以心伝心

いしんでんしん
ishin denshin

I was reminded of this one again recently by an eikaiwa student I inherited from Jeff, and kind of just nodded along when it was explained since I've heard it used to many times before. I believe I've heard it before as an explanation for how Japanese people sometimes seem to be able to communicate so much to oneanother when so little is said, and thus why it can be difficult for an outsider to gain complete understanding. Being here for just 2 years has mostly refuted that idea in my mind, though I would say the phrase is still an apt for couples, close friends, and...well...the list goes on.

Definition:
仏教用語で、言葉や文字で表現することが難しい仏法の真髄を師から弟子の心に伝えること。主に禅宗で用いる。転じて、言葉や文字を使わなくても、お互いの意志が通じること。
Translation:
1. Telepathy.
2. Communicating tacitly.
3. Understanding what somebody is thinking without prompting or words.

There are probably a hundred more ways for me to define this expression, but they're all tantamount to the same thing. It applies splendidly to all the moments where, without any prompting, you wonder aloud, "what was that one thing..." or "who was that one guy...", and your friend immediately gives the answer. CREEPY STUFF.

Ex.　一番グループは絶対以心伝心と言える親友だ。何も言わなくても、お互いの考え方を分かりすぎる。

PS. I promise the next one won't be about ichiban group. For serious.

2級 Grammar 171-175

Hello, denizens of the net, and welcome to another thrilling installment of The Daily Yoji!

So! It looks like I didn't make good on a lot of the promises of the previous posts. To be completely honest, I really lost track of time last week. And not in the "goodness gracious, is it tea time already? Jeeves, fetch the scones, we've company en route!" sense of the word, but in the "wha...what day is it today? Where am I? I don't remember putting on these pants this morning..." meaning. Some of you might have noted posts went up on days they weren't supposed to, and that was just one symptom of my losing synchronization with reality. What can I say: things here have been pretty busy. With the balloon festival coming up, Saga was working all cylinders, meaning I - after 2 years spreading my roots - was, too. Even this three day weekend that just finished up was more tiring than relaxing.

All that being said, I apologize for the delay, and I know this next week might be a little crazy, too. If not for me, then at least for anybody in America. Why? Election Day.

171)　～ものなら
If だれだれ were able to ~,
If だれだれ could ~,

You tack this on to the potential (ie. 行ける, 食べられる, etc) form of verbs, and it expresses something you would like to do, but probably won't be able to.

Ex. アメリカに投票できるものなら、絶対オバマと票する。しかし不在投票まだ来なかったので。。。


172)　～ものの
~, but...
although ~, ...
~のに

I'm not sure how this differs from ~のに, but I'm going to hazard a guess and say...formality? Expert-on-Japanese commenters - ACTIVATE.

Ex.　オバマは投票結果でかっているものの、十一月の五日までなんか緊張する。。。


173)　～たいものだ
always wanted to ~
always dreamed of ~

When there's something you've always wanted to do or always wished would happen, this is the grammar point for you. It doesn't work for short periods of longing, but rather long-felt desires and dreams.

Ex.　ブッシュは投票されたから、僕はずっと民主党な大統領がいる時代に帰りたいものだ。


174)　～ようがない
There's no way one can ~
~ can't be done.
~できない

The format for this one: verb ます形, minus the "ます", plus ようがない. Besides that, the definition speaks for itself.

Ex.　もしマケインが投票されたら、アメリカは世界の人々の尊敬をもらいようがない。

175)　～ように
in order to ~,
for ~,
~ために

Again, I'm pretty sure anybody who has taken 3級 will recognize this one. Some important usage hints: the ~ will be for something the speaker cannot control, but they're making their efforts regardless. Also, potential and negative forms of verbs pop up a lot with this one. Class dismissed!

Ex.　安心と予報するように、毎日　www.pollster.com　を見てる。やりすぎるかな。。。


A quick note: it just occurred to me that there are, statistically, some people who read this who are probably very conservative-minded. My goal with these examples is never to be inflammatory or to turn readers away, but usually just to get some practice in by stating what's on my mind. Seeing as the past few months have been pretty exhaustive topic-wise, and that today is election day, I hope you'll let it slide. And besides - it should help a little that despite all my partisan example sentences, I still won't manage to get to vote due to an absentee ballot blunder.

