For example, if you want to go home, you could ask your boss the following.

帰っても良いでしょうか。
kaette mo ii deshou ka
Nuance: May I go home now?

If you are talking to one of your colleagues, however, you can use this instead. (This is kind of a standard way to say it -- not overly polite, but not casual.)

帰っても良いですか。
kaette mo ii desu ka
Nuance: Can I go home now?

If you are chatting with friends, the following are fine.

帰っても良いかしら。
kaette mo ii kashira
Nuance: Do you mind if I leave?

帰っても良いかな。
kaette mo ii kana
Nuance: I wonder if it's okay for me to leave. (Implies more doubt, like asking oneself in addition to asking the listener)

かしら is mainly used by women, but you will hear certain men use it too sometimes (very rarely). かしら is a casual way to ask a question (or ask for confirmation), but it has a nice sound, so it leaves the listener with a good impression -- AS LONG AS the listener is your friend and equal and not your superior.

I always thought that かしら was higher on the "politeness scale" because one of my very good (and very polite) friends uses it all the time. What I realize now is that she uses it with me because I am her friend AND she wants it to sound nice. My mistake was thinking that she uses it only because it is polite. (And that is a serious mistake in my thinking, because I should have recognized that she wouldn't be using very formal language with me.)

This is one of the most difficult things about learning Japanese. The choice of words depends on the relationship between the people who are talking, their gender, the situation, etc. This is, I'm sure, true of all languages to a certain extent, but it is extremely well developed in Japanese. This means that the usual language learner's trick of learning by mimicking what is said to you doesn't always work in Japanese, and can even be quite detrimental to your language development. (For example, it is very common to hear foreign men speak in a somewhat more feminine way because they learn by listening to their Japanese girlfriends and wives.)

Words in another language are like tools in your dad's workshop. Even if you know what a lot of them are, if you don't know how to use them, they are worthless, or worse yet, they may even hurt you. This means that it is important to give as much attention to learning the USAGE of the word as the MEANING by looking up examples of the word in use (http://www.alc.co.jp is good for this), asking your colleagues, and testing out the usage of words on good friends (since they are, hopefully, least likely to be offended if you use the wrong level of politeness).

So, to sum up, if you are a woman, you might want to try using かしら to make your Japanese sound more refined -- remembering that it just sounds nice and is not particularly polite. Just be sure to take account of the relationship between you and the listener (and all the other usage variables) before you do!

A 17th century set of Hyakunin Isshu Karuta

The special dishes and decorations, the visits to shrines or temples, the family gatherings, the greetings, even the pre-holiday cleanings, make O-Shogatsu ( the Japanese New Year Celebration) fascinating for me. They reveal how the Japanese  make a clean break with the past and then make a fresh, new start- with the strong desire for the health, prosperity and happiness of the family, the community and the nation, manifesting itself in the amassing of  ENGI-MONO (縁起物)- objects, words, colors, etc, which are believed to have a POSITIVE impact on the world. In addition, there are also objects, words, colors etc, which are compiled to keep all forms of misfortune away. What is fascinating, is what it is that determines the making of GOOD ENGI- symbolism and connection expressed through shape, name,color, etc. I have given numerous examples of this in my past  few Tsukublog articles.Here are some things which are symbolically auspicious:

 Oranges (DAIDAI), because their Japanese name DAIDAI also means GENERATION BY GENERATION- thus representing the wish for the continuation of the family line.

Shrimp- because their bent backs resemble the bodies of extremely old people- expressing the hope to live a long life.

Buckwheat noodles (soba): are eaten on New Year`s Eve  because ( among other reasons) they break easilly, representing a clean break with the past year.

As my articles show, the list of these ENGI MONO goes on and on.

The presence of this type of symbolism extends even, or should I say extends naturally, to traditional New Year`s games. For example, there is HANE TSUKI , a game in which decorative paddles ( HAGOITA, which are ENGI MONO in themselves) are used to battle a shuttle cock back and forth. This batting away of the birdy symbolizes batting away mosquitos, and illness.

Very clever.Like all the other ideas for ENGI MONO which have been popularized over the years.

There is another very popular traditional New Year`s game, however, which rather than having a significantly auspicious symbolism ( though I would suggest that it might), is a surprising celebration of Japan`s  classical culture- specifically, its poetry- in which the players must familiarize themselves ( and in many cases memorize) one hundred poems of varying degrees of complexity and difficulty. 

