教科書に載っていない日本語

夜露死苦！

We spend a lot of time telling you ways to fancy up your Japanese. TOO MUCH TIME! It's always "Ancient Chinese history" this and "archaic grammar" that. Well you know what? All your nancy-pancy conjugations aren't gonna do you a lick of good when THIS guy tears through the sliding door of your dojo and challenges everybody inside.
「ほら！何やってん、オメー！？」 he slurs through his perpetual sneer as he starts pushing you around. Indeed, the situation has gotten pretty やばい - the hyper-casual (or often outright insulting) ways of ヤンキー語 will be the only way you get out of this unscathed. If you consider being forced to buy him some アンパン "unscathed."

What follows are some basic guidelines to either understanding this brand of speech (which is quite common on tv shows, anime, etc) or using it yourself (which can be either endearing or completely inappropriate. Use with caution!)

あい・い　＝＞　え

This point confused me to no end when I was first trying to learn some rougher ways to express myself. For example, I learned that "shut up!" was "うるせー！" from watching anime, but "うるさい" based on textbooks. I didn't realize until much later that they were the same word, except the former was altered to make it a more bad-ass manner of speaking. This rule applies to an almost unlimited number of cases: "じゃない" becomes "じゃねー", "すごい" becomes "スゲー", and so on. It can even apply to words that end in other vowels as it did above, changing "おまえ" to "オメー". Adjectives are the most common victim of this slurring. Think of it as adding "so damned" or something similar before the text you're talking. "スマブラがなんておもしれぇ!" becomes "Smash brothers is so much goddamn fun!"

いる　＝　ん

This one applies mostly to verbs, and is reflective of an underlying rule of ヤンキー語 - much is either shortened or changed to enable easy speaking. Don't believe me? Just give it a try with almost any of the examples I've given so far. "え" is probably the easiest of the 母音 (vowels), and "ん" is a step easier than "いる".

As a quick example of the above: "ガタガタいってんじゃねぇよ！" "Quit your goddamned babbling!"

人（ひと）　＝　いつ

Best employed with phrases like 「誰、そいつ？」, or "Who the hell is that guy?" It can also be used in the phrase "どいつもこいつも", which can be loosely translated as "every-f***ing-body". As with all Japanese, tone and context will determine the severity of your speaking. Still, remember that this - like most things I'll cover here - are not something you want to use in a professional setting. I once developed the bad habit of using language like this almost exclusively for a period of time, to the point where normal ways of speaking began to elude me. I was in the middle of class and wanted to indicate one of the students, but - not knowing his name and wanting to do more than grunt and point - gestured with an emphatic "そいつ！". Though this got a lot of laughter from the kids, the teacher was noticeably flushed. I've since used it in other classes, but affected the ヤンキー voice while doing so to make clear it was a joke.

ほら！

A lot of you are probably thinking - ほら？ Isn't that pretty tame? Well that's because you're not saying it right. Another part of speaking this way is rolling your "r"s, or 「巻き舌で言う」. If you roll your "r"s just a bit each time you say "ほら", you'll have the Japanese (rough) equivalent of interspersing your speech with "hey" or "yo"... although a good sight ruder, depending on circumstances.

These, as I see them, are the fundamentals of ヤンキー語文法. If you just couple this with wanton use of the rudest imperative you know （ほら！アンパン買って来い！）, you'll have a good start. The following video does a pretty good job of unifying all of these points while being completely hilarious at the same time. For the full effect I recommend watching the whole video, but those eager to figure out what a "young key" is, just hit play, and enjoy!

On a final note - if there is interest, I'll post some links that will let you expand your ヤンキー単語. Just like English, Japanese has a few colorful expressions that pop up a lot in this mode of speech. But that is a post for another time, even if the place is right on.

鶏口牛後

けいこうぎゅうご
keikou gyuugo

~The first in an occasional series of cow-related words and phrases~

As you all are aware (or should be), 2009 is the year of the ox/cow, depending on which language you are speaking. Unlike my two co-writers, one of whom is a boar/pig and the other a rat, I happened to have been born in a cow year, which means that this year I am a 年男, or man born under the same sign as the current year. Accordingly, it's been my plan to do a series of posts on "cow-words" in honor of both the new year and myself for some time now, and this post is the first in that series.

This is something of an odd yoji to start off with, because it doesn't give the most flattering view of cows, but I'm starting with it because it's probably among the more useful ushi-kotoba that I've come across. 鶏口牛後 is another one of those yoji's that has an ancient Chinese backstory, so gather round for storytime!

Back in the day, during the Warring States Period in China, the country of Han seemed on the brink of becoming a tributary state to the expanding country of Qin (later the first dynasty of China). Seeing this, and knowing that becoming a tributary would mean the certain doom of Han, Su Chin (I think - his name, 蘇秦, is read as そしん in Japanese) went to the king and said:

むしろ鶏口となるも、牛後となるなかれ
むしろけいこうとなるも、ぎゅうごとなるなかれ
keikou to naru mo, gyuugo to naru nakare

Better to be a chicken's mouth than a cow's butt!

Jet Li as the first Qin emperor in the stinkfest third Mummy movie...

