之繞 (shin-nyou)。

I find the kanji radical shin-nyou, which appears in 70+ kanji and generally means movement or progression, really interesting. "Nyou" is just the type of radical, an "enclosure" radical that usually spans the left side and the bottom of the kanji. (Cf. hen, ashi, tsukuri, kamae, etc.) "Shin" is the really interesting part, because the originating kanji, 之, seems not to carry a pronunciation of "shin" or have anything to do with movement. In fact, it's one of those super kanji that stand in for particles or basic words, in this case の (possessive) and これ (this) (although in fact hiragana の derives from a totally different kanji, 乃). I suspect, but will have to verify later, that it's also the parent kanji of hiragana え. 面白いなぁ。

Addendum:　I've checked, and the parent of え is not 之, but 衣 (ころも/イ koromo/I), meaning, weirdly enough, either robes/clothing or some kind of bread-crumby batter coating. A Google image search for 衣 turned up an image of something that might be batter-coated...and about a million images of lingerie. (I don't think I've ever image-searched anything in Japanese and not gotten a slew of provocative images, but these seem actually to be related to ころも.) Funnily enough, a hiragana chart I checked shows an intermediate form between 衣 and え that looks a lot like 示すへん　shimesu・hen, the "altar" radical that appears in a ton of interesting kanji that are generally about religion, fortune, etc.

ござる。

Even alone in my apartment, saying ござる (gozaru, ございます) makes me want to bow.

買ったばかりの教科書。

午後に「みんなの日本語」という教科書を買いに行きました。本屋で「明らめた日本語」(「Japanese Demystified」)の本を見て、それも買いました。今晩、日本語のレッスンの後で勉強し始めようと思っています。「元気」の教科書は、三つの課（？）しか残らないので、一緒に何を勉強しますかな。

今晩のレッスンは、宿題を持っていません。持ったないで会社に来ちゃったんです。実はもう二回この宿題をしましたが。会社の仕事をしながら宿題もしてみるのは大変で無理でしょうが、頑張りますよ。

背、脊、癶。

Another confluence of kanji: the se that means "the back" in "se ga takai/hikui" (back is high/tall/short, meaning a person is tall/short) is not the same se that's in the vertebrae. 背 (se/sei)　vs　脊 (se/sei), same meaning. Is there a difference in the kanji usage? Per Jisho they're both among the common-use kanji taught in schools and both carry meanings of height/stature, but 背 seems to have a broader range of meanings, including defying/disobeying/rebelling and back/behind. 背 seems pretty straightforward in structure: 月 for flesh, and above it 北 kita north, which is two people sitting back to back. So, the back of the body, and people turning their back on each other. Henshall doesn't seem to have an entry for 脊, and I'm not sure what the upper part of it is. Jisho says, not quite convincingly, that it's the mysterious "dotted tent radical" that we see in 発 hatsu (to discharge) and 登 noboru (to climb). Henshall says that radical is obscure but used to be written as two feet. So, I guess somehow flesh and two feet make height/stature. OK by me.

I'm not so sure, though, that the upper radical in 脊 is 癶. I guess maybe, but they're written very differently; 癶 is hooked left flow, dot, then swipe, right flow, dot; 脊 is written as standard hitoyane (person-roof)—left flow, right flow—and then two dots on the left and two on the right.

See 脊 on Jisho
See 癶 on Jisho

If it is 癶, why is it written so differently in this case? Do any other kanji share this format?

Saiga-jp turns up seven kanji in all with the radical 癶:

登 noboru, to climb (obscure, originally written as a pair of feet, a food vessel, and a pair of hands)

発 discharge, emit, radiate (which in its earlier forms was about standing firm and shooting an arrow)

廃 discard, scrap, become obsolete (hatsu, leaving, in a building) (another phonetic confluence: 廃る sutaru/sutaeru, 捨てる suteru, both to abandon)

澄 clear, limpid, lucid　（noboru with water)

葵 a hollyhock (あおい) (hatsu under grass)

橙 a bitter orange (橙色) (noboru with tree radical)

燈 a light (灯) (noboru with fire)

So, everything with that radical, at least from the dictionary's POV, derives from either hatsu or noboru. 脊 is not among these, and in none of them is 癶 written as it is in 脊.

Mysteriouser and mysteriouser.

Then again, maybe it's really just 个 (counter) with 二 (two, parallel lines) stacked on each side, to suggest a very tall stack of vertebrae. I'm fine with that, but it ain't no 癶.

面白いつくりの部首： 可 （か）。

I was just looking up the derivation of 過 (su.giru, KA) in ヘンシャー先生の書いた漢字についての本, and I noticed a string of kanji with the tsukuri radical 可 that share the reading カ.... Henshall says 可 is a twisted reed coiling to the surface of water, plus a mouth, and then in general it means a long time before speaking, with associated meanings of approval (grudging approval, permission, etc.)....

珂 with 玉 gyoku as hen radical, it's a jewel

河 with さんすい, three water drops, it's かわ kawa, a river or stream (same reading as 川; how does the meaning differ with different kanji? a less wide stream?　a particularly winding stream, as opposed to a straight-flowing river? just for fun, I Google image-searched each of the kanji; that didn't get me anywhere, but I did find this photo of a crab wearing three watches. time well spent!)

歌 Stacked with ketsu, a gaping mouth/yawn/lack, it becomes うた uta, singing/song. Henshall says the stacked カ may also derive from かか "ka ka", a Chinese version of "tra la la"—so, a gaping mouth going "tra la la". (笑)

何　With ninben, a person, it's なに　nani, what, or a counter. Henshall says this used to be about bearing a load, maybe but now is purely phonetic in Japanese usage.

苛 Under grass crown (草冠), it's teasing, tormenting, persecuting, scolding (いじ・める、さいな・む、いらだ・つ、から・い、つまか・い); Henshall seems not to have an entry for it, though it's 常用 jouyou, among the daily-use kanji taught in schools. (Interesting: Jisho says that one of the parts of this kanji is 艾, Japanese mugwort. 何?!　I image-searched 艾 and found this weird drawing of someone burning someone's arm with some kind of cigar.)

