Well, I've had a whopper of a birthday: call from my mom first thing in the morning, lazy afternoon with my husband watching old movies, a spectacular evening of poetry at Writers' Bloc, Tokyo's latest event plus the all-day stream of love coming from folks all over the globe. Thanks everyone!
Here are today's words:
1. 備える [sonaeru] - get ready; prepare; provide
2. 予備 [yobi] - preparation; spare
3. 設備 [setsubi] - facilities; equipment
4. 得る [uru/eru] - get; acquire; obtain
5. 心得る [kokoroeru] - know; understand
6. 得意 [tokui] - one's strong point; one's speciality
7. 損得 [sontoku] - loss and gain
8. 化ける [bakeru] - take the shape of; change
9. ～化 [~ka] - -ize; action of making something
10. 変化 [henka] - change; variation
1. 狭小 [ kyoushou] - narrowness
2. 価値 [kachi] - value; worth; merit (This blog post had me thinking about the value of certain relationships today.)
3. 光景 [koukei] - scene; spectacle
4. 風景 [fuukei] - landscape; scenery
5. 景色 [keshiki] - scenery; view (another word that I knew by sound but not by sight until recently)
6. 暑気 [shoki] - the heat; hot weather
7. 残暑 [zansho] - the lingering summer heat
8. 喚起 [kanki] - ventilation
9. 偉大 [idai] - great; grand
10. 舞踊 [buyou] - dancing; dance
Check out Butoh, while you're at it.
Whatever happens, don't forget to take time out to dance. :)
1. 歯車 [haguruma] - cog wheel
2. 虫歯 [mushiba] - bad tooth
3. 八百屋 [yaoya] - greengrocery; vegetable store
4. 亡くす [nakusu] - lose (I had learned word before, but I didn't know that the kanji was the same as the one that means "to die")
5. 氷河 [hyouga] - glacier
6. 草原 [sougen] - grass-covered plain
7. 埋める [umeru] - bury; fill up
8. 埋蔵 [maizou] - buried property; treasure trove
9. 煙突 [entotsu] - chimney
10. 憎む [nikumu] - hate; detest
Hi there. I'm another one of your purchases that got buried somewhere.
Bilingual books like this one comprise another fantastic resource that I have neglected to use over the past couple of years.
Here are my words for today:
1. 技 [waza] - skill
2. なさけ [nasake] - compassion
3. 禊ぎ [misogi] - purification
4. 穢れ [kegare] - defilement
5. 艶 [tsuya] - refinement
6. わび [wabi] - the beauty of the simple
7. さび [sabi] - the beauty of the decaying ("wabisabi" makes perfect sense to me now, finally!)
8. 雅 [miyabi] - elegance
9. 徳 [toku] - virtue
10. 運気 [unki] - fate (not to be confused with "unko," which is "shit." But then again, if you're taking about shitty fate...)
I love to read. I really love sitting down with a book and taking in a good story. The stories in these Japanese Graded Readers are really interesting.
Plus reading is a good way to build vocabulary, whether you're reading about scary, faceless people or about the person whose picture is on the ten thousand yen note.
Today's ten words are dedicated to my pepper seeds, which I am willing to grow (Come on, you guys. You really need to start playing catch-up with your other potted brethren).
Hi there! Remember me? I'm just one of those Japanese books you bought a couple years ago and then tossed aside and allowed to gather dust for what seems like an eternity. Pick me up, dammit!
Clearly, the book did not (literally) speak to me, but seeing it this morning in its sad little corner did. So, I picked it up, dusted it off and chose my ten words for today from the first chapter.
I am a writer. I am sort of a writer. I write. I write regularly?
More accurately, I like to think that I write. Sure, I'm a member of a writers' group based in Tokyo which hosts monthly poetry reading events. Sure, I won a few awards for my poetry when I was in high school, (awards which are most likely rusting away in some forgotten corner in my family's home in Jamaica) but today, I came to the crushing realisation that I can't call myself a writer (not even an aspiring one) if I don't write every day.
At some point during my 45-minute lunch break today, I realised that I used to write a lot more when I was in high school. (I used to write a lot when I was in college too, but that was mostly academic stuff; 18-credit semesters filled with 20-hour work weeks plus time-consuming extra-curriculars didn't leave much time for poetry or prose.) High school - the time when it was difficult to catch me anywhere without a pencil and a Mead composition book. So, what's different now?
As soon as the question popped into my head, the answer came to me like a jolt of electricity - I wasn't learning.
Now, I know some of you might be feeling the impulse to start typing with great passion about how there is a lesson in life every day, blah blah blah. However, what I'm talking about is active learning. I'm talking about using your brain and going out to find out about/how to do new things instead of expecting life to wash knowledge over you while you passively sit back and do jack shit. I'm talking about taking the time to learn a new language just because, to learn a new skill or to perfect something that you started before but let go.
I'm talking about using learning as a way to unleash the creative subconscious. At least, that's what I plan to do for myself. My plan is to do something different every 30 days. Why 30 days? It's a nice even number, plus I was inspired by the following video:
This blog is to serve as a log of what I hope will be a lifelong project for me. To start, I've chosen something relatively easy. I have been lagging in my Japanese language studies, so my first 30-day project will be: [300 new Japanese words] in 30 days. That will be 10 new words every day. Not 10 JLPT N4 words, either, nor will there be any rollover (I only did 5 today, so I'll do 15 tomorrow, I promise). 10 every day. For 30 days.
