In around 10 hours from now, the match between Japan and Cameroon will commence. And this is the first of several games I had been waiting for months.
I had specially requested vacation days from office just in order to watch Japan's matches on this South African 2010 World Cup. I have been a loyal supporter of the Japanese soccer team since I watched their play in 2002 (where they were halted by the Turks), and in the unfortunate 2006 Cup in Germany (where they couldn't advance from the first round simply because they were on the same group with Brazil that time).
My support this time? It will be for Japan, as always was, and as always will. It is an unwavering support, and I don't care if people say that Japan is not really a strong team or that the Japanese players are relatively shorter than their European counterparts.
I do love to watch France, Germany and England matches too though, as they always deliver superb performances.
What about South America?
I'm not entirely a big fan of any of the players in this continent, so I'll reserve my comment on this one.
Regarding the USA team (the team of my country of residence), I do hope they lose their matches and do not advance at all to the next round. A draw with England of 1-1 was quite a disappointing one, England should have won the match.
Now don't get me wrong.
It's not that I don't love America. I do love the country I'm residing in, because this is where I really belong.
But in America, the World Cup fever is less than noticeable. It barely exists, at all!
If you people in Asia are all talking about the match between England and USA yesterday, in America nobody I knew were even aware that USA is playing on TV!
So I guess it does fit the logic if I prefer other teams that generates much more enthusiasm and fan support from its own citizens.
Again, don't get me wrong, I love America though. I really do. I'm just not a big fan of its soccer team.
No, I'm not referring to Engrish here.
I'm talking about those Japanese who can speak fluent English, yet with mediocre pronunciations (i.e., thick Japanese accent).
They're one of the worse English speakers in the world, I guess.
Many Indonesians I know complain that they don't speak good enough in English. But nah, the Japanese are worse.
Read more...Tree...
The Kanji (Chinese character) for tree is actually a pictograph of a tree including trunk, branches, and roots as you can see below:
Grove...
The Kanji for "grove" is actually a compound of two adjacent trees of 木 + 木 :
Forest...
The Kanji for "forest" resembles three trees in close proximity and could either be a sum of 木 + 林 or a sum of 木 + 木 + 木 :
Amazon...
Ah, I'm not exactly sure how the Chinese make a character for "Amazon". While the Japanese could make do with their own katakana of アマゾン , the Chinese always have their own freaking distinct way of naming things. They even transliterate their own "Indonesia" into "Yindunixiya" or "Singapore" into "Xinjiapo"...
The Chinese have a kinda...uhm..stupid way of renaming things, don't you think?
(Nah, I ain't being racist up there, because I myself am 1/8 Chinese. Just call me linguicist)
Read more...I had known it all along that PM Yasuo Fukuda will resign soon (indeed he had a very unpopular support in the Diet's upper house) but definitely not this soon!
It was an honourable move expected of a political heir (who is son of former PM Takeo Fukuda) notwithstanding.
Now regarding the next PM of Japan, I am putting my bets on Taro Aso. Today I reiterate my statement that I have supported Taro Aso long before I supported Barack Obama (refer to my September 2007 post if you don't believe me). Aso has had a long career in the Foreign Affairs Ministry; and I think it would do Japan some good to have a former Foreign Minister reign as a PM - indeed they still need some more foreign experts at the top position to mend relations with former Japanese colonies of China and South Korea.
The comeback of Junichiro Koizumi has also been widely held as possible, though I don't think of it as very likely. Despite his Yasukuni visits, I do think that Japan needs some Obama-ish figure in the leadership - one who can inspire youngsters like me in the public spot.
On American politics, President George Bush has cancelled his planned attendance at the Republican Party National Convention due to Hurricane Gustav. Indeed it either means that Bush and McCain are not meant to go together, or perhaps this is a sign that McCain's presidential nomination has not gotten God's blessings!!
I would very much love to think that the latter possibility is more likely, because a change promised by a Democrat like Obama is just what we need right now... Eight (failed years by Bush) is enough!
Now on Indonesia, do you know that as of July 2008, Indonesia's foreign debt has amounted to 1,462 trillion Rupiahs? If we divide the debt's responsibility evenly amongst all Indonesian citizens, then it would mean that every single toddler born in Indonesian territory has already gotten a debt of Rp 6,500 (US 70 cents). Perhaps it would do some good if you -as an Indonesian citizen- start paying your debt by disciplining yourselves when it comes to the taxes due dates.
