七転八起 － しちてんはっき
shichiten hakki
七転八倒 － しちてんばっとう
shichiten battou
Daily Double! Recently I've been (trying to) learn break-dancing, and while I can't claim to have found these while researching ways to not destroy myself as effeciently as I've managed to so far, they are pretty appropriate for that particular topic. Both of them start with "七転", which is easy enough to translate as 7 turns, or - as may be more appropriate to the phrases - the base kanji of "転ぶ", or "ころぶ", to fall. So 7 falls, and 8... 起 means to raise or get up, and 倒 is to fall or break down. I think you can see where this is going...
七転八起's Definition:
七回転んでも八度起きる事、すなわち何度失敗しても挫けずにまた立ち上がり努力を続ける意味。
Translations:
1. Getting back on the horse
2. Never giving up.
3. "The vicissitudes of life"
七転八倒's Definition:
転んでは起き、起きては転ぶという意味で、苦痛のあまり転げ回って悶え苦しむこと。また、混乱が甚だしいこと。
Translations:
1. Writhing in agony.
2. Unbearable suffering.
3. Utter chaos.
This is actually a fun one in that a lot of Japanese people will not correctly read or even translate 七転八倒. One journal I found reminisced about an interview where applicants were asked to read 七転八倒 and then give a definition. Many read it as "nana korobi ya oki", which is actually a variation of the OTHER yoji, "七転び八起き". When asked for the definition, they then gave the definition for 七転八起. Less than 10% of the interviewees got both the reading and the definition correct.
例文：ブレーキングと言うダンス風はマジ適切に命名された。練習で失敗ばっかりすると七転八倒する。でも、いつも文句言わないでもうすぐ立ち上がられるから、七転八起で少しずつ進んでいると言った方が良いじゃない。。。
"Breaking" is an aptly named style of dance. At practice I seem to do nothing but screw up and roll around in pain. But I guess since I never complain and I'm always back on my feet pretty quickly, it'd be better to say I'm getting right back on that horse and progressing bit by bit.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Monday, April 21, 2008
Speaking Japanese as a Non-Native
Jeff's entry the other day about the difficulties in speaking Japanese as a non-native touched on a lot of issues that, I think, most people eventually hit in their studies of Japanese, probably more than any other language. Why? Regardless of whether you agree with them or not, it seems the vast majority of people raised in Japan believe that there is something biological about the cultural aspect of Japanese language that renders it incomprehensible to non-natives.
Personally, I don't want to get into a long discussion about culture and cultural differences (which I think are vastly overplayed, although certainly not something you can easily discount). What I do want to go into is why I think it's a travesty that so many people fall into, and at times end up perpetuating, the myth that the cultural differences facing us NN's (non-natives) are insurmountable.
Plus I like to 1) show off how much I know and 2) use the fact that it was my birthday to force Jeff into letting me write a guest post.
Let's start by considering the example sentence that Jeff gave us, which a Japanese person informed him was "grammatically correct, but not what a Japanese person would say." I don't know exactly what the person said in Japanese, but I imagine something along the lines of "文法は間違っていないけど日本人はそんなことを言わない。" (or, since he lives in Saga, 文法のおうとっとばってんが、日本人そぎゃんこついわんたい！)
Actually, regardless of how much Japanese girls may go crazy over it, Jeff's bunpo was incorrect here. Since we're all nerds to some extent here, I'm going to pull those proof-reading terms from 7th grade (your grade-age may vary). This is what we would call, in English, a diction error. The specific Japanese term for diction is 語彙 goi. Considering how people almost never consider a diction error the same thing as a grammar error in Japanese, I almost said that the two are completely discrete concepts in our 2nd (or 3rd or 4th) language of choice; on second thought, thinking of the unenviable grammatical skill of the average native speaker of any language lacking other linguistic qualifications, I'm going to withhold judgment. Nevertheless, Jeff's example sentence was not in the truest sense correct, and this is another example of native speakers not always knowing their language as well as one might assume. Confusion between sentences with correct grammar that simply aren't said in Japanese and those whose grammar, or specifically their diction, are incorrect is far too common, and its much easier to write all of this confusion off as "文化の違い" than to really think about it. (Just like the landlord who is afraid of his tenants cooking with oil, or the gaijin who claims "I used perfect Japanese and the guy pretended not to understand me!") That's because this excuse allows you to not really think about why a given sentence is incorrect (just like the landlord might realize, after a little thought, that Japan is, after all, the land of foods like katsu, kara-age, and tenpura, and like the gaijin might realize that, well, he talks like a gaijin and no one can understand wtf he's saying).