The name of the game is Hyakunin Isshu Karuta ( The One hundred Poets, One Hundred Poems Card Game), and I first encountered it years ago while spending an O-Shogatsu with a Japanese Family. After a long leasurely afternoon of eating and drinking, the everyone in the house, young and old suddenly got down on the TATAMI floor to play a card game. One hundred cards were spread on the floor. Each, I was told contained the last segment ( SHIMO KU) of a poem. What we were to do was to try to grab up these cards as their first portions (KAMI KU) were chanted.

Playing hyakunin Isshu Karuta with a wooden tablets insted of cards (Tsukuba 2011)

As you might have guessed, since I was a complete beginner in Japanese at that time ( and was unfamiliar with these poems), I ended up with not a single card when the game was over.

Still, I never forgot that game. Being the stubborn obssesive personiltiy that I am, in the subsequent years I studied and studied, until what was once an exotic hum to me ( as the peoms are recited), are now clearly understandable pieces, which evoke all their possible interpretations in my mind when I hear them.

Yes, it was that one game of Hyakunin Isshu Karuta, which started me off on my ongoing relationship with Japanese poetry.

The cards ( in this case wooden tablets) are usually arranged in alphabetical (A, I,U,E) order to make finding them easier

Let me tell you a little bit more about what the Hyakunin Isshu is- and maybe you too will catch the addiction.

The Hyakunin Isshu is a collection of WAKA (和歌)- Japanese poems of the TANKA variety.. Unlike English poetry which often invovles RHYME,  these poems are created by fitting ideas into a set number of sylables- specifically 31 (MISOHITOMOJI, 三十一文字), broken up into phrases of 5-7-5-7-7 ( longer than the mere 5-7-5 pattern which was popularized later with HAIKU poems).

The reason that this unusual syllabic rhythm was set upon as the standard form for WAKA poetry was that  it was in this particular pattern (5-7-5-7-7) that the God SUSANOO NO MIKOTO anounced his marriage. This form was thus deemed to be the WAY THE GODS SPEAK. Thus waka were used to express thoughts and feelings which could not be expressed in normal everyday speech.

As its title , ONE HUNDRED POETS. ONE HUNDRED POETS suggests, the Hyakunin Isshu is a selection of 1oo WAKA by 100 different poets - 79 men ( including 8 Emperors, and 13 Buddhist monks) and 21 women ( including 1 Emperess. The first poem of the collection is  attributed to the Emperor Tenji (626-671), and the last to retired Emperor Juntokuin (1197-1242), and thus the anthology spans the works from a period of 500 years.

Among these works are some (one each of course) by Japan`s  greatest NAMES in classical poetry and literature: Otomo no Yakamochi, Ono no Komachi, Ki no Tsurayuki, Murasaki Shikibu and Sei Shonagon.

All the poems in the Hyakunin Isshu strongly reflect the tastes and sensibilites of its compiler, FUJIWARA NO TEIKA (1162-1241), a highly respected poet in his own right and an advocate of  aesthetic principles which he developed emphasizing the expression of the SPIRIT OF THINGS ( mono no kokoro) over realism ( Teika`s ideas would have a MAJOR impact on the Japanese culture of the Muromachi Period- especially on The Noh Theater, and The Tea Ceremony).

The subject matter dominating the collection also reflects Teika`s own particular preferences, with  LOVE poems (43 out of 100)making up a large portion, followed by SEASONAL POEMS ( 32 out of 100), with works on what serely must have been Teika`s favorite season- autumn, predominating these.

With only 100 poems, the Hyakunin Isshu is the slimmest volume among Japan` great anthologies of classical poetry. But that`s what makes it so great ( for me, at least). Japan`s poetic traditional boiled down to its essence. It a most convenient medium through which to work your way into the world of traditional Japanese aesthetics.

And not only this. Working to understand these poems will lead you on the road to exploring many other aspect of Japanese culture nature and history.

It is interesting how this influential collection came into being ( whether the story is true or not, no one is sure). It is said that Teika was asked to select one hundred poems, which would be written on sheets of paper to decorate the sliding doors of a mountain villa in a place called Ogura ( this is why, though there have been many subsequent alternative Hyakunin Isshu, i.e. one hundred warrior poets, one hundred women poets, etc.) Teika`s collection, the standard, is referred to as the OGURA HYAKUNIN ISSHU).

This ( and more) is all detailed in Teika`s extant diary- the MEIGETSU KI (明月記).

An old set of hyakunin Isshu karuta

The fact that the poems Teika selected were originally written on sheets of paper ( at the even number of one hundred), made it conducive for them to be made into a card game- with distinctive illustrations of the poets and in an even more distinctive script( supposedly based on Teika`s idiosyncratic calligraphy).

