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【No. 1662】How to Read 2019

Jul 7, 2019 13:24
How to Read 2019

This year is 2019 A.D.

In Japan, the most common reading of 9 is kyū.

On the other hand, when 9 is used with counter suffixes such as nen (年 - "year"), getsu/gatsu (月 - "month"), or ji (時 - "o'clock"), it is usually read as ku instead of kyū.

In fact, the oldest Japanese broadcasting station defined the reading of '2019 nen' (2019年 - "the year 2019") as nisen jūku nen.
(Note that the reading nisen jūkyū nen is not completely wrong.)

However, '1999 nen' (1999年 - "the year 1999") is read as sen kyūhyaku kyūjū kyū nen to fix the rhythm of the words.
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【No. 1661】Sagasu (さがす - Searching)

Jul 6, 2019 09:24
Sagasu

The most common Japanese verb meaning "to search" is sagasu (さがす), but it has two notation ways by using different kanji, 探す and 捜す.

These two kanji are basically used as follows:

Use 探す when you search for what you want to get or see.

Use 捜す when you search for what you lost, what you cannot see, or someone who was missing.

For example, 探す is used when you want to find a job or hunt for treasure, whereas 捜す is used when you want to find a lost wallet or a missing person.
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【No. 1660】Tariki Hongan (他力本願 - Relying on Someone)

Jul 5, 2019 16:35
Tariki Hongan

Relying on someone or leaving your work to someone is sometimes called tariki hongan (他力本願) in Japanese.

Ta (他) means "other," riki (力) means "power," hon (本) means "true," and gan (願) means "wish," so you may think that this four-character idiom expresses its literal meaning.

However, both tariki (他力) and hongan (本願) are Buddhist terms -- tariki means "the power of Amitabha Buddha" and hongan means "a wish to have people become Buddha."

That is to say, originally tariki hongan means "to become a Buddha relying on the power of Amitabha Buddha."

It is thought that the meaning of "relying on someone" was made from the meaning of each kanji, then it became popular.
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【No. 1659】Onbu ni Dakko (おんぶに抱っこ - Completely Relying on Others)

Jul 4, 2019 09:15
Onbu ni Dakko

Yesterday, I introduced the term marunage (丸投げ), which means to leave all the work that you have to do to someone else.

There is another expression similar to marunage -- it is onbu ni dakko (おんぶに抱っこ).

Onbu (おんぶ) means "piggyback," and dakko (抱っこ) is a children's word that means "huggy (wuggy)."

Imagine that a child solicits you for huggy after you gave the child a piggy-back ride.

The expression onbu ni dakko means such a situation that someone completely relies on other's favor.
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【No. 1658】Marunage (丸投げ - Leave All Things)

Jul 3, 2019 19:36
Marunage

It is not good to do marunage (丸投げ) your work to someone.

Marunage means to leave all the work or tasks that you have to do to someone.

Maru (丸) usually means "circle" or "sphere," but it can also mean "perfect" or "all" due to the completeness of circle/sphere.

In addition, nage (投げ) means "to throw."

That is to say, marunage literally means to throw all things at someone.

[Example] Jōshi wa itsumo watashi ni shigoto wo marunage suru (上司はいつも私に仕事を丸投げする - "My boss always leave all his jobs to me").
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【No. 1657】Maruku-naru (丸くなる - Mellowing)

Jul 2, 2019 20:20
Maruku-naru

It is said that the character of people tend to maruku-naru (丸くなる) as they get older.

Since maruku/marui (丸く/丸い) means "round" or "circle," and naru (なる) means "to become," the literal meaning of maruku-naru is "to become round" or "to curl up (in a ball)."

Of course, you can use this term to express its literal meaning, whereas it can also be used to describe someone's character.

In the latter case, maruku-naru means that a person who is easily angered comes to have a gentle character.
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【No. 1656】Chō-dokyū (超弩級 - Extraordinary)

Jul 1, 2019 15:51
Chō-dokyū

When expressing that something is extraordinarily huge, we sometimes say chō-dokyū (超弩級 or 超ド級) in Japanese.

Chō (超) means "super" and kyū (級) means "degree."

Also, do (弩/ド) is the first letter of the British battleship "Dreadnought" built in 1906.

