Hungry for Words: Mostly Japanese

Mendokusai! Can't be bothered!

Today's word is one that I say a lot when I get frustrated:

めんどくさい！　mendokusai!

Meaning: What a bother! What a drag! Can't be bothered!

It's an informal version of 面倒　めんどう　mendou, which means a burden, a bother. (くさい　kusai means 'smelly').

When you are feeling something is めんどくさい, you may be tempted to just quit:

やめたい！　yametai! I want to quit!

If you decide to quit, you will say:

やめた！　yameta! I quit!

Sometimes it's a good thing to step back a bit before thinking めんどくさい！　and then やめた！　on inpulse....

Right now, while I was composing this post, I realized that for some reason Typepad is not listing any of my set categories in the pulldown menu. Hopefully Typepad will fix this.. or I'll have to re-enter them. めんどくさい！　

Responsibility

Today's word is something that has been on my mind a lot since yesterday:

責任 せきにん　sekinin

It means responsibility.

責任を取る　せきにんをとる　sekinin o toru - To take responsibility

責任者　　せきにんしゃ　　sekininsha - The person responsible; the person in charge.

In Japan, whenever something goes wrong, especially corporate or government mishaps, someone is supposed to 責任を取る　- which means to resign. Some people take it a radical step further and commit suicide - 自殺　(じさつ　jisatsu), leaving a note that they did it to take responsiblity. This is a leftover from the feudal days, when a samurai was supposed to kill himself by cutting through his belly with his sword - the infamous 切腹　（せっぷく　seppuku) method of suicide.

I rather think that it takes a lot more courage to really 責任を取る and remain in charge to fix whatever mess was created, but anyway....

(from Barack Obama photo stream)

A 責任者 with a whole lot of 責任.

Same thing, different words

Over on my Just Bento site we've just opened a forum. One question that came up was about teriyaki sauce. On my food blogs I often get asked about this 'teriyaki sauce', and each time I am a bit stumped. Because you see, bottled teriyaki sauce as such does not really exist in Japan - although plenty of other bottled sauces do.

I was actually reading up on 'teriyaki sauce' on some Japanese food site recently, and they said that bottled teriyaki sauce was actually an invention by Kikkoman, who developed it specifically for the U.S. / overseas market, to compete with other 'barbeque' sauces. There is or was no teriyaki sauce per se (though there are plenty of similar bottled sauces) in Japan, where teriyaki means a method of cooking with the 'sauce' being made in the pan with soy sauce, mirin, sugar, etc and coating the food. In fact, while the teriyaki method is written 照り焼き　(てりやき　teriyaki), teriyaki sauce and food made from it is considered so 'western' that it's written in katakana, as all imported words are, like so: テリヤキ.

This is not the only way in which different words are applied though. In Japanese, many things are called differently depending on their state. A good example is rice, the main staple. When it's raw, or when referred to as a commodity, it's 米　(こめ　kome). When it's cooked and eaten in Japanese style, it's ご飯　(ごはん　gohan). But when it's used in a western-style dish like curry rice, it is called ライス　(raisu). Paper is 紙　(read かみ　kami or し　shi), except when it's in a 'foreign' context, like トイレットペーパー　(toiletto peh-paa), toilet paper. This does mean that you need to know the context in which a word is used to know which term is correct!

Procrastination in Japanese

A lot of us start the new year with good intentions, but sooner or later we run into that big roadblock to progress called procrastination. There are several terms in Japanese that mean more or less 'to procrastinate':

• 後回しにする (あとまわしにする　atomawashi ni suru) - to put to the back (of the order), to put off. Noun: 後回し　(atomawashi) - without the 'nisuru'
• 先送りにする　(さきおくりにする　sakiokuri ni suru) - to delay, to push forward (into the future) Noun: 先送り　(sakiokuri) - without the 'nisuru'
• 先延ばしする　(さきのばしする　sakinobashi suru) - similar in meaning to 先送りにする, means more to delay or extend (into the future). Noun: 先延ばし　(sakinobashi) - without the 'suru'.

But is there a noun like pronounciation that describes the habit of doing all of the above? None really come to mind. You could describe your habit of procrastinating like this:

何でも後回しにする癖があります。　(なんでもあとまわしにするくせがあります。　Nandemo atomawashi ni suru kuse ga arimasu.)

(I) have the habit (癖　くせ　kuse) of putting everything (何でも　なんでも　nandemo) off.

A related term is 優柔不断　(ゆうじゅうふだん　yuujuufudan) - to be indecisive.

(Note: I have been very busy lately, and am going to be way more busy for at least a couple of months. I'm struggling a bit to keep up with everything; I don't want to abandon this blog again but posting frequency may become slower. I will try to keep up with the short lessons on Twitter though.)

初夢: The first dream of the year

新年あけましておめでとうございます。　Happy New Year!

This is the 初レッスン　(はつれっすん　hatsu ressun) - first lesson of the year.

The first dream of the year, the one you dream on the night of January 1st going into the 2nd (see notes below) is called 初夢　(はつゆめ　hatsuyume), and is supposed to fortell how good your year will be. Prior to the Edo period, lucky dreams centered around the idea of a treasure ship （宝船　たからぶね　takarabune). The belief that sleeping with the picture of a 宝船　under your pillow will bring you good dreams is still around, and you can buy such pictures, or various things that a lucky treasure ship would have carried (a golden hammer, a crane, etc.), as well as the 七福神　(しちふくじん、shichifukujin), the 7 lucky gods.

In the Edo period, lucky things to dream about became rather specific. These lucky things to dream about are still quoted to this day:

一富士、二鷹、三茄子 (いちふじ、にたか、さんなすび; ichi-fuji, ni-taka, san-nasubi): No. 1 is Mt. Fuji, no. 2 is eagles, no. 3 is eggplant (aubergine). Mt. Fuji or Fuji-san is such a sacred symbol in Japanese lore that it's understandable that it's number 1. And eagles - regal, soaring, powerful birds, ok. But...eggplants? Well, it seems that eggplants became 'lucky' because they the region where the shogunate Ieyasu family came from, Suruga (present day Shizuoka prefecture) was a major eggplant growing area. Smart marketing!

And for 4, 5 and 6 -

四扇、五たばこ、六座頭 (よんおうぎ、ごたばこ、ろくざとう; yon-ougi, go-tabako, roku-zatou): No. 4 is fans, used for dancing at festive events. No. 5 is tobacco, also considered festive because apparently geisha liked to smoke. And finally, no. 6 is a zatou or a blind Buddhist priest or monk and musician (or minstrel). Such musicians, often playing a 琵琶 (びわ　biwa), a sort of mandolin or lute (Wikipedia) were also fixtures at festive events. (They wandered around from place to place, playing their music for food and money, sort of like minstrels or troubadors in medieval Europe.)

So, if you can manage to dream about an eagle flying over Mr. Fuji, a feast with a dish of eggplant, and geisha with fans smoking pipes as they dance to the music played by a blind Buddhist monk - well, you should have a fantastic year!

The most useful word from this lesson is

夢　(ゆめ　yume, pronounced yu-MEH not YU-me) - dream.

Also pay attention to the use of 初　- meaning first. （初レッスン、初夢）

(Notes: The night when you are supposed to dream your First Dream seems to differ depending on who you are listening to. Some say it's the night of New Year's Eve - New Year, or 31st-1st; others say 1st-2nd, and still others say 2nd-3rd. I think the night of the 1st-2nd makes the most sense, so I'm sticking to that.)