it has been roughly sixteen epochs since my last post. if you look at previous entries, titled "fire discovered," "wheel crafted, millions cruise division," and "dick clark born," you can sense how long it's really been. well, i'm sitting here bored at my computer, devouring wonderful new posts from brian heilman's blog, feeling a little bit jealous and a lot bit motivated. thus i have surfed to blogger.com; thus i will bestow upon my tens of readers a long-awaited post.
i've decided to go back to the basics. a long time ago, i had the novel idea of explaining interesting japanese characters, and lately i've been reminded of two pretty fascinating words. one of them is basic, one of them is pretty advanced. let's start with the basic one, shall we?
新聞
しんぶん (shinbun)
meaning: newspaper
しんぶん (shinbun)
meaning: newspaper
given that this is one of the first kanji (chinese characters) that foreign learners of japanese encounter, it's nice that it's so thought-provoking. the character on the left is from the word 新しい (atarashii), meaning "new." simple enough. the second one is pretty interesting. it comes from 聞く (kiku), which means "to hear" and "to ask." i know it's kind of a weird double meaning, but bear with me. the character itself is made up of two elements: first, 門 (mon), which means "gate," and 耳 (mimi), "ear." the explanation in the dictionary is that "hearing" or "inquiring" about something is like things that were once hidden behind a gate finding their way into one's ears. pretty poetic; certainly much more imaginative than english's simple "hear."
put these two kanji togther, and we have, basically, "new hearing." if you think about it, it's pretty compelling. in english, "news" is essentially "new information," and "newspaper" is just "new information on paper." straightforward, i think. but to me the japanese is much cooler. not only is one encountering new information, but one's "hearing" is indeed informed by said information. thanks to this "new" stuff, one encounters, experiences, even senses the world around him in a different way. kind of makes the newspaper a little scarier, huh? but all of you are illiterate, so you're safe.
put these two kanji togther, and we have, basically, "new hearing." if you think about it, it's pretty compelling. in english, "news" is essentially "new information," and "newspaper" is just "new information on paper." straightforward, i think. but to me the japanese is much cooler. not only is one encountering new information, but one's "hearing" is indeed informed by said information. thanks to this "new" stuff, one encounters, experiences, even senses the world around him in a different way. kind of makes the newspaper a little scarier, huh? but all of you are illiterate, so you're safe.
譲歩する
じょうほする (jouhosuru)
meaning: to compromise
じょうほする (jouhosuru)
meaning: to compromise
this one's neat. i'm getting sort of sick of typing, so i'll ratchet up the pace. in english, "compromise" is pretty by-the-letter: "to make a mutual promise." but it's boring and i hate it and it sucks, and japan dominates in every conceivable way whatever you white western folk could ever possibly dream up, so i am going to devote my energy to furthering the global flowering of its glorious, sacred language.
the first character here comes from the verb 譲る (yuzuru), which means to "hand over, relinquish, give up, etc." when people are trying to buy tickets standing outside of baseball games, their handmade signs read "チケット譲ってください!" - "please relinquish your ticket!" well, at least that's the way i like to translate it. you get the idea. the second one, if you remember from an aged post, 歩, means "step" and "to walk." put them together and you get "to give up a step." pretty cool, and again pretty poetic, and pretty pretty, i think. so next time you and your estranged lover are having an argument about the divorce proceedings, instead of yelling "i am willing to compromise on various points," please think back to this humble blog and proclaim "to you i relinquish steps in various directions." if you do, the holy japanese empire will smile on you and everything bad in your life will vanish like, well, this blog did for most of 2007.
four closing points, and future possible expanded blog topics:
1. i went to thailand and it was a very excellent time. i touched the fake breast of a cross dresser and drank coconut milk out of a real coconut. i am anxiously waiting for the moment these feats can be accomplished in st. cloud, minnesota. let us all commit whatever we can to achieve this noble goal.
2. i saw fountains of wayne last week and they did not disappoint. it was a full house, complete with joey gladstone, and we were all rocking. they played some unexpected songs (joe rey, sick day, and fire in the canyon), which absolutely delighted me. unlike last time, i was not able to meet them after the show, but i did manage to have a conversation with chris, the lead singer, during the show. i asked him "what are you doing after the show?", to which he responded "i don't know. know any good places?" i think i was the coolest person there. by far.
