To be of good heart is to do honest business

Yes I know, another long pause between posts. But moving right along, the word today is

良心的　りょうしんてき　ryoushinteki

Before I explain what this means, let's look at how you can try to guess the meaning of an unfamiliar word from the kanji characters used. In this word, you have three characters:

良　

This character is used on its own as 良い　(よい　yoi), meaning good.

心

This is the character for こころ　kokoro, or heart.

Finally we have

的

Read as てき　teki, this is often used as a suffix to words in much the same way as the English -like, meaning 'it has the characteristics of'.

So let's put it all together. The first two characters are 良心　(りょうしん　ryoushin), which you can guess to mean 'good heart'. Attach the 的　and you have 'good heart-like'.

What it actually means in practice is: To be honest, of good value. It's most often used in the world of commerce and business. If a store is 良心的、that means it does honest business and gives good value for the money.

This word came to my mind recently when I was writing about two Japanese restaurants in Zürich in the Just Bento forums. Guess which one I considered to be 良心的!