the standard variety of Japanese is the T_ky_ dialect. Because of both the government's efforts and modern communication, other dialects are becoming homogenized so that nearly everyone can understand and speak it. The T_ky_ dialect is taught in school, spoken on television, heard on the radio, and read in the newspapers.
In 1946, the government implemented a simplification of the writing system. It put forward a list of 1,850 T_y_ Kanji (Current Characters), requiring that publishers limit themselves to these characters wherever possible. This action reduced the number of kanji necessary for literacy, and simplified existing kanji. The list includes 881 characters for use in gradeschool curriculum. Despite the lingering complexity of Japanese writing, Japan maintains one of the highest literacy rates in the world.
As Modern Japan has entered the cosmopolitan scene, its language has been enriched by a recent influx of Western loanwords, transliterated into katakana. These include pan (bread), from Portuguese, and arubaito (part-time job), from German arbeiten (to work). But the majority of recent loanwords come from English, especially in the domains of technology and entertainment. A Japanese person today can go to Makkudonarudo to grab a hambaagaa to eat. He can watch a bideo on his terebi, or sit down at the kompyuutaa to type a letter on his waapuro (word processor) and save it on a disuku. Because of the volume and variety of English words appearing in Japanese print today, it seems to me that a Japanese person would not be able to understand a popular magazine in his own language unless he also has a good command of English vocabulary.
Conclusion
As linguistic research progresses throughout the continuum of the world’s languages, perhaps a definitive ancestor of Japanese will be pinpointed, and the people of Japan will rest from their identity crisis. But more likely, researchers will continue to refine the current theories to make the relationships between Altaic, Korean, and Japanese more clear and precise. Who knows — maybe the future could bring another discovery as revolutionary as the 8-vowel system of ancient Japanese texts. At any rate, I am content with Japanese as an independent language, an integral part of a beautiful culture, and a self-sufficient creature with its own personality.
Bibliography
Collier's Encyclopedia. 1995. s.v. Japanese.
Encyclopædia Brittanica. 1997. s.v. Languages of the world: Japanese language.
Fujii, Noriko. 1991. Historical discourse analysis: Grammatical subject in Japanese. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Habein, Yaeko Sato. 1984. The history of the Japanese written language. University of T_ky_ Press.
Kazár, Lajos. 1980. Japanese-Uralic language comparison; Locating Japanese origins with the help of Samoyed, Finnish, Hungarian, etc.: An attempt. Hamburg: Lajos Kazár-Tsurusaki Books.
Kazár, Lajos, ed. 1985. Interdisciplinary International Workshop "Provenance of the Japanese language and the people with which an early stage of this language reached the Japanese island realm". Hamburg.
Komatsu, Isao. 1962. The Japanese people: Origins of the people and the language. T_ky_: Kokusai Bunka Shinkokai [The Society for International Cultural Relations].
Miller, Roy Andrew. 1980. Origins of the Japanese language: Lectures in Japan during the academic year 1977-78. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press.
Miller, Roy Andrew. 1986. Nihongo: In defence of Japanese. London: Athlone Press.
_no, Susumu. 1970. The origin of the Japanese language. T_ky_: Kokusai Bunka Shinkokai [Japan Cultural Society].
Seeley, Christopher. 1991. A history of writing in Japan. Leiden, The Netherlands: E.J. Brill.
japan Map
japan Map
Japan Map - This Map of Japan shows both the major cities of Japan and Japan regions. The Japan regions are marked on this Japan Map with different background colors. Only the northern island of Hokkaido, which is also a region in its own right is marked on the map. Refer to our Japan Region Map for a better view and explanation. The Japan Map allows you to simply click on the city name for more detail information about each Japanese city or in the case of Hokkaido or Okinawa area. Note: In this Japan Map, Okinawa is raised and off set from its actual position which is much further south and west of the main Japanese island group.
A night at the theatre
A Night At The Theatre
You’re in Tokyo with InsideJapan Tours – why not take in the theatre? If you are shopping or just window-shopping in Ginza in the heart of Tokyo, you are only a few minutes’ walk from the Shimbashi Embujo. Here you can arrive around 4.00pm, drink in the atmosphere of excited crowds of theatre-goers milling around the many stalls selling theatrical souvenirs, then sit in a comfortable seat watching the amazing performance on stage and listening to an English translation through an earphone. The long interval gives you time for a full meal at one of the theatre restaurants.
Most months of the year the theatre you will watch will be kabuki, one of Japan’s three main traditional theatre genres. Kabuki began in the seventeenth century and quickly developed a highly stylised type of acting that has been popular ever since. All parts in kabuki are played by men and some of its greatest actors specialise in playing female characters. Kabuki stars are part of Japan’s celebrity culture and you will often see their faces on advertising billboards or in TV commercials.