The idea of this card game, by the way, most probably would not have arisen without the arrival in Japan of the Portuguese, who introduced playing card ( among other things) to this country. This is reflected in the use of the Portuguese based word KARUTA  (carta) for the game.

For those who are not ready to tackle the poems Teika selected in their original language, there are MANY translations. In fact, some say that the first work in Japanese ever rendered into English was the Hyakunin Isshu.

You can find numerous translations online, including this 1909 version by William Porter:

http://www.sacred-texts.com/shi/hvj/index.htm

Tsukuba`s very own Shaney Crawford (founding member, editor and frequent contributor to TsukuBlog), has also been working on a translation of the anthology, and she has already completed English renditions of the first 30 poems:

http://www.shaneycrawford.com/2002/03/hyakunin-isshu-my-interpretations/

These should help you get started off on your own road into the world of Hyakunin Isshu - which naturally should at some point get you into reading into the poems for yourself . It is only by close examination of each poem in its original that REAL appreciation can be achieved. 

The reason for this is not only the fact that the poems are written a specialized form of classical Japanese ( if that were the case, looking up each word in the dictionary would  be enough to achieve understanding), but these works abound in puns and allusions which are completely lost in translation. There is even a poem ( number 22), whose beauty lies in its play on the construction of the Chinese character for the word storm( 嵐), which is made of  a mountain (山）on top of wind (wind)!- this makes for a mighty difficult challenge for tranlators.

Let me give you one more example. Since this is Tsukublog, I will present the case of poem number 13 of the collection, which just happens to be set in Tsukuba.

The second half ( shimo ku) of poem number 13- which is set in Tsukuba- it reads: KOI ZO TSUMORITE FUCHI TO NARI NURU

The poem is attributed to the Retired Emperor Yozei-In(868-949) and goes like this:

筑波嶺の峰より落つるみなの川
恋ぞつもりて淵となりぬる
Tsukuba ne no mine yori otsuru minano-gawa
Koi zo tsumorite fuchi to nari nuru

Which I will DIRECTLY translate, or rather explain the general meaning as:

From the peaks of Mt. Tsukuba flows the Minanogawa River which forms deep pools ( at the foot of the mountain) . In the same way my love for you has grown (strong and) deep.

What has to be dealt with by the translator in the case of this poem is conveying the significance of Mt. Tsukuba for the aristocrats at that time, as well as the meaning of the characters used to write the name of the river MINANOGAWA.

For the educated Japanese of Yozei-In`s time, Mt Tsukuba represented COUPLES, ROMANCE, and SEX.

This is because  the oldest collection of Japanese poems the Manyoshu, as well as the Chronicles of the land of Hitachi ( Hitachi no Kuni no Fu-doki  , refer to Mt Tsukuba as having been the most famous location for special COUPLING festivals, at which men and women, most of whom had never met before, would GET TOGETHER. These ceremonies which were held twice a year in spring and autumn were called KAGAI. The reason that Mt Tsukuba would have become an important place for such rites was because of its TWIN PEAKS, which for the Japanese naturally represented the male and the female.

According to poems in the Manyoshu, the men and women who wanted to participate in the KAGAI would gather on Mt Tsukuba at a river called the MINANOGAWA. The name of this river is spelled with the Kanji characters 男女川, which directly translated mean the MAN-WOMAN RIVER.

Thus we can see that the place at which the poem is set Mt Tsukuba, as well the MINANOGAWA river, were terms pregnant with meaning for educated Japanese, and this makes understanding the poem extremely difficult without delving deeper.

(It is obvious that Yozei-In did not ever actually visit Mt. Tsukuba ( there are no deep pools which form at its base), but rather selected the setting of his love poem for its symbolic significance).

(It is interesting that Tsukuba`s most most famous Sake Brewery, located at the foot of Mt Tsukuba calls its brand-　Minanogawa (男女川).One reason its products are so delicious is that it uses the water that flows from the peaks of Mt. Tsukuba.)

Anyway, I`d better stop now. VOLUMES could be written about the complexities  these poems and their backgrounds ( and many volumes HAVE in fact been written about them!).

I hope that you too take the leap into this special poetic world-  maybe by O-Shogatsu ( New Year`s) next year you will be ready to take on your Japanese friends in a game of Hyakunin-Isshu Karuta!

1 Comments

• At January 11, 2011, Keiko wrote:

  Your article reminded me of chlidhood when I played hyakunin ishu card game with my family and guests.You gave me inspitation to practice playing again. I forgot many of the poems but now I am playing everyday with my daughter. Thank you for helping even Japanese to enjoy Japanese culture.

