四角四面

しかく　しめん
shikaku shimen

Back this week, with what we hope will be a full week of posts. What with Golden Week coming up, we're gonna try to get our study licks in now, before the beach and the road start calling. So, at least for the yo-jis, lets try to go with numbers this week.

The kanji here are easy enough. 四角 is the Japanese word for a rectangle. I'm not clear on the exact definitions, but it means "four angles." 正方形　（せいほうけい; seihoukei) is the term for something that is geometrically perfectly square, and 長方形 (ちょうほうけい;
chouhoukei) is the one for a rectangle. The way I figure it, they're both 四角.

四面, which shows up in THIS other famous 四字熟語, means "four sides," which, in many cases, is ALL sides.

For today's purposes, something with four sides and four angles is, well...

Definition:
きわめてまじめなことのたとえ。まじめすぎて融通がきかないこと。
Translations:
1. Square.
2. Overly formal.
3. Serious/Dilligent/Straight-laced to the point of being inflexible.

The wording of the definition is worth noting: 融通がきかない: inflexible. I've been stuck for too long with 気楽 to mean "easy-going" when often I've wanted to say 融通が利く, to be flexible.

Today's post reminds me of 杓子定規.

例文：あまりに四角四面な考え方でいると、周囲の意見と必ず衝突するよ。
If your way of thinking is too rigid, you're guaranteed to come into conflict with the opinions of those around you.

杓子定規

しゃくし　じょうぎ
shakushi jyougi

A guy I know once told that me that he felt that "culture shock" was a misnomer. "Cultural abrasion" was more of an apt phrase, he said, because culture shock doesn't come in sudden "Oh-my-god-look-at-how-weird-that-is!" bursts, but rather in small "I-can't-believe-this-office-meeting-is-STILL-going-on-and-all-we're-talking-about-is-bicycle-safety" doses. Little differences wear on you, until one day you're just tired of things and that's when you get "culture shock."

Since Japanese people are often interested in my opinion about the differences between American and Japanese culture, it's good to be able to express these sentiments and relay cultural shock experiences in Japanese. However, unless you're talking to your close friends, be careful with what you say. It's easy to offend someone when comparing countries and cultures. Japanese style toilets and raw meat are safe topics. Education and politics might not be.

That being said, today's yoji relates to one of the biggest differences between my existence in Japan and my existence in America, and one of the most frequent sources of culture shock for me. Allow me to relate a small anecdote:

I went to McDonald's in Saga City, to pick up some food for myself and a friend. We both wanted chicken nuggets. I tend to find that, with the the notable exception of mayonnaise, Japanese people use condiments in much smaller portions than I'm used to (I never get enough ketchup with my fries, anywhere!). So when I order chicken nuggets, I ask for two packs of barbecue sauce. On this occasion however, since I had ordered two packs of nuggets, I asked for barbecue sauce 四個. It was then that I was informed that there were strict rules, that had been set about the amount of barbecue sauce that could be legally distributed:

1 box of nuggets = up to 2 packs of barbecue sauce
2 boxes of nuggets = up to 3 packs of barbecue sauce
3 boxes of nuggets = up to 4 packs... and so on

Well, I suggested... maybe they could just give me an extra one?
No dice.
Well, then, I said, I'll buy one.
I'm sorry, they said, they can't SELL barbecue sauce.
They can't let me have one, and they won't let me buy one?
That's right.
Why?
That's just the rules.

So I told them I just wanted one box of nuggets with two packs of barbecue sauce, bought my meal, returned to the back of the line, waited, and bought another set: 1 box of nuggets, two packs of sauce. That was cool with them. Fricking. Ridiculous.

Definition:
すべてに一つの基準や感覚を当てはめて判断・処理しようとする応用や融通の利かないやり方、態度。
Translations:
1. An inflexible system of rules
2. Stickler for rules
3. Having one pre-decided method, for dealing with all situations/things
4. Hard-and-fast rules
5. Bureaucratic decision making

When you come across a situation in which someone tells you what you can or can't do, but can't explain why, 杓子定規 is a good yoji to know. When you're feeling stressed out about dealing with hierarchies at work when all you want to do is ask the boss directly if you can make a minor change, upset about being treated as though you were the universal prototype foreigner, or are frustrated enough to want to communicate the seeming senselessness of your situation, 杓子定規's your phrase.