Apart from kabuki, the puppet theatre (Bunraku), with each puppet being manipulated by three puppeteers, also dates from the seventeenth century, and noh, a more stately form of danced theatre in which many main actors wear wooden masks, can trace its history back to the fourteenth century. Bunraku is most regularly played in Osaka at the National Bunraku Theatre and earphone guides are also available there. Noh can be watched at the National Noh Theatre in Tokyo, and each seat has a personal subtitling system.
Japan has preserved its traditional theatre forms, but it has a vibrant modern theatre as well. The country was virtually cut off from the rest of the world for two centuries from the mid-1600s to the mid-1800s, but when it discovered what European theatre was like, it eagerly embraced the major European playwrights: Shakespeare, Ibsen etc.
So in the late nineteenth century two great theatre cultures collided in Japan. Some thought kabuki should be protected at all costs, others that it could modernise by adopting Western conventions, for example that female parts should be played by actresses.
In the 1920s the idea grew strongly that traditional theatre should be rejected and an entirely new Japanese theatre, based on the European model, should be developed. All traditional Japanese theatre had been non-realistic – presentational rather than representational – so establishing realism in playwriting, acting and directing became a priority.
Then in the 1960s realism itself was rejected and ‘underground’ theatre – we might use the word ‘fringe’ or ‘off-Broadway’ – burst onto the scene. Radical politically and open to anything in its performance techniques, this heady mix of kaleidoscopic styles and raw emotions re-energised theatre in Japan. It developed into the ‘little theatre’ (shôgekijô) movement, experimental theatre performed in small acting spaces.
In the early twenty-first century much contemporary theatre has been going through a calmer and more contemplative phase.
Over the past century while these new developments have been taking place almost nothing from the past has been lost. Japan’s theatre is so extraordinarily rich that in a short stay there you could see everything mentioned here and a lot more. There are not many places in the world where you can see fourteenth-century theatre one day, realistic theatre the next, eighteenth-century puppets the next and an ultra-avant garde show the day after.
So how do you go about planning your theatre-going in Japan and getting tickets? The easiest way is to leave this to InsideJapan Tours. However, you can do some preparation before you go by reading A Guide to the Japanese Stage, From Traditional to Cutting Edge by Ronald Cavaye, Paul Griffith and Akihiko Senda (Kodansha International 2004; Amazon refer to it wrongly as World of the Japanese Stage). There are good articles on traditional theatre in Wikipedia: kabuki, Bunraku and noh. There are many video clips of all three on YouTube. - See more at: http://www.insidejapantours.com/japanese-culture/theatre/#sthash.gZfUrP9e.dpuf
Monday, October 28, 2013
Traditinoal Sports
traditional sports......
Sport plays a significant part in the fabric of morden day Japanese life. From a young age children join school teams, instilling a sense of camaraderie, pride, hard work and dedication. Though modern sports such as baseball, badminton, tennis and football are popular, Japan is perhaps better known for sports with a more ancient, traditional profile.
Sumo
Japan’s de-facto national sport (although this is not an official status) is the enthralling and at times bewildering spectacle that is sumo. Deeply rooted in Japan’s culture, it has a history of over 1500 years. Legend has it that the very survival of the Japanese people balanced on the outcome of a sumo match between the gods, and indeed sumo originated as a form of Shinto ritual. Though it has developed into a professional sport, elements of these rituals are still apparent, from the use of salt to purify the ring, to the shrine like roof hanging above.
Sumo tournaments, or ‘bashos’ take place every two months in Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya and Fukuoka and are a truly fantastic way to spend the day. Though the pre-bout antics are strict and formalized, the fights are a spectacular blur of flesh, noise and power as the two man mountains attempt to push, pull or slap each other out of the ring, or onto any part of their body other than the soles of their supersize feet. Though quintessentially Japanese, in recent times the number of foreign wrestlers has gradually increased and a growing number of non-Japanese excel at the sport and the complex set of cultural traditions it carries
Take a bento lunch box, grab a beer and cheer on with the crowd as they rally their favourite ‘rikishi’ to victory!
Kendo
The furious, noisy sport of kendo is perhaps Japan’s oldest martial art and blends power, skill and bravery. Kendo could be described loosely as ‘Japanese fencing’ though the ‘swords’ are today crafted from four substantial bamboo slats, usually held together by leather straps. Its origins lie in the Kamakura period (1185-1333) and with the samurai, who needed to practice their swordsmanship. They established ‘kenjutsu’ schools for this purpose, and, with the influence of Zen Buddhism it took on a rather spiritual as well as physical essence. Over time the swords were replaced with the bamboo staves, and thick, protective body armour was introduced. Today kendo is practiced all over Japan and is a sport for all ages of participants.
Karate
Though arguably one of world’s most famous martial arts, its beginnings are somewhat hazy. Often thought of as Japanese, the ancient origins of karate are said to have originated as far away as the Indian Subcontinent. From there it passed into China, where it was developed and refined. Chinese traders brought these fighting skills to the Ryukyu Islands as early as the Fourteenth Century. Now incorporated in what is known as Okinawa, and fully part of Japan, these were once both an independent and culturally different kingdom. Over hundreds of years various styles of these martial arts were practiced, and karate was not properly introduced to mainland Japan until the early Twentieth Century. Meaning ‘empty hands’, Karate features largely unarmed combat with a spectacular array of blows and blocks delivered by the fists, feet, legs and arms.
