Nihonashi #11 - Seiji no Hanashi

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Nihonashi #11 - Seiji no Hanashi

Watashi: Iya desu!!!!

Hokano koe: Doushita?

Watashi: Seiji no hanashi wa, iyada!! Tsumaranai shi, muzukashisugiru jaa nai?

Hokano koe: Kankeinai deshou. 

Watashi: Demo~~~

Hokano koe: Mou kikenai hodo urusai. Ikouze. 

Watashi: Wakarimashita... Konnichiwa, mina-san. Kyou no hanashi wa seiji no koto nan desu kedo, tango mo bunpou o benkyou suru tame ni dake desu. Saikin hontou no nihongo no kurasu ga attakara, fukushuu shitaindesu. 

Onegaishimasu~

Hokano koe: Onegaishimasu~

Watashi: Kodomo no shinbun kara, Egypt no seiji ni tsuite no kiji o tsukaimashita. 

Hokano koe: Amari muzukashikunakatta ne? Kitto daijoubu datta.

Watashi: Maa, bimyou... kanji mittsu ijou, kotoba tou ijou, shittemashita. Hyaku no uchi.

Hokano koe: Ah. Soka. Daijoubu desu. Shikkari shite!

Watashi: Un. Nantonaku.

Hokano koe: Jaa, nani o naratta? Hitotsu no kotoba onegaishimasu.

Watashi: Un. Shuukyou desu. 

Hokano koe: Tatoeba, isuramu-kyou, morumon-kyou, kurisuto-kyou, bukkyou, shindou nado no koto desu.

Watashi: Sou desu. 

Hokano koe: Tsugi ni ikimasu.

Watashi: Seijika desu. Seiji no hito no koto desu. Ato wa, oozappa. Nagai hanashi o temijika ni ieba tto ka.

Hokano koe: Omoshiroi kotoba desu ne. Reibun onegaishimasu.

Watashi: Kiji ni detekita no wa, “Goku oozappa ni ieba, kokumin no kangae ga ookiku futatsu ni wareteiru to kangaete mo machigai de wa nai deshou.”

Hokano koe: Jaa, mou hitotsu no kotoba ni shimasu.

Watashi: Hai, ‘touji’ desu. ‘Sono toki’ no koto desu. Kanji wa ‘ataru’, ‘hontou’ no ‘tou’, to ‘jikan’ no ‘ji’ desu.

Hokano koe: Kono reibun wa nagai, demo kantan na bunpou da.

Watashi: Hai, ikimasu: “Watashi wa juunen hodo mae, touji no America Daitouryou ni doukou shite Ejiputo no [resort] to iu rizoutochi ni itta koto ga arimasu.” 

Hokano koe: Ah, ima detekita, ‘doukou’ wa, issho ni iku no koto. Tsugi no kotoba wa... tomato?

Watashi: Toumeido.

Hokano koe: Tomato? Nande tomato?

Watashi: Mou... soredewa, yubiori ni shimasu.

Hokano koe: Ah, yubi o oru -- origami no oru deshou. Yubi de kazoeru no imi nan dakedo, kono baai, ‘yuumei’ no imi deshou.

Watashi: Sou desu. Reibun ikimasu. “Soko no umi wa shinjirarenai hodo toumeido ga takakute, sekai de mo yubiori no daibingu supotto da to iu hanashi deshita.”

Hokano koe: Ima detekita -- tomato!!!

Watashi: Toumeido desu yo! 

Hokano koe: Seiji no hanashi da to omotta. Naruhodo. Hontou ni hirugohan no koto dawa bikkurishita.

Watashi: Hirugohan nanka jaa neeeeeeee.....

(oshimai)

...

Wakarimashita ka? Did you get that? Tsugi, eigo mo setsumei ga hairimasu. Next, we’ll go over it little by little with the English translation and some explanation.

Nihonashi #11 - Political Talk

Me: Noooo!!!

The other voice: What’s wrong? 

Me: No political talk! It’s boring, and anyway isn’t it too hard?

The other voice: Doesn’t matter.

Me: Buuut....