荷 With ninben under grass crown, it becomes a burden (に　ni, the ni in nimotsu, baggage, 荷物 = burden-thing—though motsu with a different kanji is also "to hold". ateji? 荷を持つ。荷物を持つ。荷物を持つのを待つ。)　Henshall says its origins are obscure but, since there's still a minor association in China with the lotus, it may have had something to do with the large head of the lotus. I'm going to say it's a person walking by the river with a huge bundle of grass/hay (or mugwort) on his head. Or maybe it's back to that idea of permission/ability for 可; maybe the person is able to carry a bunch of grass on his head.

And there are some more sugiru-like kanji that also carry the reading of カ, though in this case the radical seems to be more about vertebrae:

過 With "movement/road" in the hen position, it's passing, surpassing, exceeding, perhaps as in an error (すぎる). Henshall says the tsukuri involves vertebrae and ease of movement and carried a meaning of "substantial".

渦 With three drops of water (三水), it's uzu, a swirl, whirlpool, eddy. Henshall says this actually used to contain 之繞, the same "advancing" radical as in 過, and that the kanji once suggested water that moved flexibly, like a spine.

禍 With an altar/holiness, it's a calamity or disaster. Henshall says the "backbone" tsukuri part here expressed rebuke, though that's a bit confusing if 可 had a meaning of approval/possibility. So, a disaster as a rebuke from the gods. Excellent reading of わざわい wazawai. It shares the reading and the meaning with the very awesome kanji 災, combining flood and fire.

For fun, I looked up vertebra/backbone to see what kanji is actually used. Jisho says 脊椎骨 / seki/tsui/kotsu, with se as height or the (anatomical) back and KOTSU as hone, a bone (with our friend the vertebral radical plus tsuki 月, which is the moon but also flesh. TSUI, weirdly enough, is a beech tree. Would make more sense, maybe, if it were a birch tree.

Fun find on Google Books.

SHIRANE Haruo. Classical Japanese: a Grammar. vol 1. Very exciting. I probably shouldn't read it because it'll only confuse my Japanese, but even a glance through has helped me to understand a few things. Interesting that 男 otoko and 女 onna used to begin with "w" sounds and actually were spelled with を wo rather than お o—をとこ, をんな. 参る　まいる mairu used to be mawiru. ふ is sometimes "u" rather than "fu/hu". (Presumably, け is きょ or something similar; in shuuji the other day we wrote けふ, ke-fu, which 先生 said is spoken as 今日, きょう kyo-u.)

Anyway, the book looks like a lot of fun, with plenty of historical notes. Looks like there are some other tasty treats on offer, too:

Vovin, A Reference Grammar of Classical Japanese Prose (here) (with exercises)

Bentley, A Descriptive Grammar of Early Old Japanese Prose (here)

Dickins, The Makura-Kotoba of Primitive Japanese Verse (here)

など。 There are quite a few books on 文語 and modern Japanese, language and literature. Many are expurgated or snippetized, but even they can be useful, and some of the older books are available in full view (and probably are generally better sources for 文語, anyway).

search for stuff in English

search for all stuff in Japanese

"Makura-kotoba" (枕詞): pillow-word, pillow-book. 面白い。

Definitely most excited about the Shirane book. For now I should focus on 元気。 あしたレッスンがあるので、今晩沢山予習しなくちゃいけない。 Three chapters left!

か弱い、過去たち、過ぎる。

Was just singing "愛燦燦" in my head and thought I'd had an epiphany—that the か ka in か弱い kayowai, very weak, might be the same か as in 過去たち kakotachi, (things of) the past—both meaning "passing/surpassing(ly)", as in 過ぎる sugiru, to be too much / excessively (something). As in this poem that I have up at work (in calligraphy):

時過ぎて (toki sugite / time passes)
いつものように (itsumo no you ni / as always)
櫻さく (sakura saku / the sakura bloom)

So is it the same か? The Windows IME I type with, which takes input in kana and guesses at the kanji you mean, didn't replace that か with 過. Of course, it could be just a question of usage, like 時 vs とき； also possible that a connection was there at some point but is lost now.

不思議なものですね。

Addendum: Per Kotoba, sugiru and that ka are indeed the same.

今週の習字；「書きにくい」。

This week in shuuji 習字 we did four diads in renmen 連綿体の「けふ」（今日）、「みゆ」、「やま」、「ゆき」—やまの「ま」は「万」だった—then four forms of を (not お!) in hentaigana 変体仮名, then 大きい習字, single characters from the current sousho 草書 on larger paper with larger brushes. I did two sousho forms of 寒 (because I enjoy its drama—it's a beautiful character and very Annie Lennox, "cold, cold, cold...."). The larger brush (実は先生のお筆) is even harder to control, but I found it helpful to keep my elbow up and write from my entire arm. 寒、寒、寒、寒。。。。 My ウ冠 is more successful in sousho than in gyousho, but still I keep extending it too far on the right side and holding it too long. Cさん,僕の習字の友達, didn't like anything she'd written and had problems with kozatohen (阝偏？), but I still think her work is much better than mine. (I did kozatohen with 陰 and really love it.　木の陰や。) I'm in awe of 習字の先生; I don't know how it's possible to know so much. I asked her about choosing hentaigana when writing poems, and she said you choose the characters per your line width, the shape, など—ie, as seems so often to be the case in Japanese (and maybe in other languages), You Just Have to Know what to do.

書きにくい. I was thinking about a 小筆 (kofude, thin brush) that I bought a few weeks ago that's very difficult to use because the cut of its bristles is such that with consistent pressure it gives you a wider horizontal than you want. I was practicing with it because it's my most difficult brush. Can we call that 書きにくい筆? Or is it only 書きにくい漢字? Ie, does Japanese make the distinction that English does between a thing that is difficult to *write with* and a thing that is difficult to *write*? この漢字は、書きにくい漢字だと思う。この漢字は、大きい筆を使って書きにくいね。Or should I just say about the brush that it's 使いにくい and leave 書く out of it?