On the other hand, if you're a bit more left-leaning - sorry!

暴飲暴食 ・ 鯨飲馬食

ぼういんぼうしょく　・　げいいんばしょく
bouinboushoku ・ geiinbashoku

It's been a long time since I did a yoji and though I actually have a few stored away for the future (Read: Friday, if things go swimmingly), I was at school and didn't have by little stash at my fingertips. So I do what any good yoji-editor does and started groping blindly for a topic by hassling Tina, our resident CIR, ie the person who gets the same salary for doing nothing. She popped out a few that the Yoji has, to my joy, already covered...but also the second of the little gems above. The first one I knew from a long time ago, a yoji that would go on to inspire our third or fourth Ichiban Group t-shirts. Needless to say, these yoji have a special place in my heart, and are even better since they contribute the trend of looking for idioms that apply to the editors.

鯨飲馬食
Definition:
酒を飲む勢いは鯨が海水を吸い込むようであり、物を食べるさまは馬が草をはむようであるという意。
Translation:
1. Drink like a whale, eat like a horse.
















暴飲暴食
Definition:
度を超して大量に飲んだり食べたりすること。
Translation:
1. Excessive eating and drinking
2. Debauching
Make sure to click on the picture for the full-sized version: those shirts are important to the theme of this post.

This is a particularly good post with both Jeff's birthday and Nirav's one year "I'm leaving Japan" anniversary coming up. As with all the great things, Jeff and Nirav's influence on my life here is only understood in their absence. I remember 暴飲暴食ing and rampant hijinks. 応援団, beech parties, a Japanese superbowl as well as a Fourth of July, and a trip to the Asahi beer factory that was meant to be the first stop of the entire Japanese brewery circuit. What happened that made us rethink the other breweries? 鯨飲馬食.

Ex. 　このごろ僕は何事もほどほどに生活してる。でもそれよりもニラブとジェフと一緒に暴飲暴食すること良かったものだ。早く日本に戻ってお前ら！

2級 Grammar 166-170

And closer still, to finishing both the book and the test. Although sometimes coming up with a topic for these sentences (which was my idea, way back in the day, when Jeff had been doing whatever came to mind. Oh how I wish I kept my mouth shut...) can be a task, I'm pretty glad I've kept coming back to do them. It is actually completely unheard of that I would spend so much time studying for anything, save perhaps the SATs way back in the day. I'll have to go back and review everything in the coming weeks, but it's nice to know it's all gone through my head at least once before. Review is WAY easier than learning new grammar from scratch.

A single glance at today's grammar points was enough to remind me of my one-time fling with the Italian space synth sensation, Koto! Imagine my delight when a few searches revealed that there are TWO bands with the name Mono! And one of them is Japanese Post-Rock! What does that even mean?! Here's a video to find out!(EXCLAMATION POINT!)!



166)　～ものだ（１）
Of course ~
Naturally, ~
Is meant to ~

While the direction translation is hard to nail down, the idea isn't as bad. You tag this onto statements of a general or assumed nature, ie "Of course you should obediently listen to your parents", or "naturally your legs get weaker with age", to cite two book examples.

Ex. 物と言うバンドのポストロックを単に定義するものではありません。


167)　～ものだ（２）
Really ~
Truly ~

Think of this as a "とても" for an entire sentence. Explanation: ACCOMPLISHED.

Ex.　コトと物は共同制作すれば大層ないいものだ。


168)　～ものだ（３）
Was always ~
Was ~ all the time.

The key difference here is that this one can only be tagged onto past tense sentences, and simply serves to illustrate that you did something often in the past.

Ex.　日本の「物」を聞いた前に、イギリスの「モノ」しか聞かなかったものだ。


169)　～もの
～から
～ので
because of ~

As simple as it seems, and most often used when stressing a reason you are doing something. In spoken Japanese, it's shortened to "もん".

