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Some kanji go together like peanut butter and jelly. Where you find one, you also find the other. For instance, 意 (I: will, heart, mind, thought, meaning, sense) frequently pairs off with 気, 地, and 得 inside compounds and expressions. In other words, 意 seems to be quite the trigamist.

意 + 気

In and of itself, 意気 (iki) means “spirit,” “disposition,” and “morale.” With a sample sentence from Jim Breen’s online dictionary, we can try to make sense of this abstract word:

鈴木さん、その意気ですよ。
Suzuki-san, sono iki desu yo.
That’s the spirit, Mr. Suzuki.

If Mr. Suzuki is indeed in the right spirit, we might say the following about him:

意気に燃える (iki ni moeru: to be fired up with enthusiasm for accomplishing something)
     spirit (1st 2 chars.) + to burn, to get fired up

He’s on fire! A more literal translation is that his spirit is burning. But that sounds dangerous or counterproductive, as it could lead to burnout. So let’s just see him as burning with enthusiasm.

意気込み (ikigomi: ardor; enthusiasm)
     spirit (1st 2 chars.) + to drive inward

The spirit has entered him. He’ll soon be speaking in tongues!

意気揚々 (ikiyōyō: triumphant, exultant, in high and
proud spirits)     spirit (1st 2 chars.) + to be in high spirits

If his spirits were low before, saying ikiyōyō will certainly boost his morale.

Here’s another word that’s fun to say (if a bit tricky):

心意気 (kokoroiki: disposition, spirit, sentiment)
     heart + spirit (last 2 chars.)

Each kanji here refers to the mind, heart, and spirit. What a powerful combination of characters!

Read the rest of this entry »

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I find 意 (I: will, heart, mind, thought, meaning, sense) to be one of the cutest kanji around. It reminds me of an upright animal with the following assets:

         A head beneath a beret
           A blocky torso
     Two legs, a long tail that curls around, and … well, just
             pretend we’ve got a male animal in our midst

Put it all together, and you get something like this:

Long-Tailed Weasel
Photo credit: Anne Elliott

No beret, but the tapering of the cheeks matches the lines in 立! This long-tailed weasel likely sports a long, flexible tail, even if we can’t tell here.

Short and Sweet

Speaking of length, 意 figures into some unusually short words:

意味 (imi: meaning)     meaning + meaning
意義 (igi: significance)     meaning + meaning
意気 (iki: spirits, morale)     heart + spirit
意志 (ishi: will, intention, determination)     intention + to intend
意思 (ishi: intent, purpose, mind)     intention + to think

Whereas Julius Caesar created the bellicose phrase Veni, vidi, vici (I came, I saw, I conquered), we can concoct softer, more Zenlike versions in Japanese: Imi, igi, iki (Meaning, significance, spirits) or Imi, igi, ishi (Meaning, significance, intent).
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Mina-san,

We are pleased to announce that a new “remember me” function is now available. When you login to JapanesePod101.com you will now have the option to check a “Remember me?” box. If you do, you won’t have to login again from that same computer for up to 7 days!

To turn on the remember me functionality, simply click the checkbox next to the Login and Password fields. Then when you are finished interacting with the site - just close the browser window - do not logout (logging out erases the remember me ability).

If you accidentally clicked the remember me option, don’t worry - just be sure to fully logout of the site before leaving. The next time you visit the site, you will be asked to login again.

If you encounter any issues with this new functionality or wish to see it enhanced in some way, please post a comment or shoot us an email.

Yoroshiku onegai shimasu!

On November 13th, Zune launched its new Zune Software, Zune Social, Zune Marketplace and the Zune firmware. This release marks the official support of audio and video podcasting for Zune. JapanesePod101.com was among 1000 featured podcast feeds to come pre-seeded in the Zune Marketplace Podcast Directory (KoreanClass101.com and SurvivalPhrases.com are soon to follow).

Podcast lovers can now find, play, subscribe, share, organize, and give feedback about their favorite podcasts (hint hint)

Here’s a screen shot of the JapanesePod101.com podcast in the Marketplace Podcast Directory (click to enlarge)

Next is a screen shot of my favorite podcasts in my Zune Podcast Collection (click to enlarge)

Zune also supports an easy “1-Click Podcast Subscription” process that allows podcast listeners and viewers to subscribe to their favorite shows. According to Zune, “this 1-Click process will launch the new Zune Marketplace software and place the podcast subscription in the users collection. The process will work best if the Zune user already has the new Zune Marketplace software loaded on a Windows PC, but if not already installed, will then ask user to download the software.”