Read more...Yesterday (6/8), The Jakarta Post ran a People story on Taro Aso, the incumbent Secretary General of LDP. Apparently, there are calls for him to run for office to replace Yasuo Fukuda.
This does not come as a surprise to me because last year, I have written a blog post on Japanese leaders that says:
Nicolas Cage-ish PM [Shinzo Abe] now replaced by a salaryman-ish PM Yasuo Fukuda? I had actually expected to have Taro Aso to take the job instead.(sorry for quoting myself here, gee-hee)
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Below is a list of my fave series, ranked from my most favourite title in No.1.
Anime
K-Drama
J-Drama
US-Drama
I hope this guide could help you in traversing your way thru the Hiragana characters for the first time.
If you count all the existing Hiragana characters in your Japanese study book, you'll see that there are more than 100 characters (107 to be precise) to memorise.
But fear not, because the real number of Hiragana you have to memorise is no larger than 46 characters only.
When I first studied Hiragana three years ago, it took me hours to relate the Hiragana characters to other symbols that I -as non Japanese- am familliar with. Though not all of the Hiragana characters are somehow related with a mental picture, let me elaborate on the easiest characters first:
1. The so-called "Mathematical Hiragana"
CHI (ち)
Does this character look familliar to you? Yes, it looks just like the number 5, only with a "lowered roof".
SA (さ)
This is what you get if you display the character CHI above on the mirror.
KI (き)
Just remember it as a SA with an additional cross. Make sure not to confuse it with SA, though.
RA (ら)
Now this is the number 5 with the roof "blown off".
FU (ふ)
This is just a RA with additional two legs on its bottom.
KU (く)
In maths, we call this "lower than". In music, we call this "Crescendo".
KO (こ)
"Equal to", with a slightly hooked top.
RO (ろ)
Looks like the number 3, only with a sharper roof.
RU (る)
You shouldn't confuse it with RO, since this has a tail on its bottom.
KE (け)
Mathematical people call this "brackets with a cross", while linguistic ones prefer to call it "parenthesis with a cross". Either way, they're synonymous
2. Other easy characters to remember
SHI (し)
Please don't remember it as "the Christmas candy bar", because you could get confused whether the hook was turning left or turning right. Instead, picture this character as the Latin alphabet "J" on the mirror.
HE (へ)
This looks perfectly like a part of high-heeled shoes.
NO (の)
You may not believe me, but this is actually the easiest Hiragana character to memorise. Or rather, as I say it, the hardest one to forget. Even if you choose not to touch your Japanese study books for decades, forever you'll always remember this の as a NO. Hey, it looks just like an eye, don't you think?
KA (か)
This looks like the lower-case alphabet of "H" with an additional diagonal scratch on its right-hand side.
NI (に)
Imagine it as a KO (こ) with a stick on its left-hand side.
TSU (つ)
Bump in the road, anyone?
N (ん)
A simple tail. Just like NO, this character is hard to wipe off your memory.
E (え)
This is the Hiragana N with additional two roofs above it.
3. Potentially confusing pairs
From this point onwards, I'm afraid you'll have to memorise the characters themselves, with no other pictorials to guide you. But I still feel obliged to tell you the difference between each potentially confusing pair of characters, though.
TA (た) and NA (な)
As for this pair, pay a close attention to the slight difference in the bottom right, and you'll remember it fine.
ME (め) and NU (ぬ)
NU has a tail, while ME doesn't.
WA (わ) and RE (れ) and NE (ね)
Make sure to remember that each of these three have different "tails", otherwise it'll be easy for you to confuse one with the other two. And now that you see it, WA doesn't have any tails, right?
I (い) and RI (り)
At a glance, they look the same, but let's remember it this way: I has a longer left hand, while RI has a longer right hand.
HA (は) and HO (ほ) and MA (ま)
MA has no stick to begin with. HO has a roof, while HA has none. And take a closer look, it may seem that MA is just another HO with its stick taken, but it really isn't. MA has no roof, don't you see?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So far I've helped with you with 30 of the 46 main Hiragana characters. The rest shouldn't be very hard to study (It only took me two days of rote memorisation to study the remaining 16 of them).