3. my girlfriend megu invented a really good word. i can't remember if she was trying to remember the word "nerd," mispronouncing "nervous," or trying to find the opposite of "rural," but she said "nurban," which should be entered into your respective word banks. think of a person who gets nervous in cities. i think of john kamman, who is notorious for bad city driving. "nurban john kamman."
4. i will be recording again very soon. the songs are almost finished. then i will set up a new, functioning myspace page and serve the musical feast to your starving ears.
i guess it's time to give myself a hand. welcome back, lazarus. my writing does not measure up to brian's thoughtful entries that really convey the fact that he's doing something genuinely important in a really cool place and having the time of his life, but at least i finally decided to put words together into sentences and put it on the interweb. grant me at least an ounce of pride. it'll probably be another 4 years before my next post, but at least by then i will be able to make some other kind of biblical reference. or i could just coordinate my posts with presidential elections.
OUT, HOES.
the first character here comes from the verb 譲る (yuzuru), which means to "hand over, relinquish, give up, etc." when people are trying to buy tickets standing outside of baseball games, their handmade signs read "チケット譲ってください!" - "please relinquish your ticket!" well, at least that's the way i like to translate it. you get the idea. the second one, if you remember from an aged post, 歩, means "step" and "to walk." put them together and you get "to give up a step." pretty cool, and again pretty poetic, and pretty pretty, i think. so next time you and your estranged lover are having an argument about the divorce proceedings, instead of yelling "i am willing to compromise on various points," please think back to this humble blog and proclaim "to you i relinquish steps in various directions." if you do, the holy japanese empire will smile on you and everything bad in your life will vanish like, well, this blog did for most of 2007.
four closing points, and future possible expanded blog topics:
1. i went to thailand and it was a very excellent time. i touched the fake breast of a cross dresser and drank coconut milk out of a real coconut. i am anxiously waiting for the moment these feats can be accomplished in st. cloud, minnesota. let us all commit whatever we can to achieve this noble goal.
2. i saw fountains of wayne last week and they did not disappoint. it was a full house, complete with joey gladstone, and we were all rocking. they played some unexpected songs (joe rey, sick day, and fire in the canyon), which absolutely delighted me. unlike last time, i was not able to meet them after the show, but i did manage to have a conversation with chris, the lead singer, during the show. i asked him "what are you doing after the show?", to which he responded "i don't know. know any good places?" i think i was the coolest person there. by far.
3. my girlfriend megu invented a really good word. i can't remember if she was trying to remember the word "nerd," mispronouncing "nervous," or trying to find the opposite of "rural," but she said "nurban," which should be entered into your respective word banks. think of a person who gets nervous in cities. i think of john kamman, who is notorious for bad city driving. "nurban john kamman."
4. i will be recording again very soon. the songs are almost finished. then i will set up a new, functioning myspace page and serve the musical feast to your starving ears.
i guess it's time to give myself a hand. welcome back, lazarus. my writing does not measure up to brian's thoughtful entries that really convey the fact that he's doing something genuinely important in a really cool place and having the time of his life, but at least i finally decided to put words together into sentences and put it on the interweb. grant me at least an ounce of pride. it'll probably be another 4 years before my next post, but at least by then i will be able to make some other kind of biblical reference. or i could just coordinate my posts with presidential elections.
OUT, HOES.
4 comments:
Glad you are back.
But now I have to post.
Drats.
everyone must update their blogs!
My next blog entry will deal with one, if not all three, of the following topics:
1. How I have to wipe my ass with my hand.
2. How I, without a shower, have to wash myself with a teeny bucket of cold water.
3. How, in the wake of a surprise scabes infection on my lower legs, had to shave my leg hair, apply huge bandages, and limp around for a week.
The name of the post will be, "Contrary to Kainpinion, A Lot Of Stuff About India Sucks And I Just Wish I Could Watch The Packers And Eat Cheetos That Don't Taste Like Green Chillies."
haha, cruise division.
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