Fine, you say, but that's just one example sentence. We've all had multiple experiences with the "Nihonjin ha sonna koto iwanai," and I don't mean to discount them all, just most of them, which are purely questions of diction.
Whats a legitimate "sonna koto iwanai?" Let's consider Jeff's other example about (and I can just see this happening) someone who's prejudiced and poorly thought out comments are reflective of their lack of brains. I think this is the perfect example for me to explain how I feel on the subject.
There is nothing about this sentence that renders it unspeakable in all cases in Japanese society. There are just two ways to arrive at it.
The first is the direct route. My translation of Jeff's sentence (with some allowances for 流れ): あなたの言ってることは間違ってると思う。あなたのその間違った考え方は、あなた自身の愚かさか、故意的な無知さを示している。
Do most people say this exact thing, in these exact words? No, certainly not. There is the obvious problem of having to change politeness levels and certain usages depending on your age and social station. More importantly, you can be pretty sure that whoever you say this to won't be happy about it, so you'd have to be quite prepared to 縁を切る(en wo kiru) with, or rather 縁を切られる (en wo kirareru) by this person, but isn't that true of saying the same thing in English? Aren't you actually better off in Japan, because, let's face it, you're more likely to get punched in the balls for your rudeness in the US than you are in Japan (my apologies to any non-US English speakers who may be reading this, but your ways are far more difficult for me to comprehend than those of Japanese people. I mean seriously, guys, 'flavour'? Would you like some balswet with your Francified spelling?)
Now consider the second way to the same meaning. This involves changing the words, obviously, to the point where you can't directly reverse translate to get the same English anymore. I don't have a problem with this and don't see why this necessarily has to mean that we are talking about a completely different sentence. Yes, you have to make an allowance for the more 縦 tate nature of Japanese society (and this is where I will make a concession when it comes to "bunka no chigai"), but a Japanese literate listener who allows that you have a certain amount of literacy will understand your meaning, and the disdain behind it.
Aye, there's the rub. As a foreign speaker of Japanese, you're going to have a hard time being ascribed fluency in Japanese. The same person who asks me to teach their children kanji will turn around and wonder at the fact that I can read the characters for 'ichi,' 'ni,' and 'san.' But kanji, and Japanese in total, are by no means easy, and certainly not as easy our bravado sometimes may make them out to be. So I don't doubt the intentions of the Japanese person who assumes that I can't speak Japanese (yes, I'm only human, and in real life I get as angry or more so when brushed off for my gaijin-ness). I do, though, think that the illiteracy assigned to us as foreign-born speakers is the biggest bunka no chigai that keeps our Japanese from being as effective if not as correct as we may want it to be.
But how many of us really have that language literacy on a consistent level? I'd wager not that many. So let's not get ahead of ourselves, because we all still make "diction" mistakes, sometimes even at Saga Jinja.
PS Jeff, since I've given you so much crap on this post, here's a gift. 勃起気味. It works.
Jinja jinja~, jinja jinja jinja~
因果応報
いんがおうほう
inga ouhou
Today's Yo-ji post was something I came across by accident. I went to GEO GEO to look for the movie The Crow, starring the late Brandon Lee*. They didn't have the movie but, strangely enough, they had the soundtrack, which they offered me instead. I didn't want it but I felt like it would be rude not to at least look at it and when I did, one of the tracks jumped out at me because it was (are you ready for this?) a Yo-ji-juku-go. And it's an apt selection, because 因果応報 is what The Crow is all about.
*I started wanting to watch the movie, because I've been thinking a lot about crows.^
^I've been thinking a lot about crows because Brett got attacked by crows twice last week.
Definition:
良い行いをした人には良い報い、悪い行いをした人には悪い報いがある。つまり、やった行いに対しての報いが返ってくること。
Translations:
1. What goes around, comes around
2. You reap what you sow.
3. Karma
4. Retribution
5. Karmic retribution
6. Retributional karma.
My net research, ever fruitful, reveals that 因果応報 can be used in both positive and negative connotations, and that when you use it, you can use it with で. There is another yo-ji-juku-go, that means specifically "Sow Evil, Reap Evil." I think I'll hang onto that for a future post though.
例文： ピーター・パーカは本当の力を持ていても、奪おうとしている犯人を逃がしてやった。因果応報で自分のおじさんがその犯人に殺された。その後悔はクモに噛まれたことより、スパイダ・マンと言うヒーローの由来だよ。
Peter Parker had real power, and yet he let the robber go free. It was an act of karma that his own Uncle was then killed by that same criminal. That one regret, more than being bitten by a spider can be considered the origin of the hero called Spiderman.
