Hello Again

Well, hello. Setsubun came and passed and I realized I hadn't written in a very long time. I guess I could say 「まあ色々があって・・・」 but that isn't really true. Anyway, I will be writing again.

Starting now! So, shadowing is this activity whereby you make your Japanese sound more natural. I did it religiously for a little while, then I stopped. Why? Partly because I just wasn't watching anything interesting enough. I found my interest caught instead by Korean dramas. Then I felt guiltier than I usually do for watching television, because at least when it's Japanese I can say that I am studying. Feeling the urge to once again delve into some shadowing/listening comprehension, I gave myself over to watching one of the dramas that recently came out: フリーター、家を買う。Or in a very very very free translation, Mr. Can't Keep a Job Buys a House. (That's what I call it, anyway.) It broadcast in Fall 2010 to good ratings.

 Hm, this photograph is very ominously torn.

Also, I think the father is Streseman from Nodame Cantabile.

It has a Johnny's Boy in it, if you're interested in that kind of thing. Actually, it's Arashi's Ninomiya, who acted in Letters from Iwo Jima. 

 I often don't feel like I'm well-versed enough in Japanese to accurately gauge if someone is doing a good job of acting in that language. Here Ninomiya strikes me as a good actor, but that may just be because it seems very un-exaggerated and naturalistic. Except the one scene at the end of episode one where he's crying in the mud. And it's raining on him..
 

Now that I've told you the end of the episode, I'll give you the event that's going to kick the whole series off. Ninomiya plays Seiji, who begins by saying: 俺の人生、いつもそこそこだった。He is getting into society now with a そこそこのjob and thinking he'll live a そこそこのlife, and like most soon-to-be/recent college graduates he's just thinking "What is the point of it all?" We see him at a company retreat in the first scene. Being beaten with a shinai.

 The truth about "real life" jobs, college seniors. 

You get hit. With sticks. 

I was unsure if I had actually heard "Michael Jackson". 

Then this happened. 

If I was made to act like Michael Jackson and crawl like a turtle for the sake of employee solidarity or something, I guess I would think "What is this shit?" too. Well, enough is enough and Seiji abruptly quits his job, thinking he'll be able to get another one. His father is completely pissed by the idea but his mother is very sweet and supportive. Seiji doesn't plan to be jobless for long but all of his applications are sent back to him. He goes to an employment agency, trying to get the job he wants, but eventually he has to lower his standards and get into part-time jobs, quitting those in rapid succession.

 Boss: I'd like you to be nicer to the customers.

Seiji: I QUIT.

Boss: D:

His father gets increasingly angry, and though his mother doesn't show it she's experiencing a lot of stress as well. Seiji becomes a shut-in to escape his father's rants (才能のない, etc). He sleeps late into the day, plays video games, and eats all of his meals in his messy room. Worse, he starts turning on his mother, who tries her best to pull him out of his depression.

Eventually his mother does smack him out of his funk... by having a mental breakdown. Seiji is there when it happens, technically. But he's up in his room playing video games. Naturally his father, and his older sister (who came in a panic to the house after hearing 38 messages of her mother repetitively saying ごめんなさい、今日もすみませんでした) are upset with him. The doctor recommends that Seiji and his older sister (Ayako) who has a household of her own, do their best create a happy environment and to make sure she takes her meds; she is in a very depressed. The stress of having a rude husband and a rude son will do that to a person, you know?  Since Seiji lives at home, and his Dad always works (and besides is always angrrrryyyy), it follows that he will have the most responsibility for his mother. Realizing this, Seiji resolves to get a job and contribute to the household. He gets a job at a construction site where a pretty girl is stronger than him.