Originally, huge and powerful battleships like "Dreadnought" were called dokyū-kan (弩級艦) or chō-dokyū-kan (超弩級艦) -- here, kan (艦) means "ship."

Later, dokyū and chō-dokyū became commonly used as terms that represent something huge or powerful.
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【No. 1655】Shari (シャリ - White/Vinegared Rice)

Jun 30, 2019 17:21
Shari

White rice or vinegared rice used for sushi is called shari (シャリ) in Japan.

It is thought that shari comes from a Sanskrit term "sarira" (meaning "Buddha's cremains") or "sari" (meaning "rice").

In general, outside of sushi shop, white rice is called kome (米), hakumai (白米), or gohan (ご飯).

Incidentally, rice used for sushi is usually flavored with vinegar and is referred to as sumeshi (酢飯 - literally means "vinegared rice").

There are various reasons for this; vinegared rice has effects of preservation, deodorization, and sterilization, and possess a good flavor.
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【No. 1654】5C Problem

Jun 29, 2019 18:48
5C Problem

Several days ago, I encountered the "5C problem."

The 5C problem is a kind of programming errors that could occur when using Japanese characters.

Japanese characters are usually represented by two bytes in computers and programming languages.

However, when using "Shift-JIS," which is one of the Japanese character codes, the second bytes of some Japanese characters (such as 表, 十, and ソ) become '5C'.

The '5C' represents a backslash character, and it has been adopted as the escape character for many programming languages.

Because of this, some Japanese characters have a special meaning in programming, hence they could induce errors.
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【No. 1653】Emi (笑み - Smiling)

Jun 28, 2019 11:51
Emi

Smiling is expressed as emi (笑み) in Japanese.

There are various idiomatic expressions that use emi.

Emi wo ukaberu (笑みを浮かべる - the literal meaning is "to float a smile")・・・To play a smile.

Emi ga koboreru (笑みがこぼれる - the literal meaning is "a smile spills")・・・To have a smile naturally.

Man-men no emi (満面の笑み)・・・A full smile.

Kaishin no emi (会心の笑み)・・・A smile with satisfaction.
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【No. 1652】Kiki Semaru (鬼気迫る - Serious/Ghastly)

Jun 27, 2019 11:14
Kiki Semaru

I sometimes see actors/actresses who have a face described as kiki semaru (鬼気迫る) in movies and dramas.

Kiki semaru means that something is extremely serious or ghastly, and it is often attached to kao (顔 - "face"), hyōjō (表情 - "facial expression"), engi (演技 - "performance"), or fun-iki (雰囲気 - "atmosphere").

Ki (鬼) means "ogre," ki (気) means "feeling" or "whiff," and semaru (迫る) means "to approach," so the literal meaning of kiki semaru is "a whiff of an ogre is approaching."

If you feel a creepy whiff of an ogre, your face and behavior will be very serious and ghastly.

This expression represents such seriousness.
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【No. 1651】Chawan (茶碗 - Bowl/Cup)

Jun 26, 2019 17:24
Chawan

Most Japanese people use chawan (茶碗) every day.

Since cha (茶) means "tea" and wan (碗) means "bowl," the literal meaning of chawan is "tea bowl."

In ancient times, chawan literally meant a bowl for putting in and drinking tea, but it gradually came to mean various bowls (especially made of ceramics) for eating and drinking.

In our days, if you say just chawan, it usually refers to a bowl for eating rice.

If you want to mean tea bowl explicitly, you can say yunomi dyawan (湯のみ茶碗) or yunomi (湯のみ); here yu (湯) means "hot water" and nomi (のみ) means "drinking."
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【No. 1650】Mi wo Ko ni Suru (身を粉にする - Working Hard)

Jun 25, 2019 09:54
Mi wo Ko ni Suru

I am working while mi wo ko ni suru/shite (身を粉にする/して).

Since mi (身) means "body" and ko/kona (粉) means "powder," the literal meaning of mi wo ko ni suru is "to grind one's body into powder."

This idiom expresses that someone works as hard as the body becomes powdery.

It is often used as mi wo ko ni shite hataraku (身を粉にして働く "to work one's finger to the bone") by adding the verb hataraku (働く - "to work").
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【No. 1649】Shiodoki (潮時 - Time/Chance)

Jun 24, 2019 22:38
Shiodoki

Everything has its shiodoki (潮時).