Moved by these words (and not wanting to be a cow's butt), the King of Han decided against joining the Qin, and instead formed alliances with other neighboring states against them. (Of course, they all ended up being subsumed by the Qin anyway...) 鶏口牛後 is an abbreviation of that famous line.

I know what I want the next time I go to Japan...

Definition:
大きな組織で細々とやるのより、たとえ小さい組織でもトップになれ
Translation:
1. Rather be the first in a village than second in Rome.
2. Better to be a big fish in a little pond, than vice versa.

例文： 大手の企業に入ったって、トップになれる倍率はものすごく低い。だったら鶏口牛後の精神で起業をしたほうがましだ。

Even if you get into a big company, your chances of making it to the top are slim to none. That's why you're better off remembering that it's better to be first in a village than second in Rome and starting something on your own.

I know what I want the next time I go to Japan...

表現 Break: 知る人ぞ知る

This 表現 is actually a 表現, and not a ことわざ. I came across it for the first time well over a year ago, in an article that Claytonian of The Hopeless Romantic sent me. The article is about a hidden restaurant that a guy runs out of his junk/memorabilia filled house somewhere in Nagasaki, and though I could understand a fair amount of it back then, there was one phrase that was too far over my head, no matter how hard I tried to figure it out.

知る人ぞ知る
しる　ひと　ぞ　しる
shiru hito zo shiru

Translation:
Only those who know, know, and they know it well.
Conversely, if you're not in the know, you're not.

The hidden restaurant in the article remains hidden, because it refuses to divulge its address, referring to it only as 知る人ぞ知る長崎の穴場スポット: A nice little spot in Nagasaki, well-known and well-liked by a select few. Both Clay and I were of the opinion that it would be really, really cool to figure out a way to become 常連 or お得意 さん at a place like that.

There were a few reasons I couldn't figure this phrase out at the time: context, timing, and a lack of grammar knowledge.

When I got a Japanese friend to help me try to find out where this place was, they explained 知る人ぞ知る, by saying "People who don't know, won't know," which is a decent job of translating contextually, but not literally. Literally, this expression emphasizes KNOWING, but her translation put the emphasis on NOT KNOWING. Which was bad timing because I had just learned the ～ずに construction, I kept trying to think up a way to connect 知る人ぞ, to the idea of negation, like you would do with 知らずに. Why? Because they both had 'z' sounds, and because I wasn't yet familiar with the way to use こそ to stress a subject.

Turns out that ぞ, is yet another archaic feature of Japanese, still preserved in some turns of speech today. It's an old way of saying "こそ," which makes it much, much easier to understand. Who knows? People who know こそ know.

例文：
A-san: あなたは外国人なのに、日本の一般人より多くの四字熟語を知っている理由って、なぜ？
Why is it that even though you're a foreigner, you know more yojijukugo than your average Japanese person?
B-san: 知る人ぞ知るウェブサイトのおかげですよ。
It's thanks to a certain site that those of us in the know use...

日常茶飯

にちじょう さはん
nichijyou sahan

Give us this day our daily bread, but if you can't do that, at least give us our Daily Yo-ji.

Today's 四字熟語 contains the Japanese equivalent of the idea of "daily bread," although... free of the religious connotations. 茶飯 (also read ちゃめし: lit. tea rice) is rice, prepared with tea and other seasonings. Brett's a big fan of お茶漬け, which is kind of the same thing, at least to my 外人 sensibilities. What makes it the equivalent of 'daily bread,' is in its simplicity.

Just as bread is perceived to be the 代表 of western cuisine, rice and tea are two of the pillars of the Japanese diet. No point in getting into the パン食、米食 debate. No matter how much you might chafe at the idea of "bread" as summing up your country's cuisine, it won't change the fact that Japanese people see it that way. Nor will it change the fact that Japanese people DON'T chafe at the idea of being gastronomically identified with rice. That's the way things are.

On a less debatable point, the addition of "日常' also helps draw the "daily bread" analogy nicely.
You can use 日常 to talk about anything that is routine, ordinary, regular, everyday to the point of being 当たり前.

Of course, the same thing could be said of the entire phrase as well.

Definition:
日常の食事。転じて毎日のありふれた物事や行動のこと。
Translation:
1. An everyday occurrence.
2. Something perfectly ordinary and expected.

Try using this with である。

例文：電車で携帯で話すことは行儀が悪いけど、携帯でメールやインターネットやゲームをすることは日常茶飯であります。
In Japan it's considered bad form to talk on your cell phone on the train, but using it for mail, the internet, or for games is about as common as rice.

教科書に載っていない日本語

Even More Japanese That Ain't in the Book

Nirav promises to finish up his series explaining some of the nuances of the many words you can use to talk about one's condition, especially some of the words using 気, but in the meantime, I'm gonna toss in a few more feelings phrases "to help make your 言い回し more 日本人ぽい."

One thing that was really difficult for me, when I first came to Japan, was explaining to people how I felt, especially if how I felt was anything other than "元気." Nirav will get into this more in his post, but really, the only thing I was equipped with, in terms of saying, "I don't feel good" was "気分悪い."

However, telling people that I was 気分悪い almost always had the effect of making them think that I was sick, and giving me more attention when most of the time, what I wanted to let them know was that I was in the mood to be left alone.

Thanks to Brett, I now know that I can simply explain that "the bug's whereabouts are bad" but what about getting more specific about why you're not in a good mood?

