JapanesePod101.com Blog

Last week, you may have felt increasingly certain that 追 (TSUI, o(u)) is all about the chase. But the kanji gods tend to read confidence as hubris, and they respond by throwing curve balls. This character has two other main meanings.

Additionally, 追 Means “Additional”

The kanji 追 also means “to add” or “additional.” That helps us make more sense of 追加, which appeared in the first paragraph of last week’s entry:

追加 (tsuika: addition)     addition + addition

The kanji 加 can stand for Canada. So if you didn’t know the appropriate breakdowns here, you might think 追加 referred to driving someone into Canada … or chasing away Canadians … or viewing Canada as a mere addition (i.e., annex) to the United States. (Ooh, I bet that made some Canadian blood boil! Or is it too cold up there for that?)

The sense of “additional” also informs the next word (which might otherwise be misunderstood as “pursuing and boiling” someone):

追い炊き (oidaki: to boil additional rice)
     additional + to cook, boil

Ways to Get Confused …

We represent additional thoughts in postscripts, so it’s logical that 追 makes a showing in various words for “postscript” or “P.S.” More on that in P.S. (a side page that’s like a postscript … or maybe I should say “sidescript” …).

P.S….

Remembrance of Times Past

Three’s the charm. Along with “to chase” and “additional,” 追 can mean “to remember the dead, to mourn.” That’s true in three 追 words that have identical meanings:

追想 (tsuisō: recollection, reminiscence)
     to remember the dead + idea
Read the rest of this entry »

Back in November, Dr. Matt Wachsman contacted us about his mnemonic system for learning Kanji using captivating and enjoyable flash movies. Unlike any other system out there, Dr. Wachsman’s uses advanced mnemonics features that involve multiple parts of the brain simultaneously, reinforcing memory linkage while at the same time appealing to people with a variety of learning styles.

Mnemonics is the way of tying information together in a way the the brain likes to receive it. There are a large number of ways to do this. The most basic one is putting information into a story. Dr. Wachsman’s system uses short Flash movies that tell a story using visual associations, humor and rhymes. His system covers all the Kanji taught in the first six years of school in Japan (~1,000 Kanji). Each week we’ll be releasing a new flash movie introducing 6-12 new Kanjis.

Dr. Matt Wachsman is back this week with Heavenly theme!

The other day, I encountered 追 (TSUI, o(u)) in three different contexts: during a Skype-chat with a Japanese friend, on a random visit to a website, and in a dictionary as I searched for something else. In all cases, this kanji appeared in words I didn’t know: 追加 (tsuika: addition), 追う (ou: to chase), and 貝殻追放 (kaigara tsuihō: ostracism).

What’s Going on with 貝殻追放?! …

I took it as a sign that the kanji gods wanted me to fall in love with 追—or at least investigate it. I have done their bidding and will look at this character in the next three blogs.

I’m not sure I’m in love with 追. After all, it breaks down as “moving buttocks”—not the most charming of ingredients! But I’m intrigued, partly because 追 contains opposite meanings:

1. to chase after, to pursue
2. to chase away, to drive (cattle), to shoo (flies)

Last week we saw another kanji with similar schizophrenia—出る (deru) can mean both “to leave” and “to appear.”

Everything Contains Its Opposite …

These characters actually combine in 追い出す (oidasu: to chase away, to kick out, to chase away + to thrust out), although in this case the intransitive 出る has changed to the transitive form 出す (dasu), which can mean “to thrust out.” When these two on-the-fence characters merge in a word, they lose all their wishy-washiness and convey a decisive message: Get out!

Whereas 出 contains only a physical tension (i.e., coming versus going), 追 can also have an emotional tension. That is, you can pursue someone while yelling, “Hit the road! Don’t ever come back!” Although 追 looks fairly compact, it therefore contains quite a bundle of energies moving in opposite directions. Let’s look at each of these contradictory meanings.

Read the rest of this entry »

Back in November, Dr. Matt Wachsman contacted us about his mnemonic system for learning Kanji using captivating and enjoyable flash movies. Unlike any other system out there, Dr. Wachsman’s uses advanced mnemonics features that involve multiple parts of the brain simultaneously, reinforcing memory linkage while at the same time appealing to people with a variety of learning styles.

Mnemonics is the way of tying information together in a way the the brain likes to receive it. There are a large number of ways to do this. The most basic one is putting information into a story. Dr. Wachsman’s system uses short Flash movies that tell a story using visual associations, humor and rhymes. His system covers all the Kanji taught in the first six years of school in Japan (~1,000 Kanji). Each week we’ll be releasing a new flash movie introducing 6-12 new Kanjis.

Please join me in welcoming Dr. Matt Wachsman to our blogging team.

About Dr. Matt Wachsman:

Dr. Matt Wachsman is married with two boys ages 12 and 16 who have been fond of anime and Japanese culture from a very early age. He lives in the town of Havre de Grace, Maryland where he took up his father’s general medical practice. Besides his MD, Dr. Wachsman also has his PhD in pharmacology. His hobbies include rocket science, and, of course, Japanese.