I'm assuming this job and this girl will prove essential to reshaping his character/world view, and serve as the main thread of the story. Overall it's pretty interesting, but it seems like it will be the "Find yourself and your place in the world" kind of story. But, here are some words and phrases that you can learn from watching it:

そこそこ  alright, so-so

X才能ない don't have the capacity/ability/brains to do X

フリーター someone who works odd part-time jobs

ふるい落とす to be selective; sift out; screen candidates

書店バイト part-time work at a bookstore

「のんびりにしている」 being careless, lazing around

そもそも in the first place, to begin with, from the beginning

なさけなX pitiful X

先決 priority

就職活動 job search

「時間の無駄」 a waste of time

「再スタートできる」 "you can make a new start"

Since there a bit of mumbling, etc, it may be hard to make out a lot of things. There were some words I wrote down which I have no idea about. Try your hand at watching a show without subtitles and speaking along with it. Even if you don't catch everything, you'll find some benefit if you're shadowing at the same time. I'll write a bit about shadowing another day; this entry has become long enough!

Grammar + Lovelorn Teenager the Remix

Once again I got some great help on my Ringo's Good Friend comic from the users of Lang-8. tomochanさん, suteさん, and meguさん all gave corrections here.

Luckily for you, unlike previous comic entries, the grammar was a-OK. However, I received some corrections for word choice and fluency. Such as...

From tomochanさん: まさみ君がその手紙を読んだかどうか気になって、ろくに寝られなかったよ。(The original sentence was まさみ君がその手紙を読んだかどうかって、ろくに寝られなかったよ。)
I think adding  気になって (to worry) helps make the sentence more complete and concise. Perhaps it's comparable to saying "He said he couldn't believe she did that" instead of "He was like I can't believe you did that". 


From suteさん: まさみ君がその手紙を読んだかどうかって、ろくに寝られなかった(わ)よ。
わ isn't necessary, but it's a particle often used by women at the end of their sentences, kind of like a softener of sentences, so a sentence including it can seem more natural. I actually asked some people on Lang-8 about it a while ago, since I had heard it being used by men also. (This confused me, since we were told it was strictly a feminine part of speech.) The journal entry is here: 

From meguさん: きっと あのまきこって子にはかなわないよね. (The original was でもまきこってあの子にかなわないね.)
I think this is  a case of how different cultures prefer words to be grouped (in regards to the あのまきこって子 correction). This correction shows how a Japanese speaker would organize the word structure to have better clarity and more natural sound. I get the feeling it isn't quite equivalent, but compare "that Makiko girl" or "that girl Makiko". I'm sure people have a preference as to which they say or write.

Grammar Points + Lovelorn Teenager: The Best Way to Learn Japanese

クリックすると大きくなります。Click for a bigger image.

Script 

Space Whale Grammar Remix

Once again I received some great help from the people at Lang-8! Meguさん has given me a nice explanation of how to properly use  「思ったように」and「思うように」, which she recommended I change to ｢思ったほど」 in the Space Whale comic. She also recommended I change 「だって」 to 「それに」. Man, do I need some more practice with だって!

You can find some other points that have been corrected if you look at the entry, but here is what meguさん had to say about 「思ったように」and「思うように」, translated into English:

"This is in regards to 「思ったように」and「思うように」, but these have a meaning of "as I hoped" or "as I like", which is a bit different from "as I previously thought" or "as expected".
For example[思うように]: I can't speak English as well as I'd like. / Life isn't going to go the way you'd like it to.
When you want to say "As I had previously thought" or "as expected", or "it didn't turn out like I thought it would", you should use 「思ったほど～ない」."

Original Japanese below, and at Lang-8:
meguさんの下さった添削は以下：
「思ったように」「思うように」ですが、「自分が望むとおりに」「思い通りに」という意味で、「以前に考えていたのと同じ」「期待通り」というのとはちょっと違います。
例：思うように英語が話せない。／人生、あなたの思うようにはいかないよ。
「以前に考えていた通り」「期待通り」という意味のときは「思った通り」、「以前に考えていた通りにならなかった」という意味のときは「思ったほど～ない」になります。

Grammar Points + Space Whales: the Best Way to Learn Japanese

Click for bigger image. クリックすると大きくなります。

*Note of a failure: You might see that I spelled 'adventure' as アドベンチャinstead of アドベンチャー。In the script it is spelled correctly. Also, I wish I had drawn the whale bigger.