Luckily, if you're in Japan long enough to form close relationships, especially romantic ones, you'll learn how to express all kinds of moods. And if you want to know what to say without having to get in a bunch of fights with a significant other, well, that's why The Daily Yo-ji is here.

苛々する
いらいらする
iraira suru

to be/get frustrated; to feel frustration

Do NOT trust Rikai-chan on this one. I've NEVER heard this used to mean "getting nervous." See the next point on the list for that. Use this to express frustration, being fed up, and having things get on your nerves.


ドキドキする
どきどきする
dokidoki suru

or

緊張する
きんちょうする
kinchou suru

to be nervous; to feel nervous tension

ドキドキ is the sound of a heart beat, and when you get nervous, your heart starts beating faster. These are great words to use about anything that makes you nervous: having to give a speech, trying something for the first time, when the pressures on you to do or say the right thing, getting on a roller coaster, petting a lion, etc.　

MOST of the time, you can use these two interchangeably. When I was meeting my girlfriend's family for the first time, I could (and did) use BOTH　緊張する and ドキドキする。

However, when you're with a boyfriend or girlfriend, you might feel 緊張, but you'd be better off telling them that you are ドキドキしている. 緊張 might be interpreted as, "You make me tense." ドキドキ is like, "You give me butterflies," or "You make my heart beat faster."

もやもやする
moyamoya suru

to feel sad; to be upset; to be gloomy

This is good for when you're down about something, and can't (or don't want to) explain why. When nothing's wrong, but you're still upset, or when a bunch of little things have combined to make you feel like EVERYTHING is depressing, that's もやもや.


いじける
ijikeru

to get upset; to reach the breaking point; to be fussy;
to throw a tantrum

Again, leave the Rikai-chan translation alone on this one. It'll just confuse you (to become perverse? inferiority complex? what?). It does have some other applications, but here's the easiest way to think of it: a child throwing a temper tantrum is いじけている. You can use it about yourself or others if it's a situation where the person in question is so upset that they can't do anything but be upset, or if they're making a show of how upset they are, like a crying child. I don't recommend using it, because I associate it with things like being わがまま (making a scene when you don't get your way) and the idea of 切れる emotionally where you just SNAP, but as others have pointed out, it also has the nuance of "being fussy," which, just like in English, can sometimes be thought of as endearing in small doses. And one more fun note about いじける：　You can call people who are overdoing it, "いじけ虫." But watch out. If they really are pissed, you might make it worse!

*EDIT*

After I posted this, Brett had trouble looking up　いじける、which lead to long conversations with native Japanese speakers about いじける (it's 標準語, so it wasn't one of those "DAMN YOU, SAGA-BEN[ben = dialect]!" moments), and then today we got a comment from reader mico saying some of the same things. Bolded phrases above have been added to reflect where we needed to make changes, and a few sentences that were incorrect have been removed. Thanks for the input!

*EDIT*

Japanese Cultural Trivia of the Day:

These are words that I considered tossing into a 教科書に載っていない post, but then I figured it be more fun to do them like this.

裏
うら
ura


表
おもて
omote

裏, not to be confused with the homonymous 浦 from 津々浦々, has tons of meanings, but the common thread that they share: you can't see the 裏 from the front.

表, which you can find in 表面, 表現, and 代表, has an equal abundance of interpretation and represents the opposite of 裏. It's the visible surface.

You might remember both of these from 表裏一体.

They work really well for talking about buildings and locations (駐車場は裏にあります) and I hear them a lot at work, where 表 is the part of the bakery that the customers frequent, and 裏 is where the baking gets done (「表の掃除終わりましたか。」とか「裏から鉄板持ってきて。」).

But where you can hear it and use it most often is in today's cultural trivia:

裏か表！

裏か (うらか;uraka) as it gets abbreviated in speech, is a system of dividing people into two groups. I want to call it a kid's game, but then... it's not a game, though it often precedes games, and much like じゃん拳　(じゃんけん；janken), everyone in Japan does it, regardless of their age.

Whenever you have a situation where you need two groups, or two teams, you can find people doing 裏か表, which works like this: 裏, as it's meaning implies, refers to 手の平, the part of your hand that can't be seen from the front, so... your palm. 表 in this case is　手の甲, the back of your hand. Everyone stands in a circle, puts a hand in, and then everyone (or at least SOMEONE) in the group chants 「裏か表！」 while shaking/flipping their hand back and forth between the two states of hand-existence.

On the final chanted syllable, everyone picks a side and thrusts their hand out, showing either 裏 or　表. If the numbers of people who chose each are approximately even, then 裏s form one group, 表ｓ form the other. And if the numbers are way off, the process is repeated. Just like じゃんけん has あいこでしょう,　when you have to do it again, there's a different chant. What that chant is, however, is subject for disagreement. The kids that I learned it from always said 「手、手、のって！」 Yuri says simply 「っせ！」 There are even little kid versions that get longer and ridiculous, 「裏かオモ、てんぷら、ハンバーガー。。。」　and on into あほ臭い territory. Have people in other parts of Japan heard other versions?

裏 and 表 can also be linked to ideas of 本音 and 建前, as well as martial arts, but those are subjects for other posts.

