let's throw stuff at maur

i'm late again. i feel terrible. i've been busy with getting ready for school and working as a "chat partner" in tokyo. yeah, i am a busy man. but i will not disappoint the millions waiting for my japanese tutelage. today i've selected a few very common japanese words that have kind of wacky kanji - and one that i just can't figure out.

1. 頑張る　がんばる　ganbaru. the first of these two kanji means "stubborn" and "firm." the second one means "to stretch out." putting them together gets you something like "stretching out one's stubbornness." the english equivalent, however, is "to try hard." now, in english, this is pretty simple. to give one's best. in japanese, though, it seems a lot more serious. to stretch out your stubbornness sounds like something pretty strenuous, but people are doing it all the time. if someone gets a job, they'll stretch it out. if someone is playing for the yankees, say, hideki matsui, he stretches out that stubbornness every at-bat. substitute in "firmness" for "stubbornness," and you get something that sounds somewhat like a vaguely sexual reference that might be overheard at a gymnasium (see left). let me assure you that that is not what the japanese mean when they use the word. at least i hope not.

2. 有難う　ありがとう　arigatou. thanks to styx, we all know that this means "thank you very much-o." duh. now, i've tried to convince my girlfriend that the kanji of this word really means something deep down, but she won't have any of it. she just spits in my face and makes me do the dishes. here's my theory. the first character, "ari," is a fundamental word that means "to exist," "to have," "to be," etc. it is. the second character is actually the root of muzukashii, which means "difficult." the last part, the ou section, kind of signifies an appreciation or a desire to express something. if you follow my train of thought, the straight translation would be something like "i wish to express how difficult it was for this thing to exist." translation: if someone cooks you dinner and you say arigatou, what you're really saying is that you "appreciate the difficulty involved in making this meal exist." a wordy way to say "thanks," but i think it conveys a very nice sentiment. so sery, next time you thank a girl for giving you her number, just spit out a little arigatou magic, and you'll be saying what we all know you really mean: "i appreciate the difficulty you experienced in allowing this number to exist in my cell phone." because, jesus christ, we know the pains these girls suffer every time you wrestle those digits away from her. you dog.

3. 流石　さすが　sasuga. i like this one, and i use it a lot. it's used to convey something along the lines of "i knew you could do it," "i expected you to do so well," "you're the man," or "just as i thought." for example, if st. john's wins the national football championship, you could say "sasuga st. john's" - we expect them to win, they fulfilled our expectations, and we want to congratulate them: "i knew you could do it, sju." however, it's much more fun to use it as sarcasm. take the case of kamman, a known cheapskate. he goes to a restaurant and orders something really expensive that he doesn't have the money to pay for. he thinks he'll just find $900 sitting underneath the table somewhere. the dish comes en flambe and kamman digs in. he finishes half the meal and declares the plate finished. he looks around nervously, hoping to find a wad of twenties stuffed in the napkin holder - but to no avail. that's when he pulls out three of his hairs, sticks them in the dish, calls the waitress, and demands a new meal and refuses to pay. of course, he succeeds. this is "sasuga kamman." we fully expect him to do such a thing, and we hate that he gets away with it, but we want to let him know just how much everyone expects him to do such a dastardly deed. am i right? of course i am.

the kanji are weird, though. the first one means "to flow" or "current" and the second one is just "stone." a stone in a current. figure that one out. all i can think of is thomas jefferson. i really don't think it means "we fully expect a rock to be flowing in a current and want to express congratulations for that." that would be so stupid.


ok brethren, that should keep your little tommy tummies full for another week. i promise never again to disappoint. i also promise to expose the plight of sery in every post from now on, because it's deliciously satisfying. oh, and i'm sorry that the title of this post had no relation to the post at all. i just fondly remember that night.