Use it as though it were a な type adjective, and attach it to nouns like "態度," "考え," or "処遇."

例文：日本のマックは｢お客様は神様」と言うのは聞いたことがないみたい。なぜそんなに杓子定規なのか？
Japanese McDonald's seems to have never heard the expression "The customer is always right." Why are they so rigid in their arbitrary rules?

孤軍奮闘

こぐんふんとう
kogun funtou

We've been going back to Brett's 四面楚歌 post a lot, so I figured, while it was still fresh, we could add this Yo-ji to the mix. The two are used in conjunction so often, that they reference each other in my dictionary.

I was confused by today's entry when I first heard it, because it was explained to me as 「一人で頑張っていること: Doing your best, by yourself.」 I figured "That can't be a bad thing, right?" Chalk up another mistake to the hazards of Japanese contextuality.

Definition:
味方との連絡も他の助けもなく、孤立して必死で努力すること。
Translations:
1. A lonely, difficult struggle
2. Fighting alone
3. Up shit creek without a paddle (This might be a stretch but it captures the desperate situation and the absence of all help)


Explanation of today's picture: This was last year's Puerto Rican team at Nanayama's Annual Waterfall Climb, an event that requires lots and lots of help from your community . Jose looks like he's got a long, lonely battle ahead of him.

孤軍奮闘 differs from 四面楚歌 in that it doesn't require that you be under attack from any specific enemies. You don't have to be in hostile waters, you just have to be in trouble, with no one to help you out.

I also wanted to post it because, I feel like I'm in a situation now where I might be able to use it appropriately.

See, my water heater broke. That means no hot showers and no hot water in the sink, and while I can put up with that for a few days, I really don't want to live like that. The water heater was 20 years old, incidentally, so it's not like it broke because of gross misuse or anything. It just broke. In America, if something like this happens, it's usually the landlord's responsibility to take care of, right? But when I contacted my landlord and the propane company, they consulted the Board of Education (who leases my apartment), and came back to me with this:

"The Board of Ed says that you only have four months left on your contract, after which they will no longer be leasing the apartment. Therefore, they do not feel that it is worthwhile to pay to have the water heater replaced."

Today we had a meeting of all the major players, and while I sat and listened, the landlord, whose concern is that the apartment remains in good condition so he can find a new tenant, and the BOE, whose concern is not paying any more money than they absolutely have to, agreed that the best course of action was to buy a new cover for the water heater so that it looks new, and new tenants will not be wary of it.

As they were finalizing things in their conversations, I had to remind them that I still did not want to spend the next four months without hot water. They said "Oh, well, we can also talk to the propane company about repairing the inside (as opposed to replacing it, which the propane company maintains is the only solution). We'll call you tomorrow."

So while neither the BOE or my landlord is my enemy, they definitely don't seem to be on my side, and they're certainly not trying to help me out. IF it gets fixed, it will get fixed because I persist in complaining, and demanding that they fix it. I'm even prepared to do and say desperate things to show them the error of their ways. If they don't have to take care of me because I'm only here for four more months, then I guess it's okay if I don't honor my end of the contract either. I could protest by coming to school all summer without showering, or telling teachers that I'm too busy to come to lessons when they ask me.

I would not describe taking such actions by saying　「一人で頑張っています.」 I would say「孤軍奮闘している.」

Today's example sentence was inspired by a google image search for 孤軍奮闘： Since it's one of my favorite movie franchises, I knew I had to use it.

例文：次の問題は映画のトリビアですが、ＣＩＡやロシアン・マフィアを相手に回して孤軍奮闘している超人的な元スパイはだれでしょうか？わからなかったら、大丈夫よ。彼もわからないから。
The next question is Movie Trivia: Name the desperate super-spy who fights a lone war against the likes of enemies such as the CIA and the Russian Mafia. If you don't know who he is, that's okay. He doesn't know either.