K.Y. (kuuki ga yomenai)

K.Y. (kuuki ga yomenai) means that a person can't lit. "read the air," or can't tell what's happening with the people in the room.  For example, if the K.Y. person were a comedian and making jokes that no one is laughing at, s/he (the comedian) would have no idea that no one's laughing and might think that the comedy gig is going fine.

In an everyday life example, it might be someone at a party making offensive jokes.  But s/he wouldn't know that people were being offended, and so s/he would be K.Y.

The first time I heard this phrase, several years ago, it was at a nomikai (lit. a drinking party).  There was a guy telling stories about his trip to China, and he went on for a long time.  He thought everyone was fascinated with his tales and details, but when he went to the bathroom, someone said, "Kare kuuki ga yomenai ne. . ." and I asked for a translation.

Anyway, I don't think that K.Y. is ever intended as a compliment, in Japanese.  The closest that I could imagine it to being a compliment would be when used by someone who knows that KY is the abbreviation for Kentucky, if that person like Kentucky Fried Chicken (which here is abbreviated as "KEN-tah-kee," not KFC).

Anyway, some video examples.  From a drama:



 A video I didn't really understand, to tell the truth. . .


 And something else that I didn't understand, because the subtitles were in Spanish.  But I thought the video was visually interesting.

suru (する) verbs, part 1

A long long time ago a friend gave me a list of suru verbs.  An American, he said that after he memorized this list he started to understand the (Japanese) news.  It's not a very sexy list, but I have faith that the vocabulary is practical.  I have yet to learn all the words, so getting them down visually in this blog is partly for my own sake.

Another friend taught me the Rule of 3, suggesting that it was a helpful thing to keep in mind when trying to remember something.  A former marine, he said that most human brains are wired to grasp concepts up to a limit of three at a time.  Of course, we can all focus on more than three things at once, but doing so compromises one's ability to properly concentrate on these things; in other words, going past three can spread us thin.  He told me that's why, in the military, when they send someone out into the field they try to limit the tasks to three.  He also said that it's an old rule, going back at least as far as the Roman Empire.  I've heard other versions of the Rule of 3 (e.g. in writing, advertising, etc.), but anyway. . .

The first three suru verbs:

aiyou suru ( 愛用する、あいようする ) --to use regularly, to give one's patronage

anji suru ( 暗示する, あんじする ) --to hint, suggest

annai suru ( 案内する、あんないする ) --to guide, lead

shareru / shareteiru ( しゃれる / しゃれている)

A followup on おしゃれ -- there are different verb forms.   

おしゃれ する is a way to say that someone is being おしゃれ.

Another verb, shareru ( しゃれる), can also be used for certain situations.  (Present progressive is shareteiru ( しゃれている ), past tense shareta ( しゃれた ).  My friend was trying to explain to me the nuance, the connotation, and it sounds like shareru would be used, for example, to describe a retro or vintage look. . .She said it can also be used ironically, like when you think that someone is being too ostentatious or blingy.　　I have to ask around more about that one.  Nuance is one of the harder things for me to figure out, especially when different Japanese speakers have different conceptions of words.

おしゃれ (oshare) and おしゃんてぃ (oshanti)

To some of my Japanese friends, this is the singly most important word in the lexicon:
Oshare (おしゃれ, オシャレ ) means fashionable, sharp, stylin, and the like.  It's used to describe clothes, accessories, shoes, handbags, etc. but can also be used to describe places, like cafes and restaurants.

A couple of years ago, my high school and college students taught me oshanti (おしゃんてぃ,  オシャンティー), a newer term meaning the same thing.  

If you YouTube おしゃれ, the results are so dominated by this TV show called おしゃれイズム which, although I haven't asked anybody about this, sounds like a katakana version of おしゃれ-ism.  Here are a couple of samples from the show.  The statuesque lady in the videos is Izumi Mori, a fashion model, actress, and talento.  I haven't seen much of her stuff, but I have quite a few friends (mostly women) who adore her.






Not that I'm trying to promote the show, but if you're interested in it, the website is at
http://www.ntv.co.jp/oshare/

Oshanti brought up some. . .different results:


 

よこばら (yokobara, 横腹）

よこばら (yokobara, 横腹）is the Japanese word for love handles.  Yoko (横) means side or width, and bara comes from hara (腹), the word for stomach.  So よこばら is like the sides of your stomach, or more accurately, the sides of your waist or core.