Aikido
Aikido is sometimes loosely translated to mean ‘way of the harmonious spirit’. It is a less overtly aggressive martial art that focuses on defence by redirecting the power and energy of the attacker, with the ideal outcome that neither the attacked nor the attacker is harmed. It was founded in the 1920s by Ueshiba Morihei. Morihei was born in Tanabe, located in the south of the Kii Peninsula. This is a remote, beautiful region to the south of Kyoto and Osaka and a place of great spiritual significance. This sense of spirituality became infused in the essence of Aikido, as were aspects of Japanese dance, Shintoism, Buddhism, Karate and Kendo.
Judo
Of all of Japan’s martial arts, Judo is perhaps the one that has spread most successfully around the world. The essence lies in the speed, subtlety and skill of using the size and strength of the opponent against themselves. It is practiced both recreationally, and professionally; the epic bouts are one of the highlights of every Olympic Games. Judo means ‘gentle way’ as was created by a man named Kano Jigoro in 1882. The inspiration for judo was born out of the bullying that Jigoro witnessed at the English medium boarding school he attended in Tokyo, when he was just fourteen years old. He wanted to be trained in the art of ju-jitsu, an ancient form of self-defence favoured by the samurai. Though finding a teacher proved difficult, He eventually studied under two masters before founding his own school and dojo at Eisho-ji temple in Tokyo, and from here judo came into being.
Sumo
Japan’s de-facto national sport (although this is not an official status) is the enthralling and at times bewildering spectacle that is sumo. Deeply rooted in Japan’s culture, it has a history of over 1500 years. Legend has it that the very survival of the Japanese people balanced on the outcome of a sumo match between the gods, and indeed sumo originated as a form of Shinto ritual. Though it has developed into a professional sport, elements of these rituals are still apparent, from the use of salt to purify the ring, to the shrine like roof hanging above.
Sumo tournaments, or ‘bashos’ take place every two months in Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya and Fukuoka and are a truly fantastic way to spend the day. Though the pre-bout antics are strict and formalized, the fights are a spectacular blur of flesh, noise and power as the two man mountains attempt to push, pull or slap each other out of the ring, or onto any part of their body other than the soles of their supersize feet. Though quintessentially Japanese, in recent times the number of foreign wrestlers has gradually increased and a growing number of non-Japanese excel at the sport and the complex set of cultural traditions it carries
Take a bento lunch box, grab a beer and cheer on with the crowd as they rally their favourite ‘rikishi’ to victory!
Kendo
The furious, noisy sport of kendo is perhaps Japan’s oldest martial art and blends power, skill and bravery. Kendo could be described loosely as ‘Japanese fencing’ though the ‘swords’ are today crafted from four substantial bamboo slats, usually held together by leather straps. Its origins lie in the Kamakura period (1185-1333) and with the samurai, who needed to practice their swordsmanship. They established ‘kenjutsu’ schools for this purpose, and, with the influence of Zen Buddhism it took on a rather spiritual as well as physical essence. Over time the swords were replaced with the bamboo staves, and thick, protective body armour was introduced. Today kendo is practiced all over Japan and is a sport for all ages of participants.
Karate
Though arguably one of world’s most famous martial arts, its beginnings are somewhat hazy. Often thought of as Japanese, the ancient origins of karate are said to have originated as far away as the Indian Subcontinent. From there it passed into China, where it was developed and refined. Chinese traders brought these fighting skills to the Ryukyu Islands as early as the Fourteenth Century. Now incorporated in what is known as Okinawa, and fully part of Japan, these were once both an independent and culturally different kingdom. Over hundreds of years various styles of these martial arts were practiced, and karate was not properly introduced to mainland Japan until the early Twentieth Century. Meaning ‘empty hands’, Karate features largely unarmed combat with a spectacular array of blows and blocks delivered by the fists, feet, legs and arms.
Aikido
Aikido is sometimes loosely translated to mean ‘way of the harmonious spirit’. It is a less overtly aggressive martial art that focuses on defence by redirecting the power and energy of the attacker, with the ideal outcome that neither the attacked nor the attacker is harmed. It was founded in the 1920s by Ueshiba Morihei. Morihei was born in Tanabe, located in the south of the Kii Peninsula. This is a remote, beautiful region to the south of Kyoto and Osaka and a place of great spiritual significance. This sense of spirituality became infused in the essence of Aikido, as were aspects of Japanese dance, Shintoism, Buddhism, Karate and Kendo.
