昨日は家族がドリーを素敵な所に連れて行ってくれました。きれいな小町です：
素晴らしいですね！とても暑かったですから、皆が特別の飲み所に喜んでいました。
すごいですね！きれいな陶芸の湯飲みから水を飲められる飲められる。人々が湯飲みをちゃんと洗います。
飲み所の右にいろいろ小さいい石が見えます。その石は顔があります。ここは何匹か集めています。大きくしてください：
黒くなくて、人間がない時、石の友達は一緒に歌います。声が小さいいけど、石が多いからそのきれいな所は美しくて不思議な音楽で一杯です。
そんな夜には魔法のことが遅れる。
Following my recent post on getting Japanese Input on Kindle Fire – and also following an interesting discussion on Japanese kaomoji (emoticons) on the Senshi Forums, I have a very interesting thing to share with you.
That thing is that not only can you get Japanese input on Kindle fire as explained in my article, but that when you do it is the single best device for using kawaii Japanese emoticons!
Honored Cure Dolly, in the Forum thread, asks a question that puzzles many of us who have Western keyboards (even when set to Japanese input):
As Piffy-chan wisely notes, we call these emoticons 顔文字 kaomoji in Japanese 顔 kao=face, 文字 moji=(written) character.
Howsoveryever what this dolly wants to know is, where do you find characters like ω and ▽ on your b-chord (keyboard). I just swoggled them from your post but I don’t know how to type them!
And however much I flip the A-key while typing I can’t make it go upside-down like (☞ﾟ∀ﾟ)☞ that.
Tetsudatte onegaishimasu!
Honored Cure Ocha can only reply:
*whisper* I cheat – I look on the site until I find what I want and then copy it.
This assumes you already have Japanese input enabled. If you haven’t, read this first.
Step 1: In any setting other than Romaji (i.e. Japanese text or numbers/symbols) press the key that is the Shift Key in Romaji (circled below). Hold it for about a second and release it.
Step 2:
You now have the screen shown below. This contains a vast selection of all the characters you need to make Japanese Emoticons. It even conveniently keeps your most recently used ones in a row at the top (circled below). However…
Happy kawaii kaomojification!
You’ll just love it! (´ ▽｀).。ｏ♡
It is possible to type Japanese text on Kindle Fire without rooting the device. It is really easy too.
After unsuccessful Googling, a little experimentation helped me find the way. So here is the Cure Tadashiku step-by-step guide on how to make your Kindle Fire talk Japanese (you can click any picture to get a bigger view):
Stop press: You can type in Japanese without changing the device’s language by following the directions below and choosing “Keyboard” instead of “Language” in Step 3 (but where’s the sport in that?)
1. Pull down the settings menu and click the “More” item.
2. Select “Language and Keyboard”
3. select “Language”
4. Select 日本語
And you’re done!
This is what your keyboard now looks like:
By using the key (circled) in the bottom left, you can switch between kana (which converts to kanji in the same way as your computer’s input) and romaji, so you have the best of all worlds. You even have Japanese (as well as English) predictive text.
But be aware that your home screen now also looks like this:
That’s right. You have a Japanese-speaking Kindle now, and I recommend it as good practice. The Japanese menus are pretty simple. You will get used to it.
But don’t worry if that is too daunting. I’ll show you how to get back.
1. Pull down the settings bar as before
Select the same round thing at the end (now called その他).
2. Select 言語とキーボード (Language and Keyboard)
3: Select 言語 (Language)
4: Select your brand of English
And there you are. Your Kindoru speaks English again. Boring, isn’t it?
The Tadashiku School of Japanese recommends struggling with a Japanese-language Kindle. It creates a situation where it is “Japanese or nothing”, and that way you do learn to understand. It is difficult at first but it is this sort of thing that helps Japanese to become part of your life experience rather than just something you study and play with.
But that’s up to you. Either way have fun and がんばってください！
See also:
Hidden Secrets of Japanese Kindle Fire Input
Did you know there is a huge wealth of Japanese characters and kawaii kaomoji (emoticons) hidden away inside the Kindle Fire’s Japanese input system? Find out how to unlock them here!
Is Japanese an ambiguous language? Among some people it has that reputation. Others forcefully deny it, saying that the language can clearly express anything a speaker wishes.
My untutored impression is that both parties are correct. There is nothing in Japanese that prevents clear expression of ideas, but (more culturally than linguistically) Japanese does tend toward a degree of ambiguity.