The word came up last week.  Back from winter vacation, at school we talked about the holidays, which quickly led to talking about what we did on Dec 31 and Jan 1--happens pretty much every year.  New Year traditions in Japan, the symbolic meanings of eating soba, osechi, and hatsumode.  Most years, someone in class will ask about Western traditions for celebrating the New Year.  I say drinkin' for some people, on New Year's Eve.  The countdown of course, which isn't exclusively in Western culture any more, if it ever was.  For millions of Americans the bowl games.  And, in Hawai'i, we set off firecrackers and fireworks to celebrate, more so on Dec 31 than July 4.  Twenty years ago New Year's Eve in Honolulu looked as smoky as a war zone in a war movie.  But that tradition is dying out as new and stricter laws curb the activities. 

And then we come to New Year resolutions.  Students get it immediately; my first example is the Smoker who lights up during the minutes prior to the Countdown and sucks it in before quitting. We go through a few more examples, then try setting resolutions ourselves.  Although this resolutions discussion can get repetitive for some teachers (I think especially for teachers in eikaiwa schools, but in high school and college English classes perhaps less so.  At least, for me.  Probably because when I was teaching in eikaiwa schools, I'd do it with all my classes, but in high school and college it only fits in with a few.  Also, it seems to be new to most high school and college students, young and newer to this world as they are).

(In teaching NY resolutions, one kind of extension that can make it more challenging and concrete is S.M.A.R.T., or something along those lines.  An example:)


Anyway, in one of my classes, we were doing resolutions.  This class has only one male student, almost a dozen females.  When we go around the room to share our goals, he says, "I want to rid of my yokobara."  Every girl laughs, affectionately.  "How do you say yokobara in English?" he asks me.  This is a teenager, not a middle-aged man, so it doesn't immediately hit me that he's self-conscious about his weight or amount of body fat.  Once he gestures to his love handles, though, I understand.  I try to assure him that No, man, you don't have to worry about that.  He sticks to his guns with his goal, so what can I say?  It's his resolution.  I said that I thought overall cardio activity and keeping track of saturated fat intake might help; and for strengthening and toning I like the Plank.

My goodness, there are a lot of You Tube videos about getting rid of よこばら.  Here are a few different exercises:




                      

I think they all look pretty good, but I just do the Plank.

チャレンジする and チャレンジャー

The way that "challenge" is used in Japanese seems to have its roots in English, but in application can be a bit different. 

チャレンジする (charenji suru), which is generally a transitive verb in English (e.g. "I challenge you to a contest"), is often used as an intransitive verb in Japanese.  This can lead to problems in direct translations, since in English it would be awkward to say, "I'll challenge!"  A better translation, one closer to its intended meaning, would be to say, "I'll try something new" or "I'll do something I've never done before."

From this comes the word チャレンジャー, which describes a person who is willing to try new things.  The first time I came across this word was seven or eight years ago.  I saw a product in a hundred-yen store that, according the picture on the packaging, seemed to be a kitchen deodorizer.  It looked like I was supposed to put it in my drain, but I wasn't sure.  I asked someone at work what  I should do with it, and she explained its function to me.  That night, she emailed me to say that she was perplexed at why I didn't know what to do with this thing that I myself had bought.  "You bought it, didn't you?  Why didn't you know what it was?"  I replied that, from the picture on the packaging, I had an inclination that it was for my kitchen, but I wasn't quite sure what it was but wanted to try it.  She wrote back, "I understand.  You are チャレンジャー!"

I think that it's generally seen as a good thing to be a チャレンジャー.

Apparently it's the name of a video game, too. Interesting how people post themselves playing video games. You Tube has just about everything! The other day I met a guy who learned how to solve the Rubik's Cube on You Tube.

あけおめ！ことよろ！

「明けましておめでとうございます！　今年もよろしくお願いします。」
 　あけましておめでとうございます　　　　      　ことしもよろしくおねがいします
Akemashite omedetou gozaimasu!  Kotoshi mo yoroshiku onegai shimasu.