「であったら」。

Was just wondering whether "であったら" would be grammatically correct and sensical; per Google, there are 107 million instances of it out there. This surprises me because I think of ったら forms as "once a situation has come to pass"、as in どうしますか, what will/would you do. 着いたら電話してください, please call when you arrive. 止めたら、どうしようかなぁ。 I wonder what I should do once I quit. So, wouldn't a です form be better expressed as 成る, naru, to become? お金持ちになったら、お金を貸してください, when you're rich (when you've become a wealthy person), please lend me some cash. How would this differ in sense from お金持ちであったら。。。? Would it be something like "if it turns out to be"? 会う予定の人はお金持ちであったら、お金を借りてください, if the man you're planning to meet turns out to be rich, please borrow some money.

It may also have a sense of "if [I] were", as in this 例 from the net: 「もしも私が小鳥であったら」。 So maybe the difference would be that between becoming a bird and having always been a bird. Ie, not "if I suddenly (stopped being a human) and became a bird", but "if I'd been born a bird". 猫であったら、牛乳が好きかなぁ。 I wonder whether I'd like milk if I were a cat. 猫じゃなかったら、牛乳が好きかなぁ。　I wonder whether I'd (still) like milk if I weren't a cat (, thought the cat). If so, would a more formal way be 猫ではなかったら? I'd think not, but hmm. I'll have to keep looking for examples.

Quotations by Matsushita (2).

Another quotation by 松下幸之助 (Kounosuke Matsushita):

お互いの長所欠点を良く知り合い、
otagai no choushoketten o yoku shiriai,

そして欠点を補い合う。
soshite ketten o okinaiau.

そこから共同の仕事の発展が生まれる.
soko kara kyoudou no shigoto no hatten ga umareru.

By getting to know each other's strengths and weaknesses, you can make up for each other's weaknesses. Then you can really start working together. ("From there, the growth of shared work is born.") More comprehensible than that last one. Are there rules for omitting と in phrases like 左右 and 長所欠点?

Another by Matsushita:

苦難がくればそれもよし、
kunan ga kureba sore mo yoshi,

順調ならばさらによし、
junchou naraba sara ni yoshi,

という心づもりを常に持ち、
to iu kokorodzumori o tsune ni mochi,

人一倍の働きを積み重ねてゆくことが大切だと思う。
hito ichibai no hataraki o tsumikasaneteyuku koto ga taisetsu da to omou.

この名言は僕にもっと分かりにくいと思うが。「という心づもり」and 「人一倍」are throwing me off. "Come good fortune or bad..." the important thing is to stick to your plans and build up your efforts? Accumulate your works? 持ち。。。積み重ねてゆくことが大切だ。

One more:

人間というものは、
ningen to iu mono ha,

多少困難や失敗があった方が
tashou konnan ya shuppai ga atta ga

より大きな生きがいを感じられるものである。
yori ooki na ikigai wo kanjirareru mono de aru.

So.... For human beings, a few reversals and failures make us all the more sensitive to our larger purpose in life? Man is a creature that by enduring difficulties and setbacks is more able to focus on larger things? Problems with 多少 and より. I just don't get より, maybe because I tend to think of it as "less" because in ほう。。。より expressions it follows the thing that is outdone by the other thing. AのほうがBよりいいだろう。 And I almost want a なる form around 感じる, as in "as we endure, we become"—but no such luck.

Quotations by Matsushita.

It knocks me out sometimes that I can still, though I know what the words mean and can speak them, have no idea what a thing is actually trying to say: 他人は、すべて、自分よりもアカンと思うよりも、他人は自分よりエライのだ、自分のないものをもっているのだ、と思う方が、結局はトクである。

他人は、すべて、自分よりもアカンと思う
大丈夫

よりも、
?! Not seeing how よりも。。。と思うよりも works.

他人は自分よりエライのだ、
Why do we need the 他人は repeated here? How does the は work?

自分のないものをもっているのだ、
I kinda think I may get this, though without a larger context....

と思う方が、結局はトクである。
Why 方? I'm assuming I'm interpreting 結局は correctly.

I'll take another look tomorrow after some sleep. Probably it's just that I'm thinking in English; maybe too the expression is witty in some way that's beyond me.

Take 2.
他人は、すべて、自分よりもアカンとおもうよりも、
他人は自分よりエライのだ、
自分のないものをもっているのだ、
と思う方が、結局はトクである。

A は, then two よりも, the second of which follows a verb (without a だ before と思う); then the same は and stem repeated but this time with エライ, again in katakana, and のだ without a な (so presumably it's calling on the same noun as in the first construction?!), and then a second のだ phrase, and then a line starting with と思う, a 方が that may/should link to all the よりも, and then a super simple closing with another は that's probably a light one (as in 実は) rather than an actual topic marker. "In the end it's all profit"? I almost got somewhere with rearranging the phrases, but then I found a より in something I wanted sub to my 方. (?_?) (;_;)

I can't even figure out whether 自分 here is 他人 or the speaker.　それも分からない。 It does make more sense if I read it as the speaker comparing others to himself. But why the two "よりも"?

Take 3. Maybe the speaker is comparing two quoted ways of thinking. "Rather than thinking you're better than everyone else (that others are more useless than you are), in the end you're better off thinking others are better than you and have things you don't have."

Adding quotation marks is helpful:
「他人は、すべて、自分よりもアカン」　と　思う より　も、
「他人は自分よりエライのだ、自分のないものをもっているのだ」　と　思う　方　が、
結局　は、　トク　で ある。

"Tanin ha, subete, jibun yori mo AKAN" to omou yori mo, "Tanin ha jibun yori ERAI no da, jibun no nai mono o motteiru no da" to omou hou ga, kekkyoku, TOKU de aru.

That kinda feels right.