Well, as you might expect, in Japan things are a bit more complex. On the last days of December, when meeting people for what is probably the last time of the year, the Japanese part with an expression which is equivalent to what is used in most languages, YOI O TOSHI O, or Have a Good New Year.

What is difficult to remember ( for foreigners) when speaking Japanese, however, is that this expression is only used UP TO midnight of December 31st. Once the clock strikes midnight, for the next seven days or so, people greet each other with AKEMASHITE OMEDETO- GOZAIMASU, or in its simplest and most casual form OMEDETO-.

Since in modern Japanese OMEDETO is an expression used in very much the same way as the English word CONGRATULATIONS, this New Year`s greeting could now be literally translated as- CONGRATULATIONS UPON THE (OCCASSION OF THE) OPENING (OF THE NEW YEAR).

Besides the fact that there are different greetings for BEFORE and AFTER the ringing in of the new year, both these greetings sound quite usual, aand at first glance simply like two slighty different ways of saying the same thing. 

However, a look at the etymology of the word OMEDETO- shows OMEDETO to have quite an unusual meaning for a New Year`s greeting . It is also quite revealing about the roots of Japanese culture.

 Omedeto, originally derived from the Kanji characters  ome (お芽) de (出） to (度う), which together mean: May your sprouts appear, or May your sprouts sprout forth.

In other words, the opening of the new year, which before the Japanese adopted the Western Calendar took place sometime in February, was a time to pray for good crops and the coming forth of vegetation in general, in the upcoming year.

This use of this expression as a New Year`s Greeting  by the aristocrats and courtiers and the members of the Imperial Family was a reflection of the fact that it was the role of the Emperor , as a high priest of the nation of sorts, to carry out rituals and pray for bountiful crops. I think it could even be said that the romantic ( sexual) daliances so famously associated with the court,(which are celebrated at New Year`s by many Japanese through the card game Hyakunin Isshu- which is based on a collection of classical poetry) were in fact also believed to be part of the ritual function to guarantee success in agriculture throughout the land.

It goes without saying that it would have been only natural for farmers in early spring ( at the old New Year) to greet each other with- may your seeds sprout! 

The connection of New Year`s to agriculture is still clearly evident by the fact that even in big cities Japanese families put up New Year`s decorations consisting of rice stalks and other plant matter. These decorations, and O-Shogatsu( New Year`s) itself, are a celebration of LIFE, RENEWAL and the BOUNTY of NATURE.

So on the occassion of this New Year`s Day, Id like to wish you a big OMEDETO-

may all your seeds take root and flourish!

And if you are interested I have written about an obscure but fascinating Japanese custom- to refrai from killing mice during the first 3 days of the year, during which the little critters are called YOME GA KIMI (嫁が君):

http://blog.alientimes.org/2009/01/traps-are-back-up-as-three-day-new-years-moratorium-on-mouse-catching-ends/

1 Comments

• At January 1, 2011, NoVo (Nora) wrote:

  OMEDETOOO!

  So, for such connected reason, I received a bag with vegetables from my neighbor with

  'Akemashite Omedetoo Gozaimasu'!))

  Happy New Year with lot's of sunnies smiles from the children first!

I have said it again and again. Japanese culture and the Japanese language are endlessly interesting. The deeper you look the more surprising it gets.To illustrate this point once more, this time on the the first day of the new year, I`d like to talk about something which in most countries and most languages is quite simple- New Year`s Greetings.

Well, as you might expect, in Japan things are a bit more complex. On the last days of December, when meeting people for what is probably the last time of the year, the Japanese part with an expression which is equivalent to what is used in most languages, YOI OTOSHI O, or Have a Good New Year.

What is difficult to remember ( for foreigners) when speaking Japanese, however, is that this expression is only used UP TO midnight of December 31st. Once the clock strikes midnight, for the next seven days or so, people greet each other with AKEMASHITE OMEDETO- GOZAIMASU, or in its simplest and most casual form OMEDETO-.

Since in modern Japanese OMEDETO is an expression used in very much the same way as the English word CONGRATULATIONS, this New Year`s greeting could now be literally translated as- CONGRATULATIONS UPON THE (OCCASSION OF THE) OPENING (OF THE NEW YEAR).

Besides the fact that there are different greetings for BEFORE and AFTER the ringing in of the new year, both these greetings sound quite usual, aand at first glance simply like two slighty different ways of saying the same thing.

However, a look at the etymology of the word OMEDETO- shows OMEDETO to have quite an unusual meaning for a New Year`s greeting . It is also quite revealing about the roots of Japanese culture.