Once you've gotten the 46 main Hiragana characters firmly implanted in mind, it would be very easy to memorise the other 61 characters that I choose to call "extended Hiragana".
As for the extended Hiragana, let's take it this way:
K ==> G (add an apostrophe). For example, to get a GI (ぎ), just add an apostrophe (") to the character KI (き)
S ==> Z (add an apostrophe). Same example as in above.
T ==> D (add an apostrophe). Refer to the above too.
H ==> B (add an apostrophe).
H ==> P (add a degree). You know, the Centigrade/Fahrenheit degree? just add it (°) to the HA (は) character to get a PA (ぱ). Just make sure not to confuse it with the BA (ば), which has an apostrophe.
Some people may see this as a barrier, but I tend to see it more as a challenge. If that is what it takes to come to Japan, let the show begin then!
This blog explained that the main reference used by the Japanese govt to examine a foreigner’s proficiency is the JLPT, with all its weaknesses being elaborated upon by using a direct comparison between Japanese JLPT and English TOEIC. Well, I tend to see it that way too, especially since JLPT never tests one’s speaking or writing ability. There are only Grammar, Vocabulary, Kanji, and Listening comprehension for one to study, and they furthermore still provide 4 choices of answers for you, giving each of your guess shots a 25% possibility of being correct.
Another blog also tells me about the possibility of having a JLPT level “pre-1” being considered. It’s not a bad idea, but if they wanna put it as such, they should also consider having a level “pre-2”, since the gap between pre-3 and pre-2 is simply waaaaaay too wide.
If only the Japanese government allows me to take Japanese citizenship as my second, and not requiring me to let go off my first one, I’d be happy to take it straight away. Too bad the news is limited to the visa only.
Read more...The content of this blog post is originally taken from this site, hence the copyright is fully a courtesy held by The Straits Times.
They write the most blogs in the world, not to stand out but to fit in, to a largely conformist culture
Although English speakers outnumber Japanese speakers by more than five to one, slightly more blog postings are written in Japanese than in English, according to Technorati, the Internet search engine that monitors the blogosphere.
By some estimates, as much as 40 per cent of Japanese blogging is done on mobile phones, often by commuters staring cross-eyed at tiny screens for hours as they ride the world's most extensive network of subways and commuter trains.
Blogging in
Bloggers here shy away from politics and barbed language. They rarely trumpet their expertise. While Americans blog to stand out, the Japanese do it to fit in, blogging about small stuff: cats and flowers, bicycles and breakfast, gadgets and TV stars. Compared with Americans, they write at less length, they write anonymously and they write a whole lot more often.
'Behaviour is more important than technology,' said Joichi Ito, a board member at Technorati and an expert on how people around the world use the Internet. 'In
Technorati found that of all recorded blog postings in the fourth quarter of last year, 37 per cent were written in Japanese, 36 per cent in English and 8 per cent in Chinese.
This was not an aberration. In the past three years, Japanese has been running ahead of, or about even with English, as the dominant language of blogging, according to Technorati. About 130 million people understand Japanese, while about 1.1 billion understand English.
Those numbers startle no one more than the Japanese. For even as they use personal computers, Internet-enabled mobile telephones and a ubiquitous high-speed Internet network to blog anytime and anywhere, they keep awfully quiet about it.
Consider, for example, the remarkably harmonious blog that Ms Junko Kenetsuna has been writing five times a week for the past three years about her mid-day meal.
With understated precision, she calls her blog 'I had my lunch'. In a recent dispatch from a Vietnamese restaurant in
In all the blog entries she has composed at home and in cybercafes over the years, she has never written a discouraging word - not a single critical reference to bad food, lousy service or rip-off prices, she said. Such harshness, in her view, would be improper and offensive.
'If I think the food stinks, I don't write about it,' said Ms Kenetsuna, 43, who makes a living writing advertising copy for a weekly newspaper for female office workers in
She gets almost no online comments or feedback from any of them, although she had hoped she might.
Still, she does not want to over-excite her readers or provoke comments that would hurt her feelings. 'Because my blog may be read by people I don't know, I am cautious about revealing my inner thoughts,' she said. 'I don't want to be criticised for what I write.' To keep her profile low, she blogs anonymously.