The other voice: You’re so annoying I can’t listen to you anymore. Let’s go.

Me: Understood.... Hello, everybody. Today’s topic is politics, but only for the purpose of studying some words and grammar. Recently I had a real Japanese class, and I would like to review. 

(If you please)

Me: We used an article from a children’s newspaper, about Egypt’s politics.

The other voice: It wasn’t too hard, right? You did fine I’m sure.

Me: Uh, that’s iffy. I knew more than 3 kanji, more than 10 words. Out of a hundred.

The other voice: Oh. I see. It’ll be ok. Hang in there!

Me: Yeah, somehow I will....

The other voice: So, what did you learn? One word, please.

Me: Ok. Shuukyou; religion. 

The other voice: For example, Islam, Mormonism, Christianity, Buddhism, Shinto and so forth.

Me: That’s right.

The other voice: Let’s move on.

Me: ‘Seijika’ -- politician. Political person. Next is ‘oozappa’, ‘in brief’, or a word saying you are making a long story short.

The other voice: Interesting word, isn’t it. Example please.

Me: From the article: “To say it very briefly, there is no mistake in thinking the population is split into two major ways of thinking.” (or something of the sort)

The other voice: Ok, let’s do another word.

Me: ‘Touji’ -- ‘those days’, or ‘at that time’. The first kanji is ‘ataru’, which is the ‘tou’ from ‘hontou’; the second kanji is the time kanji, the ‘ji’ from ‘jikan’. 

The other voice: This example is long, but the grammar is simple.

Me: “About 10 years ago, I accompanied the [then] American President to an Egyptian resort.

The other voice: From that, ‘doukou’ is ‘to go together’. So the next word is... tomato?

Me: Toumeido.

The other voice: Tomato? Why tomato?

Me: Jeez... fine, I’ll do ‘yubiori’. 

The other voice: Oh, to bend the fingers. The ‘ori’ is the same as from ‘origami’. It means to count with the fingers, but in this case, it means ‘famous’ or notable or ‘top ten’ kinda thing.

Me: Yup. For example: “It was a world-famous diving spot, and the ocean there was so clear -- toumeido -- I couldn’t believe it.” (Except more succinctly.)

The other voice: Oh, I heard it -- tomato!

Me: It’s ‘toumeido’!!

The other voice: I thought this was all about politics, but now I see. I’m surprised, it’s really about lunch.

Me: It’s nothing about lunch at alllllll!!!

(the end)

Vocabulary:

seiji = politics

tsumaranai = boring

kankei = relevance, connection; so kankeinai = no relation, nothing to do with it

bunpou = grammar

saikin = recently

fukushuu = review

shinbun = newspaper

~ni tsuite = about

kiji = article

tsukau = to use; past tense tsukaimashita

bimyou = questionable, iffy

~no uchi = from, out of

shuukyou = religion

~kyou = religion suffix

shindou = shinto

nadonado = etc.

seijika = politician

oozappa = in summary, roughly

temijika = brief, short

reibun = example sentence

goku = quite, very; or some, a little... hmmm

kokumin = population, citizens

kangae = a thought; kangaeru = to think

wareru = to split; warikan is to split in the middle, waribiki is price cut

machigai = mistake

touji = at that time, back then

daitouryou = president

doukou = accompany, go with

toumeido = transparency, clarity

yubiori = famous, notable

shinjiru = to believe; shijirareru = can believe; shinjirarenai = can’t believe

sekai = world

hirugohan = lunch

oshimai = the end, that’s it

Grammar:

~sugiru = too much; muzukashisugiru = too difficult, takasugita = it was too expensive; also for verbs, with the -masu stem, tabesugita = I ate too much, jikan kakarisugiru = it takes too much time.