Question of the day: If 因果応報 was a projectile weapon, what would it be?
Boomerang! You really DO always come back!
inga ouhou
Today's Yo-ji post was something I came across by accident. I went to GEO GEO to look for the movie The Crow, starring the late Brandon Lee*. They didn't have the movie but, strangely enough, they had the soundtrack, which they offered me instead. I didn't want it but I felt like it would be rude not to at least look at it and when I did, one of the tracks jumped out at me because it was (are you ready for this?) a Yo-ji-juku-go. And it's an apt selection, because 因果応報 is what The Crow is all about.
*I started wanting to watch the movie, because I've been thinking a lot about crows.^
^I've been thinking a lot about crows because Brett got attacked by crows twice last week.
Definition:
良い行いをした人には良い報い、悪い行いをした人には悪い報いがある。つまり、やった行いに対しての報いが返ってくること。
Translations:
1. What goes around, comes around
2. You reap what you sow.
3. Karma
4. Retribution
5. Karmic retribution
6. Retributional karma.
My net research, ever fruitful, reveals that 因果応報 can be used in both positive and negative connotations, and that when you use it, you can use it with で. There is another yo-ji-juku-go, that means specifically "Sow Evil, Reap Evil." I think I'll hang onto that for a future post though.
例文： ピーター・パーカは本当の力を持ていても、奪おうとしている犯人を逃がしてやった。因果応報で自分のおじさんがその犯人に殺された。その後悔はクモに噛まれたことより、スパイダ・マンと言うヒーローの由来だよ。
Peter Parker had real power, and yet he let the robber go free. It was an act of karma that his own Uncle was then killed by that same criminal. That one regret, more than being bitten by a spider can be considered the origin of the hero called Spiderman.
Question of the day: If 因果応報 was a projectile weapon, what would it be?
Boomerang! You really DO always come back!2nd Question of the Day: Is there a way I could have possibly been a BIGGER dork in this post?
Friday, April 18, 2008
美辞麗句
びじれいく
bi ji rei ku
I was having a discussion with some friends the other day about how reactions to things seem bigger in Japan, at least in a verbal sense. Remember what I was saying in Wednesday's post about the way different cultures use language differently?
Since I've come to Japan, I've adopted the habit of declaring a meal (most any meal) to be おいしい in excited tones, more than twice. My Japanese acquaintances will do the same thing more than five or six times. I don't ever say "ええー!" when I hear something interesting, or something that I didn't know, but it no longer strikes me as strange when other people use it to reply to everything I say. Nor does it strike me as uncommon that Japanese people love to compliment each other on all manner of things: how good you are at singing, at handwriting, at cooking, at driving, at all kinds of things. If you were to tell me how great I was at handwriting in America, it would strike me as odd. If you were to tell me about it more than once, it would strike me as patronizing. Apparently, even though the cultures have different thresholds to determine precisely when compliments begin to make us feel uncomfortable (or suspicious), there is a level where, even to native-speakers, compliments began to become patronizing.
Definition:
大げさに美しい飾り立てた言葉、文句、たんご。一般的には、上べだけを飾った誠意のない言葉の意味。
Translations:
1. Flowery prose
2. Verbose and insincere flattery
My second translation doesn't appear with a Rikai Chan Analysis, but you'll note that the Japanese definition says that this Yo-ji is used to refer to the kinds of words that, if you heard them used in everyday speech, they would strike you as insincere. Most of the instances of actual usages that I've found involved telling someone to stop it with the over-the-top compliments.
Usage note: You don't 言う 美辞麗句, you 並べる them. Connect the two with を instead of と.
例文： 姑さん： わー！このカレーはうまいよ。本当に本当にうまい！おいしいーーー！あたしの人生で、初めてこんなにおいしいカレーを食べた。これからは、他の人が作ったカレーを食べないつもりです。で、わたしも作ることをやめるよ。なぜならば、あなたが作ったカレーではないから、ぜったいがっかりするよ。うーーーーーまい！
Mother in law: Wow! This curry is fantastic! It's really, REALLY, good. It's so delicious. This is the best curry that I've ever eaten in my ENTIRE LIFE. I will never eat another person's curry again. And I'll quit making my own. Putting someone else's curry in my mouth, after this, it could only be a disappointment. It's THAT good.
嫁さん： ええと、それほどでもないんですが。。
New Bride: Oh, thanks but, it's nothing special really...
田中さん：お母さん！美辞麗句を並べないように！もう、止めてくれ！
Tanaka san: Mom! Knock it off with the bogus flattery. Give it a rest already!