Further Yo-ji Resources

Most of the time we try to do one of two things when posting yo-ji, hyougen. kotowaza, and other cool stuff:

1. We post something that we learned in conversation with Japanese people. We usually have a story to go along with it, might be able to relate it directly to our lives, we don't have to look up how to use it, and we can rest assured in the fact that it will be useful to us and to our readers because native-speakers use it.

2. We try to post something that lends itself to interesting cultural or historical content: a lot of times we'll look for phrases that are seasonally relevant, or have fascinating origins in Japanese (Chinese) history that will help us and our readers impress people with the range of our knowledge.

But sometimes we run dry, and we have to go yo-ji fishing. When that happens, here's what we use, and now with a little cash and some Amazon.co.jp, you can use them too.

「四字熟語」これだけ辞典
The Yojijukugo "All you need" Encylopedia
published by Escargot Books



This is something I inherited from 大づの先生, the most senior 国語先生 at Kawasoe-Chuugakko. My copy still has his name written down the spine. Sometimes I think he gave it to me so I'd stop asking him what stuff meant all the time. As you can see, it's very, very dense, but all-encompassing, with over 1700 四字熟語 and their definitions contained in its pages. Does not feature example sentences.

小学四字熟語ことわざ慣用句問題集
Grade School level: Commonly Used Yojijukugo and Proverb Workbook
published by さし書房


　 　 　
I lost the cover to my copy a while ago. This was the first yo-ji book I ever bought, and is still the easiest to use. The Japanese is easy to understand. The definitions are illustrated with pictures that... I guess they could be clearer, but they could also be more obscure. Also doesn't feature example sentences, but it does have quizzes where you have to choose the right saying for the situation or match the definition, etc. Pretty useful.

ことわざ・四字熟語に強くなる！
Increase Your Proverb and Yojijukugo Power!
published by 世界文化社



My yo-ji mentor, Otao-san, uses this book. It's like the Japanese equivalent of a book containing anecdotes or jokes or techniques or quotations to be used in speeches. It contains in-depth explanations of thousands of phrases, examples of the 使い方 for many of them, and is organized into sections based on theme: "Proverbs related to success," "Proverbs for when you're lost," "Yo-ji related to society and nature," and the very broad "Yo-ji related to life" (to name a few). It also has a running sidebar that's like a "On This Day in Japanese History," section. I haven't really looked at that much. Lot of people's names, written in kanji.

教科書によくでる四字熟語2009カレンダー
Textbook Yojijukugo 2009 Wall Calendar
published by 旺文社




Last but not least, I got this calendar as a house-warming present from the very same Otao-san. I find it extremely comforting because it only features three yo-ji a week, and if a Japanese publishing company can't put out more than that, The Daily Yo-ji's not doing so bad after all. It's designed so that elementary school students can also use it (all kanji glossed), which makes it easy to use in the bathroom where, unless you're Brett, you probably don't bring your electronics with you. And yes, I was given explicit instructions to hang it in my bathroom. When I laughingly promised to comply saying, 「毎日読まれるようにね,」 Otao-san corrected me by saying, 「毎日より、毎回！」

打打発止

ちょうちょう　はっし
chouchou hasshi

Before we get too much distance between ourselves and last week's 喧々囂々、侃々諤々、喧々諤々 EXPLOSION, I want to take the time to address a legitimate concern that reader Alex addressed in the comments section: that shit was hard.

Not only are the kanji involved ridiculous, but the first two expressions are rarely used in conversation, and the third is actually not even a real yo-ji!

If only there were a good 四字熟語 that meant roughly the same thing, was easy to use, even easier to remember, and contained a kick-ass sword-fighting metaphor... Oh, wait.

Definition:
刀などで互いに打ち合う音。転じで、刀で切り合うように激しくやりあうさま。言い合いのこと。
Translation:
1. A fierce clashing of words, resembling a fierce clashing of swords.

According to the 「四字熟語」これだけ辞典, which we also posted on today, this yo-ji can also be written like so: 丁丁発止. Internet searches reveal tons of examples of both, but since the book lists 打打発止 as the primary form, and the book has the virtue of being ancient, we're gonna use it as well.

丁々, as Rikai-chan will tell you, is the sound of chopping, and also lends itself to the sound of metal on metal. I'd imagine it as more metallic sounding, but then, I've never heard a mouse say ちゅう either. 発止 gets translated as "a loud clack;" the kanji, meaning "halted departure," convey the idea of something in motion (like a sword) coming to a quick, sudden stop (when it hits another sword).

Sounds like 打打発止 could be used in close proximity to one of Brett's earliest posts: しのぎを削る.

例文：そのアメリカ人二人が何を言っているか知りたいな。いつも英語で打々発止の口喧嘩をしているようにみえるのに、本当は仲が良さそうだ。
I wonder what those two Americans are saying. They're always shouting back and forth in English, like they're having a fierce dispute, but I've heard that they're actually really close.

Note:
If you ever have the opportunity to use this in connection with an actual sword fight, feel free. It can work literally as well.

Challenge: If you know who that anime character is at the top, quick, tell me where I can download a copy of that... I'm incredibly embarrassed to admit that it's the ONLY incarnation of that franchise that I haven't seen.

One Hundred... and FOUR.

Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeah!
We here at The Daily Yo-ji wanted to do something special to commemorate the posting of our 100th 四字熟語. But not only did we fail at "special," we failed at other, more important things, like noticing or counting...

So today we're celebrating our 104th 四字熟語! That's right. Of 197 posts on a website called "The Daily Yoji" which has been running for over a year, we've managed to pass on 104 4-character idiomatic expressions!

That's over 52% 四字-goodness.

That's over 416 kanji (though, with doubles and repeats, maybe closer to 375?)!

That's so many yo-ji that we don't remember many of them!

Woooooot!

That's why our 104th 四字 anniversary present to you is THIS.

Anki is the best free create-your-own Japanese flashchards program out there, and I'm assuming that many of you already use it. If you don't, now you have one more reason to start. Every 四字熟語 that has appeared on one of our posts, even if it didn't merit an entire post of it's own (I'm looking at you, 一生懸命), is collected and included in the first Daily Yoji Anki deck.

I've organized it so that it works for recognition only: you see the kanji and must recall the reading and meaning. If you're keen on remembering to write them all out yourself, once you download the file, you can reorganize it to include production as well.

In addition to the readings and meanings of each 四字熟語, you'll find occasional notes on usage, and labels that let you know how Common or Rare each yo-ji is, so you'll have a sense of how confident you can be if you want to use it. The labels range from "Extremely Common" to "Extremely Rare," and were determined through a complex process that took into account many factors:

• Anecdotal evidence
• Google searches
  
• Native-speaker response in the comments sections
• Number of times I've heard or seen them occur naturally
• Reactions to my attempts at using them
• Whether or not my girlfriend has ever heard of them
• Whether or not Nirav posted them

... so there might be a margin of error.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy them, and I hope they help you retain some of what you've picked up here. If you find yourself interested in the meanings of the specific kanji, or suspect that a yo-ji might have an interesting origin, the search bar in the upper left corner of this page will help you out.

Thanks again for all your comments!

Jeff, Brett, and Niro

表現 Break: 能ある鷹は爪を隠す

I like the animalistic nature of today's 諺, and the advice it offers appeals highly to me, kind of like 不言実行. I've always thought that strengths are strongest when they're kept hidden (and I think that my powerful desire to learn languages is motivated way too much by my dreams of surprising people who think that I don't understand them, like a linguistic-rope-a-dope).

能ある鷹は爪を隠す
のう　ある　たか　は　つめ　を　かくす
nou aru taka wa tsume wo kakusu

Definition:
実力のある者は、それを見せびらかすようなことはしない。
Translations:
Literal - The talented hawk hides his talons.
1. The wise man does not make all of his abilities known.
2. It is better to play some of your cards close to your chest.
3. He/She who knows most, often says least.

Note that the Japanese definition here adds a nuance that my personal inclinations leave out: modesty. You don't just hide your talents because, as Paul Newman says, being the "unknown" gives you strength and makes you cool, but because showing-off is to be frowned upon. Modesty is a highly prized virtue, especially to the Japanese way of thinking.

There are some really cool expressions that encapsulate the same meaning, in an antonymous way:

• 空樽は音が高い
  から　だる　は　おと　が　たかい
  kara daru ha oto ga takai
  
  A loud sound indicates an empty barrel.
  
  
• 能無し犬の高吠え
  のうなし　いぬ　の　たかぼえ
  nounashi inu no takaboe
  
  A barking dog seldom bites (loudness masks weakness).
  
  
• 口達者の仕事下手
  くちだっしゃ　の　しごと　へた
  kuchidassha no shigoto heta
  
  The glib are poor workers.
  
  
• 能無しの口叩き
  のうなし　の　くちたたき
  nounashi no kuchitataki
  
  The incompetence of braggarts.
  
  
• 鳴く猫鼠捕らず
  なく　ねこ　ねずみ　とらず
  naku neko nezumi torazu
  
  The cat that meows doesn't catch the mouse.
  

Wow... there were a lot of those.

例文：
A-san: あの子とファーストデートはどうだった？
How'd your first date with that girl go.
B-san: よかったよ。夕食は俺の手作り料理で、その後ギターで俺のオリジナル曲を彼女に弾いたり、俺が書いたポエムを読んだり、マッサージしたりしてやった。
Sweet. I cooked her dinner, then played her some of my original songs on guitar, read her my poems, and gave her a massage.
A-san: ファーストデートで？お前はバカじゃないの？2番目のデートはどうする予定？
On the first date? Isn't that overkill? What do you have planned for the second date?
B-san: ええと。。。
Uh...
A-san: わからないでしょう！「能ある鷹は爪を隠す」という諺は意味あるよ。
You don't know, do you? There's a reason they say to keep some of your strengths in reserve.

Also, does this proverb make anyone else think of the character Zatoichi? Follow-up question: Anyone see the latest Zatoichi incarnation? The female one?

青息吐息

あおいき　といき
aoiki toiki

Here's a special post-Valentine's Day Yo-ji for all you lovers... who failed miserably on Saturday. That's right, today's post has nothing to do with Valentine's day in general, but the only good image I could find for "blue breath" had hearts in it.

I hope that you can't use 青息吐息 in relation to your Valentine's... but just in case you can, I might as well tell you what it means.