Script 

Grammar Edit: Lament of the Unicorn, the Remix

Did you study up with the help of a unicorn who yearned for the sea? Well, it is time to tweak that knowledge a bit. I have had some help from native Japanese speakers on Lang-8 to make the following sentences into much more natural and correct sentences.

From the user meguさん, this first correction...

Instead of ぼくだけ海が好きなせいかそういう気がするかもしれない
a more correct way of saying this would be　ぼくだけ海が好きなせいかそういう気がする
or　ぼくだけ海が好きなせいでそういう気がするのかもしれない.

The reason being, せいか already has a connotation of かもしれない, so to use both in one sentence is redundant.  It might be like saying, "The reason I feel like that might be because I'm the only one who lies the sea maybe."

From the user Aoiさん:

家族と一緒にいるのに、いつもぼくだけがちがう気がする。Adding だけ reinforces the idea that the speaker alone is different.

The sentence 神様に　同感してくれるものを、ぼくまで送ってくださるようにお願いしても...
might be better as 僕と同じように感じている だれかを僕のもとに送ってくださるように神様にお願いしても...

Because the unicorn is personified, instead of もの using 人 or だれか sounds better. Also notice the changes in wording (同じように感じている, 僕のもとに), and the change in sentence structure. You often hear that Japanese doesn't have a set sentence structure (besides the rule that the verb goes at the end), but the lack of official rules doesn't mean that there aren't natural inclinations to a certain order.

Looking at corrections like these can help you learn to discern what sounds more natural in your second language. If you want to see more of the corrections I received, and look a bit at the way that Lang-8 works, you can check out the entry where I mentioned the Unicorn Grammar Points. I highly recommend this free service to practice your writing skills and get some good help with your Japanese!

Grammar Points + Unicorns: the Best Way to Learn Japanese

Click to make bigger! クリックすると大きくなります！

The story of a young unicorn who loves the sea more than the sky. Going with a bit of a different format, the script is just below, with the grammar points bolded; below that you can find the specifics of the grammar points enumerated. 

Note: edits to this script with help from Lang-8 are here.
Script

家族と一緒にいるのに、いつもぼくがちがう気がする。
Even when I'm with my family, I always feel like I'm different. 

ぼくだけ海が好きなせいかそういう気がするかもしれない。
Maybe I feel that way because I'm the only one who likes the sea.

空より海が好きなユニコーンなんて、ありえないじゃないか？　ぼく、一体なにものか？
A unicorn who likes the sea more than the sky -- isn't that unbelievable? What am I?

神様に　同感してくれるものを、ぼくまで送ってくださるようにお願いしても、今まで返事もなかった。
I ask God to please send me someone who feels the same way I do, but until now there hasn't been any answer.

今までは　ずっと　涙が出るぐらいさびしかった。でも・・・
Until now, I've always been so lonely I could cry. But...

これから、もっといい日がくるような気がするよ。
I get the feeling that better days will come from now on.


文法ポイント

Grammar of the Week: Considerably; Greatly; よっぽど

You may hear よっぽどas よほど(which sounds more formal). This handy word just means that something is to a very great extent, or a greater extent than usual, so. So, perhaps your father's cooking is terrible, but on one occasion its even worse than usual, you might say it is よっぽどまずい.

You can use this word like you would use とても, placing it in front of whatever you want to modify with "really" or "great". I think you can also use it to say something like, "It looks like you've been eating a great deal" or "It looks like you've had a really big appetite lately", although you aren't modifying an adjective there (最近よっぽど食欲があるようだね).

よっぽどis often used with words that show conjecture or observation, such as みたい、らしい、よう、でしょう、etc.

Grammar Points + ZOMBIES : the Best Way to Learn Japanese

Click for ridiculously large image that I should have re-sized.