Note: Please check the comments for an alternative (better) way to use 美辞麗句。 Thanks Mizuki!
bi ji rei ku
I was having a discussion with some friends the other day about how reactions to things seem bigger in Japan, at least in a verbal sense. Remember what I was saying in Wednesday's post about the way different cultures use language differently?
Since I've come to Japan, I've adopted the habit of declaring a meal (most any meal) to be おいしい in excited tones, more than twice. My Japanese acquaintances will do the same thing more than five or six times. I don't ever say "ええー!" when I hear something interesting, or something that I didn't know, but it no longer strikes me as strange when other people use it to reply to everything I say. Nor does it strike me as uncommon that Japanese people love to compliment each other on all manner of things: how good you are at singing, at handwriting, at cooking, at driving, at all kinds of things. If you were to tell me how great I was at handwriting in America, it would strike me as odd. If you were to tell me about it more than once, it would strike me as patronizing. Apparently, even though the cultures have different thresholds to determine precisely when compliments begin to make us feel uncomfortable (or suspicious), there is a level where, even to native-speakers, compliments began to become patronizing.
Definition:
大げさに美しい飾り立てた言葉、文句、たんご。一般的には、上べだけを飾った誠意のない言葉の意味。
Translations:
1. Flowery prose
2. Verbose and insincere flattery
My second translation doesn't appear with a Rikai Chan Analysis, but you'll note that the Japanese definition says that this Yo-ji is used to refer to the kinds of words that, if you heard them used in everyday speech, they would strike you as insincere. Most of the instances of actual usages that I've found involved telling someone to stop it with the over-the-top compliments.
Usage note: You don't 言う 美辞麗句, you 並べる them. Connect the two with を instead of と.
例文： 姑さん： わー！このカレーはうまいよ。本当に本当にうまい！おいしいーーー！あたしの人生で、初めてこんなにおいしいカレーを食べた。これからは、他の人が作ったカレーを食べないつもりです。で、わたしも作ることをやめるよ。なぜならば、あなたが作ったカレーではないから、ぜったいがっかりするよ。うーーーーーまい！
Mother in law: Wow! This curry is fantastic! It's really, REALLY, good. It's so delicious. This is the best curry that I've ever eaten in my ENTIRE LIFE. I will never eat another person's curry again. And I'll quit making my own. Putting someone else's curry in my mouth, after this, it could only be a disappointment. It's THAT good.
嫁さん： ええと、それほどでもないんですが。。
New Bride: Oh, thanks but, it's nothing special really...
田中さん：お母さん！美辞麗句を並べないように！もう、止めてくれ！
Tanaka san: Mom! Knock it off with the bogus flattery. Give it a rest already!
Note: Please check the comments for an alternative (better) way to use 美辞麗句。 Thanks Mizuki!
表現 Break: 犬猿の仲
けんえんのなか
ken en no naka
This interesting little expression provides a window into another subtle difference in Japanese and American culture. Literally, "dog-monkey relationship" is used in the same way we would use "like cats and dogs." Not as in "It's raining cats and dogs,"" but as in (*Alma-mater shout out warning*) "The Florida Gators and the Florida State Seminoles get along like cats and dogs. Employable, attractive, cats who scored well on their SATs and dogs."
What, in Japanese history or culture has created this idea of a strong animosity between dogs and monkeys? I don't know. A search of Japanese websites offers a number of possibilities, but as some of them seem contradictory to me, I don't know what to think:
例文：一人で二ラブの誕生日パーティに行きたくないけど、彼女とニラブは犬猿の仲だ。
I don't really want to go to his birthday party by myself, but then, Nirav and my girlfriend can't STAND each other.
ken en no naka
This interesting little expression provides a window into another subtle difference in Japanese and American culture. Literally, "dog-monkey relationship" is used in the same way we would use "like cats and dogs." Not as in "It's raining cats and dogs,"" but as in (*Alma-mater shout out warning*) "The Florida Gators and the Florida State Seminoles get along like cats and dogs. Employable, attractive, cats who scored well on their SATs and dogs."
What, in Japanese history or culture has created this idea of a strong animosity between dogs and monkeys? I don't know. A search of Japanese websites offers a number of possibilities, but as some of them seem contradictory to me, I don't know what to think:
- Dogs and monkeys are not animals that traditionally meet, so the phrase involves the hostility of parties that are unfamiliar to each other. Because of this, the selection of "dogs" and "monkeys" is arbitrary. Any two unrelated animals would work fine.
- Dogs and monkeys are both pack animals, and both territorial, so clashes between them are easy to imagine.
- Man often domesticates dogs and uses them as hunting animals. Monkeys are not used to being smelled and tracked, so dogs strike them as a villian possessed of preternatural abilities.