Ex.　今前に買ったCDを全部焼いている。「物」と比べられないもので。


170)　～ものか
Definitely do not want to ~
Definitely think ~ is not the case.

Another sentence where you're emphasizing what you do not want to do or don't believe. In spoken Japanese it's shortened to "もんか", and before now I saw/heard it a TON in anime/manga, and though I had somewhat inferred the meaning, this helps quite a bit. And it's so easy to use!

Ex.　「物」に聞いてやめるもんか！死ぬまで聞くぞ！


And that concludes this Tuesday's grammar post. With any luck, we'll have a yoji for you all on Wednesday, and even MORE luck will see an expression topping off Thursday's grammar. See you at Saga Station!

Ok, see you then!

2級 Grammar 161-165

As the date of the test gets closer, my correspondance with Jeff becomes scarcer and more panicked. We have, interestingly, managed to study all the vocabulary that the other person has NOT, so every case of "Do you know XXXX?" just ramps up out depression. Who would've thought a different language would be so full of words?

On that note, today's theme is the test and things we've done for it. Enjoy~


161)　～まいか
won't ~
whether one should ~ or not

This one is hard to pin into a straight translation since every single sentence the book gives pairs it with the affirmative form of the same verb. Example from the book: 二人のけんかを止めようかとめるまいか。 Should I stop those two from fighting or not...? It seems pretty safe to say that this expression is used when you are deliberating doing something or not, and the contruction has the "～よう" construction on the same verb before modifying the same verb again as per the guidelines Jeff laid out in 159/160. It's really simpler than all that - just look at the example sentences.

Ex.　今夜２級の日本語能力試験のために勉強しようかするまいか。

162)　～向きだ　・　～向きの　 (向き＝むき）
Is suiteable/appropriate for ~
Is made/geared for ~
Suits ~

A pretty easy one - just tack it onto a noun and you know what something is made for. For my sentence, I'm going to throw it into the negative.

Ex.　このブログは日本語をちっとも話せない人向きじゃない。日本語もうちょっと知っていて裏を見たい人向きだ。


163)　～向けに　・　～向けの
With ~ in mind
Intended for ~

This one is remarkably similar to the previous one. The only real difference is the "に" on the end, meaning you can tie it into sentences in all the wonderful ways に allows.

Ex.　パソコンでできる勉強が大好きの人向けに作られたAnkiと言うソフトウエアに頼ってしまっている。。。

Fun note: Google image searching "anki" gives you Captain Kirk/Spock slash fiction pictures. I wish I was making that up.

164)　～も～ば　、　～も～　・　～も～なら、～も～
~AND~ apply/are true.

I'm not sure exactly what to make of this, so I'll give you the lowdown on what I DO know. This seems like a way to emphasize the "と" of a list, the same way "こそ" can be used to emphasize the subject of a sentence. For an example, the book's sentence: あの子は１５歳なのに、お酒も飲めば、タバコも吸う。両親が困っているだろう。 There there is no discernable (to me, at least) order of importance/surprise like a lot of the other grammar points stress, but the two things stated DO have to be similar topics. You wouldn't say the kid in the above sentence is drinking AND skateboarding (unless they rank similarly to you).

Ex.　２級テストと言えば、文法も多ければ、漢字もたくさんあるので心配している。


165)　～ものがある
~ deeply/profoundly.

This one can only be added to adjectives and verbs, and the translation I've given doesn't get much more simple than that. The expression does always seem to follow a noun tagged with the "には" particle-pair, but I don't know if that's dumb luck or a rule. Before I maim this with my own example sentence, a bit from the book: 彼女の歌には人を勇気づけるものがある。

Ex.　僕とジェフには二ラブのレベルを目指すことが無理みたいなものがある。それのかわりに一応２級を受けたら十分です。

Man, Nirav - did YOU know about this?

2級 Grammar 156-160

I'm sitting at home alone on a Saturday night, after a lazy day of studying at the beach. Florida is awesome. Don't believe me? Look at this picture of a tiny crab.