Judo
Of all of Japan’s martial arts, Judo is perhaps the one that has spread most successfully around the world. The essence lies in the speed, subtlety and skill of using the size and strength of the opponent against themselves. It is practiced both recreationally, and professionally; the epic bouts are one of the highlights of every Olympic Games. Judo means ‘gentle way’ as was created by a man named Kano Jigoro in 1882. The inspiration for judo was born out of the bullying that Jigoro witnessed at the English medium boarding school he attended in Tokyo, when he was just fourteen years old. He wanted to be trained in the art of ju-jitsu, an ancient form of self-defence favoured by the samurai. Though finding a teacher proved difficult, He eventually studied under two masters before founding his own school and dojo at Eisho-ji temple in Tokyo, and from here judo came into being.
Manage & Anime
manage & Anime
As manage ( Japaneses comics) Anime (Japanese animation) have become integral parts of modern Japanese life and culture, there is no way of escaping their influence wherever you go in the country. Without either of them, Japan would definitely not be the colourful and intriguing country that it is.
The modern forms of Manga and Anime date back to drawing styles and techniques that emerged after World War II. Whilst the country has modernised and changed significantly since, many aspects of Japanese culture and values have remained the same, meaning that the characters and stories are still very much relevant to audiences of all ages today.
You don’t necessarily need to be an otaku (the Japanese word for “geek” but with less negative connotations than the English translation) to dip your toe into this side of Japanese culture. Manga and Anime characters can be found literally everywhere: advertising, fashion, omiyage (souvenirs), food, stationery and the all important mobile phone accessory are just a few examples.
Manga
Manga books are generally printed in black and white and cover a wide variety of genres and subject matter aimed at both sexes and all ages, not just for young boys who comics are generally marketed to in the West. Themes include romance, action adventure, science fiction, comedy, sports and can also venture into darker subject matter for adults such as horror and more risqué material; though the latter tends not to be acknowledged in everyday life and culture.
As it makes up a large section of Japan’s publishing industry, Manga books can be found and seen everywhere. People reading Manga on trains during rush hour is a common sight in Tokyo as well as the rest of the country. Every town will have a book store with aisles upon aisles of different Manga genres and larger cities even have stores entirely dedicated to the medium over multiple storeys. Convenience stores are quite happy for patrons to stand and read Manga even if they are not going to buy and many waiting rooms and restaurants have bookshelves with popular serialisations.
Most Manga aimed at children uses a simplistic style and the adorable characters feed Japan’s love for all things kawaii (cute). Characters also have oversized eyes through which the artists are able to convey emotion more easily. Below are a few examples of the more popular manga comics amongst children:
AstroBoy (created by Osamu Tezuka and first published in 1952) is about a world where humans and robots co-exist. The protagonist, AstroBoy, is a robot who uses his superior powers to fight crime and as a result of the care and attention of his owner is able to experience human emotions.
Doraemon (created by Fujiko F Fujio and first published in 1969) follows a blue robotic cat who has travelled back in time from the 24th Century to help a young schoolboy, Nobita Nobi, through the trials and tribulations of life.
DragonBall (Created by Akira Toriyama and first published in 1984) follows Goku and his friend Bulma exploring a mythical earth, learning martial arts and searching for “dragonballs” which summon a magical dragon that assists them in times of danger.
As you move away from the books aimed at children and to those aimed at teenagers and young adults, the themes can become a little darker, however, the general ideas of good overcoming evil still remain. The style of the artwork is a lot more detailed and realistic, however, physical features of the characters are still over stylised and exaggerated. Below you will find a couple of examples popular amongst the teenage audience:
Bleach (created by Noriaki Kubo and first published in 2001) is about a teenager named Ichigo who gains the power of Soul Reaper (similar to a death god) and protects the human world against evil spirits as well as guiding deceased spirits safely to the after-world.
Death Note (created by Tsugumi Oba and first published in 2003) follows Light, a Senior High School student, who receives the “Death Note” from a death god. When Light writes the name of a person in the notebook their life comes to an end so he takes it upon himself to rid the world of criminals and evil.
Both Bleach and Death Note, along with other popular serialisations, have been published in English. However, their popularity in Western countries are not on the same scale as in Japan, but interest is growing.
Anime
Once certain Manga have proven their worth by popularity, the natural progression is for an animated TV series to be created, however, Manga is not the only source of inspiration for Anime. For example, Pokémon was a worldwide hit as a video game for Nintendo before it was made into Manga and Anime series.
The obvious differences from Manga such as colour, movement and sound bring Anime to life, but there is one additional element which is extremely important: the theme song. Artists from the J-pop and J-rock world are all falling over themselves to write the theme songs for the next big Anime series as it is almost a guaranteed hit and provides great exposure. The anticipation of which artist it will be can often out shadow the Anime itself, being the topic of hot discussion in school playgrounds and internet forums.
One of Japan’s most famous, successful and critically acclaimed animators is Hayao Miyazaki, co-director of Studio Ghibli which was founded in 1985. His long career has seen him create numerous original feature films in the animated form which have touched the hearts of the Japanese people as well as the rest of the world. On a visual level, his animation style is very unique and cannot be mistaken, especially as his characters tend to have small eyes, going against the usual trend for larger eyes as mentioned earlier. Another distinguishing feature of his work is that most of the protagonists are strong independent girls or women.