Omedeto, originally derived from the Kanji characters ome (お芽) de (出） to (度う), which together mean: May your sprouts appear, or May your sprouts sprout forth.

In other words, the opening of the new year, which before the Japanese adopted the Western Calendar took place sometime in February, was a time to pray for good crops and the coming forth of vegetation in general, in the upcoming year.

This use of this expression as a New Year`s Greeting by the aristocrats and courtiers and the members of the Imperial Family was a reflection of the fact that it was the role of the Emperor , as a high priest of the nation of sorts, to carry out rituals and pray for bountiful crops. I think it could even be said that the romantic ( sexual) daliances so famously associated with the court,(which are celebrated at New Year`s by many Japanese through the card game Hyakunin Isshu- which is based on a collection of classical poetry) were in fact also believed to be part of the ritual function to guarantee success in agriculture throughout the land.

It goes without saying that it would have been only natural for farmers in early spring ( at the old New Year) to greet each other with- may your seeds sprout!

The connection of New Year`s to agriculture is still clearly evident by the fact that even in big cities Japanese families put up New Year`s decorations consisting of rice stalks and other plant matter. These decorations, and O-Shogatsu ( New Year`s) itself, are a celebration of LIFE, RENEWAL and the BOUNTY of NATURE.

So on the occassion of this New Year`s Day, Id like to wish you a big OMEDETO-

may all your seeds take root and flourish!

And if you are interested I have written about an obscure but fascinating Japanese custom- to refrai from killing mice during the first 3 days of the year, during which the little critters are called YOME GA KIMI (嫁が君):

http://blog.alientimes.org/2009/01/traps-are-back-up-as-three-day-new-years-moratorium-on-mouse-catching-ends/

2 Comments

• At January 1, 2012, Rurousha wrote:

  Hallo! This is a long-time fan of your blog finally leaving her first comment to say happy dragon year! I'm looking forward to your stories in the next 12 months!

• At January 2, 2012, ginni-California North Coast wrote:

  Omedeto! Happy New Year - Avi & All!

  So - please tell this 'foreigner' trying to get it right - can you give the kanji for "Omedoto" pretty please? I'll put it in my Japanese Glossary! Thanks ever so much - and Have A Really Good One! May You Be Happy!

  ginni, California North Coast

  you gave this:

  > originally derived from the Kanji characters ome (お芽) de (出） to (度う) <

By Avi Landau

One of the great points of pride for the people who live in my town, Hojo, near the foot of Mt. Tsukuba, is that this mountain, so close at hand ( and to the people`s hearts), is mentioned in the Manyoshu- the oldest collection of  classical Japanese poems ( compiled in the 8th century) and one of the cornerstones of Japanese civilization- more times than Mt Fuji !

Now how is it, you may ask, that in this land of majestic peaks and mysterious volcanoes, that what could be considered a mere hill ( at 877 meters in height) would be mentioned more times by the poets of yore than what is now one of the world`s most ( if not THE most) famous mountain?

Well, the answer lies in Mt. Tsukuba`s shape. Its twin peaks have long symbolized for the inhabitants of this archipelago the interaction of the MALE and FEMALE FORCES.

For this reason, mentioning the mountain implied not merely the geographical entity itself- or perhaps not even at all- but the powerful force it represented- the subject of so much of the worlds poetry- love and sex.

The best known of the Manyoshu`s poems mentioning Mt. Tsukuba, one which is part of the Hyakunin Isshu collection of poems, surely speaks of the mountain in a purely symbolic way ( as I have discussed in a previous post) as its author describes the Minanogawa River (男女川- these characters literally mean: the Man-Woman River), a stream which still flows down from the valley between the Male and Female peaks, as a gushing river. The Emperor who composed this well known work clearly had not actually visited the mountain ( or even if he did, used the mountain and the river in a symbolic way).

Today I will introduce another one of the 25 Manyoshu poems which mention Mt. Tsukuba ( as opposed to the 13 which refer to Mt. Fuji). Once again, the mountains symbolic presence is more important than the mountain itself. It goes like this:

筑波嶺の　彼面此面に　守部据ゑ　母い守れども　魂ぞ会ひにける 

( TSUKUBANE NO OTEMONOMONI MORIHESUE HAHA IMOREDOMO TAMAZO AINIKERU)

Anonymous

Which I translate loosely in order to convey what I have found this poem to mean:

As the twin peaks of Mt Tsukuba watch out far and wide over the plain

my mother keeps watch over me

But despite her vigilance,

his soul and mine

have become mates

( Avi Landau)

Let me now break down the poem word by word so that you may interpret it for yourself  and decide what the original writer had in mind.