For your enjoyment, a culmination of the grammar points which I haven't been posting... I have so many drafts in blogger it's ridiculous.

A script is below, with grammar points.　

Grammar Point of the Week： You can't do that それはいけない

Maybe this isn't quite a grammar point, but I've started watching the new show featuring Eita and Ueno Juri, called Sunao ni Narenakute - Hard to Say I Love You. Ueno's character, Haru, has a catchphrase kind of going: それはいけない。 She's referring to Nakaji's (Eita) flattery/kindness to her, which can be mistaken by her female sensibilities as fancy rather than politeness. When she saysそれはいけない, it's kind of like “You can't do that. You can't lead a girl on like that." This seems like an easily-adapted-to-the-situation, useful phrase. I imagine you can use it to mean "that's a no go" etc.

I suppose to make this more of a grammar entry, I will talk a bit about potential conjugation, as in "You CAN'T do that", vs regular conjugation/dictionary form ("You (will) do that"). Basically:

For -る verbs: Take of the -るand add -られる. 食べる　＝＞　食べ　＝＞　食べられる

For all other verbs: Take of the -うand add -える.　行く　＝＞　行ける

The irregular するbecomes できる.  来るbecomes 来られる.

From this point, all the verbs are -る verbs. So, if you wanted to change it to the more formal -ます form:

食べられる　＝＞　食べられます　・・・　行ける　＝＞　行けます　

However, I often heard people dropping the -らpart of the -るverb conjugation. I've heard that this may be naturally happening because the potential and causative form of -るverbs are identical, and people naturally want to differentiate them. Thus:

食べられる＝＞食べれる、来られる＝＞来れる

When speaking I think you will mostly hear -れるinstead of -られる; but when writing make sure you use the technically correct form.

Grammar Point of the Week: Present tense + ところで; At the moment; At the point

Off and on I am reading through this book called 「海になみだはいらない」 by 灰谷健次郎, so I thought I'd pick up a grammar point from it. This is one that I've seen in some readings: present tense plus ところで. Tokoro means place, so I often think of it as 'at the place of [action]'. You may have seen tokoro used in the following fashion:

present tense +ところ　 About to...
progressive tense +ところ　 Currently...
past tense +ところ　 Just finished...

This case is present tense +ところで I read this as "At the point that..." "At the moment that..." "Just as I..."　Perhaps　"when".

｢ここと思うところで、くるっと、ちゅうがえりをするなり、水の中へおちるようにもぐっていく。」
"When I think I've gone far enough, I dive, somersaulting, like I'm falling into the water."

Grammar of the Week: 縁がない・えんがない・en ga nai

En ga nai (縁がない)　is a phrase meaning "to have no connection to/no opportunity to", but I`m still not sure of all of its implications, or uses. Have you heard this phrase before?

 縁・えん seems a bit similar to 運・うん　(as in 運命・うんめい・fate) , or 関係・かんけい・relationship, for example:

彼と縁がない・かれとえんがない　`I don`t have any connection to him.`　

But I think that the phrase can be read as more than just `connection`, and perhaps translated as something  like, `We don`t see eye to eye`, `We aren`t meant to be`, etc.

ロシアに行くことと縁がない・ろしあにいくえんがない　I don`t have the opportunity to go to Russia. But perhaps there is also an implication of, `I`ll probably never have the opportunity / It isn`t in my cards (It`s not my fate) to go to Russia`?

In an actual article (from the Asahi Shinbun, 非難し合うより共闘しよう、ドリュー・ギルピン・ファウスト）, a line using this phrase shows up...

