命より健康 10:11

As I share my Emergency Room story, my Japanese professor replies with "Inochi yori kenkou." Literally, health over life. She tells me to guess what it means and I tell her that I think I know the general meaning, but the gleam in her eye also tells me she wants to explain it herself. She proceeds and a paints a picture of a man who lives but suffers from bad health.

"It's better if he weren't alive isn't it?"

"Yes, I believe so." I reply.

She continues, "If you don't have health, how can you really enjoy life?"

I don't think she meant to disregard people who suffer from health problems, but her point was that I needed to take care of myself. I had been so busy that my health had deteriorated.

She's a rare person in academia. Most professor push you hard. Read these five books by next week. Go learn Chinese, Arabic, and Russian by next year. Vacation? You don't need a vacation! This professor on the other hand, says to enjoy what you like. Many times we voluntarily enter a rat race where competition is relentless and harmful.

"Don't you see that a lot of the professor here are weird? They don't know how to interact with normal people and live in a world that nobody really cares about."

"Yes, I think many people would agree. That's why I'm not gonna pursue a phD anymore." I answer.

"Yes, you don' t need to. You know, I'm a bit old but I still dream about having a kisaten (coffee shop). I'm going to pursue it someday. The economy is really bad right now, so maybe that'll give me the jump start to go and do that."

"So when will your grand opening be?" I add and we both laugh.

brain is extended to its fullest 16:01

Today as I was walking out of my Japanese professor's office, I casually said "Jaa ne!" And immediately I begin to think of the horrible mistake I had just made. Why in the world did I exclaim, "See you later" rather than politely excusing myself as I humbly walk out of the room. Should have left with a "Shitsurei shimashita" or a "Jaa, mata aimashou." Another regret to add to the tons of regrets in my life...

And of course I start to mull over my actions. As I thought, it occurred to me that this is how I say good bye to my Chinese professor. "Zai jian" and I leave with a wave, not a bow. Subsequently, I noticed that "Jaa ne" and "Zai jian" are also two syllable words and somehow I had confused the two. The Chinese that I had learned was influencing my Japanese and it materialized in this embarrassing moment. I hate moments like this.

no need for responsibility 00:56

There are days when language learning is tiring and seems to have no end. But then there are days when I learn something especially mind-stimulating about a language and it make my brain really excited. So here's a little something for your mind to chew on and hopefully it'll excite you too.

As wonderful as our English language is, we do not have a grammatical structure for the 'impersonal' as they do in the Latin languages. We are forced to use the word 'one' or 'they' when we construct sentences that detaches a particular person or group from an action. For instance, in a sentence such as "One goes to school" we do not know who exactly has gone to school; nonetheless, a general person has gone to school. In Italian, this type of structure is created through the use of the third person pronoun si + third person singular/plural verb conjugation. So the same sentence would go something like "Si va a scuola."

We had a discussion in class about how in Florence, many young Italians use this structure to free themselves from the feeling of responsibility from actions committed that would otherwise be considered less than acceptable. If a kid skips school, goes to the movies instead, and subsequently his mother finds out, he could reply to her angry words with a "non si è andato al cinema" or literally "one did not go the theater." Of course this sounds strange in English, but apparently in Florence it is perfectly fine. Another interesting point comes from one of our phD candidate's research on Italian writings on World War II, especially those dealing with Hitler or Mussolini. She writes that history books are written in this impersonal form so as to perhaps free the government from full responsibility of all the atrocities that took place.

Now, this brings me to Korean and Japanese (henceforth called KJ), the two languages I love the most and how they construct this idea. In the KJ languages, since pronouns are frequently dropped and only picked up in context, the verb becomes the most important part of the sentence. If one asks "Did you eat?" in KJ you would word the same sentence as "Did Eat?" The 'you' is implied because the question is obviously directed at a person. So it is in the verb that changes happen. Now, Korean and Japanese people hate to take credit for things they do. (Whether good or bad.) So, this impersonal structure we have seen in Italian is achieved in the KJ language through intransitivity. What happens when a kid breaks a cup and is faced with telling his mom the truth? "カップが割れてた" or "the cup had been broken (with an implied meaning of when I found it there)." When somebody makes dinner for all his friends he will say "밥이 다 됐어요" or "the food has been cooked." One really important thing to notice here is that the cup and food in the examples take a subject particle when the subject should be the actual person! Furthermore, it would be strange and awkward socially to take full responsibility by saying "I broke the cup" or "I made dinner for you all." The speakers take no responsibility.

なぜ 青い山脈 02:21

山脈や葉、信号など、緑色だと分かっているのだが、現実に日本人は青い色だとよく言われる。英語で言うブルーより、「青い」という言葉の意味は日本語でもっと広くなり、色の濃さや印象を表せるように使うのである。緑という言葉は本来の四色ではなく、青は日本語に昔から中心できて、発達されてきた。

my favorite 4 character proverbs 09:32

竜頭蛇尾 - Literally meaning "dragon head snake tail." This describes someone who starts something off with much enthusiasm, rigor, and energy but fails to "finish the race." Pretty much one has pooped out.

山戦水戦 - One has battled the mountains and rivers. Thus, one has seen and experienced the world.

道成肉身 - Truth changes into flesh and body. In biblical terms, the Word became Flesh.

the fifth taste 07:38

When we were kids, we were taught that there were only four tastes: sweet, salty, sour, and bitter. According to a new study however, we now have a new "fifth" taste called "umami." It was coined by a Japanese scientist about a hundred years ago. It is best described as a "savory, meaty, and satisfying" taste. I think in Korean it would be best described as 짭짤하다 (Chapchalhada). So the next time you eat anchovies or parmesan cheese see if you can sense "umami." Apparently, Asians have known about it for hundreds of years but now since a study was done, I guess it can be taught. Check out the full article at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119706514515417586.html.

i 03:57

In Japanese, you must choose your I's and you's depending on your relationship with the person you are speaking to.

私 watashi - used by both men and women in formal situations.

私 watakushi - an extremely formal way of saying 'I.'

我 ware - another formal 'I.' Used in places like the Bible.

俺 ore - used by males between friends. A very masculine usage of 'I.'

僕 boku - more polite than ore but more casual than watashi.

あたし atashi - used by females between friends. Seen as cute.

あたくし - a more formal version of atashi.

あなた anata - the generic, polite 'you.'

あんた anta - a 'you' that expresses some anger, contempt.

お前 omae - used to condescend in certain situations.

手前 temae - a rude and confrontational 'you.'

貴様 kisama - the hostile 'you' when you want to pick fights.

君 kimi - an informal 'you' used in a lot of love songs.