TSUKUBAMINE NO- Mt. Tsukuba`s ( and as I have mentioned this name automatically carried with it connotations of men and women, marriage, and  getting together physically)

OTEMONOMONI ( an archaic expression meaning here and there).

MORIHESUE ( guardmen)- I am not sure if this actually refers to specific guardmen who were actually present on Mt Tsukuba itself  ( I have never heard of such a thing) or just  symbolic chaperones or guardians of young girls virtues- I have omitted mentioning guardmen and make the whole mountain itself on vigilant guard over the Kanto Plain ( as it actually seems to be.

HAHA IMOREDOMO ( mother watches over me)

TAMA ZO ( SPIRITS, SOULS)

AINIKERU ( have met).

This poem was either written by, or from the point of view, of a young girl of good family. The difficult point, it seems to me, of interpreting this poem, is deciding whether or not the secret lovers have actually met and made physical love, or if they have merely come together IN A DREAM.

As I have said, Mt Tsukuba carries with it sexual connotations, and the mentioning of the mountain seems to me to be suggestive. However, the poet(ess) says- our TAMA (魂) have met, and this might indicate that the lovers have met in a dream ( which in those days might have had just as much significance as getting together in person.

I have decided to render the work in English with the latter interpretation. Though the young girl`s mothers is protective of her daughter and concerned about who she will marry to the point of obssession, it is the girl herself, in the freedom of dreams who decides her own destiny.

Still, I could change my opinion about it tomorrow- but thats what makes certain poems great- they carry different meanings for anyone who reads them- and can be understood differnetly at different times in ones own life.

 No matter what you think the poem means, when I read it ( along with the 24 others that mention Mt. Tsukuba, I cant help but share the excitement of my neighbors, in that these works, so old- yet so fresh, were written with OUR mountain in mind. 

I have written more about poems mentioning Mt. Tsukuba in this article on the HYAKUNIN ISSHU poetry collection:

http://blog.alientimes.org/2011/01/a-new-years-card-game-hyakunin-isshu-karuta-%E7%99%BE%E4%BA%BA%E4%B8%80%E9%A6%96%E3%81%8B%E3%82%8B%E3%81%9F-is-a-gateway-to-the-sublime-world-of-classical-japanese-poetry/                                                                        

Date: Sunday, April 27
Place: Ibaraki Christian University, Hitachi Omika
Cost: Free
More info: http://www.kasei.ac.jp/jalt/

Morning Session (Part 1): 10:00 (Registration from 09:30)
Doing Culture Ethnographically/Study Abroad Programs
by Elaine Gilmour, Associate Professor, Miyagi Gakuin Women’s University

This presentation examines what an ethnographic approach to teaching culture is, and suggests components for a community based ethnography course. We’ll also consider the point of such a course from the students’ perspective, by looking at questionnaire response data provided by students who have participated in Study Abroad programs during their university experience.

Lunch Break: 12:00-14:00

Afternoon Session (Part 2): 14:00
Actually Teaching Listening
by Alastair Graham-Marr, ABAX
Teaching listening effectively means teaching both phonology and knowledge of discourse. A working knowledge of the phonology of natural connected speech, elisions and liaisons, weak forms and reductions helps students with their 'bottom-up' decoding skills. Developing student knowledge of discourse, particularly of scripts (those discourses in English that tend to follow a set pattern) helps them with their 'top-down' predictive skills.

JALT Ibaraki chapter meetings are open to all interested in learning and teaching languages. Abstracts for the presentations and access information for the venue, as well further information for future events are available on the chapter website.

Takara`s Brazilian Mall next to Mitsukaido Station

The Japanese word ARIGATO and the Portuguese word OBRIGADO, which both mean THANK YOU in their respective languages, can often sound uncannily alike. And since Portugal WAS the first European country to have made contact with Japan ( in 1543), and DID in fact leave several linguistic traces of its presence (not to mention the introduction of Christianity and firearms, among other things!) which continue to live on in Modern Japanese, including the words for bread- PAN, button- BOTAN, cape- KAPPA, alcohol- ARUKORU and even the word TEMPURA, it is not surprising that there are MANY who assume that ARIGATO is also a word of Portuguese origin.

And though I KNOW that the Japanese word for THANK YOU actually derives from the adjective ARIGATAI, which appears in texts as old as the 8th century MANYOSHU, and for this reason CANNOT be related to the Portuguese , whenever I hear a hearty OBRIGADO, I am taken aback by the similarity.