In the same way, dogs are used to seeing things at dogs eye-level, and are not used to encountering creatures that can climb to high distances and defend themselves by throwing things. They are each others 苦手。
- Another expression that plays on the same idea of contention and animosity between dogs and monkeys: 嫁と姑、犬とサル (yome to shuutome, inu to saru), "Bride is to Mother-in-law, as dog is to monkey (or vice-versa)."
- A manga from the 1930s called Norakuro, drawn by one Suihou Tagawa, about a misfit dog who joins the fierce dog army, and like some sort of Showa-Scooby Doo, succeeds despite his absurd mistakes. The series is most notable because it became a political allegory, when the lovable, brave, honorable Japanese Dog Army defeats the cowardly Chinese pig army, and becomes the herders of the Manchurian sheep-people. Back before the comic become propaganda, though, guess what animal played the role of the Dog Army's nemesis?
- Lots of Chinese Zodiac advice (Japan uses the Chinese Zodiac as well), warning dogs to watch out for monkeys and monkeys to watch out for dogs. Their often conflicting personality traits(D: moralistic; judgmental; lazy; unpretentious; cold; strong sense of justice and fair play M: morally flexible; open-minded; problem-solver; egotistical; sociable; cunning improviser), make them incompatible. More over, if it's the monkey's year, the dog's gonna have a rough one. The opposite holds as well.
例文：一人で二ラブの誕生日パーティに行きたくないけど、彼女とニラブは犬猿の仲だ。
I don't really want to go to his birthday party by myself, but then, Nirav and my girlfriend can't STAND each other.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
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.
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.
表現 Break: 鎬を削る
しのぎをけずる
shinogi wo kezuru
I have to credit this phrase to the same guy who taught me 四面楚歌, as he was a treasure trove of battle-related expressions. The understanding of this expressions relies on some understanding of katana anatomy, so we'll get that out of the way first.
鎬（しのぎ） in this phrase refers to the most prominent part of the blade, the part tucked
between the actual cutting edge and the rear of the blade. The shinogi can either be close to the back of the blade, thus making the cutting edge longer and sharper but more fragile, or closer to the edge of the blade, making for a sturdier build with an arguably duller cut. Now that you are learned about the placement of the shinogi, and also that it is separated from the edge by a sharped portion of steel, we can get to the definition.
Definition:
互いの刀の鎬を削り合うような激しい斬り合いをすること。激しく争うこと。
Translations:
1. A swordfight so epic that the combatants are chipping away parts of each other's swords.
2. A fierce competition.
So the expression breaks down to "chipping your shinogi", or "shaving away parts of the edge of your sword". It's important to note the implication that the two opponents are evenly matched. If one side slaughters the other, it can't be said that they 鎬を削る, since breaking off pieces of your sword on somebody's skull doesn't constitute the same challenge. Unless you're fighting Wolverine. Or the terminator.
例文：ウルヴァリン対ターミネーターか。。。その対戦を見たいぞ！その二人が絶対鎬を削る！
Wolverine versus Terminator... Now THERE'S a battle I wanna see! Those two would definitely have some epic clashes!
shinogi wo kezuru
I have to credit this phrase to the same guy who taught me 四面楚歌, as he was a treasure trove of battle-related expressions. The understanding of this expressions relies on some understanding of katana anatomy, so we'll get that out of the way first.
鎬（しのぎ） in this phrase refers to the most prominent part of the blade, the part tucked
between the actual cutting edge and the rear of the blade. The shinogi can either be close to the back of the blade, thus making the cutting edge longer and sharper but more fragile, or closer to the edge of the blade, making for a sturdier build with an arguably duller cut. Now that you are learned about the placement of the shinogi, and also that it is separated from the edge by a sharped portion of steel, we can get to the definition.Definition:
互いの刀の鎬を削り合うような激しい斬り合いをすること。激しく争うこと。
Translations:
1. A swordfight so epic that the combatants are chipping away parts of each other's swords.
2. A fierce competition.
So the expression breaks down to "chipping your shinogi", or "shaving away parts of the edge of your sword". It's important to note the implication that the two opponents are evenly matched. If one side slaughters the other, it can't be said that they 鎬を削る, since breaking off pieces of your sword on somebody's skull doesn't constitute the same challenge. Unless you're fighting Wolverine. Or the terminator.
例文：ウルヴァリン対ターミネーターか。。。その対戦を見たいぞ！その二人が絶対鎬を削る！
Wolverine versus Terminator... Now THERE'S a battle I wanna see! Those two would definitely have some epic clashes!
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