息 is your breath, and 吐息 is a sigh. Less common is 青息,　which means a 'pained sigh.' But it makes sense when you think about some of the other appearances of 青: 顔が青い、青ざめる、青あざ, 青枯れ病 (why do I know that word?), etc.

So put a bunch of pained sighs and regular sighs together, and what do you get?

Definition:
苦しんだり、困ったりしたときにでるため息。またそのような状態。
Translations:
1. Deep distress.
2. Desperation.
3. Involuntary exhalations caused by deep distress or desperation.

You should use this in relation to large sources of stress or anxiety, and it most commonly takes です or だ after it like, 「来週のエバリュエーションのため、彼はさすがに青息吐息だ: Next week's the evaluation, so of course he's really stressed out.」

例文：新車をローンで購入したが返済が大変で、青息吐息の状態である。
I bought my new car with a loan, but because the payments are so immense, it's become a desperate situation.

教科書に載ってない日本語

Even More Japanese That Ain't in The Book


~Feelings, nothing more than feelings~ Part 1 of X

Yet another installment of words and phrases "to help make your 言い回し more 日本人ぽい."
Today, we're going to look at some of the nuances in useage of a whole lot of words used to talk about conditions, mood, feeling, or atmosphere. This is a rich topic, so it will probably turn into more of a series of posts. There is an entire post to be written about each and every one of these words, but hopefully you'll be able to glean enough information here to give yourselves a solid foundation to start doing some learning by experiencing Japanese language firsthand.　(Thanks to Jeff for getting this list started!) Today we are going to focus on the essential building block of feelings/emotions, also known as:

気
き
ki

essence, nature, energy

気 is probably one of the most important words and concepts that you will come across while studying Japanese. It has all kinds of definitions, but in general there seem to be about 5 will help you understand most phrases that you might come across:
1) The basic energy that runs through the universe (kind of like The Force)
2) Life-energy
3) The mind and/or heart, and their various states
4) The atmosphere or essence of a specific place or scene
5) The essence of a given thing; the aspect of a given thing that makes it what it is
If you've ever watched Kung-fu movies, I believe that this is what is commonly referred to as "chi" in the Chinese terminology (though since I'm not a Chinese-speaker, you will have to take that with a grain of salt... or wikipedia). That being said, let's look at some 慣用表現　（かんようひょうげん）, or idiomatic expressions, that make use of this character, if only to gain some kind of familiarity with it.

気を付ける
きをつける
ki wo tsukeru

to be careful; to pay attention

I'm sure that all of you have already heard of/make use of this phrase fairly often. It was certainly the first context in which I learned the word 気, and I wouldn't be surprised if this was true for most Japanese-learners. It is fairly simple; one "attaches" their mind to a specific thing. This is usually used as an admonition to have your mind on whatever you are doing at the time. Notice that a similar construction is used in the intransitive:

気が付く　or　気づく
きがつく　or　きづく
ki ga tsuku OR kidzuku (pronounced kizuku)

to realize; to notice

This is another simple one. It is when your mind or heart attaches to something - that is, realizes it, when something that had escaped your notice before suddenly becomes clear to you. Note that 気づける, which one might try to say as a contraction of 気をづける, actually becomes the potential form of this verb.

気になる
きになる
ki ni naru

to worry about, to wonder about, to be on one's mind

This is another good one, which perhaps some of you don't know. Most people first learn this as meaning "something is worrying me." For example:
デイリー四字は最近変更されてないのが気になる。彼ら元気にしてるかな？
I'm worried about DY's lack of updates recently. I wonder if they're ok?
How sweet of you all to worry about us! There are other uses, too. For example, you might use it to talk about something (someone?) you want to know more about, either in a good way or a bad way. Something might be, for example, 気になるNirav情報満載！ That would mean its full of the Nirav-info that you've all been wondering about! And what a wonderful thing that would be.

気を遣う　OR　気遣い (note the kanji usage! 使う is wrong!)
きをつかう　OR　きづかい
ki wo tsukau OR kidzukai

to consider someone, to worry about someone

Japanese-learners are often faced with the fact that Japanese society tends to be very concerned with appropriate levels of politeness and decorum. Part of this is 気遣い. Put roughly, it means to consider someone's wants or needs, often without being asked. For example, putting out some tea and/sweets when someone comes to visit might be an example of 気遣い. Slowing down or going easy on an amateur is another example. People sometimes use this sarcastically, but that is a topic for another day.

気が利く
きがきく
ki ga kiku

considerate, sharp (as in smart)

People whose 気遣い is on target will often be told that their 気が利く. 利く here means to function or be useful. In other words, if you are a good host, you will know in advance what your guests will need. You can also use it to describe someone who is mentally sharp.

気が合う
きがあう
ki ga au

to get along well

When your 気 and someone else's 気 match up, that means your specific essences match up, and you get along well. When they don't match up, trouble ensues!

気に食わない
きにくわない
ki ni kuwanai

気に障る
きにさわる
ki ni sawaru

to get on one's nerves, to not be able to stand

I put these together because they have essentially the same meaning, although as I understand it 気に障る is more serious. You might notice that 障る is read the same way as 触る. There is a whole post in this, but for now, imagine the feeling of someone 触る-ing your eyeball. That's how I think of the meaning of 障る. And that is the feeling I get when I meet someone who really gets on my nerves. Stop touching my eyeballs!