Some of Miyazaki’s most famous works include Princess Momonoke, My Neighbour Totoro and Spirited Away, which won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature at the 75th Academy Awards.
Many popular Anime series and Miyazaki films have found some levels of success elsewhere in the world after being dubbed into various languages but, to get the real sentiment of the work, they really do need to be watched in Japanese.
Most visitors to Japan simply skim the surface of Manga and Anime by visually appreciating the characters which pop up wherever you go with no real knowledge of who they are. However, a little research into this fantasy world can enrich your time in Japan as your knowledge of characters will create instant common ground with Japanese people you may meet and you will find yourself actively searching for and spotting the characters you know. If you do decide to delve deeper into these vast worlds then be careful: once you are in it is very difficult to find your way out and before you know it, you may be considered (or even call yourself) an Otaku.
The modern forms of Manga and Anime date back to drawing styles and techniques that emerged after World War II. Whilst the country has modernised and changed significantly since, many aspects of Japanese culture and values have remained the same, meaning that the characters and stories are still very much relevant to audiences of all ages today.
You don’t necessarily need to be an otaku (the Japanese word for “geek” but with less negative connotations than the English translation) to dip your toe into this side of Japanese culture. Manga and Anime characters can be found literally everywhere: advertising, fashion, omiyage (souvenirs), food, stationery and the all important mobile phone accessory are just a few examples.
Manga
Manga books are generally printed in black and white and cover a wide variety of genres and subject matter aimed at both sexes and all ages, not just for young boys who comics are generally marketed to in the West. Themes include romance, action adventure, science fiction, comedy, sports and can also venture into darker subject matter for adults such as horror and more risqué material; though the latter tends not to be acknowledged in everyday life and culture.
As it makes up a large section of Japan’s publishing industry, Manga books can be found and seen everywhere. People reading Manga on trains during rush hour is a common sight in Tokyo as well as the rest of the country. Every town will have a book store with aisles upon aisles of different Manga genres and larger cities even have stores entirely dedicated to the medium over multiple storeys. Convenience stores are quite happy for patrons to stand and read Manga even if they are not going to buy and many waiting rooms and restaurants have bookshelves with popular serialisations.
Most Manga aimed at children uses a simplistic style and the adorable characters feed Japan’s love for all things kawaii (cute). Characters also have oversized eyes through which the artists are able to convey emotion more easily. Below are a few examples of the more popular manga comics amongst children:
AstroBoy (created by Osamu Tezuka and first published in 1952) is about a world where humans and robots co-exist. The protagonist, AstroBoy, is a robot who uses his superior powers to fight crime and as a result of the care and attention of his owner is able to experience human emotions.
Doraemon (created by Fujiko F Fujio and first published in 1969) follows a blue robotic cat who has travelled back in time from the 24th Century to help a young schoolboy, Nobita Nobi, through the trials and tribulations of life.
DragonBall (Created by Akira Toriyama and first published in 1984) follows Goku and his friend Bulma exploring a mythical earth, learning martial arts and searching for “dragonballs” which summon a magical dragon that assists them in times of danger.
As you move away from the books aimed at children and to those aimed at teenagers and young adults, the themes can become a little darker, however, the general ideas of good overcoming evil still remain. The style of the artwork is a lot more detailed and realistic, however, physical features of the characters are still over stylised and exaggerated. Below you will find a couple of examples popular amongst the teenage audience:
Bleach (created by Noriaki Kubo and first published in 2001) is about a teenager named Ichigo who gains the power of Soul Reaper (similar to a death god) and protects the human world against evil spirits as well as guiding deceased spirits safely to the after-world.
Death Note (created by Tsugumi Oba and first published in 2003) follows Light, a Senior High School student, who receives the “Death Note” from a death god. When Light writes the name of a person in the notebook their life comes to an end so he takes it upon himself to rid the world of criminals and evil.
Both Bleach and Death Note, along with other popular serialisations, have been published in English. However, their popularity in Western countries are not on the same scale as in Japan, but interest is growing.
Anime
Once certain Manga have proven their worth by popularity, the natural progression is for an animated TV series to be created, however, Manga is not the only source of inspiration for Anime. For example, Pokémon was a worldwide hit as a video game for Nintendo before it was made into Manga and Anime series.
The obvious differences from Manga such as colour, movement and sound bring Anime to life, but there is one additional element which is extremely important: the theme song. Artists from the J-pop and J-rock world are all falling over themselves to write the theme songs for the next big Anime series as it is almost a guaranteed hit and provides great exposure. The anticipation of which artist it will be can often out shadow the Anime itself, being the topic of hot discussion in school playgrounds and internet forums.
One of Japan’s most famous, successful and critically acclaimed animators is Hayao Miyazaki, co-director of Studio Ghibli which was founded in 1985. His long career has seen him create numerous original feature films in the animated form which have touched the hearts of the Japanese people as well as the rest of the world. On a visual level, his animation style is very unique and cannot be mistaken, especially as his characters tend to have small eyes, going against the usual trend for larger eyes as mentioned earlier. Another distinguishing feature of his work is that most of the protagonists are strong independent girls or women.
