表現 Break: あばたもえくぼ

あばたもえくぼ
abata mo ekubo

I thought it would be nice to intersperse all the Yo-ji-juku-go with some other kinds of Japanese expressions, and today seemed like a good opportunity to do so.

あばた　are pockmarks.
えくぼ　are dimples.

Even pockmarks are dimples. Why? Because love is blind!

(This can be used as a stand-alone phrase. See example dialogue below.)

例文：　
Obviously Jealous Japanese Girl: なんであのものすごくかわいい女の子はあんなにダサい彼氏がいるの？彼女が外人の男が好きでいること知っているけど、彼が最悪！もったいないわよ！
Why is that gorgeous girl with that loser? I mean, I know she goes for foreigners, but that dude is the WORST!　She could do so much better.
Less Cynical Friend: うるさいなー！それは愛のことだよ。あばたもえくぼ。
Oh, be quiet! That's love for you: blind.


His shirt says "Searching for a J-girlfriend." I hope he doesn't find this picture.

破顔一笑

はがんいっしょう
hagan isshou

In my endless Yo-ji-juku-go files, half of which I get from the lovely Ootao-san, I was starting to notice that so many of their meanings were meant to be used in negative situations: 前代未聞、for example, or one I'm saving for the future, which means a 180 degree turn-around, but only in a bad way. I mentioned this to her and she took it as a challenge. Since then, she's been supplying me with happier yo-ji-juku-go. I like today's especially because there are tons of opportunities to use it, and because of the contrast between the violent nature of the kanji, and the pleasant meaning.

One of the problems with learning these, is that I always try to learn the kanji and their meanings individually, so I can use them in other contexts, but for the yo-ji meanings, it can be confusing. Brett's first post (cut-polish-polish-polish) can attest to this. So my first attempt at translating this one, according to the meaning of the kanji was: a laugh that rips your face open.

Definition:
顔をほころばせて、にっこりと笑うこと。
Translations:
1. Smiling from ear to ear
2. A broad smile

My translation problems, as you can see, were two-fold. One is that 'laugh' and 'smile' are the same in Japanese, and you have to know the context to know precisely which one, although in some situations, it doesn't matter. The second is that the 破 character, which by itself means all sorts of violent tearing and ripping stuff, also lends itself to the concept of ほころぶ, which can mean either to rip (as in cloth or a piece of paper), or to stretch your lips open by using your face muscles. Huh.

例文 (featuring Japanese ghosts!)：　口裂け女は復讐の鬼であるので、いつも討とうとしている。だが、誰かを見つけて、殺すことができると、満足で破顔一笑する。その笑顔を見らずに住めばラッキーだと思えばいい。
The Kuchi-sake woman is continously driven by a desire for revenge, but when she finds and kills a victim, her satisfaction shows in her smile.　If you can make it through life without seeing that smiling face, you should count yourself lucky.　

Check out the Kuchi-sake info on Wikipedia for some background on who she is in Japanese Legend and Cinema, but basically, if a girl in a mask asks you if you think she's pretty, say "Yes," and stick with that answer no matter what.

Japanese Language Trivia of the Day:

竹馬の友
Chikuba no tomo　is a phrase I learned a long time ago while randomly browsing through a kanji dictionary (way back when I was still working on kanji like 竹 (chiku, take). Browsing through kanji dictionaries, incidentally, is a GREAT way to learn phrases that nobody says any more.

A 竹馬の友 is a childhood friend. I've had mild success with saying things like 竹馬の家, but more for being amusing, than for being correct in my usage.

I only recently learned the origin of the phrase, however, in a conversation with one of the women who runs the vegetable stand in my neighborhood. See, for along time, I had mistakenly imagined the ば　in ちくば、as this kanji： 場 which led me to believe that the 竹場 was a place of bamboo, which I imagined to be a tiny village, reminiscent of everyone's childhood home. Yay, ethnic stereotypes!

The real version, 竹馬, actually means bamboo horsey, and can be alternately read as たけうま, which is a game that Japanese children used to play a lot, and still play sometimes, probably as part of an organized, "Don't Forget Your Culture Day" at school. It consists of making tall stilts out of bamboo and running around on them. They might have たけうま races now, or some kind of competition, but for little kids, I'm sure the thrill of being taller and on stilts was enough for them to just frolic for hours. So, a friend with whom you engaged in bamboo horsey, and therefore, obviously a childhood friend, is your 竹馬の友。

２級 Grammar 21-25

The Daily Yoji is back and back strong with TWO POSTS IN ONE DAY.