気が済む
きがすむ
ki ga sumu

to be satisfied, to get something out of one's system

Notice the 済む here (also notice that it is NOT 住む). This character means "to end" or "to be over with." (For example, paying off a loan is called 返済; something that is already spoken for is 約束済み; etc, etc). It can also mean "to subside" or "to clear." Here, your 気 is full of desire to do something - be it cry, scream, play a prank, whatever. Once you've gotten on with it, you can say that your 気が済んだ and you are done with it. Often times you will be asked それで気が済んだのか？ (Is it out of your system now?)

気が散る
きがちる
ki ga chiru

to lose one's concentration

You know when you're trying to study, but there are gunshots outside? Or when you are trying to put together a blog post, but someone keeps g-chatting you? That's the kind of thing that really makes your 気　散る. Think of 散る as things falling haphazardly (perhaps your belongings all over your apartment, or the leaves off of a tree). When this happens to your 気, you lose your ability to focus.

Focus, people, we're almost done.

気をひかれる
きをひかれる
ki wo hikareru

to be distracted

This is slightly different from the above, in that it is more like your mind wanders. Rather than have an external shock (like someone yelling at you), you might be writing your blog post and get distracted by the TV, or by the book on your desk, or by the food in your refrigerator, or by....

Ok, anyway, now that you've got a basic (though by no means exhaustive) idea of what 気 is, next time we go through some of the more complicated 熟語 that contain it, and related words that it would be a good idea to distinguish/differentiate. Until then!

Two-Kanji Yo-ji Week Wrap Up

Just some final notes and additions to this week's Yo-ji posts:

• Although 三三五五(さんさんごご; sansan gogo) is an officially recognized yo-ji, I decided not to write up a whole post for it because it's pretty basic and utilitarian, in the same vein as 天地無用. Rikai-chan will tell you that 三々五々means "in groups of twos or threes," but something in me balks at the idea of translating "five" as "two," so I prefer the second definition it offers: "in small groups."
• 唯唯諾諾 (いいだくだく;ii dakudaku) means "ready and willing." I thought I might gloss over that one, because we'll need it, if we ever get around to writing "The Nightly Yo-ji." Also, I was scared to google it.
• Much like yesterday's 喧々諤々、some people will list 各各然然 (かくかくしかじか; kakukaku shikajika) as a two-kanji yo-ji (using the above kanji or other ateji versions), but it's not a real one. It's a linguistic convention that has been turned into a yo-ji through common usage. It means the same thing as 「ま、そういうことで。」 It functions to mark the end of a topic of conversation, kind of like saying "So... that's that."
  

Daily Double: 喧喧囂囂 and 侃侃諤諤

けんけんごうごう　and　かんかんがくがく
kenken gougou and kankan gakugaku

Winding down the week of two-kanji yo-ji, we've got some high-level rare yo-ji with very similar meanings.　We could have made this a triple by including 喧喧諤諤 (けんけんがくがく;kenkengakugaku*), but let me explain why we didn't after the definitions.

喧々囂々
Definition:
多くの人が喧しくいいはやす様子。
Translation:
1. Pandemonius uproar

侃侃諤諤
Definition:
大勢の人ががやがや騒がしい様子。
Translations:
1. Heated arguing
2. Outspoken about one's beliefs (pushing the boundaries of politeness)

While I was planning out the line-up for this week's theme, I asked some of my friends for contributions, and one of them suggested 喧々諤々, but when I looked it up online, I came across a Japanese forum thread where someone was asking why 喧々諤々 doesn't show up in a 国語辞典. I looked it up in my 四字熟語辞典, and I couldn't find it either. One of the commenters in that thread pointed out that the reason it doesn't show up is because it's not a real 四字熟語. While both my Japanese word processing software and Rikai-chan recognize it (defining it as "tumultuous; everyone voicing their opinions at once), the fact of the matter is that it's an oral tradition, a verbal mangling of today's two. Take the first part of one, the last part of the other, and you've made yourself a brand new idiomatic expression.

If you're writing, I recommend using either 喧々囂々or 侃々諤, whichever suits your purposes. But since they're old and rare, if you want to say something in conversation, people today are much more familiar with the amalgamation: 喧々諤々.

You can follow any of these with the verbs する, or 言う to fit it into a sentence, or you can also use になる。

例文s:

その政治家の天下りについてのコメント後、議会が喧々囂々になってしまいました。
After that politician's remarks on the Amakudari system, the Diet erupted into pandemonium.

姑と話す時は政治や宗教のことを侃々諤々するわけないよ。
There's absolutely no cause for heatedly arguing politics or religion when you're talking to your mother-in law.

救助を待つかゾンビたちと戦って逃げるか、どうするかということを皆に相談したら、全員が喧々諤々言ってしまった。アポカリプスってつらいな。
When I asked whether or not we should stay and wait to be rescued, or try to fight our way through the zombie hordes, everyone began shouting their opinion simultaneously. Man, the apocalypse is rough.


* post-post edit, thanks to Sash's watchful eye.

正正堂堂

せいせい　どうどう
seisei doudou

Continuing this week with the 2 kanji yo-ji theme, we're getting into military territory with 正々堂々.