None of this surprises Mr Robert Pickard,
LAT-WP
Read more...Yes, here is my method in feigning an ability to read Kanji (out loud). By calling it Kanji, of course I mean Chinese characters in JAPAN, not in PRC (where they are called Hanzi), or in Korea (where they are called Hanja).
I’ve applied this method numerous times, but I must remind you that before you start applying this trick, you have to realize that this method isn’t completely foolproof.
Here are the steps:
· You must have completed mastery of Kana (Hiragana and Katakana), no exception allowed.
· Make sure that the whole text of Kanji, whether it is from a children’s magazine, children’s book, or Japanese beginner’s text has Ruby Characters (Furigana) on them, including the repetitions of the characters. Hence, if you see the character 山 in the beginning of the text has transliteration of やま, make sure that when you find the same character in latter part of the text, the 山 would still have its furigana of やま
· It would be better off if you can speed-read Kana.
· Under any circumstances, NEVER attempt this whole method in front of a real Japanese speaker, otherwise you would be laughed off straightaway. A real Japanese speaker would recognise your “kanji-reading” as a fake one directly, because beginners in Japanese language tend to emphasise their “speaking” in the accents, not in the intonation as a real Japanese speaker would do.
· Practise the reading-out-loud of the text concerned in private before you try demonstrating it in front of your relatives/colleagues/friends/acquaintances, in order to minimise the possibility of stumbling in several Hiragana/Katakana characters.
· The people whom you demonstrated the “Kanji-reading” method to would certainly applaud your ability to be able to read such complex characters. Sometimes, they would ask you to give them the summary of the whole text. In order to ready yourself for such a case, open your Japanese dictionary and look for the vocabularies and get a grip on what the whole text is about.
If you follow the whole method above without missing a single step, you’ll surely get the acclamation you wanted. I often tried this method in the past, during the days when I was able to read only less than 20 kanji. However, today that I am able to read around 300 kanji, I actually come to realise that it is a hell lot easier to speed-read a text that consists of 80% kanji 20% kana (like most general Japanese newspapers have) than 100% kana (like Japanese kindergarten schoolbooks). I’ll tell you my analysis on that next time.
Read more...What is a (language) particle?
As defined in Japanese About:
Particles are probably one of the most difficult and confusing aspects of Japanese sentences. A particle (joshi) is a word that shows the relationship of a word, a phrase, or a clause to the rest of the sentence. Some particles have English equivalents. Others have functions similar to English prepositions, but since they always follow the word or words they mark, they are post-positions. There are also particles that have a peculiar usage which is not found in English. Most particles are multi-functional.
From that website too, I’ve compiled various differences in the usage of particles that beginners in the Japanese language may find confusing from A to Z. Hope this guide compilation is useful enough!
Note: This list is not exhaustive, please feel free to send in your questions whenever you stumble upon them.
Location Marker: NI or DE?
Ø DE is used to indicate the place where an action takes place.
e.g. Honya de manga o katta (I bought the comics at the bookstore)
Ø NI is used to indicate the place whereabouts of an inanimate/animate object (esp. with verbs such as iru/aru [to exist] and sumu [to live])
e.g. Okaasan wa
Direction marker: E, NI, or O?
Ø E is interchangeable with NI to indicate a destination.
e.g. San-ji ni uchi e kaettewa ikemasen (You can’t go home at 3 o’clock)
Ø NI is translated as “to” when indicating a destination.
e.g. Seinen Furansu ni itta (I went to
Ø O is used to indicate the route which the movement follows, i.e. with verbs such as walk, run, pass, turn, drive, go through, etc.
e.g. Takushii wa yuubinkyoku no mae o toorimasu (The taxi passes in front of the post office)
The difference between GA and WA.
Fear no longer. You’ve found this blog post, and here are the tricks to choose the correct particle whenever you stumble upon those two:
Ø WA is used to mark something that is familiar to both the speaker and listener. GA is used when a situation or happening is just noticed or newly introduced.
e.g. Mukashi-mukashi, ojii-san ga sunde imashita. Kare wa totemo hansamu deshita. (Once upon a time, there lived an old man. He was very handsome.)
Ø Never use WA with a question word. Use GA instead.
e.g. Kono hito ga sukii desu ka? (Do you like that guy?)