「ハーバードや私自身（わたしじしん）とこれまで縁（えん）のなかった女性（じょせい）たちが、自分（じぶん）のこととして、『世界（せかい）の大（おお）きな扉（とびら）が開（あ）いた』と喜（よろこ）んでくれた。」　

`Girls who until this had no connection to either myself or Harvard were overjoyed, believing that for themselves (as well) `a large door had opened in the world`.`

Grammar Point of the Week： 擬態語・擬音語 Otomatopoeia

This isn't really an entry of a specific word, but I found this Japanese Google dictionary for onomatopoeia. According to its little blurb, onomatopoeia is often used in emails, blogs, etc, and can be used to create an atmosphere of affinity (?) for your reader. I think it would be a good way to "piddle away some time", instead of checking facebook or your email for a moment. You can browse the terms by their first syllable, and learn the various onomatopoeia that can be associated with a certain verb. These terms are used quite a bit, so they are a useful thing to learn. Some you can guess just by the quality of their sound; for example　ザーザー降る is used when it rains heavily and violently, and you can probably understand that by the voicing of the ザーザー and the way the a is drawn out. It just kind of gives you that feeling, doesn't it? But you shouldn't rely on guesses for everything, so check it out!

Grammar Point of the Week: ～ぬ Another Negative Form

An antiquated way of saying ないis to use ぬ. If you know how to form the plain negative form of Japanese verbs, simply take of that ないand replace it with ぬ. You can hear this in many enka songs,　for example, one of my favourites here. One part of his lyrics are 届かぬなら (if it doesn't arrive). If we take this apart you can see how it's been formed is just like the ないform you are so used to. (The plain form of 届かぬ　is 届く.)

とどか  -ぬ

とどか -ない

Using ぬ　instead of ない　can also make your words sound more polite, the way speaking with old-fashioned words does in English. Here is a line from ひとつのタブー by Hoshi Shinichi, using the Xないようにお願いする form which you will often hear in trains, etc (Please don't leave anything on the train = お忘れ物のないよう、お願いします). In this case, the line says ｢あわてたりなさらぬよう、お願いします」. I would translate it as something like "Please remain calm", or "We ask that you please remain calm". I guess you can break it down as "We ask that you conduct yourself so as not to panic and the like."　Notice that the sentence is made more polite by the use of the keigo form of suru, which is nasaru.

Grammar of the Week: まったく. Completely/ Not at All

I was reading a short story by the Japanese sci fi writer Hoshi Shinichi and came across まったく。I think it's used quite often, so I thought I would write a bit about it here, and also put up the first lines of the story 知人たち, where I read the word, for some reading practice. To contrast with mattaku is hotondo, in the next sentence.

「その青年は、あるアパートの二階の小さな一室で、ひっそりと暮らしていた。となり近所とのつきあいは、まったくしなかった。外出もほとんどしない。」

まったく can be thought of as meaning "completely" when used with a positive, and "not in the least" or "not at all" when used with a negative. It's a very absolute word. If you have no idea whatsoever you can say まったく わからない. On the other hand, ほとんどleaves a bit of breathing room. It means rarely, or barely. I believe it's used only with negatives.

Hoshi Shinichi writes very simply. I recommend him if you want to start reading, but are unsure of where to start. He's most famous for his short stories, so you won't be discouraged by the slow reading that inevitably comes of having to look up words you don't know. To be honest, I recommend reading straight through for the first reading, without stopping to look up words or kanji. Context is very important in Japanese, so this is a good exercise for extracting that context; also, it's a confidence booster, because you understand much more than you think you do!

Here is my translation of the few lines. Try your own!

"This young man lived a quiet life in a small room on the second floor of an apartment building. He didn't socialize with the neighbors at all. He rarely even went out."

Grammar: -tara ～たら #2 and #3

Use of the conditional ～たら　#2 and #3: to state an intention or offer a suggestion.

 

#2: to state an intention. For example, "after I eat, I'm going to sleep." 「食べたら、すぐ寝る。」 "When he answers, we'll decide." ｢彼が答えたら、決める。」 Notice that the actions are ordered; the verbX with -tara attached must happen before verbY. 