正 means "true," or "regular." Shows up in 正しい （ただしい）and 正午 (しょうご）and makes things correct, or exact. Double it up, 正正, and you get 'accurate,' 'punctual,' or 'neat.'

堂 makes buildings. 本堂　is the main temple building, 食堂 is a cafeteria, etc. Doubled up, 堂々 is 'magnificent'... or just 'fair.'

Definition:
態度や方法が正しくて立派なさま。陣営などの勢いが盛んなさま。
Translations:
1. Fair and square.
2. Aboveboard.
3. Energetic, vigorous, in an organized way.

This last translation comes from the origin of 正々堂々: Sun Tzu's Art of War. In fact, this yo-ji is a shortened version of this longer quote, translated from the original Chinese: 「正正の旗を邀（むか）うることなく、堂堂の陣を撃つことなし。」 My best translation is: Do not face off against the stately banner, do not attack the well-prepared formation. Not very a good rendition, but it gets the idea across. Imagine a flawless military regiment, in perfect formation, well drilled, and ready for action. It was one of Sun Tzu's most basic strategic concepts: Don't engage an enemy you can't beat; 正正堂堂した敵と戦わないように...


How it made the transition from the idea of high spirits, preparedness, and efficiency at war to today's more common usage, "fair and square," is less clear to me. Maybe it has to do with setting itself at odds with Sun Tzu's philosophy which was all about deception.

Note: I didn't know it at the time, but 風林火山 also comes from Sun Tzu.

Probably not a good idea to try to use the same yo-ji twice in the same sentence with two different meanings, but...

例文：孫子は正々堂々した敵と戦わない方がいいと言いましたが、僕は正々堂々していない人も相手にしたくないです。
Sun Tzu advises not pitting yourself against someone who knows the rules better than you, but I don't want to go up against someone who doesn't play fair either.

表現 Break: 猫被り

If ever there was a 諺 to keep out of a google image search bar, this one is it.

猫被り 　・　 猫を被る
ねこかぶり　・　ねこをかぶる
neko kaburi　・　neko wo kaburu

Definition:
猫のようにうわべだけ柔和にして、内心は貪欲だったり陰険だったりすること。
Translation:
Literal: Wearing a cat.
1. Wolf in sheep's clothing.
2. Feigned naivete.
3. Pretending to be innocent to lure someone in.

Origins for this one are pretty standard. Felines are pretty universally accepted as being kind, when it suits their purposes, and being a generally manipulative animal.

If you like cats, (and NOT in the way that a certain sect of Japanese オタク likes cats: there are CAT maid cafes!), then check out this site, which lists pretty much every Japanese 諺 where cats make an appearance.

And since we're discussing 猫被り, I'd like to raise a point for discussion: Is 猫被り a trait that is considered desirable in a Japanese woman? Culturally, I mean.


(These are some of Yuri's friends. They made this video as humorous presentation for their friend's wedding. We've seen lots of these (they're a common practice) and trust me, in terms of the choreography and production quality, this is on the high end of the scale.)


Back to the matter at hand, according to "Pink Samurai," which is a non-fiction book, not a smutty manga, thank you very much, Japanese males are attracted to the ingenue more than the experienced woman, which explains the obsession with underage girls. The book even analyzes the number of occurences of the phrase 「優しくしてね,」 in personal ads for girls who work in the ヘルス massage industry as a kind of 猫被り, analogous to a western pro saying "Be gentle," with the pretext of inexperience implied.

On a personal level, Brett and I have witnessed a couple of examples of conversations where Japanese girls have claimed to not understand a patently obvious joke about things of a sexual nature. One even claimed to not be able to imagine how the person in this picture (who shall remain nameless) kind of looks like he's violating the karaoke tv.

A Japanese woman whose opinions I value told me that Japanese women do pretend to "not get it," at least in front of other men.
I'd love to hear what Japanese people, or non-Japanese women (koff koff Cassie) who have lived in Japan have to say. I know the foreign female Japan experience and the foreign male Japan experience are very different, and I wonder what kinds of insights my gender might not be privy to.

In the meantime, I think that 猫被り is a good opportunity to revisit some earlier posts and make some clarifications:

• 猫を被ること would go well with the idea of 海千山千: someone who looks like a kindly, wise, Dragonheart-dragon might actually turn out to be a wicked, ravenous, Reign of Fire-dragon.
• 猫を被ること would NOT go well with 衣ばかりで和尚はできぬ, which is more often used to mean "You can't become a monk just by getting the robes," than it is to mean "Appearances can be deceiving."

例文：日刊四字というサイトはちょっと猫被りしていないのかな？女性の意見を積極的に聞き出しているようですが、それは本当かな？実はよくスケベな写真を乗せたり、ブレットが女性差別のことを書いたりしているでしょう。前回のナンパの投稿を見ましたか？怪しい！今回、女の人を参加させようとするけど、本当は女の人の「意見」には興味ないのかな？
That Daily Yoji site is a wolf in sheep's clothing, don't you think? Oh sure, they'll ask for female "input" all nice and polite, but is it for real? The truth is, they're always posting dirty pictures, and Brett's writes sexist comments... And did you see those nanpa posts? Suspect! Sure, this time they're trying to get women involved, but somehow I doubt that it's a woman's "opinion" that they're interested in.