JapanesePod101.com Blog

Given the trials and tribulations I described last week, the title of this blog might make you think I’m referring to my mental health. No. I’m doing OK, because the data-recovery crew salvaged almost 100 percent of my data! Yippee! Hurray! And hallelujah!

“Putting the Pieces Together” means that today, in the latter half of a two-part review, we’ll shift away from last week’s focus on individual kanji and will now look at compounds containing those characters.

In past blogs, we’ve spent time discussing all the words you’ll encounter in today’s quizzes. But of course, kanji being what it is, there’s no guarantee that anything has stuck. That’s certainly true for me. Kanji makes me feel like Winnie-the-Pooh—a bear of very little brain.

In the Answer Keys for today’s quizzes, you’ll find links to blogs in which we’ve explored these compounds. At all turns, you’ll also find a link to comprehensive information about the 23 characters we reviewed last week.

Back next week with a “real” blog!

Verbal Logic Quizzes …

I’ve been staring down one of those traumatic birthdays that zeroes out your age. Just as the numbers on a gas pump cycle through too quickly to comprehend, I’ve zipped through the past decade faster than I can grasp. I’m unwilling to leave this personal decade, but I don’t see that I have a choice. When I arrive at the beginning of the new one, will I even know who to be? I’ve never been able to imagine myself as quite that ancient, and yet I will be, nonetheless. How to adjust? How to forge a new identity (without the slightest motivation to do so)? I can’t seem to make my self-image fit my new age. Shouldn’t I be wiser or at least taller?

Whenever January comes around, the past year seems to wither into oblivion, as if it no longer matters. A whole year that once seemed vital and present suddenly appears unreal and hazy. That’s what this birthday threatens to do to the last decade. It’s a wiping clean, is what it is. Mostly, that’s a frightening thought, but it does have its positive aspects. I can forget about all the mistakes I’ve made and get a fresh start. But what’s the use in thinking that way? No one else is likely to wipe my slate clean, just because I’ve become horrendously old!

If I wanted to be optimistic, I could see the 0 not as empty but rather as full. It’s the start of a wonderful new decade, sure to be just as rich and rewarding as the last.

Pfff.

I’ve been wrestling with these issues for a year, and I’ve made little progress. Facing this new age is like looking into the sun. I can’t do it. I can’t make myself take in the indisputable, uncontrollable fact of what I’ll become. So I alternate between obsessiveness and this:
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A long time ago, we talked about terms that contain back-to-back kanji but that don’t merit the repetition kanji 々. Here’s a new candidate for the collection:

直接接触 (chokusetsu-sesshoku: direct contact)
     straight + contact + contact + contact

The character 接 appears twice, using the yomi SETSU both times. But these identical twins have hooked up with other kanji, not with each other. It’s more of a double-date than an incestuous situation, if that makes any sense.

To put it more simply, we’re seeing the union of two compounds, each of which happens to include 接. That’s why the two instances of 接 have no relationship to each other here.

Another Such Example …

The second word, 接触 (sesshoku: touch, contact, contact + contact), seems quite useful, as you’ll see at the link.

Sample Sentences with 接触 …

In fact, if you’re wondering how to talk about the touch screen at the bank, in your Prius, or in any number of other places, 接触 will come in handy:
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Before boarding a flight to Europe this summer, I passed through the security gate and sat down to put my shoes on again. When I looked up, a multilingual sign caught my attention. In English, it said, “Don’t touch the table,” which struck me as strange. Could someone undermine security merely by touching a table? If so, it seemed there wasn’t much security to be had. I worried about that for a moment until I noticed the Japanese version of this sentence. I’m going from a vague memory here, but the sentence was something like this:

テーブルを触らないでください。
Tēburu o sawaranai de kudasai.

Or was it longer than that? I know I recognized everything except 触.

Leafing through my dictionary just now, I came upon the expression 手を触れるな (Te o fureru na), “Hands off!” Maybe that’s what I saw! Perhaps the airport speaks much more roughly to Japanese people than to others!

At any rate, I deduced that 触 meant “to touch,” but I didn’t know why horn (角) + insect (虫) would combine to have that meaning. Of course, 角 can also mean angle, as in 三角 (sankaku: triangle, three + angles). Did 触 somehow mean “touched by an angle”?

Frustrated at having no way to research this kanji, I kicked myself for not having thought to bring a Japanese dictionary to England and Norway.

Japanese in Norway …

I had, however, brought an annotated Japanese book of stories to read on the plane. In a Kawabata sentence, I soon encountered 触 again:

今のことには一言も触れなかった。
Ima no koto ni wa hitokoto mo furenakatta.
She did not say a word about what had just happened.

Here’s what the annotation said:

今のこと (ima no koto: events of the moment)
一言も。。。ない (hitokoto mo … nai: not a single word)
触 (fu(reru): to mention)

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