But money is stressing me out, because that job I told you I got... even that has been slowing down, so they only need me for like, a handful of hours each week. So to deal with my money problems, I went ahead and bought a bunch of Florida Lotto tickets, and oh man, if I win... 24 million dollars!

What would you do with that kind of cash?

156) ～（より）ほかない
~ is the only way/option/choice
~nothing to do but X

I like this one, cause it's pretty basic and because it's easy to conceptualize for me, in the same way I could deal with ～にほかならない (point 136). ほか is just 他 so when you think about it like that, Ｘより他ない becomes, "better than X, no other," or in sensical English "There's nothing better/other than X."

Ex. 不景気のため、お金の事を気にしているよ。ぜんぜん稼げないので宝くじを買うよりほかない。

157)　～ほどだ　・　～ほどの
~around
~about
~almost

Used for your near hyperboles.
The train was so crowded, the doors can hardly close.
The water is so cold, it almost hurts.
It's almost SHOCKING how good at Japanese I am.

ほどだ or ほどです comes at the end of a sentence; ほどの is when you want to continue the sentence. ほどの takes a noun after it.

Ex. 宝くじを言うと、高校生の時を思い出す。Pabloというバカな知り合いが選んだ番号は６分の５を当たって、むかつくほどの賞品分量をもらった。
How WOULD you say this? He hit 5 out of 6 numbers and won like, 9,000 bucks. It's not that much, I know but... that dude was an asshole. つまり「むかつくほど」.

158)　～ほど
~ as it gets X-er

This is not your basic ほど that you learned back in introductory Japanese. You remember：｢私たちはニラブほど日本語が上手ではない: We're not as good as Nirav at Japanese.」　This one is similar in usage to 「～ば　～ほど」 constructions, like ｢早ければ早いほどいい: the faster, the better.

My book uses it to say things like "As the war stretches on, casualties rise." or "The mark of an experienced mountain climber is that the more experience they have, they more cautiously they'll conduct themselves on the mountain." Japanese follows for both.

戦争が長引くほど死者が増える。
経験がある登山家ほど山で注意深く行動するものだ。

Ex. 「宝くじ切符をいっぱい買う人ほど当たるチャンスが高くなるかな」と思いながら、１０枚を買いました。１０枚なら、当たるべきだろう。

159)　～まい(1)
~ don't intend to
~ will not

This is basically equivalent to つもりではない or しないつもり: it expresses your resolve to not do something. Add it to verbs in dictionary form, or by adding　まい to the ます-less root. (考えます=考えまい.)

Ex. お金持ちになったら、友達や親戚や知り合いが僕にお願いして来る恐れがあるから、当たったら、皆に言うまい。

160) ～まい(2)
~ probably not
~ probably doesn't/won't

Used to make a guess about something that won't happen. Taking this expired medicine PROBABLY won't kill you.
Follow the same rules of construction as above.
Question: Can this be used with 過去形？

Ex. だから、今のうちに｢ジェフは当たりまい」と思っておいてね。私、当るのは当たり前と思っているけど。

Jesus, that's a terrible joke. It probably doesn't even work....

文武両道

ぶんぶ　りょうどう
bunbu ryoudou

Nirav posts yoji that apply to him, I post yoji that I wish applied to me. So here's another in that category. It came from that list of most accessed definitions that the Databank features.

Apparently, 文武両道 hails from the rule of the Tokugawa Shogunate, when Tokugawa Ieyasu thought that it encompassed what a samurai should be, and when the phrase originated, it was closely tied to 武士道: the way of the samurai.

Definition:
学問による人格の練磨と、侍としての技量の両立。
Translation:
1. Accomplished in both literary and military arts
2. Warrior poet.

As I understand it, it's also used today to refer to the sportsman-scholar as well.

Here's an example of usage, along with a photo of my personal favorite warrior poet.

例文： この文武両道の猛者のおかげで、アメリカの政局が分かるようになった。
Thanks to this stalwart warrior-poet, I've finally been able to make sense the American political climate.