Shio (潮) means "tide" abd doki/toki (時) means "time," so the literal meaning of shiodoki is "time when the tide comes in and goes out."

Originally, shiodoki was used to its literal meaning among fishermen.

For the fishermen, such moments of high tide and low tide were one of the most important indicators to decide when to go out to sea.

Because of this, shiodoki came to be widely used as a word that means the best time to start or finish something.

Incidentally, about 40% of Japanese people mistake the meaning of shiodoki to be "time to quit/leave (in a negative sense)."
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【No. 1648】Kenage (健気 - Admirable)

Jun 23, 2019 18:04
Kenage

I like people who have a character described as kenage (健気).

Kenage means that someone has a good/solid attitude, or a vulnerable person (especially a child/woman) strives with difficulties.

Kenage is short for kenarige (けなり気), which is combining kenari (けなり) and ge/ke (気); here kenari is an old Japanese word meaning "different," and ge/ke means "feeling."

Because of this, kenage originally used to describe different or excellent people.

It came to have the above meanings deriving from that, and now it often means that a person strives with difficulties.

【No. 1647】Gyū-tan (牛タン - Ox Tongue)

Jun 22, 2019 23:55
Gyū-tan

Today I went to a barbecue restaurant and ate many grilled meat with my best friend.

The food what we first ate was gyū-tan (牛タン - "ox tongue").

I think that most Japanese people will first eat ox tongues when they go to a Japanese barbecue restaurant.

Since ox tongues have less fat and are not strongly seasoned, you can enjoy the taste the most when you eat it first.

In addition, it is often seasoned with only salt, so ox tongues do not contaminate a grill or iron plate; this is the other reason that people eat ox tongues first.
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【No. 1646】Demakase (でまかせ - Tall Tale)

Jun 21, 2019 10:35
Demakase

I sometimes see a person who say demakase (でまかせ).

Demakase means to say something at random, to tell a tall tale, and such words themselves.

Here, de (で) means "(to bring) out," and makase (まかせ) means "to rely on someone" or "to let it go."

Because of this, demakse implies words brought out on their own from one's mouth, and such words will be emotionless and nonsense.

Incidentally, another Japanese word dema (でま) has the same meaning as demakase, but these etymologies are completely different.
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【No. 1645】Chinchin/Acchinchin/Chinchikochin (ちんちん/あっちんちん/ちんちこちん - Very Hot)

Jun 20, 2019 11:20
Chinchin/Acchinchin/Chinchikochin

I was born and brought up in Nagoya city, Aichi.

In Nagoya (and its surrounding areas), there are dialect words, chinchin (ちんちん), acchinchin (あっちんちん), and chinchikochin (ちんちこちん), all of which means that water or something is very hot.

These terms come from the sound of a boiling kettle (or a jiggling lid of the boiling kettle).

In other words, these are something like onomatopoeia.

However, chinchin (ちんちん) is also an infant word that means "penis," so please be careful when using them outside of specific areas.
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【No. 1644】Te ni Ase wo Nigiru (手に汗を握る - Thrilling)

Jun 19, 2019 18:56
Te ni Ase wo Nigiri

Being excited or nervous by seeing/hearing a tense situation is called te ni ase wo nigiri (手に汗を握る) in Japanese.

Te (手) means "hand," ase (汗) means "sweat," and nigiri (握る) means "to grasp," so the literal meaning of this idiom is "to grasp sweat one's hand."

People will sweat and clasp their hands when seeing/hearing a tense or dangerous situation.

This idiom literally represents such a situation.

Even if you do not clasp your hand or sweat, you can say te ni ase nigiru to mean your excitement or tension.
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【No. 1643】Asedaku (汗だく - Sweaty)

Jun 18, 2019 23:00
Asedaku

In summer, I often become a state described as asedaku (汗だく).

Asedaku means that much sweat bursts from someone's body.

Ase (汗) means "sweat," and daku (だく) is short for an onomatopoeia dakudaku (だくだく), which represents that blood or sweat streams continuously.

Incidentally, people who tend to sweat a lot are called asekkaki (汗っかき); where kaki (かき) means something like "producing."

[Example] Hashitte asedaku ni natta (走って汗だくになった - "I drenched with sweat after running")