A translator friend of mine, for example, when translating into English instructions for what to do in case of an earthquake in Japan, added various specific details that were not present in the original Japanese. Her Japanese colleagues were a little surprised and made comments like “Americans like to be so specific, don’t they?” She replied that knowing exactly what to do and how to do it could save someone’s life.
Which, of course, is true, and which demonstrates that, even in a circumstance where specificity is important, tolerating a higher degree of ambiguity is part of Japanese culture.
Is this a flaw in the language (or culture)? To a large extent the answer to that question depends on what you believe language is primarily for. West Tellurian (earth) people have for several centuries believed that language primarily exists for practical purposes. In fact they have more recently built their lives around the picture-story that life itself took form, or “evolved” on a purely practical (survival-oriented) basis. This they believe to be “science”; but to an outsider it looks uncommonly like a “mythologization” of their own cultural outlook.
Not all peoples have assumed either life or language to be primarily a matter of practicalities. Most people, in fact, have assumed that practicalities are a means to an end rather than an end in themselves. Which, when you think about it, makes sense doesn’t it? Practicalities as an end in themselves are rather like a sign saying “do not throw stones at this sign”.
So what is language primarily for? For Buddhism, as for Taoism, the highest function of language is to give us “hints” or “indications” toward that which cannot ever be expressed in words. The Tao that can be spoken is not the true Tao. The Zen koan does not attempt to put the Truth into words, but to open the mind to that which is beyond words.
This, by definition, is the highest possible function of language. In its lower, more everyday functions, it still has some of the same “connotative” rather than “denotative” function. We cannot truly describe music or the taste of food, or the feelings the sakura arouses in our breast. The subtle feelings that define us as spiritual beings cannot be fully expressed in words, but words can hint at them and evoke them. Whether we see this as the primary way of using language may depend upon whether we see ourselves as primarily spiritual or primarily material beings.
Has this any connection with learning Japanese? For me it has. I was discussing with a Japanese-speaking American friend the question of watching anime, and she said that turning off the (Japanese) subtitles was largely a matter of confidence and tolerance of ambiguity. The ambiguity here, of course comes from unfamiliarity with the language and the uncertainty of one’s ear rather than from the nature of the language or culture. When I spoke of developing a tolerance for ambiguity she said “the Japanese are masters of that”.
This interested me. While the two ambiguities are not the same, I think they are for me related to each other and to a third ambiguity: the ambiguity a small child must tolerate while learning language. When a small child watches anime, there are various words and concepts she does not understand. She needs to build up slowly from massive ambiguity to getting the general gist while being unclear about exactitudes. She has no first language to fall back on, so she can only understand as much as she understands.
I don’t want to get into the whole immersion argument from a language-learning point of view, but to me there is a subtle intertwining here of the process of learning a “second first language” (or in a way, a first first language, since English has never felt native to me) and learning to tolerate ambiguity from a cultural point of view. Modern English is probably the most materialistic language/culture in Telluria, which is probably why it has always felt alien to me.
Everyone has her own reasons for learning Japanese and mine (appropriately enough) cannot really be put into words. I am trying to find something. And I think tolerating ambiguity is going to be a part of that process.
There are some people who just hate it when we drop Japanese words into English. It seems to be a very strange attitude. After all, Japanese is littered with English words, and English is littered with French words.
Often we even forget they are French. Someone recently asked “Why do nearly all languages use the English word for ‘restaurant’?” Well, probably because it is actually the French word!
English borrows from various languages, so why not Japanese? There seems to be a strange snobbery at work here. The current situation is that Japanese words are mostly only used for Japanese things (karate, samurai, ninja), things of Japanese origin (karaoke – which incidentally is itself half-English wasei – kara = empty, oke = English “orchestra”) and a very few others (tsunami, typhoon).
But actually there are many concepts in Japanese that are not covered by the English language, which makes them useful words to adopt. I would say that ganbaru, asobu, and wa are very good examples of words that English does not have, and I think the very concepts would be culturally enriching. So I will write about them later.
Today I want to write about a concept that is harder to incorporate from Japanese and that actually used to exist in English but has been crowded out by the increasing cynicism of the culture. Beloved things.
Have you ever heard a child say “That is my favorite flower” and a few minutes later “That is my favorite flower” — or food, or nuigurumi (stuffed toy — we don’t have a decent word for that in English either!) An adult is likely to say “They can’t both be your favorite”. Though how often have you wanted to say that many things are your favorite?