21)　～かねる
cannot ~, ~ is difficult

I've been waiting for this grammar point for SO long - it's basically the same construction (-masu stem) as ~にくい, but it's for things that are difficult or impossible to do because of psychological barriers. Until this point I've never been able to use "見にくい", because it means "ugly" or "hard to see", as in "I forgot my glasses, so everything is hard to see!"

If you say something is 見かねる, however, it means you cannot watch something in silence, as in the example sentence below. For this one, just remember - it's like ~にくい, but when you can't do things for mental reasons.

Ex : インドの貧しさを見かねて手伝いに行く！

22) ～かねない
can
capable
possible

This one's nice in that it's clearly a negative form of the above, although I always seem to have a problem with modifications that by themselves are negative, and when THOSE are made negative, the result is positive. It sounds even more confusing when I say it like that... anyway, it's also mentioned that this is used mostly in negative situations. A good way to remember this would be my 電池辞書's definition of "I wouldn't put it past ~", as in...

Ex : 僕の隣家の人は大好きな子猫のトラインバイクを食べかねなかった...

23) ～かのようだ
seems as if
like
looks like

This is just a really basic modification of "ようだ" or "ように" or what have you. The only different as far as my book goes is that this one is stronger.

Quick refresher on usage:
Verb = dictionary form + かのようだ.
な type adjective or noun ＋　である　＋　かのようだ.
~かのように + Verb or Adjective
~かのような + Noun.

Ex : GTOかのようだ教師になるように。

24) ～から～にかけて
from ~ to ~.

This one is awesomely simple. It's VERY similar to ～から～まで, with the one catch being that it's not exact. You wouldn't use it to say "class is from 5 to 6 o`clock", or "I fly from Narita Airport to Seattle", but you could use it for "Japan is pretty hot from spring until fall", or "snow fell all the way from my home to the mountains".

Ex : 中国から日本列島にかけて黄沙がよく降っている。

25) ～からういと　　～からいえば　　～からいって
On the subject of ~
If you're talking about ~
In regards to ~

This is pretty much a fancy connector for a subject and ones judgement or evalution of that subject.

Ex : ブログの時間厳守からいうと、ザデイリー四字が完敗した。

四苦八苦

しくはっく
shiku hakku

切磋琢磨するために、I'm back in action, and bringing you a brand new Buddhist Yo-ji-juku-go that's ALL about the pain.

Your Kanji today are easy enough in the translation (four-suffering-eight-suffering), but they come with a slightly involved theology lesson, so let's jump in:

Do you know the four noble truths of Buddhism? The first one is this: LIFE = SUFFERING. I'll let you look up the rest on your own (Clay, work on memorizing the Ten Commandments first). Suffering, in early buddhism, is divided into, that's right, eight categories, half being physical and half being mental.

Physical:

• 生:　The pain of birth
• 老：　The pain of ageing
• 病：　The pain of sickness
• 死：　The pain of death

Mental:

• 愛別離苦：　The pain of separation from loved ones
• 怨憎会苦:　The pain of contact with hated ones
• 求不得苦：　The frustration of unsatisfied desires
• 五蘊盛苦: Suffering of the illnesses of Five Skandhas (form, sensation, perception, volition, and consciousness)

So, 四苦八苦 encompasses all of these 8 sufferings.
Definition:
大変な苦しみ。あらゆる苦しみ。
Translations:
1. In a world of hurt
2. In a state of physical and mental anguish
3. Being "hard put to it" (from rikai-chan, not to be confused with "having it put to you, hard")

例文(featuring 2級 grammar)：


ある日、彼女から電話があった。運転中だったけど、少し喋ってもいいと思い、電話をとった。彼女は挨拶も言わずに、「分かれよう」と言った！ショックのあまり、前を走っているパトカーにぶつかった。骨六本を折ってしまった。２ヶ月前から、入院していた上に、私の保険会社は払ってくれないそうだ！そして今日、私の元彼女とその新しい彼氏がお見舞いに来てくれた。実はその彼氏は私の弟だった！四苦八苦したよ！
So, one day, while I'm driving, I get this call from my girlfriend, right? And as soon as I pick up, without even saying "Hello," she goes: "I'm breaking up with you!" I was so surprised, I rear-ended the police car in front of me, and broke six bones. I've been in the hospital for two months, and it looks like my insurance isn't gonna cover it! On top of that, today my ex came to visit, and she brought her new boyfriend: my little brother! CURSE YOU, EIGHT SUFFERINGS (AS SET FORTH BY THE GAUTAMA BUDDHA)!!!!

hehehehehehehe.....

