Vocabulary of the Week: Unubore うぬぼれ

 The word this week is うぬぼれ, conceited or pretentious. I wonder if you can stick　さん on the end, like you do with forgetful/scatter-brained （うっかりさん）...

So after my morning run I decide to brush up on some Japanese as I nosh on my oatmeal. Whilst browsing I came across the first episode of Unubore Deka うぬぼれ刑事　(Detective Conceited). (刑事 is really read "keiji", but I've heard it being called "Deka"). Starring Nagase Tomoya, and with Ikuta Toma and tons of other high profilers, it is apparently one of Japan's new summer dramas. You can see a bit about it here.

Well, it sounds interesting. Nagase is a detective who is obsessed with finding love, it seems, but unfortunately the girls he meets are all criminals. He watches videos by a man who talks about "feeling glances", and gives advice on just how long to hold one of these glances, and when to turn for the double take, etc. In the opening scene he is trying out these techniques on a girl at the conbini. It seems to work, and they go out for coffee, but really it isn't because she's into him, though he assumes she is; it's just because she thought he'd caught her shoplifting. Funny, right?

The series seems really dialogue heavy. I'm keeping up well with the story and the characters, but I know that there is tons of jokes, etc, that I'm missing all the same. The man that plays Nagase's father -- it was so hard for me to understand him sometimes, he spoke so quickly. But I enjoyed the series none the less, and caught some grammar points that I had learned. Plus this vocabulary, which you can use to insult the big-headed person in your life.

You can watch it here, if you aren't in Japan (TBS doesn't allow other countries video access.) Happy 聞き取り！

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。

Japanese Games Series, #1: いやいやよ

I learned a few little games while in Japan -- mostly from my little host sister, and some from friends or television -- so I thought I'd make a little series out of them and share them with you. They're great for those never-ending summer days and long car rides, or eternal and boring work shifts! They're good for practicing your Japanese and having fun at the same time! Or, you can modify these to be played with friends who don't speak Japanese. I've done this with my little brothers.

First in the game series is, admittedly, a game which I never played myself: いやいやよ。

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!

On Returning to America, and my Study Abroad Experience

Well, it has been about a month since I returned from Japan, and I think I have thought about my feelings at the time enough to sort them out. Oh yes, the handkerchief that my kind neighbor Mrs. Yamada gave me - "it's very absorbent," she told me, before she started crying - really came in handy on the plane out of Nagoya. But honestly I started missing Japan, and all the people I'd met there, long before it was time for me to leave. If you want to stop reading here, let me say that my general advice, whether you want to study abroad in Japan or elsewhere, is "Jump in, no regrets". Simply taking the plunge and going to a new country is part of that, whether you achieve all you set out to do or not.

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.


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