Actually this whole “favorite” thing is, in my view a symptom of the over-competitiveness and cynicism of Western thinking. It is not enough to love something. It has to be compared to other things and judged best. And in English there is no other way to say it. You could say “that is my beloved thing”, but the phrase sounds odd and old-fashioned and almost impossible to use in modern English. Before the culture became so cynicized (to coin a term), such phrases were possible.
In Japanese a phrase like watashi no suki na tabemono is translated as “my favorite food”, because in English that is the only natural way to say it. But that isn’t what it actually means (watashi no ichiban suki na tabemono means that). It means “this is the food I like”, “this is my beloved food”. It is a very natural concept. It is the concept the child is trying to express when she calls many things her “favorite”, but she can’t because English virtually demands an excluding comparison.
The Japanese phrase cannot be translated into natural English because it means more than “I like this very much” it means “this is the thing I like”. It is as strong as “my favorite thing” but without excluding other things. To the modern English ear, expressing such a positive emotion without an implied negative (exclusion of other things) sounds overly sentimental or gushing. It is the same mentality that describes cute things as “sickeningly cute”.
It is also one little window on the psychological reasons why, as explained in our sister site’s keynote essay, even an English-language tourist flyer is “cynical” compared to the innocence of the Japanese equivalent flyer.
The word “cynical” itself is inadequate. It is a clumsy term used to imply the cult of hardness, self-centeredness, suspicion, and dislike of the lovely that characterize the modern Western pop-ideology. It is the opposite of “innocent” on every level, but there is no very good word for it, so “cynical” will have to do. We won’t find that one in Japanese, because the Japanese really don’t understand it (and, frankly, neither do I).
But in any case, let’s all enjoy our beloved things! And let’s make them “sickeningly cute” – ne!
There is very little hiragana reading practice available on the Web so we thought we would combine this with our love of kawaisa to bring you something really cute in full Japanese and spaced hiragana.
First we have the hiragana version, then the full kana/kanji version and finally a version that includes both, plus vocabulary and translation for each paragraph.
Enjoy your hiragana reading practice and feel free to ask questions or comment!
このお話を楽しんでください。
この おはなし を たのしんで ください。
Please enjoy this story.
KIKI COMES TO TEA
Kinoketta is a walking, talking mushroom who lives in a house-tree. Flifli is her butterfly friend. They have many adventures in the forest.
Hiragana version
ある ひ の こと、ふりふり は きのけった の き うち に やってきました。 きのけった は おおそうじ を しました。
なに を しています か？」と、ふりるり ききました。
きのけった：「きょう は、この もり に すんで いた ともだち が きます」
ふりふり：「どんな ともだち です か？」
きのけった：「りす の きき です。どんぐり だけ を たべます。」
ふりふり：「そうです か！ わたし は どんぐり が たくさん ある ところ を しっています。どんぐり を もってきましょう か？」
きのけった：「なんて しんせつ な ちょうちょう でしょう！どうも ありがとう ございます。」
ふりふり は でかけました。 そして、しばらくて ふりふりは もとってきました。どんぐり を たきさん もって いました。
きのけった は いす を みがいて いました。
ふりふり：「その いす を みた の は はじめて です。
きのけった：「ききちゃん が いつも すわって いた いす です。よろこぶ と おもいます。」
