日本語の道

Cute Eyes

くりくり　cute eyes

Whether or not this is good to say to a boy I don't know. I was also told it can be used to describe the appearance of a cute baby's head with no hair - くりくり ぼうず! A cute head shape...

(Note)　くり　chestnut

Stickyness

ねばねば　stickyness (my translation was 'gloopy')

The food which brought up this word I think was やまいいも. Pick it up with your chopsticks and watch it ooze off! Can you see the image?

A Ride

I came across some interesting terminology for someone who has a car and can drive others around - I think it is typically a guy who is driving a woman around. Someone who has 'wheels' or can give you a ride?

アッシーくん

Please someone tell me exactly what the Japanese is if I misheard. Interestingly a woman offered to fill this role on my behalf :)

Zuibun

随分寂しい > ずいぶん さびしい

Strangely, this is part of a Christmas e-card I received from a Japanese friend.

Decisions

According to my friend she is 優柔不断 （ゆうじゅうふだん）, someone who is bad at making decisions. Ah, me too, me too...

Dizzy

The words I have used for dizzy in Japanese have been 目が回る（めがまわる）.

From reading Roy's Japanese blog I've learnt another way of saying it: めまい.

[Roy: I hope you don't have any more dizzy spells.]

Suggestions

なんて is often used for expressing surprise like なんてむずかしい試験. I just wanted to make a note about the following type of usage:

あゆを呼んでピザパーティなんてどう？

In this case it's used for making suggetions. How about a pizza party?

Bullet Kanji

Presenting my kanji of the day (well 2nd of the week anyway):

弾（たま）,　bullet

This kanji has a few readings and meanings. The reason it caught my eye is because it's the ダン in 爆弾（ばくだん） meaning bomb.

Also, note to myself: 弾む（はずむ） means bound, while shockingly ピアノを弾く（ひく）!

Suspicous

あやしい means 'suspicous' and is actually a word I seem to find myself using quite a bit in Japan => useful!

I was walking towards some students slowly and one of them said something:

「ふしんしゃ!」
「What is that?」 I asked.
They said... 「あやしい」
I say, 'Why?'
Answer: 「歩き方」  ＊_＊

After some thought I think the word was 不信者, someone you do not trust... (this was an incorrect guess at kanji through meaning).

[Credit to Miyo] 不審者　－　is someone suspicious or doubtful

Me Too 2

だって can be used when providing excuses or explaining something. I guess it often goes with もん　(from もの).

ケーキ全部食べちゃったの？!
だって、おいしかったもん！

No mistakes so far, I hope. But there is another conversational use for だって which I've begun to notice recently. I think it translates as something like 'me too' - I was reminded of this all because of my previous post. So I've been hearing things like:

わたしだって！

If anyone could confirm this for me, I'd be grateful.

Me Too

こちらこそ. This kind of phrase is used often when someone thanks you for something and you also want to thank them in return.

Because of my poor eroding English I struggle to translate the dialogue I have with my calligraphy teacher at the end of each lesson. I say thanks and he says 'こちらこそ'. Then he asks me how to say that in English. I only come up with, 'No, thank you' ('you' is bold to show stress). Is there a better way? 'Thank you, too.' just isn't English, is it??

I got into a friend's car and her mother was driving. It was the first time we'e ever met. She said something like (pardon any grammar misses):

ゆうこはいつもお世話（せわ）になっております。
ゆうこがいつもお世話（せわ）になっております。　[Credit to Miyo]

No one has ever actually said this to me before and I couldn't even translate it into meaningful English. Sometimes we learn language and when to use it, we even feel some of the emotions that go with those words and yet we've never translated them into our own languages. That's interesting.

I looked at my friend for help. She said 'こちらこそ'. Ah, I think and reply to my friend's mother.

Wounded Word

By coincidence I saw a kanji that I recognised from an e-mail in my kanji book:

傷

傷 （きず） - wound. Here are some compounds that were listed for this kanji:

傷つく - to be hurt
傷心 - to be heart broken
感傷的な - sentimental

I wonder if I should've known this for the JLPT. Anyway, it's this week's kanji.

Bargain Books

My latest book (因 京子: 日本語初級読解 読み方+書き方) didn't cost me an arm and a leg for a change, in fact it cost just 105 yen!

I was browsing in Book Off when I happened across the second hand book section. Incredibly there were about 4 books about learning Japanese. They ranged from 100-400 yen and were all as good as new.

I have a feeling I'll never use the book I bought. Some of the content is quite basic but we always need to revise every now and then. Besides, at 105 yen I just couldn't resist.

Do you know any good places to pick up study materials second hand? Try Book Off - but not the one I go to :)

Turning

What's the right particle for 曲がる (まがる)? I always thought it was 'で' but was always confused about whether 'を' was applicable. It turns out that either seems to be fine:

そこを右へ曲がってください。
そこで右へ曲がってください。

[Correct me if I'm wrong.]

Not Looking

見てんじゃねーよ!

How would you translate this? A direct translation doesn't seem to make sense: 'don't look'.

Is this something like, 'What the &$#" are you looking at?' That's my best interpretation so far - especially considering tone of voice.

After Thoughts

Today I feel sick and sapped of all mental and physical energy. That test nearly killed me in more ways than one. I hope you all did well - better than me, hopefully.

Kanji/words - it felt as though I had to guess half of the answers. Seriously, I haven't seen many of those kanji before. This surprised me but I tried to stay positive.

Listening - really good. Hopefully I scored 85+.

Reading/grammar. I started at the end and I whizzed through the short grammar questions. However, the longer reading sections defeated me. Before I took any of the tests I said that the result would depend on whether I could answer the first large essay question. It turned out to be a 50-50 affair so I have no idea how well I did. I ran out of time and filled in about 7 answers blindly. Not so good.

Conclusion: I didn't do as well as I'd hoped but I'm not really sure how it turned out.

Good Luck

Speaking for myself I feel so calm it's strange. It's not from confidence either. I imagine later this evening I'll start my panicking.

Don't push yourselves too hard today - good luck tomorrow!

Cute

I was just browsing the kanji for the JLPT at www.kanjisite.com when I came across 可 (ka)　possible, approve. Then I looked down the list of example compounds and was shocked to find:

可愛い　（かわいい）　ー　cute

Wow, it's shocking when such a common word has kanji that you never knew about it.

Final Friday

Is everyone's study going well for the JLPT? Well, if not - like me - then what are you concentrating on for the last couple of days?

As for me, I am sticking with trying to add a few new words to my vocabulary set and also reviewing kanji in commonly appearing compounds.

When I look at this list of kanji I've just printed out I can recognise many - but only probably from within compound kanji words: meaning I know only a few on yomi and none of the verbs which accompany many of these kanji.

Actually, I should also try some of the longer reading questions - my weak point. However, my motivation to even look at another one is just too low! Perhaps my study partner will help me out tonight.

Stored Vocab

Making my grammary summary sheet is taking longer than anticipated but it seems to have been worthwhile. A few more points may have sunk in well enough to get me a few more exam points.

When I finish I'll move onto the words which have been building up in the word bank of my denshi jisho. When I come across a new word I add it without learning it and now I've suddenly got 400 words which I need to learn - time to get cracking.

What's the best way to memorise words? The old repeat, repeat, repeat? Trying to make mini-mnemonics? What works best for you? Maybe it would work well for me too.

Ramen Picture

Proof! (see this post)

Next Mission

My grammar list is now complete!

Next I'll make a copy of the file and delete all the grammar I know well enough to make my pre-exam grammar sheet.