We’ve added a 1-Click chicklet graphic (like the one below) to the sidebar of our JapanesePod101.com page.

Please be sure to post your experiences with the new Zune.

After seeing Wordplay (a documentary about crossword puzzle fanaticism), I couldn’t resist the challenge of creating a kanji crossword for you. Well, that’s what I started doing, but it morphed into a word find, which you’ll find below.

You’ll probably want to print out the puzzle so you can write on it. Using “Print-Friendly View” will yield the cleanest copy.

Reading from left to right or from top to bottom (but not diagonally), circle all viable compounds. Many circles will overlap, as in this example:

質　問　題

Here, you’d circle the first and second characters, which form shitsumon (question). Then you’d circle the second and third characters, which say mondai (problem). Work through the grid in this way, finding chains.

Then lightly shade in all boxes that help form these chains. I’ve already shaded in eight boxes for you. (That sounds like a magnanimous gesture, doesn’t it?! It’s not. The shadings represent places where I couldn’t quite make things work the way I wanted!)

The pre-shaded boxes plus your shadings should form one large kanji. What character do you see? How do you read it? What does it mean?

The puzzle includes only words consisting of two kanji, with one big exception, where I screwed up and included a three-kanji compound! If you don’t find that one, don’t worry; by locating all viable two-kanji compounds, you’ll still make the answer appear.

There’s no hiragana in the chart below, but don’t let that stop you. For instance, if you saw 食物, you would circle it, knowing that it represented ta(be)mono (food), which normally appears as 食べ物. Only three of the hidden words are missing interstitial hiragana.

Big tip: All the compounds tucked into this word find have appeared on main pages of Kanji Curiosity. The blog website has a great search engine. If you’re stuck or unsure, paste two contiguous characters into it, and see if you get any search results. For instance, if you enter 言葉 (kotoba: word, speech, language), you’ll find that this compound has appeared on the main pages of two blog entries. Unfortunately, with the cases involving interstitial hiragana, such searches won’t work.

I hope this puzzle proves to be both fun and useful. In making it, I learned a lot from reviewing old blogs. I had forgotten an astonishing amount! I’ll never cease to be amazed at the way kanji has little staying power in the mind. Well, there’s no use in fighting it. I just see that aspect as an opportunity to make wonderful discoveries again and again, even if they’re the same insights every time. Kanji joy is an infinitely renewable resource.

Good luck!

Print-Friendly View

For Answers …

PC Magazine, the most important technology publication in the world, selected JapanesePod101.com as one of five podcasts worth downloading in their Favorite 100 Blogs 2007 Series.

“Languages don’t come much more difficult than Japanese. Thankfully, this Tokyo-produced podcast offers a painless—and free—way to bone up on the language and culture of the Land of the Rising Sun, offering the sort of relevant real-world preparation that you won’t get in a classroom or on a CD-ROM.” - PC Magazine

One of my favorite compounds is 月食 (gesshoku: lunar eclipse), which breaks down as moon + to eat. During a lunar eclipse, it looks as if something is eating the moon!

Given that, what do you think to eat + words means? Here’s the answer:

食言 (shokugen: to eat one’s words, break one’s promise)
     to eat + words

Cute, isn’t it?! There’s a playful quality to many words with 言. So … let’s play!

Word Play

What sort of person “makes words”? A writer? A compiler of dictionaries?

作り言 (tsukurigoto: fabrication, lie, fiction)     to make + words

Making words makes you a liar! The definition includes “fiction,” but the Japanese don’t have novelists in mind here. Click the link for a sample sentence containing 作り言.

For a Sample Sentence with 作り言 …

It’s important to have one’s say, and the following compound lets you do that:

言い立てる (iitateru: to state, to assert)     to say + to stand

If you have your say while standing, you’re “taking a stand”! Nowadays, 言い立てる most commonly means “to criticize someone else” (i.e., in order to defend oneself). The expression also means “to spread rumors.”

One can reverse the compound and still have one’s say:

立言 (ritsugen: expression of one’s view)     to stand + to say

Read the rest of this entry »