Daily Double: 自画自賛 and 一心同体

Brett and I are gonna try and be extra nice to you guys this week because, to be honest, we've been kind of phoning them in lately. 言い訳をしますが, I've got all these boxes to pack, all these people to say goodbye to and, well... Brett is STILL in America.

But you'll be happy to know that studying pays off. Today I've got two new conversation friendly yoji for you. No insane levels of obscurity today. While we usually present yoji together if they have some meaning or characters in common, today I'm giving you two that I learned simultaneously.

The first is something I am actively involved with, and the second... well, let's take a look.

自画自賛
じが　じさん
jiga jisan

Definition:
自分のことをほめること。自慢すること。
Translations:
1. Self-satisfaction.
2. Singing one's own praises/ tooting one's own horn.
3. Self admiration.




一心同体
いっしん　どうたい
isshin doutai

Definition:
二人以上の人間の心が一致し、同じ体、すなわち一人の人間であるような強い結びつきをすること。
Translations:
1. Two hearts beating as one.
2. Working/Being together as though inhabiting one body
3. United, body and soul.

The kanji for 一心同体 are basic enough, (one heart, same body) but it marks a milestone for me. Remember how excited I got the first time I was able to guess the meaning of a yoji just by looking at it?

This time, when I heard this one for the first time, I was able to identify it as a yoji (yoji that begin with 一心 or 一身 are common), understand the meaning, and correctly guess all the kanji. All by myself! And that was how I learned 自画自賛... by bragging about it too much.

You can use 一心同体, as you might expect, in relation to love, but it's also applied in other senses as well. You can see how the idea of 一心同体 might resound powerfully in the Japanese consciousness. Try using it in some of the same contexts that you would use 一致団結.

自画自賛, on the other hand, goes well with 調子乗っている.

例文：去年、わが野球部は全員一心同体となってがんばったため、甲子園で優勝しました。しかし、今年は自画自賛ばかりしているので、彼らしか今年も勝つと":思っていないみたいです。
Last year our baseball team, working together as one, did their best and won Koshien. But this year, they're spending all their time singing their own praises; it looks like they're the only ones who think they're gonna repeat.

器用貧乏

きようびんぼう
kiyou binbou

This is one of the first Yo-ji-juku-go I ever learned, due to the fact that the individual 二字　compounds that it's made of are words that I heard a lot. 貧乏 (binbou) means 'poor; impoverished' and was mentioned again and again in conjunction with the bullying epidemic that was a huge conversational hub when I first got to Japan. Being called 貧乏 by your peers was one of the methods of psychological terrorism that was thought to have elevated the teen suicide rate.

器用(kiyou) is something that a lot of people called me in the early months. It can mean 'skillful' but is better thought of as 'deft' because it's almost always used to say "You're good with your hands."

Flashback conversation, late 2006:

Brett: What does 'kiyou' mean?
Me: It means like, 'skilled fingers.'
Brett: Oh. Do you know that because of your card tricks?
Me: Uh. Yeeeeeeah, that's why.
Brett: I [expletive] hate you so much.

All joking aside though, I used to show off some of my playing card flair and magic tricks at work enkais, and yes Brett, that is how I learned the word.

So when I heard the two together, "Poor person with good hands," I was like, "What's that?"

Definition:
器用であるがために、他人に利用されたり、かえってひとつのことに集中できずに損ばかりしていること。
Translation:
1. Jack of all trades, master of none.

Please note that the definition stresses more of a disadvantage (the being poor aspect, I suppose) in being this kind of person. While we think of "Jack of all trades," as a positive thing, the addition of "master of none," implies an absence of progress, and suggests that maybe this kind of person often finds him or herself mastered by another (used/employed by others, as one would a tool.)

It's been handy for me to know this one, as my last post will attest. I have a ton of interests and hobbies that I have devoted a moderate amount of time to, including my card-sharpery. When I first came to Japan, people asked me things like "Do you play pool," "Do you surf," "Do you play badminton," or "Do you rock climb?" And I said "Yes," because that's the truth. That answer got me in trouble though, because if someone asks you "Do you surf?" it's not because they think surfing is cool, surf sometimes on weekends, and think it would be fun to go together one day. If someone asks you if YOU surf, be careful, because odds are good that SURFING is that person's LIFE.

That's a big difference between Japanese and American cultures for me, and also the source of a bonus word today: 極める (kiwameru). 　極める　means "to master" something, to take something as far as you can possibly take it.* Many times, it's the way that Japanese people approach their hobbies. Whereas in America, it's not un-common for somebody to be an "outdoors person," or a "water sports person," or a "things requiring the use of a racquet person," in Japan, I think it's more common for someone to choose one very specific avenue of interest and pursue that avenue to perfection.

So when I found myself in situations where I was being ruthlessly schooled in 9-ball, and my new Japanese friend was saying "Oh, I thought you said you played pool," 器用貧乏 was a good one to know.




例文：　俺のお兄ちゃんは今年、車の工場で仕事やっている。去年は家具の配達だった。でも、いつも,
上がる前に首になってしまう。ずっと器用貧乏な人間でいている。
My older brother is working at an automotive factory this year. Last year he was doing furniture delivery. But he usually gets canned before he can move up in the place. He can do pretty much anything, but he's always just been kind of a disposable grunt.



*極める is also a good word to know, because it's one of those words that Japanese people don't expect you to know unless you're really good at Japanese, so it scores you えらい points.