その とき、げんかん の べる が なりました。きのけった は と を あけました。ふたり の まえ に、ちいさくて ぴんく いる の りす が たって いました。
きき：「きのけったちゃん！ひさしぶり です ね！」
きのけった：「ききちゃん と あえて うれしい です わ！こちら は ともだち の ふりふり です。 まえにち、あそび に やってきました。
さんびき は おちゃ を のみ、そして、ふりふり は さら を もってきました。さら に は おかし と どんぐり が のって いました。
きき は おかし を とりました
きのけった：「どうして おかし を とった の でしょう か？どんぐり は もう すき じゃない の です か？」
きき：「どんぐり が だいすき です。でも おいしい どんぐり を とる の は はずかしい です。みなさん も どんぐり が いちばん すき だ と おもいます。」
ふりふり：「いえいえ、きのけった と わたし は おかし が だいすき です！ どんぐり は ききちゃん の ため だけ もってきました。
ききは「とても やさしい ちょうちょう ですよ！」と 言って、どんぐり を たくさん たべました。
＿＿＿
Kana and kanji version
ある日のこと、フリフリはキノケッタの木の家にやって来ました。
キノケッタは大そうじをしていました。
「何をしていますか？」と、フリフリは聞きました。
キノケッタ：「今日は、この森に住んでいた友達が来ます。」
フリフリ：「どんな 友達ですか？」
キノケッタ：「リスのキキです。キキは、ドングリだけを食べます。」
フリフリ：「そうですか！私はドングリがたくさんある所を知っています。ドングリを持って来ましょうか？」
キノケッタ：「なんて親切なチョウチョウでしょう！どうもありがとうございます。」
フリフリは出かけていきました。そして、しばらくしてフリフリは戻ってきました。ドングリをたくさん持っていました。
キノケッタは椅子を磨いていました。
フリフリ：「その椅子を見たのは初めてです。」
キノケッタ：「キキちゃんがいつも座っていた椅子です。喜ぶと思います。」
その時、玄関のベルが鳴りました。キノケッタは戸を開けました。二人の前に、小さくてピンクいろのリスが立っていました。
キキ：「キノケッタちゃん！久しぶりですね！」
キノケッタ：「キキちゃんと会えてうれしいですわ！こちらは友達のフリフリです。毎日、遊びにやってきます。」
三匹はお茶を飲み、そして、フリフリは皿を持って来ました。皿には、お菓子とドングリがのっていました。
キキはお菓子を取りました。
キノケッタ：「どうしてお菓子をとったのでしょうか？ドングリはもう好きじゃないのですか？」
キキ：「ドングリが大好きです。でもおいしいドングリを取るのは恥ずかしいです。皆さんもドングリが一番好きだと思います。」
フリフリ：「いえいえ、キノケッタと私はお菓子が大好きです！ドングリはキキちゃんのためだけに持って来ました。」
キキは「とても優しいチョウチョウですよ！」と言って、ドングリをたくさん食べました。
Vocabulary and translation version
ある日のこと、フリフリはキノケッタの木の家にやって来ました。キノケッタは大そうっじをしました。
ある ひ の こと、ふりふり は きのけった の き うち に やってきました。 きのけった は おおそうじ を しました。
Vocabulary:
Aru hi no koto: Traditional phrase, meaning “one day”
Yattekimasu: To come around, turn up
Oosouji: Major clean-up (sometimes Spring cleaning)
Translation:
One day, Flifli came along to Kinoketta’s house- tree. Kinoketta was doing a big clean-up.
___
「何をしていますか？」と、フリフリは聞きました。
なに を しています か？」と、ふりるり ききました。
Vocabulary:
To: quotation particle.
Kiku: hear, listen, ask enquire.
Translation:
“What are you doing?” asked Flifli.
___
キノケッタ：「今日は、この森に住んでいた友達が来ます。」
きのけった：「きょう は、この もり に すんで いた ともだち が きます」
Grammar:
Kono mori ni sunde ita (in this forest that lived) is a phrase used as an adjective before the noun tomodachi (friend). This is a very common Japanese construction.
Translation:
A friend who used to live in this forest is coming here today.
＿＿＿
フリフリ：「どんな 友達ですか？」
キノケッタ：「リスのキキです。キキは、ドングリだけを食べます。」
ふりふり：「どんな ともだち です か？」
きのけった：「りす の きき です。どんぐり だけ を たべます。」
Vocabulary:
Donna: What kind of?
Risu: Squirrel
Donguri: Acorn
Dake: Only
Translation:
Flifli: “What kind of friend is she?” (tell me about your friend).
Kinoketta: “She is Kiki the squirrel. She eats nothing but acorns.”
___
フリフリ：「そうですか！私はドングリがたくさんある所を知っています。ドングリを持って来ましょうか？」
キノケッタ：「なんて親切なチョウチョウでしょう！どうもありがとうございます。」
ふりふり：「そうです か！ わたし は どんぐり が たくさん ある ところ を しっています。どんぐり を もってきましょう か？」
きのけった：「なんて しんせつ な ちょうちょう でしょう！どうも ありがとう ございます。」
Vocabulary:
Mottekuru: Motsu (have or carry) plus kuru (come) = bring.
Nante: What a
Shinsetsu: kind (na adjective)
Chouchou: Butterfly
[Note the adjectival phrase again “lots-of-acorns-exist place”]
Translation:
Flifli: “Is that so? I know a place where there are lots of acorns. Shall I go fetch some acorns?”
Kinoketta: “What a kind butterfly! Thank you very much.”
フリフリは出かけていきました。そして、しばらくしてフリフリは戻ってきました。ドングリをたくさん持っていました。
ふりふり は でかけました。 そして、じばらくて ふりふりは もとってきました。どんぐり を たきさん もって いました。
Vocabulary:
Dekakeru: Set out, depart
Shibarakute: Shortly, after a short time.