These are of course the traditional phrases for the New Year in Japan, to be said after the clock has struck twelve.  Although we're sort of past the New Year grace period -- I'm told that the first few days of the year is the time for such well-wishing -- people still use it when they have their first January encounters with friends and family.  ( I think February would be a bit late in the year.)  I'll go back to work tomorrow, and I expect that I'll be exchanging these phrases with a number of people, both students and colleagues.

Akeome (あけおめ ) is the shortened form for 「明けましておめでとうございます」 and
Kotoyoro ( ことよろ ) stands for 「今年もよろしくお願いします。」

People taught me the shortened versions during my first New Year holiday in Japan, back in 2002.  At the time, I think these were considered new expressions, even "trendy," as my younger students told me.  My older students had no idea what they meant; when I explained what had been explained to me, I had the tacit impression that they didn't approve of this new language.

The next New Year, when I tried using あけおめ and ことよろ, my younger students were like, "Don't say that any more, it's old.  We don't say that any more."  But then the next year it came back, and folks all around me were saying it.  Over the years these abbreviations seem to have become part of the lexicon and I hear them everywhere.

Below are a few example usages: 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_n28VXMjL90

 
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8ldt9f8h2c

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoDwj4s2PvU
 

 And some English explanation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhV3xbiu3qk

 

浮かれる (うかれる)

浮かれる, ukareru    

According to my dictionary, it means "to be very happy, to be in high spirits, in top form. . .to be delighted, be tickled pink, to make merry. . ." This term came up the other day, when one of my friends and co-workers saw that I was wearing my "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" necktie, and she noted that I was in the Christmas spirit.  The connotation, she noted, was that being caught up in anticipation of something allows one to leave behind the drudgeries of reality.      

やりそう (yarisou)

やる (yaru) means do, same as する。
そう (sou), in this situation, means something akin to "seems like".

So やりそう means "It seems like you'd do that,"  or "It seems like something you'd do.

To illustrate, there was a class in which one of my students said this, and it made me laugh uncontrollably.

We were discussing an article about child discipline.  I asked everyone how they felt about corporal punishment.  After some small group talking time, we went around the room for people's views.  One member of the class said, "I think it is okay, if it is on a soft part of the body."  I think we all understood what she meant: spanking a child's bottom was okay, but hitting him/her, bruising, etc. was not.  Striking bone onto bone was not okay.  (I would like to mention that this student is a very nice person, having known her for two years, and I would bet all the money I have in this world that she wouldn't abuse a child.)

But, just as a joke, I asked her, "So this is okay?"  and I mimed someone hitting another person in the stomach.

The student immediately shook her head no.  Her friend, sitting next to her, shouted out, "Yarisou!", meaning that she thought the student would do something like that.  Punch her kid in the gut.  Of course, the friend was kidding, and we all shared a nice laugh.

音姫 (オトヒメ, the Sound Princess)

Have you ever felt embarrassed by the natural gaseous and liquid sounds we all make while doing Number 2?  For anyone who has, the public restroom in Japan is the place to be.

Witness the Otohime:


The first time I saw one was in 2001 or 2002, at an Italian restaurant in Ochanomizu.  Back then you had to press a button to make it work.  Its function is to make a bit of noise so that others in the restroom can't hear yours.

Apparently, In the past, people who wanted to cover up their bathroom sounds used to flush and flush as they went.   This would obviously result in a tremendous waste of water.  Enter the otohime (音, or oto, means sound and 姫, hime, is princess, e.g. Mononoke-Hime, the Miyazaki Hayao movie), literally, "sound princess"  (or Princess Sound?), which has been said to save 20 liters per use.  One of my students taught me this term.  I asked why they thought the device included princess in its name, and they said probably to lend it some cuteness.

紅葉 （こうよう、kouyou）

There's a single word in Japanese that describes the changing color of the leaves during autumn, 紅葉(kouyou).

Having grown up in Hawai'i, the fall leaves are kind of exciting for me.  I seem to remember seeing some Peanuts comic strips in which Charlie Brown and company would jump into piles of fallen leaves.  I yearned for the seasons sometimes, as a kid.  I like that there's a single word for it in Japanese.

These pictures are of Ikebukuro, from a little neighborhood park in the midst of what is mostly a concrete metropolis.  These little parks can really stand out--