切磋琢磨

せっさ　たくま
sessa takuma

デーリー四字諸君、初めまして。

After bothering your stalwart kanji connoisseur for many a moon, I have finally been given the privilege to muck up this blog with some of my own posts. For a quick introduction: hi, I'm Brett. Most people reading this already know too much about me, so I'll cut if off at that. (unless Brett-based fan mail starts pouring into the Daily Yoji in-box, in which case I will begin writing introductory haiku to accompany each of my posts. And yes, they'll be in Japanese. And yes, it will be even more ridiculous than it sounds.)

Okay, getting started - 切磋琢磨（せっさたくま） is the flavor of the day, and was actually one of the first 四字熟語 I learned. It was so early, in fact, I didn't even really know what it was. This one also has the privilege of being the ONE Japanese phrase that I knew before Nirav. So, with that rich history in mind, how about an explanation?

Breaking it down into individual kanji will only scare/confuse the hell out of you. Why? Here's how it goes down. 切 = cut. 磋 = polish. 琢 = polish. 磨 = polish. 磋 and 磨 even referenced eachother as synonyms in my electronic dictionary, and all of them started their definitions with 磨く（みがく）, or "polish/brush", as one should do to their teeth every morning. So the low-down is "cut, polish, polish, polish", which is the first yoji I've seen structured like this. Now let's go to the second half of this post for the definition forecast. Second half of this post?

Thanks, first half!
Definition:
学問や道徳に努め励むこと。また、仲間同士で励まし競いあって向上すること。
Translations:
1. To zealously apply oneself in scholarly or moral pursuits.
2. To at once encourage and be encouraged by progress made by a friend or rival.

For the second part of this definition, it is VERY important to note that it does not work for someone or something you compete against in a more antagonistic vein. I asked teachers here, and you could not say that America and the USSR were 切磋琢磨ing during the Cold War to see who would get into space first, nor could you say that Asahi and Kirin are getting their 切磋琢磨 on to make the best beer. What it DOES work for, however, is a near perfect example of Jeff and I vis-à-vis Japanese... and a LOT of other things we do to boot.
例文：　僕の競争心は僕の友達にも反映されている。見知らぬ人と勝負で勝っても負けても、幸せか絶望を少しだけ感じる。でも優れた友達と鎬を削ったらすごく喜びを感じる。それで僕には切磋琢磨できる仲間がいる。
My competative nature is reflected in the friends I keep. Whether I win or lose a game against someone I don't know, I only feel a little triumph or defeat.　But if I have a fierce competition with one of my skilled friends, then I get real satisfaction out of it. Because of that, friends who enjoy the mutual thrill and drive of competition are a must.

Which is why Jeff needs to get better at Smash Brothers, STAT.

日進月歩

にっしん　げっぽ
nisshin geppo

I've been dealing with the frustrations of trying to figure out WHY certain things don't sound correct in Japanese, or when to use a certain construction over another that means the exact same thing with a slightly different nuance (as is evidenced by the 2kyuu grammar sections below), and recently the inquiries I've made of Japanese people have revealed that many of them don't really know the answers. Just like I can't precisely explain why I use "which" instead of "that" sometimes, they use their language without thinking about why they do it. And a lot of the grammar and constructions I'm learning for 2kyuu are old enough to be rendered unimportant in terms of modern, daily-use speech patterns. Aggravating as all of this can be, it does yield some interesting conversations, and the first opportunity for me to use the above Yo-ji.

The Kanji are familiar ones, right? Day, Move Forward, Month, Walk? The first time I heard it, I managed to leave with the impression that it meant "Step by step," which could not be farther from the truth.

Definition:
日ごと月ごとに進歩する。
Translations:
1: Progress by leaps and bounds
2: Rapid advances.
3. (description of) A world in which something changes, something is different every day, in a forward moving way.



例文： 言葉は本当に生き物だ。僕が日本語を習った時、「ぜんぜん」と「大丈夫」を一緒に使っては絶対いけませんだった。だが、今、皆が「ぜんぜん大丈夫」と言うよね？それは日本語という言葉の日進月歩かな？
Languages are living things. When I learned Japanese, it was absolutely forbidden to use "zenzen" in conjunction with a word like "daijoubu." But nowadays, everybody says it!　I guess that's the alleged progress of this language that we call "Nihongo."

The video above is an appropriate one: 35 years of Shinjuku!