Some of Miyazaki’s most famous works include Princess Momonoke, My Neighbour Totoro and Spirited Away, which won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature at the 75th Academy Awards.
Many popular Anime series and Miyazaki films have found some levels of success elsewhere in the world after being dubbed into various languages but, to get the real sentiment of the work, they really do need to be watched in Japanese.
Most visitors to Japan simply skim the surface of Manga and Anime by visually appreciating the characters which pop up wherever you go with no real knowledge of who they are. However, a little research into this fantasy world can enrich your time in Japan as your knowledge of characters will create instant common ground with Japanese people you may meet and you will find yourself actively searching for and spotting the characters you know. If you do decide to delve deeper into these vast worlds then be careful: once you are in it is very difficult to find your way out and before you know it, you may be considered (or even call yourself) an Otaku.
Sunday, October 27, 2013
language learning tips.........
language learning tips.........
This sections a collection of advice, suggestions, tips & techniques for learning languages. Most are based on my own experiences, while some come from other people....
Many of these tips, perhaps with some minor modifications, also apply to learning others skills, such as music.
Why should I learn a language?
There are many reasons to learn a foreign language, from working in another country to discovering your roots, through intellectual curiosity, romance, travel, and secret communication.
More reasons for learning languages
Which language should I learn?
Once you have decided to learn a language, you may not be quite sure which language to choose. To some extent, your choice depends on your reasons for learning a language. For example, if you'd like to communicate with as many people as possible, learning such languages as Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, French, Russian or Arabic would enable you to do so.
More tips on which language to learn
What materials and tools do I need to study a language?
There's a wide range of materials and tools available to help you with your language studies, including language courses, dictionaries, grammar books, phrasebooks, online lessons, mp3 players and electronic translators.
More on language learning materials and tools
How can I find time to study a language?
Finding time to study a language can be quite a challenge. You may think that you don't really have enough of it, but it's surprising how many spare moments you have during a typical day, and how they can add up to a useful amount of study time.
More on finding time for your studies
What's the best way to study?
After choosing a language, you can start thinking about how you're going to study it. For popular languages like French and Spanish, there's a wealth of materials available. For lesser-studied languages, the choice can be more limited. If courses are available in your area, it might help you to attend them, or you may prefer to study on your own, or to have individual lessons.
More advice on choosing a way to study and some general tips
Learning pronunciation
Learning the pronunciation of a language is a very important part of your studies. It doesn't matter so much if you just want to read and/or write the language, but if you want to speak a language well, as I'm sure you do, pay particular attention to the pronunciation and review it regularly.
More on learning pronunciation and improving listening comprehension
Learning vocabulary
Building up your vocabulary in a foreign language can take many years. Learning words in context from written and spoken material is probably the most effective way to do this. You could also try learning words in a more systematic way - perhaps a certain number of words every day.
More on learning vocabulary | Spaced repetition learning systems (SRS)
Learning grammar
Familiarity with the grammar of a language enables you to understand it, and also to construct your own phrases and sentences. It's not essential to know all the grammatical terminology or to understand why words change, as long as you're able to apply to relevant changes when necessary.
More on learning grammar
Learning alphabets and other writing systems
If the language you're learning is written with a different alphabet or other type of writing system, learning it is well worth the effort. Some alphabets, such as Cyrillic and Greek, can be learnt without too difficulty. Others, such as Devanagari and Thai, are a more challenging.
More on learning a new writing system
Learning Chinese characters
If you're learning one of the languages that use Chinese characters, such as Chinese, Japanese or Korean, you're faced with quite a challenge. However, there are some techniques you can use to help you learn all those funny little pictures and symbols.
More on learning to read and write Chinese Characters
Frequently asked questions about learning languages
On this page you can find answers to some of the questions I get asked most frequently about languages, such as "Are some languages more difficult to learn than others?" and "Which is harder to learn, Chinese or Japanese?".
FAQs page
Foreign phrases
This section contains an ever-growing collection of useful phrases in many different languages, with audio files for many of them. The phrases are arranged by phrase and by language.
Useful phrases in many languages
Careers using languages
What kind of jobs and careers are available to students of languages? This page provides some information about interpreting, translating, teaching, and other language-related jobs, and also links to sites with further information and vacancies.
More on language-related careeers
My own experiences of learning languages
I've been interested in language and languages for as long as I can remember. I am currently fluent in five languages, have a fairly good conversational ability in five others, and a basic knowledge of ten more. I've experimented with a variety of language learning techniques and courses, and continue to do so.
Why Know Japanese Vocabulary?
Improve your knowledge of the Japanese language by learning new Japanese vocabulary, Grammar, Pronunciation and other Japanese resources.....
Why Know Japanese Vocabulary?