Ø Under special circumstance, GA replaces O to accompany some verbs and adjectives (expressing like/dislike, desire, potential, necessity, envy, fear, etc.)
e.g. Kuruma ga hoshii desu. (I want a car)
Ø WA is used to show contrast.
I had mine in
The JLPT this time round took place on a bloody sunny Sunday, 2 December 2007 in a relatively-unknown-yet-far-faraway
As expected of a 3rd class college, the campus looked pretty dilapidated to me, kinda like a public high school (or an SMU Negeri in Indonesian) with twice of the average size.
The exam commenced at 9 o’clock sharp with the Moji-Goi section, followed by the Chokai and Dokai-Bunpou sections respectively with interspersions of respites between each sessions, and ended at 11.55
Here are my review of those 3 sections that I’d gone thru:
I knew it all along that if I rote memorised all the 800 vocabs from faraway before the D-day; I could’ve mastered this section better. However, my lax attitude coupled with my indiscipline had myself studying like hell the whole 800 lexicons needed for the exam. Thank God I managed to memorise around 90% of the vocabs in the end and able to answer all the questions without any difficulties. ;P
I blamed myself for failing this section. I could’ve bought the past-year exam cassettes needed for the test (at least so that my ears could get lil’ bit used to it), but I didn’t. I looked for the cassette in my Gakushudo centre in Gran Wijaya, wherein I was faced with the fact that they had run out of the cassetes. So be it; even though the questions were supposedly easy, my sense of hearing missed a lot of points. Damn, I should’ve killed myself, lols.
All the three days before the test was spent drilling on the Japanese particles to (such as O, No, Wa, Ga, E, To, Ni, etc) as I was well aware how often this ilk of question came out in the lvl4 JLPTs. Well I had them downloaded actually, because I bought nothing (I mean it!) for the preparation of the JLPT… Lols. I think I could score at least 80% on the whole paper.
So… what’s left now? My tips and tricks for you who are having the exam next year, of course.
To be noted here, things aren’t the same for different levels in JLPT. People who had gone thru the level 2 and 1 mostly say that the order of sections in increasing difficulty for their exam is like this:
Chokai, Moji-Goi, Dokai-Bunpou
However, for me (and I believe for most people too), the order for JLPT4 in increasing difficulty is like this:
Moji-Goi, Dokai-Bunpou, Chokai
Weird huh, how Chokai as the hardest section in level 4 could get turn into the easiest one in level 2? My logic says that it’s due to the fact that when you’ve studied Japanese for a long time and acquired more lexicons, your ears could finally get a better grip on listening to Japanese speakers and comprehending them would be no big problem. Anyway, That’s just apiece of my thinking.
I still hope I could get 90% or above though.
Can’t wait till March, lols.
Read more...Usually the advertisements I found here and there give hogwash websites where you have to pay to register and blah2... blah2... but hey, this website really gives past year JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) papers for free!!
Here is the key to get specific past year papers for level 1-4, from year 1991 to 2007:
http://jlpt.biz/jlpt/jlptexamine.do?year=2007&level=4
By replacing the year 2007 above with another specific year and the level 4 above with another specific level, you could obtain any papers you need.
Just watched in the BBC two days ago that Yasuo Fukuda, a 71 year old geezer, was elected as the new president of LDP and thus being successor of Shinzo Abe’s seat.
What should I say of this? Hmm… A salaryman-looking chap going to reside in Kantei (the Japanese version of the Britons’
I think a lot of Japanese PMs have many aspects on them that makes them always seem incompetent to the Japanese public. Shinzo Abe is too young, Koizumi visited Yasukuni, Kiichi Miyazawa puked on George Bush Sr., and several other PMs before them were either prisoners, became a prisoner, or tainted with corruption scandals. That’s why the PM changes so often, as there were 7 Japanese PMs during the
There is even the news in Mainichi Waiwai that Shinzo Abe’s election nightmare was largely due to the fact that he cares more for his dachshund pooch than the nation! I’m not sure if that’s some kind of joke, but still, for a nation that advanced to be highly disappointed in him, there must’ve been something in him that made ppl dislike his aura.
For me personally, it’s the lost of a charismatic PM.
How could the Diet replace Junichiro Koizumi, who looks like Richard Gere, with Shinzo Abe who looks like Nicolas Cage?