 I have met only one or two Portuguese nationals in Japan in all my years of living here, but I have still been fortunate to have often heard the Portuguese language spoken in Japan-  in its Brazilian form (  it is often said by language lovers  that Brazilian Portuguese is the most beautiful of all tongues!). This is because, since the 1990`s , thousands of Brazilians, mostly with  Japanese ancestry of some degree, have come to Japan to take advantage of its (once) booming economy.

They settled primarily in 3 areas. Aichi Prefecture, in the towns with Toyota related factories, in Ota City in Gunma, and-  in our very own Ibaraki Prefecture, especially in  Mitsukaido and Ishige (which have now merged into Joso City).  While most of these immigrants were working at factories (such as Cannon) and had their own special visa status as NIKKEI-JIN, there were of course some entrepreneurs among them who went out and started up businesses of their own, many of these catering mostly to the  Brazilian community.

That is why, when you drive to or get out at Mitsukaido Station (on the Joso line, which you can catch in Moriya), not only will you surely be able to catch the melifluous tones of  Brazilian speech in your ears, but you will also be able to stock up on , lunch on, or just nosh on your favorite Brazilian foods and snacks. Close by the station`s exit, you will find the little mall called TAKARA, which has a supermarket, fresh bakery, and a kitchen where you can get all sorts of goodies that you cannot  normally find in Japan ( or outside of Brazil for that matter).

Leila Kondo serving it up

Maybe its because I always need a little VARIETY, but sometimes I cant contol the urge to head on out to Mitsukaido (by train or car it takes less than an hour) for some Pastel or Conxinhas (these are fried pastries made from flour or casava) which might contain chicken, cheese , ham, or my favorite - palmitas (palm fruit). Leila Kondo, who is behind the counter can also whip up a tasty burger. Whatever she cooks up can be spiced up with the various sauces left out at the tables.At the supermarket, there are several things that are special- the famous Brazilian sausages (perfect for barbecues ) the cashew juice or acai juice, and the baked goods. The breads have a unique CHEWINESS which is brought about by the use of casava flour. I like the bite-sized cheese breads called pao de queijo (47 Yen), especially when eaten just out of the oven.

Cashew Juice

For those who want to try other Brazilian dishes ( including the famous feijao, a  hearty and flavorfull bean and meat stew, or sit down for a bigger,more leisurely meal, a short walk around the corner will take you to the restaurant OPCAO. There you can expect your stomach to be more than comfortably weighed down, while your wallet is hardly lightened at all.

 Immigration to Brazil from Japan began back in 1908 when close to 800  Japanese sailed to the port of Santos (half the expense having been paid by the State of Sao Paolo) to work on the coffee plantations. Over  the next 70 years, about a quarter of a million Japanese  settled in Brazil as contract labourers or more rarely, as independant farmers. The large majority settled in the State of Sao Paolo and the remainder in the States of Parana and Para. Naturally, there was a trend for later genrations to head to the cities and go into other trades and professions. In Japan`s booming late 80`s and through the 90`s , some of the descendants of these immigrants (and sometimes their spouses) came back to their ancestral homeland , though they have tended to stick together, forming an intersting subculture in Japan.

Freshly baked Brazilian breads

If  you need a little variety , why not take half a day to spice up your life with a little Brazilian food around Mitsukaido Station.

3 Comments

• At August 7, 2009, drebes wrote:

  Actually, the word in portuguese is "obrigado", not "obligado". You may heard it as "obligado" from a Brazilian nikkeijin who grew up in a Japanese colony with Japanese as his/her first language, though.

• At August 7, 2009, Avi Landau wrote:

  Thanks drebes, or should I say- OBRIGADO ! Yes, surely after years in Japan, I too have begun to confuse my L`s and R`s, but in this case, as I typed, I must have been under the spell of the English word OBLIGED, which we also use to mean thank you!

  I have changed the text accordingly.

• At August 9, 2009, Sumiko wrote:

  Quite interesting! It's said Japanese language sounds very flat

  and doesn't have much strong accent.I wonder if the middle sound of the words mainly stimulates our hearing organs when spoken in a flat tone.

I have owned two electronic dictionaries in the past. Both of them were Canon Wordtanks. However, the last time I bought an electronic dictionary was in 2001 and they have changed a lot since then. It used to be that Canon was the only one that foreigners could use, but now there are lots of choices. (And I am not sure if the current model of the Wordtank is still foreigner-friendly.)

If you are thinking of buying an electronic dictionary, you might want to try asking around to see what people are buying these days. A good place to ask about this is TAIRA, a local mailing list that includes about 1000 members. There should be a few people on the list who have recently purchased an electronic dictionary and who are willing to give you advice. This topic comes up on TAIRA every now and then, so you can also look in the archives for some general advice.