Knowing a little Japanese Vocabulary ahead of time helps travelers communicate more successfully, especially considering that a great number of Japanese speakers do not know English. Whether giving an address in a taxi, making reservations in a hotel or tours, ordering food or drinks in a restaurant, your travel experience will be much smoother and more enjoyable when you can communicate and know their culture exactly.
Is important for you to know that japanese language have two aphabets: hiragana and katakana. Hiragana is used for words originally from Japan. And katakana is used for words that have foreign countries.
Building a good Japanese vocabulary doesn’t mean memorizing a long list of difficult Japanese words, or spending long hours reading a Japanese dictionary. One’s every activities present plenty of opportunities to increase one’s lexicon. People who handle a wide vocabulary can express their ideas with precision and grace; they have a clear advantage over those who only handle basic Japanese words.
Language skills are an enormous asset, the ability to communicate one’s feelings, thoughts, and needs are can make one’s relationships stronger. Japanese vocabulary skills are based on a clear understanding of Japanese language itself. The Japanese words, phrases and verbal expressions one uses must be appropriate to the situation.
Many words in Japanese language are based on word roots, this detail can help to understand the meaning of them. One must not forget that a word can mean different things in different contexts, so it’s advisable to learn Japanese word’s exceptions to do a correct usage of Japanese words. If one searches more about Japanese culture, history and traditions, one will learn many new words that will be useful to build new grammar structures and sentences. As one sees, there are many ways to improve our Japanese vocabulary.
Japanese vocabulary
Japanese vowels
Japanese Alphabet
Japanese Numbers
Time
Week
Months
Body
Japanese Colors
Family
Clothing
House
Directions
Eatings
Stores
Schools
Professions
Meats
Saturday, October 26, 2013
Why People Say Japanese Is Hard To Learn And Why They’re Wrong
Japanese can be a tough language to get into. Not because it's a hard language to learn, necessarily, but because there are a bunch of mental barriers and misconceptions. Koichi's talked a bit about this before, but there's a bit of an elephant in the room: Japanese has a reputation for being hard to learn.
I can kind of understand why – Japanese can be scary to people. You have to learn all these brand new characters, grammatical structures and – oh God – there's kanji. Nothing scares off a potential Japanese student like kanji.
Native English speakers instead like to learn Romance languages (Spanish French Italian) because they're so similar to English in a lot of ways.
But I'm here to tell you that it's all a bunch of crap. People tend to build up Japanese as an impossible language to learn but, in my experience, Japanese is straight-forward and easy to learn.
Let's look at the nay-sayers and why they're wrong.
Who Says It's Difficult
Within the US government, there's an organization called the Foreign Service Institute (FSI). It prepares US diplomats and other government officials for trips abroad by teaching them the language and culture.
The FSI has a ranking system for languages based on how difficult they are and how long they take for native English speakers to learn.
The FSI prepares US diplomats for foreign affairs
The easiest languages are our old buddies, the Romance languages: Spanish, French, and Italian, among others. Most of these languages are in the same language family as English.
And, according to the FSI, the hardest are Arabic, Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, and Mandarin.
The FSI can be pretty hard to argue against. After all, it has plenty of experience teaching languages, so presumably the FSI knows better than most.
But I think that the FSI isn't giving Japanese a fair shake. There are lots of aspects of Japanese that are pretty simple and straight-forward, even for native English speakers.
Why Japanese Is Easy To Learn
Most people get hung up over a few specific aspects of Japanese while ignoring the nice and easy ones. When you look at Japanese compared to other languages, there are a lot of things about Japanese that are actually much easier.
Sounds
For one, Japanese phonology (the sounds that make up the language) is really simple. There are only five basic vowel sounds (most of which are common in other languages), and the consonants are pretty basic as well.
Compare that to English phonology. English phonology, especially the vowels, and much more complex than Japanese.
Another nice thing about Japanese is that it isn't a tonal language. In a bunch of different languages, like Mandarin or Vietnamese, your meaning varies depending on your tone
In Japanese, the pitch of your voice does matter a bit, but it's not nearly as pronounced as in tonal languages.
Grammar
Anybody who has tried to learn a Romance language knows that subjunctive tense will make you want to rip your hair out. What is subjunctive tense? Basically, it's expressing a future desire.
In Japanese, it's really, really easy to do. But in other languages, well…let's just say that I'm a native English speaker and, to be honest, I don't have a clue how subjunctive tense works in English.
And if you've studied Spanish or French at all, you know that in those languages, different nouns have different genders and need to be treated differently. El biblioteca is different from la biblioteca.
In Japanese, you don't have to deal with any of this. At all. A chair isn't male and a library isn't female. You will never have to guess the gender of an inanimate object.
K-k-k-kanji!
Even kanji, the boogeyman of the Japanese language, is actually pretty easy. Technology has not only made it a lot easier to learn kanji (through spaced repetition systems), but a lot easier to read and write kanji too. You no longer have to memorize the stroke order of each kanji; now, you can just type it in!
Don't fear the kanji!