お疲れ様でした

日本人の「チュイート」で日本語を学ぼう。。。。

今日は会社の仕事が沢山あったけど、スパ・ヅパつまらなかったので、僕は出来るだけ日本語を練習した。まず少し朝日新聞を読んでみたが、新聞がちょっと読みにくくて、読む時間がかかりすぎたから、諦めちゃった。捨てちゃった。それからチュイッターのサイトに行って、面白い日本語のチュイットをキ・ワードで探して読んでみた。木・ワードは「習字」や「小筆」や「天気」や「名言」など。　チュイットのテキストはいつも短いし、読むことがもっと易しいと思った。凄かった。

習字。。。。　先回（土）は小筆を使って連綿のひらがなの「まつ」、「とし」、「かぜ」、「うち」と変体仮名の「る」を学んで練習した。それから、筆で「寒鳥喧」の草書を書いてみた。僕の書いた文字はたいてい多きすりう、たいてい小さすぎる。本当に上手じゃないが、沢山練習と、そろそろ、いつか。。。。　今度は、添書を始めると思う。それに、すぐ小筆で「連綿」で俳句を書いてみると思う。僕の選んだ俳句は一茶が書いたのだ：　「山寺や・雪の底なる・鐘の声」。冬のことみたいので、早く初めたほうがいいと思う！ レッスンはいつものように楽しかった。先生のおアパートは高い階（？）にあるので、窓から沢山見える。雪や町や晩の光など、すごくきれいだと思った。

買ったばかりの日本語についての本。:

Just bought De Mente's book on Japanese customs, mindsets, and phrases and am enjoying very much. Read on the way home and am reading now. I think I'd be a little annoyed if anyone put out a book purporting to Explain me, but maybe I'm reacting really to the lack of seem. And maybe it's more reasonable to generalize about a more homogeneous population.

Wrote to a copyeditor friend of mine about capitalization in the title. I find I want to capitalize for; it's against the usual rules, but there's something in the sense or weight that seems to justify it, just as we might cap On in "Take On the Challenge". In that phrase, on carries weight; it's not just a little particle that no one cares about, but actually part of the verb, to take on. Maybe it's that have a word for is in itself a kind of extended verb. What do they do to the object? They have-a-word-for the object. I think that's it. Anyway, if we weaken for by not capping it, then it starts to seem (barring italics) that we mean that the Japanese have a word for "it", which is entirely different and in fact not true. It's not that the Japanese have a word for it, but that the Japanese have a word for it.

習字: Haiku!

習字の先生　says that pretty soon we can start working on haiku! I've already chosen mine, one by Issa with a winter theme...though probably I should choose something that also works for summer, since I'll be working on it for a veeery long time. And we may not actually get there until spring.

明日、日本語のレッスン。。。元気の第二十。 Focus on humble forms. 今晩は予習(しておこう)。お頑張り致しおます。。。。

日本語の映画の「May Love Be Restored」。

日本の「May Love Be Restored」と言う映画を見てる。 Apparently it's based on a novel by Tsutomu Minakami, though even with Wikipedia's help I can't figure out which. I'm watching mainly for the 聞く練習 and thought I'd note any scraps of interest....

- Yuuko (夕子) goes to work in a brothel in Kyouto. When she arrives, she addresses the "mother" as what sounds like 奥さん and is corrected to お母さん, as I guess would be the usage in an okiya

- When お母さん (or whatever) says that Yuko is 一番若い (the youngest), she pronounces the "k" in "wakai" almost as you'd expect a /kh/, phlegmmy. I wonder what kind of accent that is

- They all seem to say はん instead of さん or ちゃん—haven't figured out yet which is meant. お母さん refers to the young ladies as はん when introducing them, and a servant refers to a client as はん. Maybe it's はん for the ladies only because お母さん is introducing them as on an equal level with Yuko

- When Yuko meets her 同僚 at the brothel, she says よろしいお願いいたします, rather than よろしく。。。 I wonder why the -いい rather than -いく

- Yuko refers to herself as うち. Is this related to お宅?

- When Seijun asks a favor of the head priest, he begins with, お願いがございます. Makes sense, but interesting to me because I've never seen ござる used that way before, without で. So, I guess, 例えば、「その映画は、見たことがある？」「はい、見たことがございます。」

- Funny translation moment: when the textile-shop owner gives お母さん 二万円, he tells her the check is good; the subtitles have him saying that the check "won't be dishonored". Not quite the sense of "honoring" a check!

- When one of the girls is speaking with someone offscreen, she thanks the person with what sounds like おおきに, which I've heard is characteristic of 舞妓 (geiko apprentices) in Kyouto but which I've found online as typical of the Oosaka dialect and derived (it seems) from 多い or maybe 大きい. That site also transliterates Oosakan すみません　as　すまへん—another example of an /h/ sound instead of the expected /s/ (as in はん rather than さん). Someone in the film also says いけまへん...

- More dialect: おいでやす, some kind of welcoming, to an incoming customer. And something that sounds like おあがりやす, which presumably is like the thing I saw in 元気 about inviting someone to enter a house ("step up" into the house), おあがりください....　Wonder what all this やす is. Per googling, it seems interchangeable with 下さい; so what's おぐ? Googling also yields おいでになってください, which suggests that お is honorific, but still....　おいで seems to be an imperative form of 行く/来る.... Seems to belong somewhere in the realm of 参る and いらっしゃる

- They also seem to be ending some words unexpectedly with はる. きてくれはったわ。。。。

- I think one of the girls calls another やかましや (while slapping her). (Nice coincidence if so, because I'm writing 喧 in shuuji.) Would that be the same や　as in はずかしがりや? (Searching for やかましや has led me to a book of slang on Google Books that definitely bears further examination. やかましや is in the chapter "Repugnant Personal Traits".)

- Someone puts on a record and says something like 病気になりましょう. Can she really be saying that? (Alcohol may be involved.) Google finds more than 3 million instances of 病気になりましょう　or 病気になろう The subtitle says "Let's enjoy ourselves.

- The less said about the American character who appears about halfway in, the better

- There's an おう adverb form again—along with おあがりやす they tend to say はよう, which presumably is 早い, as おめでたい/おめでとう. Still don't get that. (Does that mean おめでとうございます is a form of おめでたくある?)

More notes to come.