Nicolas Cage-ish PM now replaced by a salaryman-ish PM Yasuo Fukuda? I had actually expected to have Taro Aso to take the job instead.
Can’t wait for a new scandal from the newest
Earthquake in
Are u ppl sure there’s an earthquake last nite? I live in Pamulang which is 3 km southwest of
All these reports make me wonder: “Is it true that u guys in
Anyway, a better news report caught my eye last nite: Japanese PM and Russian PM resign on the same day.
Wow. That’s a very rare coincidence! A stepping down of a country’s leader must have sth very scandalous going on for it to happen and two neighbouring countries with two scandalous prime ministers on the same day? It’s simply a wow.
Despite my dislike towards (former-PM-to-be) Shinzo Abe, I kinda pity that guy when I heard on the news that he got hospitalised this morning… Poor chap. He must have got sumkind of the “nervous breakdown” that Bree van de Kamp (now Bree Orson) had had during the most turbulent time in her family, huh…
Hope Mr Abe won’t do anything stupid related to Bushido ethic whatsoever (meaning: suicide)!! It would send the country down with its reputation, I can’t imagine how could
It’s 12 September 2007 13.30 Jakarta Time when I watched on BBC the news of PM Abe resigning.
Finally!!! Thank God!!
Ever since the early months of his taking the power, Abe is a guy whom Japanese and non-Japanese alike can hardly dislike more: with that plaintive Nicolas Cage-ish expression perpetually shown in his face and a couple of corrupt ministers, he has been sending Japan to her lowest political pit since WW2.
I’m starting to miss Mr Koizumi, that very liberal man who deserves much applaud for LDP’s reputation… ! Hope Mr Koizumi can take the job again, but he’s simply too old now, eh?
Yeah!!! I finally applied for the JLPT level 4 just after my Japanese class. I firstly thought what a fuss it’d be for me to apply for the test directly in the local host institution for
Such a fortunate thing, eh?
I’ve spent the last 5 days reviving my 2-yr-old-Blog and giving it a totally new look by refreshing, reedit, preview, refreshing, reedit, preview, refreshing, reedit, preview, and the cycle simply went on and on as long as I could remember.
I’ve left the blog for many moons before my latest “revival” that I was impressed to find that the Blogger has gotten a totally new look now… It’s now like, a hell lot different than it was last October 2006. The new feature that I find highly helpful is the Page Element section, which enables me to edit any of the additional sidebars and other elements in my Blog without any need to tamper with the HTML section.
Previously, organising the Blog was such a hassle for me, as I needed to copy-paste codes here n’ there in the middle of the designed Blog template. Now, the trouble’s all gone…
It’s such a pity that in order to use the Page Element, one needs to use an internal website template (meaning: the template choices offered by Blogger). Thus, when I tried to use templates from elsewhere like Blog Skin or blogger-template, I no longer have the luxury to add n remove the page elements as I like… It’s kinda discriminating exclusivity only given to those who utilise Blogger’s template, right? Hopefully Google will attend to this matter someday.
Today’s Japanese lesson … as usual, did not give me the usual chance to display my brilliance. Things have been going on like that recently. During my Basic 2 grade, I used to display to the whole class how I topped in both Japanese speaking and Kanji-writing. But things simply swerved now during my Basic 3, which was due to my “temporary loss of interest in Japanese” syndrome. I dunno why, but this so-called “syndrome” usually comes in a yearly basis, and for years I still haven’t found the reason behind this.
Thank God, my so-called “syndrome” is slowly healing now. I healed myself by watching Anime routinely, listen to Japanese songs, and watch J-Doramas… I personally consider it a “blaspheme” to turn away from an interest that has been held for so long.
About two weeks ago, I just found out an interesting website. Well.. uh.. not like the website I've given yesterday.. Hehex. I saw that nobody has fallen into my trap. If you have never known that website before, just open it, lar..
Well.. the website I'm talking about today is the Furigana helper, which helps ppl (non-Japanese only, actually) to get used to Kanji. Do you know Furigana? Yeah, now you know what is Furigana already. This website will convert all Kanji into Hiragana, and this is damn fun, Man!! (since I only mastered Kana, but not Kanji).
This's all Blog for today
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