#3: to suggest. For example, "how about you eat at Matsuya's today?/ Why don't you eat at Matsuya's today?" ｢今日、松屋で食べたらどう（ですか）。」

Necessary vocabulary for all Japanese students:

血に飢えた・ちにうえた　bloodthirsty

一角獣・いっかくじゅう     unicorn

逃げる・にげる                 run away, escape

去る・さる                          leave

I just noticed that I made a mistake with my unicorn kanji! Did you notice, or would it have been better if I'd said nothing?

Grammar: Use of -tara ～たら

Conditionals. In English all you have to do is stick on an 'if' and you're pretty much covered. (To be honest, they're pretty complicated in English, if you think about it. 'If I eat' vs 'If I had eaten' vs 'If I had eaten' vs 'If I ate' vs 'If I have eaten'... I suppose that isn't a problem of conditional conjugation, but of past/present/future and everything in between.) In Japanese, it's a little more complicated. Depending on what you're trying to say, you can choose from ～たら、～と、～ば、and なら.We've been reviewing the differences between each in class, and instead of studying for my test like a good student, I decided to doodle and call it studying. First in the series: "The Use of -tara #1". 

This use is for use in ordering past events. Basically, "When/After X-ed, Y-ed!" When I woke up this morning, there was a Turtle Cat standing on my bed.


The catch is, the Y action has to be an uncontrollable/surprising occurrence. This means you can't use it to order things like your daily actions (ie, "when I woke up, I got out of bed") because you have control of them. You can use this to recount things that happened to you, or things that you noticed - basically things outside of yourself. 

"When I got home, my friends were waiting outside." (OK)

"When I went to McDonald's, I sat in the booth on the right." (X)


In my textbook there was a line that confused me, because I felt it contradicted the rule: 「さきはいたら、だいぶよくなりました。」　"After I threw up earlier, I felt a lot better." My thought was she controls the way she feels, but really your health isn't something you control, so it adheres to the rule. 

When using ～たら #1, your sentence may come out as either when or after, since depending on the content one will sound more natural than the other in English.

Grammar of the Week: bohtto suru

“Bohtto suru” (ぼーっとする).


Brain fart. To go blank. To be unable to think.  To zone out.**  To zone out, relax, laze around, "doing nothing special." That is, ぼーっとする.

**A bit of an edit, but I ended up writing about what might be the English equivalents of "bohtto suru" on Lang-8 the other day, and got some really helpful comments about the phrase.

ash says,  "The Japanese 「ぼーっとする」 also means 'to relax' or 'doing nothing'" [my translation]. He gives the following example:

A: 何してるの？（What are you doing?）
B: ボーっとしているだけ。（I'm just relaxing.）

Eigolove mentions the various ways you can use 「ぼーっとする」: 頭がボーッとする。頭がボーッとしている。きれいな人をボーッと見ていた。She offers the following:

毎日暑い日が続いています。外に出ると、暑すぎて、ボーッとします。毎日退屈（たいくつ）で、ボーッと過ごしています。

mikaringo7 also provides the kind of context a native speaker might use  「ぼーっとする」 in:

「あ、ごめん、ぼーっとして話聞いてなかった。」 

["Oh, I'm sorry, I zoned out and didn't hear what you were saying.']

 「今日は一日中ぼーっとしていた。」 

[''You've been zoning out all day today.']

tsy says: "The Japanese phrase 「ボーっとする」 and "zone out" look to be one and the same. I feel like the other English phrases are a little different" [my translation].

megu agrees, saying  "If I hear 「ぼーっとする」 the first meaning that pops into my head is 'relaxing, thinking about nothing and being carefree'. I feel like we don't say 「ぼーっとする」 when we're thinking of something with all our might but just can't say it. 'Zone out' is a perfect expression of 「ぼーっとする」 or 「ぼんやりする」. [my translation]"

As you can see, my original evaluation of what English might be equivalent to  「ぼーっとする」 was a bit skewed, so I've replaced it.It would be better to define it as: zone out, relax, laze around, "doing nothing special".