面白い: Back when I was learning the lyrics to 「修羅の花」, there was a moment where I quoted to 先生 some lyrics as 梶芽衣子 (Meiko Kaji) sings them in the version I have:

冷えたみずもに、ほつれ髪、写し
hieta mizu mo ni, hotsuregami utsushi
in the frozen water, a reflection of [her] disheveled hair

先生 suggested [冷えた水面に。。。], 水面 (minamo) being the surface of the water, lit. water (水) and mask/face (面). (Apparently it can also be pronounced スイメン.) Well, the Wikipedia entry on Minakami says his name can also be said 水上 (Mizukami)—again, mina vs mizu. Rikaichan will accept for 水上 either mizukami or suijou, but not minakami. Hmm....

What's the "gari" in 恥ずかしがり屋?

Presumably it's some kind of かりる.... Per Jisho, there's a 恥ずかしがる; not seeing why that's necessary, since 恥ずかしい should act as a verb on its own.... What would be the difference between 恥ずかしいです and 恥ずかしがります?

Isn't there a descriptive suffix that's like that がる, for expressing how other people seem to feel? Maybe that's it.

Here's what someone online says about -がる:

It is a derivational morpheme that makes a verb when suffixed to the adnominal form of an adjective. Adjectives used with -garu express emotion (kowa-garu, sumana-garu) cognition (mezurashi-garu, abuna-garu) and desire (hoshi-garu).

Interesting: this thread says that がる has specific connotations of being [adjective] to such an extent that the effect is visible to others. So, maybe, 妹は車が欲しいだろう but 妹は車を欲しがっている—with を. 正しいかなぁ。 So, someone weeping and rending his/her garments might 悲しが（ってい)る, I guess, and the sort of person who does that a lot might be a 悲しがりや. I suppose that would be different from someone who is, 例えば, 強い or 厳しい.

Not at all clear on what the passage above means with cognition. どんなことが珍しがるかなぁ。

Off to read 元気 chapter 20!

「大切なのは、自分のしたいことを自分で知ってるってことだよ。」

Have come across this quotation and am trying to figure it out. The first part seems straightforward:

大切なのは、
taisetsu na no ha
The important thing

The next two parts are more difficult for me. We end with a "da yo", so the basic structure seems to be the usual "A ha ... B desu". There's a parallel "to...(by) oneself / on one's own" (自分で). "自分で知っているって事" is throwing me: knowing on one's own, but then that's quoted (or "what's called / the thing spoken of as"—what's spoken of / referred to as knowing on one's own? "自分のしたいこと" should be "the things one wants to do", and the を means it's the direct object of...what? Must be 知る—but then why the いる form? And how much of the thought does って cover? Maybe I'm overinterpreting the 知っている. Maybe it boils down to "the important thing is for a person to know what s/he wants to do". But that's not satisfactory for ってこと. What's called knowing on one's own? The important thing is the thing called knowing on one's own what one wants to do? 難しいなぁ。

Maybe the って doesn't need to be so literal. There are about 22 million instances, per Google, of "って事だよ", and 44 million of "ってことだよ". Plenty in romaji, too, plus misc "tte" that don't make a lot of sense to me.

Googling tells me it's a saying from the Mu-Min Valley. The source seems to be something called Snufkin (スナフキン). It all seems to be from a book and Finnish. So I've been looking around for likely quotations from Snufkin and the Moomin Valley, which is a pretty good sign that I've done as much thinking about this as I'm going to.

?

I'm reconsidering my approach. I've been going at 日本語 through the written word—media sources, kanji, etc.—but I've found it maddening how unreliable kanji can be, with so many meanings and readings, connected in ways that are sometimes (though not necessarily obvious) sensical and sometimes situational, or completely unconnected or coincidental. (例えば、享ける、請ける、受ける、浮ける) Given the history of the writing system, and kanji in particular, and the problematic relationship between kanji and spoken language, maybe it makes more sense to approach Japanese the other way, through speech rather than through writing. I've looked for easy-to-read books in the past, but maybe now I'll try for manga or whatever else would help. Of course, the best would be immersion, to help me move from Japanese-as-object-of-study to Japanese-as-means-of-communicating-with-people. Right now, it seems like an endless road of which I'm barely at the start!

JLPT.

うけなかった。＊　After reviewing some practice tests, I realized that I really am not ready for N3 and there's no point in faking my way through an exam for a certificate to say I am. I knew when I signed up that it would take a ton of studying (漢字や文法や単語など), and I've been so busy with work that I haven't put in the time. 勉強時間が足らなかったほど、忙しかったんだ。 だから昨日、試験をうける代わりに、アパートを掃除したり、会社の仕事をしたりした。 The listening section (聴解—懲戒!) alone probably would have sunk me. 残念だけど、しょうがいね。 Next time.

＊この動詞の漢字をグーグーるしたけど、意味が違う漢字を見つけたから、仮名で書いたほうがいいと思う。

今日の習字、JLPT、など。

難しかった！ Three two-character sets for 連綿, then five or six variants of り in 変体仮名, then 楷書 (for me, 寒鳥喧). My renmen and hentaigana weren't nearly as good as they've been in practice during the week, but that may well be because I've been less critical on my own. ;-) Kaisho can be exhausting, much more tiring than gyousho 行書 or sousho　草書, because every stroke has to be just so—entrance, movement, ending, etc. Even doing just three or four characters at a time, as we are now, can be a real commitment. My 寒 and 鳥 are OK (though just barely) and coming along; I had no corners whatsoever today and will have to work on that, among other things. (May have been the brush I was using, 翔雲, but I need to be able to make it work regardless.)

The real problem for me in this set is 喧; tough to align the character well when the first thing you have to write is the hen (口, kuchi), in the middle of blank space, and that commits you to the spacing of the more complex tsukuri (宣, sen). So, as is often the case, you can ruin the character almost before you begin, by beginning your 口 in such a way that no possible adjustment of the 宣 alignment/spacing will make the end product look decent. And, of course, it has to align horizontally with the other characters and vertically with its space on the page....ムズカシイ。 沢山練習したほうね。

A real difficulty with writing kaisho, for me, is that sometimes I get so intense with the individual strokes that I lose sight of the overall spacing, alignment, and feel of the character—ie, I end up with some good strokes and some strokes that need work, but no unified kanji or set of kanji. I guess it's a good thing that I can usually recognize when my writing looks really amateurish; part of the process is learning to distinguish good work from bad, even when it's my own.