Havre de Grace was founded more than 200 years ago, it is at the top of the Chesapeake Bay where the Susquehanna River flows into it. It is near several army bases and was home to a small group of Japanese war brides after WWII with influence on the local cuisine and culture.

Happy 2008! It feels as if we’re still straddling the new year’s hump. The old year lingers in memory and in effects, while the new one has barely stretched out before us to reveal its form.

On the Effects of the Old Year …

The kanji 出 captures this feeling of having a foot in both worlds, because with the kun-yomi of de(ru), 出 has the following meanings:

(1) to appear; to come forth
(2) to leave, to go away

Together, these meanings produce an intolerable schizophrenic feeling in me. But at this moment in time—and perhaps only in this moment—they can coexist without contradiction; we’re leaving the old year as the new one appears.

With scads of readings and meanings, 出 pops up everywhere. Here, I want to look at it in a limited way, examining expressions in which things come out at us unexpectedly, as from a jack-in-the-box.
 

Things Fly Out of the Body!

We expect certain things to emerge from the body—urine, etc. But we generally don’t conceive of our limbs in that way. And yet that’s the gist of this expression, which strangely enough has financial connotations:

足が出る (ashi ga deru: to exceed the budget)
     leg + to come out

Perhaps this is like not having a leg to stand on after you’ve screwed up the budget. Or you tell your boss that you’ve blown a million, and he says, “Are you pulling my leg?” Or maybe it’s comparable to the “hollow leg” of insatiable drinkers, but in this case the hollow leg is for storing riches. No, a Japanese friend speculates that the metaphorical “legs” here emerge from “trousers” that are too short. The trousers represent a budget; the legs are the actual expenses.

The situation is not always dire when 足 and 出 join forces:

良い出足 (yoi deashi: good start (e.g., good acceleration of a car, sprinter, or racehorse); good turnout of people)
     good + turnout (last 2 chars.: to come out + legs)

Whereas English speakers do a head count at events, maybe the Japanese count legs!

Blood, Sweat, and Tears …

And what happens when the eyes fly out of their sockets?

目が飛び出る (me ga tobideru: eye-popping; staggering)
     eye + to fly + to come out
Read the rest of this entry »

Mina-san, I hope you enjoyed the holidays!

Since we started doing the intros at the beginning of the lessons, we got tons of questions about them. To address these, we did 2 Japanese Culture Classes and explained a few of them. We’ll definitely be doing more Culture Classes on the intros (as well as other cultural topics). But we went ahead and added a new section to the Lesson Notes. Now you can find the Japanese transcript and corresponding English translation after the Grammar Point. We hope this helps make a little sense out of the madness （笑）. I think this will be particularly helpful for the 2008 intros which all involve a mini-drama running from Monday to Friday.

Enjoy!

マーキー

JapanesePod101.com was named one of iTunes Best Audio Podcast of 2007 under the Classic: Audio category. The list was compiled by the Apple iTunes’ staff and highlights a sampling of the top new and classic podcasts from independent producers and corporate entities in both audio and video formats. The entire Best of 2007 Podcasts list can be seen here (requires iTunes).

Thanks you iTunes for the tremendous honor and to all our iTunes subscribers for your wonderful reviews and continued support!

This week’s post is going to be rather general and not even specific to learning Japanese. It doesn’t mean it won’t be helpful, though! I’m going to examine a few of my favorite tips for building good study habits. If you want to learn Japanese, you really must study and you must do it consistently. That’s the problem many at-home learners, including myself, have: the discipline to study on a consistent basis. Let’s look over a few of the most popular ways of keeping yourself motivated and organized in your studies, shall we?

1. Set goals – Setting a goal for yourself, such as “I will have __ number of lessons done by the end of the week,” is an excellent way to motivate. It gives you something specific to work towards. If you don’t make your goal, don’t sweat it! Nobody’s going to take away your birthday if you don’t do exactly __ number of lessons. There’s no punishment. Just pick up where you are next week with a new goal.
2. Schedule your time – Putting aside a particular time during the day or week when you will study is another great way to keep on track. If you physically write it into your daily schedule and make it a habit, you’ll find it’s a tough habit to break once it becomes normal to you.
3. Reward yourself – Give yourself a treat for completing a certain amount of work. Let’s say you finish ten JapanesePod101 lessons in a month. Great! Maybe go out and buy yourself an ice cream cone, get that new movie you want, or give yourself a little break from studying and spend some time communing with your Nintendo Wii.
4. Lists – Make lists of reasons why you want to study Japanese, steps you’re going to take to learn it, and mini-goals you want to complete within the next few months. Set them somewhere visible so you won’t forget them and look back on them when you’re feeling discouraged. They can be a great pick-me-up!
5. Feel proud – Hey, you’ve committed yourself to learning a language many are too intimidated by. Feel proud! Congratulate yourself on a job well done, whether you’re a beginner finishing lesson one or an advanced student.

No matter what happens, don’t get down on yourself. And as always, ganbatte ne!