(~nai) hodo (~) = to the extent that; e.g. taberarenai hodo ippai = there’s so much food I can’t eat it; wasurerarenai hodo tsurai = so painful I can’t forget; kikenai hodo urusai = so bad I can’t listen -- shinjirarenai hodo toumeido ga takai = the level of transparency was so high I couldn’t believe it.

original article:

WAS here: http://mainichi.jp/feature/maisho/news/20130727 but no longer works. Grr. So instead here:

In Japanese script:

Watashi: いやです！

Hokano koe: どうした？

Watashi: 政治の話は、いやだ！つまらないし，難しすぎるじゃあない？

Hokano koe: 関係ないでしょう。 

Watashi: でも〜〜〜〜

Hokano koe: もう聞けないほどうるさい。行こうぜー。

Watashi: 分かりました．．．今日は，皆さん。今日の話は政治の事なんですけど，単語も文法を勉強するためにだけです。最近本当の日本語のクラスがあったから、復習したいんです．お願いします〜

Hokano koe: お願いします〜

Watashi: 子供の新聞から、エジプトの政治についての記事を使いました．

Hokano koe: あまり難しくなかったね？きっと大丈夫だった。

Watashi: まあ、微妙です．．．漢字三つ以上、言葉十以上知ってました。百のうち。

Hokano koe: あ．そか．大丈夫です，しっかりして！

Watashi: うん．何となく．

Hokano koe: じゃあ、何を習った？一つの言葉お願いします．

Watashi: うん。宗教です．

Hokano koe: 例えば，イスラム教，モルモン教、クリスト教、仏教,　神道などの事です．

Watashi: そうです。

Hokano koe: 次ぎに行きます．

Watashi: 政治家です．政治の人のことです。あとは、大ざっぱ。長い話を手短かに言えばっとか。

Hokano koe: 面白いことばですね。例文お願いします．

Watashi: 記事に出て来たのは、「ごく大ざっぱに言えば、国民の考えが大きく二つに割れていると考えても間違いではないでしょう。」

Hokano koe: じゃあ，もう一つの言葉にします．

Watashi: はい，「当時」です。「その時」の事です．漢字は「当たる」、「本当」の「当」と「時間」の「時」です。

Hokano koe:この例文は長い，でも簡単な文法だ．

Watashi: はい，行きます「私は十年ほど前、当時のアメリカの大統領に同行してエジプトの[resort name]リゾート地に言ったことがあります。」

Hokano koe: ああ，今出て来た「同行」は、一緒に行くのこと。次の言葉は．．．トマト？

Watashi: 透明度.

Hokano koe: トマト？なんでトマト？

Watashi: もう。それでは、「指折り」にします。

Hokano koe: ああ，指を折る．「折り紙」の「折」るでしょう．指で数えるの意味なんだけど、この場合、「有名」の意味でしょう．

Watashi:　そうです．例文行きます。「そこの海は信じられないほど透明度が高くて，世界でも指折りのダイビングスポットだと言う話でした。」

Hokano koe: 今出て来た！トマト！！

Watashi: 「透明度」ですよ！

Hokano koe: 政治の話だと思った。なるほど。本当に昼ご飯のことだはびっくりした。

Watashi: 昼ご飯なんかじゃねええええええ.....

(おしまい)

Credits:

Director, Voice, & stuff
   ShiroiHyou, Mai-chan

Software
 Voice recording Garageband
 Video editor  Screenflow
 Text   LiveType
 Pictures  Graphic Converter, Pages, Photoshop

Hardware
 MSL USB Condenser Mic
 Macbook Pro

Resources
 Dictionary  jisho.org
Teacher KM

Thank you!
-ShiroiHyou

#11 in progress - take a look at Fushimi Inari Taisha!

I wrote episode #11 last September while I really should have been studying for the JLPT (I passed anyway though). Now I'm back on the project and will get it finished soon.

Here is a bonus picture while you wait:

(It has nothing to do with the episode.)

The photo is from Fushimi Inari Taisha, which is a vast complex covering a mountainside somewhere in Kyoto, dedicated to the god(dess) Inari. This photo shows probably the most famous aspect of the shrine: the thousands and thousands of torii, donated by various businesses.

Can you read some of the individual kanji?