JLPT tomorrow. N3. I have practically no hope of passing it, so I'll study as much as I can tonight and then just have the experience of taking it. 聴解 alone will probably sink me. But しょうがない。

今日の習字。

Today's shuuji lesson was tripartite: 連綿 (renmen), then 変体仮名 (hentaigana), then 漢字 (kanji). I had an unusually good feel with my kofude today; I needed quite a few iterations of each task, but I felt more in control than I usually do. As last time, I needed more time on renmen than on hentaigana; I have trouble moving my hand down the paper fluidly enough to connect the characters seamlessly and with correct alignment and appropriate width and curve of lines. Today's sets were わけ, あめ, and のし. Had the usual tough time with kaisho; in 寒鳥喧, I had surprisingly little trouble with 右払い but had some line-length issues with 鳥 and was totally at a loss on the spacing of 喧. In 喧 I'm lost from the placement of the first 口. I've been practiving the renmen and hentaigana a bit before bed; maybe I'll take a little suzuri and a kofude to work tomorrow and practice surreptitiously....

今の日本語と習字。

今晩日本語のレッスンがあった。いつものように面白くて楽しかった。来週末は、日本語能力試験の新しい三級だ。心配してるよ。出来るだけ練習するつもりだけど、時間があまりないから、知らない単語と漢字が沢山あり、試験は成功じゃないだろうと思う。Oh, well. At least taking the test will be a good experience.

習字は。。。。　今「寒鳥喧」(カン・チョウ・ケン)だ。　さむい、とり、やかましい。

習字の先生に「秋物感人」の読み方について聞いた。中国語の読み方（音読み）と日本語の読み方（訓読み）は同じじゃ無いんだ。先生によると、読み方はこれだ：　「シュウ・ブツ・ひとを感じせむ」。秋になったら、ひとは秋のものを見て、人生などを考える。書道は、日本語の読み方と中国語の読み方が違うとき、小さいカタカナの字が書いてある、例えば、レ、一、二。この字の意味が僕はまだ分かっていない。「感じせむ」の言葉も。

A while ago 先生 taught me あいかわらず, "as always". Just realized that this is the -らず form of 変わる, to change -- ie, "without changing". Still don't get the 相; seems to mean "inter-" or something, as in 相手 (N3 単語), but still ちょっと分からない.

More on N3 prep (vocab and kanji).

Another run through the vocab quizzer today. These are the ones that tripped me up this time:

ukagau (forgot -- i think this space in my head is occupied by ugokazu, because when the definition comes up i think of movement)

tsukamaru (i said tsumareru, but i got it the next time)

namakemono (i said nakamemono; got it right the next time because i remembered the kana ke)

suisenjou (i had a brain moment and said rirekisho—very silly, especially because just today i handed off a suisenjou)

hikkosu (am getting better with this one because hiku suggests being pulled from somewhere)

sashiageru (i said sashiagaru, like meshiagaru, but i won't do that again)

jirojiromiru (i wrote jirojiro in katakana, like perapera)

jugyouryou (i forgot "ju" and said just kyouryou, probably conflating it with kyuuryou. will think of jugyou in the future)

sawaru (i said samaru)

anzen suru (i said ansen)

perapera (jirojiro had scolded me for katakana, so i did this one in hiragana)

yakusoku (sometimes i unthinkingly say yoyaku when i mean yakusoku)

shiten (i said tenshi, but i'll remember the ten in the future)

kankyou (i said kankyuu)

shingou (i said dengou. maybe i have electrons on my mind)

shousetsu (i had setsu immediately but couldn't remember shou until i pictured the kanji)

zutto (couldn't remember at all; briefly thought of nandomo)

mudadzukai (i had to sound this one out by syllable but said ta instead of dzu)

koukan suru (it'll help to remember kou, criss-crossing)

sansei suru

kokusai kankei

shufu (i always think kanai)

sugu, mousugu, and imasugu (and massugu) (maybe it'll help to remember that it has the same temporospatial duality as in English: "directly", meaning "go straight through this intersection" or "do this before anything else")

keizai (had to think about it, probably because economics occupies a money space in my memory) first i was thinking sai-kin (okane)

atsumeru (i thought ayamaru, though of course i rejected that immediately)

kankou (got it but had to think because the syllables were rearranging themselves in my head)

I also tend to say yoroshikereba instead of yoroshikattara, because asking whether something is convenient for someone (for me) doesn't carry the same sense of "pastness".

とにかく、the list is a lot shorter than it was yesterday, so that's good. And there were only one or two that I really couldn't think of at all; most of the mistakes were in on'yomi. One aspect of this quizzer that's both an advantage and (sometimes) a limitation is that the user's kana entry has to match the database entry exactly. So it's a stickler for long vs short vowels and voiced vs unvoiced consonants (good), but then sometimes when the database entry is off there's no way to get the item right (bad).

Also gathering flashcards per the N5–N3 kanji lists. Studying kanji is definitely a priority.

Wondering about パンクする, having a flat tire. It must be a borrowed word, but whence? (Addendum: it's from puncture.)

Tango (and not the Argentine variety).

So I've finally made it through Usagi-chan's 23-chapter vocab
quizzer. I made a list as I was going through of any word
that took some work to remember. Most of the words below I
now have no problem with, but I want to keep them in mind
as a vocab list:

anzen

atsumeru

boshuu

chikoko suru vs okureru vs osoku naru

chuumon suru

gakkari suru

hannin

hikkosu

hitorigurashi—helps to learn that kurashi means "to live / get by"

houtteoku—weird word structurally! Kotoba says it can be written with 放 and 置

ijimeru (ijiwarui?)

