Skip to content

bakatsundoku

Ganbatte

“Ganbatte” is a word that, in Japanese, means “try your best”.  It seems to be a very frequently used word, particularly in competitive contexts, such as variety shows, etc.  But looking at the context in which it’s used, I don’t think it translates very well.  The reason is, as with many things, cultural. In English, “Try your best” has a connotation of “Do the very best that you can, and it’s okay if you still fail”.  I mean, obviously you don’t want to fail, but English speakers tend to have a… Read More »Ganbatte

Sunday Song #2: What is Love (もーニング娘)

Life is hard, with many contrasting things, all fighting with each other for supremacy.  Sometimes you laugh, sometimes you cry.  Sometimes you are burning with passion for something, sometimes the passion leaves.  But through it all, you have to ask yourself – is what I’m doing helping or hurting? If I can’t even make one person understand me, how can I change the world?  If I can hurt someone, how can it be said that I’m making the world better? This is something that many people are grappling with today,… Read More »Sunday Song #2: What is Love (もーニング娘)

Understanding Spoken Japanese

Understanding spoken Japanese – especially when done at speed – is hard. It’s hard for several reasons, but I think the primary reason is that the Japanese language tends to take a lot of shortcuts in speaking.  Vowels are much more important in Japanese language than in English – especially considering the fact that every syllable ends in one – and they tend to run together.  Couple that with the fact that vowels are often silent simply because the syllables are spoken so quickly that they kind of run together, and… Read More »Understanding Spoken Japanese

Nobita

I’ve been debating this one for a bit, but I think I’m going to wade in anyway. There’s a YouTube channel called “Find Your Love in Japan”, a channel run by a YouTuber named “Nobita”.  He recently made several videos about how he feels about “Black” people and their perceived attitudes. I’m not going to go into how I feel about what he said to any degree, for obvious reasons.  Suffice it to say he had a few valid points and a few not so valid ones, and the valid… Read More »Nobita

Greetings

We Americans do not greet people the same way Japanese people do, and I think it says a lot about our culture. A typical greeting for Americans might be “Hi!  How are you?”  “I’m fine, and you?”  “Fine!”  “Nice to meet you”  “Nice to meet you too”  “See you later”. I’ve noticed Japanese courses would translate this to the following dialogue in Japanese, and actually teach it: “こんいちわ！お元気ですか？” ”元気です、あなたわお元気ですか？” ”元気です！” ”よろしくお願いします” ”よろしくお願いします” ”さようなら” These are phrases taken from actual beginner courses I took, through Rosetta stone and otherwise.  These are perfectly… Read More »Greetings

Kinokuniya

A new Kinokuniya just opened in Austin.  I discovered it by accident, as it is right next door to Kura Sushi, which is one of my favorite places to eat sushi. As I walked in, two thoughts filled my head.  “Holy crap, I just found the mother lode” was one.  The other was “There goes my budget”. They have Japanese language magazines.  They have Japanese language books.  They have Japanese language manga.  They have books on how to learn Japanese.  They have plushes, they have stationery, they have novelties, they… Read More »Kinokuniya

The Limits of Language

“The limits of my language mean the limits of my world” – Wittgenstein This is a topic that I have been thinking a lot about for the past couple of weeks – in fact, I’ve even wrote a couple of posts touching on this idea.  In general, language shapes our thinking and our perception of the world – if there is something that is unexpressible in language, we then try our hardest to find a way to express it in language, and more often than not, we will usually take… Read More »The Limits of Language

Sunday Song #1: Oogoe Diamond (AKB48)

This will be a new weekly feature.  I will take a specific song from a Japanese group or artist, and do a deep dive on the lyrics (as much as I can with my current lacking Japanese skills).  The first song will be a popular AKB48 song, but I’ll pick from all sorts of groups and artists. Oogoe diamond is a very sweet and a little heartbreaking song, written in a minor key.  This actually is something I’ve noticed that Japanese pop groups tend to do – they mix modalities. … Read More »Sunday Song #1: Oogoe Diamond (AKB48)

Sakura

Every year, around springtime, the cherry trees in Japan (sakura, or 桜) bloom. It’s only for a few days, and I’m to understand it is justifiably considered a national treasure.  People come from all over the world to see the beautiful blooming of the cherry trees, and there is much said in Japanese art and music about the cherry trees.  In fact, several AKB48 songs reference cherry trees, such as Sakura No Hanabiratchi, Sakura No Shiori, and maybe one of the more heartrending, Sakura no Ki Ni Narou: I will… Read More »Sakura

In the Beginning

While I am a little (okay, a LOT) burned out on it, I am a bit of a theology nerd.  This is not a theology blog and it will not become one.  But as in the post Kami, there are some interesting theological insights to be gained from seeing how western theology interacts with Japanese culture. The Bible has been translated into Japanese.  The very first sentence is this: まだ何もなかった時、神は天と地を造りました Note the character 神, which means Kami, or God. Here in the west, we have a very specific idea of who… Read More »In the Beginning