Arches Arches All the way

In this blog intend to give corresponding  Japanese words for the 

objects which we commonly come across but do not know how to

express them.

 We very frequently come across the arches in commemoration of 

the victory or welcoming arch to welcome both the V.I.PS .

That is known as奉迎門.

In the olden days when the kings conquer the neighboring 

countries and to make it recorded they were constructing victory 

arches  ie 凱旋門as  it was one of the ways of making it known to 

the people .

 Arch bridge is one of the common things we see in the movies now .

as well as in the olden movies where around the アーチ橋

hero and heroines sing and dance around  or do the run and catch 

 games .

記念門　or memorial arch is in memory of some event may be

happy as well as  tragedy .

石造アーチ is the stone arch which we see in movies as well as in 

holiday resorts .

.

奉迎門	ほうげいもん	Welcome arch
凱旋門	がいせんもん	Arch of triumph
アーチ橋	アーチきょう	Arch bridge
記念門	きねんもん	Memorial arch
石造アーチ	せきぞうアーチ	Stone arch

COMMON EXPRESSION

 We quite often see people out of laziness to get up 

and take a pillow or

 they find it comfortable in keeping the arms as a pillow .

 we are of course not bothered about the reason  

but it is quite interesting to note that 

there is a single word  in Japanese which is  quite logical . 

yes it is called手枕     .

 In India many temples are built on mountains , 

and Japan also some temples are built on Mountains . 

are called as山寺.

 It is not uncommon to come across so many insects 

especially during rainy season in around the pool 

of water stagnating around our houses.

 In Japanese we call them as 名も知らぬ虫.

 When we do not do anything worthwhile 

we just look up at the sky and

 find that the clouds too taking the inspiration from us

 and  do not move at all.  

This phenomenon is called as 動かぬ雲。

　

 When people become old their skin gets wrinkles and

 that is more visible in the hands and

 the praying wrinkled hands has an absolute charm as

 that of the praying baby’s hands 

.  But we find there are so many advertisement of  

beauty creams and liquid and massages helping 

us in getting rid of these wrinkles ieしわをなくす方法.

手枕	てまくら	Using one's arm for a pillow
山寺	やまでら	Mountain temple,
名も知らぬ　虫	なもしらぬむし	Insects whose name we do not know
動かぬ雲	うごかぬむも	Clouds that are not moving
しわをなくす方法	しわをなくすほうほう	Method for removing these wrinkles

COMMON EXPRESSIONS -

 Very frequently we come across a situation where we want to

express certain things and try to translate them  from English or our

mother tongue by trying to run a google translate in our mind .

 But it will not give the desired result . One such expression is

 “ The door is locked “

 Immediately we try  to think what is for lock and 

how say lock  is in locking condition etc .

Stop with this !

 The simple way of saying is  

ドアに鍵が掛かっている.

 Supposing   you are not agreeing with is 

同意することはできません

に賛成できない.

反対です。  Cannot be used as  it is for opposing .

 Opposing is different   from differing with  an opinion.

 Like that we should not confuse with  “ Reply “ and “ Answer “

 Reply may  be correct or may not be  but 

Answer is more associated with correctness .

 Reply is  返事  and answer is  回答.

鍵が掛かっている	かぎが　かって          いる	Locked
賛成	さんせい	Agreement, support
同意	どうい	Consent, , same opinion
返事	へんじ	Reply,
回答	かいとう	Answer
反対	はんたい	Oppose

  Basing on the oral feed -back I have  put the  kanji  hiragana and 

meaning   in columns and rows .

 Hope this will be more  useful  to keep  it as a record.

努力

Now  JLPT exam is  over .

 I was a proctor  in the July 2016 Exam.

  I have been seeing lot of people taking up  the  exam

 and many do the last minute  mugging up 

and revising  Kanji  and trying to write 

with their finger on the note book ,

 exchanging  ideas to remember the kanji .

  Even I was in that position and still continues to  be so .

 To  crack the JLPT Exam 魔法な　パターン　は　ありますか。

 I don’t think  there is any magical pattern do exist .

はい。　努力　努力　努力だけです。

努力   の　以外な　　ものは　　ある と　重いません。。

 Whoever excels in their performance   always

indulge in 反復練習.

Yes we have to practice it repeatedly as it takes a longer time to stay in the mind as long term memory.

 Kanji requires still more .

 People who remember  kanji characters  will say 

何千　回も　やってきた。

成功するまで試行　を繰り返してください。

  Try Try  till you succeed.

魔法                     まほう                                                  Magic,,

努力                    どりょく                                            Great effort,

反復練習.          はんぷく　れんしゅう                 Repeated practice

何千                   なんぜん                                              Many thousands

JAPANESE ETIQUETTE -1

 Japanese we all know very well  follow the 

customs ,etiquette and formalities 

very diligently.

The letter writing  is no exception .

 In English we start with  “ Dear ” or “ Respected ”.

“ Respected ”  expression  was  followed  during the British period  even to write the casual leave letter and other official  letters .

But now not widely followed  and that  too particularly  many young people  are not aware of that expression .

When I wrote one such letter addressing“ Respected   sir” a young man openly  Commented “時代後れ “.

 But among the Japanese it is to be followed .

 When we write a letter to the friend時候のあいさつ  is a  must .

The letter should have one seasonal word like “ Hope you enjoy the spring “ etc.

 Suppose you are writing a letter to your friend in January

 then you will be starting the letter like this .

·         寒い日が続きますが、ご家族そろって穏やかな新春をお過ごしのことと思います。

·          This is only one such example and

 with respect to the month or season

 in which we write the mail the seasonal greetings do change .

 I had a Japanese friend and I used to write letter starting with  “ Dear” thinking that with changing times this practice is  必要なし . 

·          ( But honestly I did not know how to start with seasonal words ).

So I made so many mistakes in the first sentence.

But  with advanced technology - world  is very much in your hand .

So心配しなくていいよ.

Reason is everything is available in the internet.

Its  nothing but making “ smart use ”of the Internet.   

インターネットを賢く利用する.

1.   時代後れ / じだいおくれ : 1）old-fashioned 2）behind the times 3）out of date 

2.  時候のあいさつ / じこうのあいさつ :  season's greetings (conventional way of beginning a letter) 

3.   必要なし / ひつようなし :  Not required 

4.   心配しなくていいよ. Not to worry about.

5.  インターネットを賢く利用するmake smart use of the Internet