jirojiro miru

jiyuu

kagu

kankou

keikaku o tateru

keizai

kenkyuu

kesshou

kinchou suru

kion

kokusaikankei—same kokusai as in the phone call, so that helps

konnafuu—i kept saying konna *ni* ("in this way")

koujou

koukan suru

kyoujuu ni

majime

makoto ni

ma ni au—i've seen a lot of 間 as ma recently. hmm

menkyo

mezamashidokei—fine with the tokei part

monosugoku

mudadzukai—the quiz doesn't give parts of speech, so this threw me for a while as just "waste"

naguru

namakemono

nandomo

netsu ga aru

nodo ga kawaku

nusumu

ogoru

rirekisho—this will be easier now that i'm associating reki with history, but the ri still throws me

ryoushin—"both parents", but i still have a hard time remembering it. it's one of those that send a bunch of syllables rolling through my head, trying to match up

sakki

sansei suru

sawaru

seiji

seikaku

seizai

shiai—didn't know it, but it makes sense. i think this entry may have been one of the few bugs in the program (ie, the code wouldn't recognize しあい however i typed or pasted it)

shingou

shinseki

shiten

shokudou—another one that i learned long ago but don't often use shoukai vs shoutai—it's helping me to think of the "coming together" sense of kai

shousetsu

shucchou—the little tsu is what threw me in this one

shufu—confusing because in fuufu the wife has a long vowel

shuuden

shuushoku suru

suisenjou

tameru—helps me to think of the "for the sake of" sense of tame—i am saving money *for* something else

tebukuro—te, of course

tokoya—toko?—any relation to tokasu?

tonikaku—this one is super-strange. the quiz says it means "anyway", but what can its origin be? Kotoba gives kanji for it but says they're ateji

tonkatsu—the infamous pork loin or whatever

tsugou ga warui—warui makes sense; need to find out what "tsugou" is

tsukamaru—hopefully i'll never have empirical knowledge of this one (or of chikan)

uchuujin—this makes sense as a spaceman, but it's tough to remember

ukagau

uketsuke

waribikiken

yoshuu—i know both the kanji but keep forgetting

zeikin—kin is fine, but strange to start a kanji with a "z" reading

zutto

Most of them I can define right now, just looking at them, but in the quiz they're still not coming to me as quickly as they should. I'll do some thinking about them; that'll help.

Genki vocab.

A thing I don't love about Genki is its apparently scattershot approach to vocabulary. Sometimes it seems to include words just so it can use them in dialogues. A prime example that keeps coming up in Usagi-chan's quizzer (which I like to play with at work when I can) is とんかつ, a pork cutlet. Why do I need that at this stage in my life? I don't think I know the word for sink or chicken or socialism, but I need to know pork cutlet? Why not beef shank? Why not balsamic reduction?

I'm quizzing on all chapters at once, but you can tell which chapters some of the words come from—eg, どろぼ (burglar) and ちかん (sex offender).

More mnemonics.

It's not so much that I use mnemonics intentionally; it just that I get an image in my head and then I don't miss the word anymore in Usagi-chan's pan-Genki vocab quiz. An example just came up: へんぴんする, henpin suru, to return something to a store. へん means weird/strange, of course, so I got this image of a woman returning a pin to the store because it was weird.

Another mnemonic that happened that isn't really a mnemonic at all: もんくをいう (文句を言う), monku o iu, to complain. The meaning has nothing to do with a monk, but when that term comes up in the quiz a monk appears in my head and reminds me.

And then there's the strange case of びんぼう, poor. The first time I saw that, I associated it with a beanpole, so I got that wrong in Usagi-chan. Now sometimes I have to remind myself that it's binbou, not binpou.

This is a favorite: もてる, "to be popular in terms of romantic interest". S/he will meet you at the "moteru" down the street.

ゆうしょうする (yuu shou suru): to win a championship. You show 'em! (Of course, they may in turn shou yu with soy sauce.)

And an ironic one: せいふ, seifu, government. The government makes one feel so safe!

A while ago I got 犯人 wrong, so I wrote it down, and then when it came up again I remembered the written-down version. I must be a pretty visual learner.

I really need to learn more kanji. That'll make it easier to remember tough ones like 推薦状 (suisenjou, a letter of recommendation) or 割引券 (waribikiken, a coupon). Out of the six kanji, only the third, fifth, and sixth are familiar, and I can only positively identify the fifth as hiku (because it's so pictographic).

What's really tripping me up at the moment is 中 at the end of a phrase, -ちゅう vs -じゅう. "In the middle of" something, "for the duration of" something. 授業中に (ちゅう) but 一日中 (じゅう). Maybe with practice I'll get better at feeling the sound.

Oshieru, oboeru, manabu, omoidasu, etc.

For a while I've been vaguely trying to tease our distinctions among these verbs of putting things into, or taking them out of, the memory.

oshieru (教える): it's a standard "to teach", but it also applies to imparting info, such as a phone number (電話番号を教えてください.)

manabu (学ぶ): feels studious, like a person at school (gaku 学)

oboeru (覚える): usually carries a sense of memorizing, but then in "Chijou no Hoshi" Nakajima sings, "地上の星を / だれも覚えていない", which wouldn't carry that sense at all

omoidasu (思い出す): to remember (from the omoide, combining kanji for thinking and leaving/extracting)

I'm sure there are more. Manabu uses the same kanji as all the gaku variants, so there's a definite sense of study and studenting. Oboeru (to me) suggests effort and intention; the 勉 in 勉強, study, has a tsukuri of 力 (strength) and carries a reading of tsutomeru, to work, a verb that's usually written 勤める, again with 力. Exertion, effort. Manabu 学ぶ might suggest the longer-term process of being in a school environment and learning gradually, as opposed to applying oneself acutely. 今日学校に行ったけど、あまり勉強しなかったから、何も学ばなかった。

So maybe Nakajima isn't saying just that no one knows/remembers, but also that no one makes an effort to remember.

Jisho offers a bunch of neat variants on remembering and keeping in mind. The first entry is 思い出す, of course. The second is the enchanting 思い起こす, omoiokosu, combining thinking/memory and awakening—the active form, rather than 思い起きる. Jisho also offers 偲ぶ, which adds ninben, which may carry that reading of "shi" (but does it carry meaning?). It also offers another kanji for oboeru, 憶える： apparently, 憶 can also be omou, like 思う, and the kanji is the 意 in "meaning" (いみ) plus an additional kokoro (mind/heart) for flavor. 注意 (warning) is particularly interesting because it seems to carry a specific sense of attention—eg, you can use 逸らす, actively diverting/digressing, on it to distract someone from something. (注意を逸らしていただきませんか。) Of course, with sorasu (divert) there's also soreru, to wander or digress (on your own—牛が逸れちゃった?).

