Week Seven

And the penultimate week has passed! Now comes the time to wrap up class (with 七時間以下/sichijikan-ika/less than seven hours) of actual class time left, take our 後期期末試験 (kouki-kimatsusiken/second-semester final exam), begin saying our さようなら (sayōnara)'s, and leave town. Here's my ticket to 東京 (Tokyo) for this 金曜日 (Kinyōbi/Friday, lit. 'gold' day). My Japan Rail Pass lets me travel anywhere on the rail system for one week, and I'm planning to visit 京都 (Kyōto) next week.



Before I go through some of the highlights for the week, and since this is a Japanese-language program after all, I thought I should take some time to talk about 日本語 (nihongo/the Japanese language) itself. 日本語 is the national language of Japan, where it is spoken by virtually the entire population of approximately 130 million; also an official language of the island of Angaur in Palau (pop. 188); is used by several million Japanese expatriates worldwide; and in sum is the tenth most widely spoken language in the world. 日本語 arguably has one of the most complex writing systems in the world: To begin with, there are two syllabaries each containing 46 commonly used かな (kana) characters which each represent one mora, or consonant-vowel pair. For example せ and セ represent 'se'. The former is ひらがな (hiragana/'level' characters, historically developed by women), the script that can be used to spell most words and which is usually used for all grammatical particles. The latter is カタカナ (katakana/'fragmentary' characters, historically developed by men), the set of characters usually used for onomatopoeia, which are much more common than in 英語 (Eigo/English), and most foreign words, including names. For example, my name is written in カタカナ as セルジオ (Serujio). In addition, 漢字 (kanji/Chinese characters) are used to write most verbs, nouns, and other non-particle words. There are many thousands of commonly used kanji: 1,006 characters are taught in elementary school, starting with 一 (ichi/one), and about 2,000 more are taught in junior high and high school. In addition there are many 表外漢字 (hyōgaikanji/'outside-the-list' kanji) which are relatively common. It's said that about 1000 characters are sufficient to read 90% of a newspaper article. In contrast to 中国語 (Chūgoku-go/Chinese), 漢字 have multiple pronunciations depending on the context in which they are used. Some of these are based on old historically Japanese words (訓読み/kunyomi/native readings) and some are based on ancient Chinese pronunciations (音読み/onyomi/sound readings). Knowing when to use which reading is definitely one of the hardest parts of studying 日本語. For example, 下 (below, down, confer upon) can use the 音読み pronunciations カ (ka) and ゲ (ge) or the 訓読み pronunciations した (shita), さ(げる) (sa(geru)), くだ(る) (kuda(ru)), or お(りる) (o(riru)) depending on the context. I really do enjoy 漢字, and have spoken about them a lot in my 日直 speeches, but I admit they are truly 難しい (muzukashii/difficult)! Sometimes 外国人 ask why 漢字 are employed at all since the syllabaries can also be used to write all words, but since 日本語 has many homonyms (and accent is subtle and not reflected in the writing system, nor even usually taught to foreigners), 漢字 actually do make reading a lot more efficient.

Whereas 英語 is an SVO language (Subject-Verb-Object; e.g. 'I eat lunch.'), 日本語 is classified as SOV (私がお昼を食べる。/Watashi ga ohiru o taberu./'I, lunch, eat.'). This is actually somewhat misleading, though. 日本語 uses 助詞 (joshi/particles), which are pronounced, to mark most parts of speech. In the previous example が (ga) marks 私 (watashi/I) as the subject while を (o) marks お昼 (ohiru/lunch) as the object. Because of this there is much more flexibility in word order; depending on the context almost any order can be used. One can thus also say お昼を私が食べる。/Ohiru o watashi ga taberu./'Lunch, by me, is eaten.'.

日本語 also is much more specific about social relationships than 英語. For instance, words for the 動詞 (dōshi/verb) "give" include 差し上げる (sashiageru/to give to a superior), 上げる (ageru/to give to an equal), やる (yaru/to give to an inferior, such as a small child or animal), くれる (kureru/to be given by another), and 下さる (kudasaru/to be given by a superior). The 動詞 for "receive" likewise depends on who is giving something to whom. These are the kinds of words which often lead to awkward subtitles in old Japanese movies!

I think that should suffice for a brief introduction to 日本語! Those with further interest are encouraged to take a Japanese class!

This past week was as busy as they come! That being said, it was also quite enjoyable, although fairly 蒸し暑い (mushiatsui/humid). I actually saw some people enjoying the 浜 (hama/beach) for the first time.



A highlight of the week was a 文化クラス (bunka kurasu/culture class) about 書道 (shodō/calligraphy). The 高校生 (kōkōsei/high school students) greeted us with a live, large-scale demonstration.



The 先生 (sensē/teacher) was great and went through the history of the different styles of writing Japanese 漢字 with us.



We were taught to impart 意味 (imi/meaning) and 気持ち (kimochi/feeling) into the way we wrote the characters themselves. For instance, this is my attempt at a Portland-area 風 (kaze/wind). Below is my own explanation: 強い風だが、強過ぎない。(Tsuyoi kaze da ga, tsuyo-suginai/A strong wind, but not too strong.)



In class we gave those famed ラジオ体操 (rajio taisō/radio calisthenics) a try, although it happened to be the television version. It was a good stretch in the middle of a busy day.



Later we went out to get a class picture of E組 (E-gumi/class E) taken. From left are 齊藤先生 (Azusa-sensē), who teaches Japanese in America during the school year; Caitlin Comfort (Yale '12); Erico Tso (Smith College '10); Melanie Jensenworth (University of Washington); David Thayer (University of Pennsylvania '12); Michael Chirico (UPenn '11); Nicole Humphrey (Michigan State University '11); Vinson Young (Princeton '12); Eli Tung (UPenn '13); and myself (Yale '11).



This past weekend my host parents took me to 五稜郭 (Goryōkaku/lit. 'five-sided fortification), a famous 19th century fortress. From the adjoining, modern-day tower we took in a gorgeous view of the city.




Finally, on 日曜日 (Nichiyōbi/lit., well, 'Sun'-day), I reunited with some of my friends from the 北大オーケストラ to watch the biggest 花火 (hanabi/lit. 'fire flowers') of the year from across the 浜 (hama/bay). It was great to see them again, and we all exchanged our information for the next time I come to 日本, or, as I invited all of them, the next (or first, in many cases) time any of them come to the states. They were so sweet as to all give me a 浴衣 (yukata/light, lit. 'bathing' kimono) and slippers, which I wore all evening. These pictures include 宏航君 (Hirokazu-kun), a guy my age who was nice enough to give me rides home after every evening rehearsal, and 千恵さん (Chie-san), a very nice girl who does animal research in addition to playing the cello



Unlike most American 花火 I've seen, this show lasted for 一時間 (ichi-jikan/a whole hour)!

じゃあ、後で！