Advice about models
* Japan Shop (Since this shop is mainly for people who are not already in Japan, you might want to use this site to compare models and then buy the one you choose at one of the local electronics shops.)

See also...
* Electronic Dictionaries: A Buyer's Guide (Dated, but still useful.)
* How to Choose a Good Dictionary (Mainly for paper dictionaries, but some general points to consider.)
* Article on Kanji Dictionaries in Alien Times

Did you know that the back issues of Alien Times were handed out during the Tsukuba International Exchange Fair last month? I had a chance to talk to quite a lot of people during the fair, and I was thrilled to find out that almost all non-Japanese speakers I’ve talked to were either Alien Times readers or someone who at least knew Alien Times. That was great considering that some of those people don’t even work or live in Tsukuba! I’ve also met several non-Japanese speaking people who came to the festival to get the information on Tsukuba because they were thinking of moving here, so they were delighted to see a free English-language publication!

A lot of Japanese college, high school and even junior high school kids were also excited to see "free English-language study materials," so they took the back issues without any hesitation. Quite a lot of them told me that they hardly understand the contents of Alien Times but would still love to read the articles with dictionaries in their hands :)

Some adults, on the other hand, reacted completely different. A couple of Japanese men in their late 40s or in their 50s came to talk to me after staring at a pile of Alien Times for a while. No, they didn't come at the same time, but they both started the "argument" the same way.

Their argument?

Well..., they both started the conversation with me by saying;
"Do you know the term 'Alien' isn't a very nice way to call a foreigner(s)?"

I politely answered yes and politely told them that the word "alien" also means "foreigner," so the name Alien Times isn't inappropriate in a way. Again, those guys reacted to what I have said the same way. They asked me if I knew that the term 'alien' is no longer in use at Narita Airport....

(　｀Д´)ﾉ Arrrrrrgh!! you smarty pants!

I knew why both of them were telling me the identical stuff. Actually, I knew what they were going to say before even they opened their mouth because there was a quiz show on TV just a few days before the festival, and one of the quiz questions happened to be about this 'alien' issue at the airport. Narita Airport had been using "ALIEN" for the signs above its immigration counters, but had stopped using it after receiving numerous complaints from foreign travelers in 1980s.　Obviously, many people began associating the word “alien” with “space alien” since that popular movie came out in 1979.

I was channel-surfing, and happened to watch just that part of the quiz show, so I had expected that someone would come at me with that argument. Some other adults didn’t try to argue with me, but did ask me that question or give me other negative reaction.

One very important fact those people forgot about was that Alien Times was and is being published by the "aliens" themselves!

Excerpt from "About Us" page of Alien Times:

While some people find the name "Alien Times" to be a bit strange, especially now that we are not referred to as aliens very much anymore, we decided to keep the title of the newsletter as it was in 1987 so that we remember how it all started.

I must've caught those men off guard when I told them that the people who are involved in Alien Times are foreigners, but I had to show one guy the back page of Alien Times to show the names of the staff to prove it! Those guys weren't convinced, that is, they still thought that "I" should change the name even when I told them the brief history of Alien Times, but what I should've done from the beginning was to just tell them that I, a Japanese, am not the one who makes Alien Times....

(　｀щ´)ﾉ Grrrrrr!!

In case you are wondering, Japan isn't the only country that uses "alien" in its official documents. I was once an alien in the United States though I'm sure the usage of 'alien' varies from state to state.

I'd also like to clarify that the Japanese word we use for foreigners is 外国人(がいこくじん、gaikoku-jin). 外 means outside, 国 is country, 人 is person, so it simply means "a person from outside of the country." The word for space alien is エイリアン(alien) or 宇宙人(うちゅうじん、uchuu-jin). 宇宙 means outer space, and since 人 is the letter for person, 宇宙人 means "a person from outer space." So don't get upset when you see "alien" written on your document because we don't think you are an "alien."

1. A new level will be introduced between levels 2 and 3 in 2010, making 5 levels in total. The new system will then consist of levels N1 to N5.

2. From 2009, levels 1 and 2 will be offered in July and all four levels will be offered in December.

3. The questions that have appeared on past tests will no longer be published.

(Source: http://www.jees.or.jp/jlpt/pdf/20080525_jlpt_kaitei_report_en_pre01_0718.pdf)

Also, it seems that they are going to offer a test site in Ibaraki this year.

(Source: http://www.jees.or.jp/jlpt/en/jlpt_guide.html)