There must be nuances among all these verbs; so frustrating to see them all listed as "to remember"! Why can't dictionaries say anything useful?

Addendum: And where does 習う fit into all this? Feathers? It's used in 見習い, young women practicing their dancing &c. Is 習う more physical than, say, 学ぶ?

Another kanji moment.

Another happy kanji discovery (though this is probably obvious to everyone else):

汚す yogosu, to soil

汚れる yogoreru, to become soiled

汚い kitanai, dirty.

I like those connections; they're energizing, and they suggest that there may be some logic here. (It definitely helps that 先生 and I have been working on active and passive verb forms.)

So I'm trying to prepare for JLPTN3. Here's a resource I'm using a lot: Usagi-chan's Genki Resource Page at Sacramento State. Lots of helpful resources for kana, kanji, and vocab, but I've been focusing on the vocab quizzer. The app can quiz on vocab from all 23 chapters of Genki, more than 1,000 words in all, and it removes items from the list once you've gotten them right. I'm in Genki chapter 19, but I've been running the whole program, and I've learned a lot. Trying to gain some familiarity with the kanji, too. These two-kanji する combinations are killing me. Maybe it's just that I grew up with English, but I find on'yomi tough to distinguish sometimes -- しゅ vs しょ vs しゅう vs しょう vs じゅう vs じょう. So as I've been going through and speaking everything very carefully.

It's encouraging to know that I'm improving, though. I can go through hundreds at a time without making mistakes other than typos. And it feels pretty good to look at something, think I don't know it, and then have the correct reading or meaning just float up from somewhere deep in my head. Truly, 思い出す.

Fun to tell myself stories to keep the kanji straight. Like, in semai 狭い, the wild dog (けものへん) is in an alley with that bulky つくり and is being squished -- because the alley is narrow (semai). 絵 is literally threads-together, which Henshall says refers to old paintings on silk. 類 is one I'll have to look into when Henshall is handy. Funny that 輪 means rings/circles/wheels; it's one of the most right-angled kanji out there. (But I guess I can see that the hen is 車, a vehicle, and 冊 in the tsukuri may suggest binding together, as with books. I'm tickled that shoko 職, employment, has 耳, 音, and 戈—ear, sound, and halberd—because, of course, employment (shoku) is a state in which you listen to a lot of noise or get chopped. 働, working, has similar charm: a person, heaviness, and strength/force. Sisyphus.

Of course, I'll have to do a lot more for N3; I have some vocab and kanji lists and am making kanji flash cards. Long row to hoe. But I'm encouraged with the progress I've made so far. 頑張ろうね。

覚えにくい単語 / 「たからくじ」の漢字。

So here's a word that I just can't keep in my head: lottery. I'd give the Japanese version, but I'm determined to fish it out of my tired brain. I know the verb for "to hit the lottery" is 当たる, which makes perfect sense, but the word for the lotto itself is a meaningless jumble of syllables.... like five syllables.... たからくじ! Is that right? 意味はなんでしょうか。 takarakuji. Let's see what Kotoba says.

(If Genki doesn't teach you a certain kanji, it won't use it, so sometimes it's difficult to tell what's habitually written with kanji and what's not.)

So there are two kanji in takarakuji:

宝 takara
and
籤　kuji

Apparently 宝 means treasure, and 籤 in both forms means lottery or raffle. Interesting: although the two forms of kuji both carry the meaning of "lottery", they have some differences in readings: the common-use one is SEN, kuji, and kazutori, and the old one is KYOU and kuji. All the kanji compounds that Kotoba lists for both have something to do with lotteries, drawing lots, luck, etc. Interesting stuff. ヘンシャー先生に相談しよう。。。

(ちょっと待って—ヘンシャー先生の本を探してみてる。。。。)

ヘンシャー先生の漢字についての本によると。。。。

takara 宝 is a gimme: 玉 under a roof. Pretty literal.

籤の漢字は。。。。 見つけられないですよ。 Henshall has nothing to say about kuji or its origins. それでは、部首を調べましょう。。。　おほぅ! Jisho lists three that I can see that are about lotteries: 籖, 觽, and 鬮.

籖: kun: kazutori, kuji; on: SEN. Lottery or raffle. Not jouyou. Looks like we have 竹 as tsukuri, with tsuchi 土, hoko 戈, and this crazy 韭, which Jisho says means a leek (but which has no kun'yomi whatsoever). I guess leeks aren't big in Japan.

觽: kun: kujiri, tsunogiri; on: E, KI, KEI, SUI. Judging by its variants, this one has a sense of ivory or horn (角, which is its hen). (Why is tsuno 角 the same kanji as kado 角, corner?—ahh, なるほど, Henshall says kado came from a pictograph of a horn.) The tsukuri includes yama 山 and the weird 隹, which I've seen interpreted as "feathers", "bird in tree", and "old bird". (Henshall says it's a pictograph.) Also not jouyou. "Giri" is interesting; is it related to this sense of obligation, 義理? Some kind of obligation/debt brought on by a horn that resulted in (perhaps) a chance or death or something. Obscure!

But this one is the real prize:

鬮: This one is a bona fide pictograph! You can see an animal in it. Blow it up if you don't believe me. The outer structure is 門ish, but it doesn't connect; just a vertical on the left and a vertical with kick on the right, and inside two 王. Beneath those there's what can only be a literal interpretation of some kind of animal—perhaps a tortoise? Ah, yes—Jisho says that the 鬥 part ("broken gate") is no longer in use (and lists 0 readings for it) but the 亀 part is jouyou and jinmeiyou and means turtle. (You can see the shell and tail.) Exciting!

There are some other sources that follow up on the on'yomi kazutori (which may have something to do with drawing numbers—kazu 数 and toru 取る?), but probably that reading was assigned way after the fact. Still have no idea what the origins of "kuji" might be.

Bet on the turtle.