Modoru: Return
Translation:
Flifli set out. After a short time she came back. She was carrying a lot of acorns.
___
キノケッタは椅子を磨いていました。
フリフリ：「その椅子を見たのは初めてです。」
キノケッタ：「キキちゃんがいつも座っていた椅子です。喜ぶと思います。」
きのけった は いす を みがいて いました。
ふりふり：「その いす を みた の は はじめて です。
きのけった：「ききちゃん が いつも すわって いた いす です。よろこぶ と おもいます。」
Vocabulary:
Migaku: To polish
Hajimete: For the first time
Yorokobu: to be pleased, delighted, glad.
Translation:
Kinoketta was polishing a chair.
Flifli: “This is the first time I have seen that chair.” [I haven’t seen that chair before].
Kinoketta: “Kiki always used to sit in this chair. She will be pleased [it will make her happy], I think.”
___
その時、玄関のベルが鳴りました。キノケッタは戸を開けました。二人の前に、小さくてピンクいろのリスが立っていました。
その とき、げんかん の べる が なりました。きのけった は と を あけました。ふたり の まえ に、ちいさくて ぴんく いる の りす が たって いました。
Vocabulary:
Genkan: The pre-entrance of a Japanese house, where shoes are removed and left.
Naru: To ring, to sound.
To: (Japanese style) door.
Translation:
Just then the genkan-bell rang. Kinoketta opened the door. Before the two [friends] stood a small pink squirrel.
___
キキ：「キノケッタちゃん！久しぶりですね！」
キノケッタ：「キキちゃんと会えてうれしいですわ！こちらは友達のフリフリです。毎日、遊びにやってきます。」
きき：「きのけったちゃん！ひさしぶり です ね！」
きのけった：「ききちゃん と あえて うれしい です わ！こちら は ともだち の ふりふり です。 まえにち、あそび に やってきました。
Vocabulary:
Hisashiburi: It’s been a long time.
Ureshii: Happy
Wa: Feminine emphatic sentence ender.
Kochira: This side (i.e. this person)
Asobu: Play, spend time pleasantly
Translation:
Kiki: “Kinoketta-chan! It’s been a long time, hasn’t it!”
Kinoketta: “Meeting you [again] makes me very happy, Kiki-chan. This is Flifli. She comes around to play every day.”
___
三匹はお茶を飲み、そして、フリフリは皿を持って来ました。皿には、お菓子とドングリがのっていました。
キキはお菓子を取りました。
さんびき は おちゃ を のみ、そして、ふりふり は さら を もってきました。さら に は おかし と どんぐり が のって いました。
きき は おかし を とりました。
Vocabulary:
Sanbiki: San = 3, hiki/biki is the counter for small animals.
Sara: Plate, dish
Okashi: sweets, cakes
Noru: to be placed on
Translation:
The three [friends] drank tea, then Flifli brought a plate. On the plate were cakes and acorns.
Kiki took a cake.
___
キノケッタ：「どうしてお菓子をとったのでしょうか？ドングリはもう好きじゃないのですか？」
キキ：「ドングリが大好きです。でもおいしいドングリを取るのは恥ずかしいです。皆さんもドングリが一番好きだと思います。」
きのけった：「どうして おかし を とった の でしょう か？どんぐり は もう すき じゃない の です か？」
きき：「どんぐり が だいすき です。でも おいしい どんぐり を とる の は はずかしい です。みなさIん も どんぐり が いちばん すき だ と おもいます。」
Vocabulary:
Doushite: Why
Hazukashii, embarrassed, shy, ashamed
Translation:
Kinoketta: “Why did you take a cake? Is it because you don’t like acorns any more?”
Kiki: “I love acorns. But I am embarrassed to take a delicious acorn. Everyone likes acorns best, I think.”
___
フリフリ：「いえいえ、キノケッタと私はお菓子が大好きです！ドングリはキキちゃんのためだけに持って来ました。」
キキは「とても優しいチョウチョウですよ！」と言って、ドングリをたくさん食べました。
ふりふり：「いえいえ、きのけった と わたし は おかし が だいすき です！ どんぐり は ききちゃん の ため だけ もってきました。
ききは「とても やさしい ちょうちょう ですよ！」と 言って、どんぐり を たくさん たべました。
Vocabulary:
Ieie: no, not at all
Tame: sake, purpose, benefit
Yasashii: gentle, kind
Translation:
Flifli: “No, not at all, Kinokette and I love cakes. I brought the acorns just for you, Kiki-chan.”
“You are a very kind butterfly!” said Kiki, and ate lots of acorns.