And if you don't know a kanji, it's incredibly easy to look it up on a phone or electronic dictionary. Much nicer than lugging around a thick kanji dictionary.
Of course, it's not easy to say that one language is objectively easier to learn than another. Language learning, generally, is a very subjective experience.
Don't get me wrong – Japanese can definitely be a struggle for new learners. Different people learn differently, there's no two ways about it.
But learning Japanese might not be as insurmountable a task as you think. Give it a shot – you may even find that Japanese is a breeze for you.
Manners, Customs and the Japanese way
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Manners, Customs and the Japanese way
Manners and customs are an important part of many facets of Japanese life. Japanese people will grow up picking up the subtleties of this unique culture as they go through life, respecting the invisible and varied societal rules. There are many aspects of this seemingly complicated culture that as a foreign visitor, you will not be expected to know, but there are some things that will be easier to grasp than others.
Bowing
One of the most obvious social conventions is the bow. Everyone bows when they say hello, goodbye, thank you or sorry. Bowing is a term of respect, remorse, gratitude and greeting.
If you meet someone in Japan you may wish to give them a little bow, but you do not necessarily need to bow to everyone who bows to you. Entering a shop or restaurant for example, you will be greeted by shouts of ‘irrashaimase’ (welcome) and a bow from the staff as a sign of respect to you as the customer. As the customer, you will not be expected to bow back as you could be facing a long bow-off as the staff will feel it necessary to bow back to you. You may prefer to adopt the casual head-nod version of the bow as a sign of acknowledgement when thanked for your purchase at the end of your shopping experience. Many Japanese people use the head-nod in more casual everyday situations.
There are several forms of bowing such as the 45 degree ‘Saikeirei’ bow used for moments for sincere apology or to show the highest of respect, or the 30 degree ‘Keirei’ bow which is also used to show respect to superiors. As a visitor to Japan you will probably have no use for wither of these. The ‘Eshaku’ 15 degree bow is used for greetings when meeting people for the first time and is semi formal. You may have more use for this bow during your time in Japan, but you will not be expected to use it and Japanese these days are more than familiar with shaking hands.
Taking off footwear
This is something that confuses many visitors to Japan, but is so easy to understand. It is customary in Japan to take off your shoes when entering a traditional ryokan (guesthouse), a home, temple or the occasional restaurant for example. Traditionally, the Japanese took off shoes entering homes as people would sleep, sit and eat on the tatami matted floors and footwear worn outside would spread dirt across their living area. Today people still take off their footwear, partly to keep the inside of the building clean, but also as a sign of respect.
As a visitor to Japan, you may not find yourself entering too many private homes but you will probably find yourself in a traditional ryokan or Minshuku guest house or entering a temple building and you will be expected to take off your shoes. You will enter a building and often find yourself in the ‘genkan’ (entrance hall) which will usually be on a slightly different level to the rest of the floor. You may see a sign asking you to take of shoes, you may see lots of shoes sitting neatly or you may see an area or lockers to place your footwear, all signs that you should take off your shoes.
Most Japanese will glide effortlessly in and out of their footwear from ‘genkan’ to tatami floor in one swift move. As soon as you step out of your shoes, step up straight onto the main floor and to be polite, you might like to turn around and reposition your shoes neatly or put them in the appropriate place. Although you may not have mastered taking off your shoes as well as the Japanese, it is a simple concept that is considered vey important in Japan.
Other social tips
Respect
The suffix “san” is often used when you refer to someone else and is a term of respect. If referring to Mr/Mrs Suzuki, you would say, “Suzuki san”. However, you would never refer to yourself as “-san” and would only use your name on its own.
Eating
Before eating a meal, Japanese put their hands together and use the term “Itadakimasu” (I humbly receive). After the meal, it is polite to say “Gochiso sama deshita” (thank you for the meal).
Japanese will understand if visitors do not have proficient use of chopsticks but there are some rules you should try and follow;
Do not stick your chopsticks into your bowl of rice or pass food around with them. As well as being slightly uncouth, these actions have relevance to the Japanese funeral ceremony.
It is also advisable not to douse your rice in soy sauce. Japanese are very proud of their rice and this seemingly innocent action may surprise and even offend some ryokan/restaurant owners.
It is not common practice to walk and eat in public and is considered bad manners. You may sit down in a public place and eat or stand at “tachi-gui” restaurant/shops, but walking and eating is not polite.
There is no tipping in Japanese restaurants or other places that many westerners will expect to tip. The Japanese will always give the best service they can and do their jobs proudly. A waiter or chef would certainly not accept a tip for doing their jobs and if you tried to leave one, they would awkwardly return your money, so don’t tip.
There are many social conventions in Japan which westerners might find hard to understand, but that is the nature of different cultures and is part of the fun about being in a country like Japan. Although it is nice if you are able to respect every social custom, as a visitor you will not be expected to know them all. A little bit of respect goes a long way in Japan and your sensitivity will be appreciated.
Friday, October 25, 2013
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