On the torii in the forefront, the very top is 町 machi, meaning town, or street/block, and is followed by hachi (eight). Then we get 丁目choume meaning district, then ニノ三四 ninosanyon, which is two [possessive] three four. I suppose something like #34 of 2-chome? And we're probably missing the town name at the top of the photo.

Underneath that we have what I assume is the name of the company who donated this particular torii.

内 uchi/nai　= inside, interior
田 da/ta  = rice field
商 shou　= production, business
事 koto/ji　= thing
株 kabu　= stock/share, stump/root
式 shiki　= style, ceremony
会 au/kai　= meeting, assembly

The first two, 内田, is probably a name. It could be naida but more likely Uchida (like Sasuke).
Next we have 商事 shouji, meaning commercial affairs.
株式 kabushiki means stock, as in for a company, then it's cut off at the bottom but the last two say 会社 kaisha, meaning company/business. It's not hard to guess that might mean it's a publicly-traded company, and that is correct:
株式会社 kabushikigaisha means public company or corporation.

And this, I believe, is the company: http://www.uchida-shoji.co.jp

Yay!


To look up the kanji I didn't know, I used jisho.org, and my iPhone (you can add a keyboard that lets you draw Chinese characters, which is much faster than looking them up by radical).

西山公園に歩くの朝

今日、桜を見に西山公園へ歩いて行きました。アパートから西山公園まで歩いて1時間かかったが、戻る時間は30分でした。なぜなら、行く時、鉄道をどこにも渡らなかった。

西山公園は桜がいっぱいある。

小さい動物園もあります。猿とかレッサーパンダも見ました。

昼ご飯は唐揚げとオレンジジュースを食べました。たこ焼きもあったけど、たこ焼きあまり好きではありません。

そして、今日、先生になりました。始めたクラスを教えました。緊張しちゃったけど大丈夫だと思う。もっと元気になるといいね。でもしょうがない, 疲れた！結局西山公園に行って三時間歩きました。

Romaji:

Kyou, sakura wo mi ni Nishiyama Koen e aruite ikimashita. Apaato kara nishiyama koen made aruite ichi-jikan kakattaga, modoru jikan wa san-juuppun deshita. Nazenara, ikutoki, tetsudo o dokonimo wataranakatta.

Nishiyama Koen wa sakura ga ippai aru.

Chiisai doubutsuen mo arimasu. Saru toka lessa panda mo mimashita.

Hirugohan wa karaage to orenjijuusu o tabemashita. Takoyaki mo attakedo, takoyaki amari suki dewa arimasen.

Soshite, kyou, sensei ni narimashita. Hajimeta kurasu o oshiemashita. Kinchoushichatta kedo daijoubu da to omou. Motto genki ni naru to ii ne. Demo shouganai, tsukareta! Kekkyoku Nishiyama Koen ni itte sanjikan arukimashita.

English:

Today, I walked to Nishiyama Park to see the cherry blossoms. Walking there from my apartment took an hour, but the return time was 30 min. Why? 'Cause on the way there, I couldn't cross the railroad tracks ANYWHERE. Ahhhh.

Nishiyama Park has lots of sakura trees.

It also has a small zoo. I saw monkeys and red panda.

For lunch I ate fried chicken and orange juice. There was also takoyaki (octopus fried in batter), but I don't really like takoyaki. 

Also today, I became a teacher. I taught my first classes. I was nervous but I think it was ok. It would be better if I was more bright and energetic, but I was tired. After all, I was 3 hours walking to/in Nishiyama Park.

Notable Vocabulary:

kakaru = to take (time)
wataru = to cross
doubutsuen = zoo
kinchou = nerves, tension
shouganai = can't be helped, oh well
kekkyoku = after all, in the end
例えば = tatoe = for example

Grammar Points:

go to x to x -- 例えば go to the library to read a book
verb stem + ni + place + ni/e + go verb
例えば hon o yomi ni toshokan e ikimashita (I went to the library to read a book.)
例えば panda o mi ni koen e aruite kimashita (I came to the park to see the pandas.)

from ~ to ~ ..... ~kara ~ made
例えば from the bus stop to the park
start + kara + destination + made
例えば basu tei kara koen made