Category Archives: Articles for Japanese Language

The JLPT in 2010

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So it’s about that time of year where students are thinking about and preparing for the JLPT (The Japanese Proficiency Exam). Preparing for the exam this year will be different than last year, there have been a lot of changes to the exam. This article explores the Japanese proficiency exam with personal accounts of past failures and successes, and how this relates to the JLPT 2010.

For those readers who are not sure what I’m talking about by the “1-kyu” in the title of this article, there are 5 levels of the Japanese proficiency exam in 2010. 5-kyu is the beginner level, where as 1-kyu is the highest level.

Last year’s 1-kyu exam was quite difficult. It’s actually rumored that the Japanese proficiency exam is harder every “odd year”, and easier on the even years. The listening section in particular on the 1-kyu exam was much more difficult than the practice listening sections in textbooks, even though they tried to make it funny and interesting by adding an anime scene at the end of the test. The grammar section was also more difficult than it needed to be, having a variety of grammar structures included from the 2-kyu, and probably even 3-kyu structures.

The point of talking about the 1-kyu 2009 before moving to the JLPT and 1-kyu 2010 is don’t be textbook focused in your studies. The 1-kyu exam has a wide variety of 2-kyu grammar, insanely hard listening sections, and readings that fit much better in with a newspaper than a typical “1-kyu readings book.” When studying textbooks, you should use them to memorize grammar patterns and how the listening questions are structured. Then for real hard preparation for 1-kyu immerse yourself in Japanese by reading newspapers and novels, listening to Japanese podcasts and music, and of course watching movies and dramas.

Now for the rest of the Japanese test takers (5-kyu to 2-kyu) textbook focused studying is probably your best bet. Also if you’re really serious find a Japanese teacher who can teach you, check your progress, and also have enough English background to translate properly for you. Understanding the grammar patterns, especially with their English applications, makes it easier to memorize what you need to know and do well on the exam.

So in short, for 1-kyu studiers please don’t forget your real world language resources for studying Japanese. This might also be a good lesson for the other levels as well, although probably less so. For 2-kyu and below, focusing on the textbooks for the JLPT and having a teacher / Japanese class you’re attending should be a recipe for success.

PS – PLEASE BE AWARE if you’re reading this article now and you haven’t started studying for the JLPT, you must start studying asap. Build a regiment, study every weekend or at least 2-3 times a week, and don’t forget to include in your studies reading, vocab, and listening.

The Vocabulary of Japanese Food – Sweet Potatoes

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(For more information on where these recipes came from and more Japanese cooking vocabulary, check out my previous posts for Yellowtail Teriyaki, Cashew Chicken, Roast Chinjao, and Tonkatsu!)

Did you read about Fall foods in Japan yet? If you have, you’ll notice that the first food listed is sweet potatoes. Have you ever wondered how to make them into a dessert, Japanese style? Read on and learn how!

スイートポテト – Sweet Potatoes

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients:

English Japanese
400 g sweet potatoes (0.88 lb or 14.1 oz) さつまいも　４００ｇ
32 g butter (about 2.5 Tbsp) バター　３２ｇ
60 g granulated sugar (about 1/3 cup) グラニュー糖　６０ｇ
4 Tbsp whole milk 牛乳　大さじ４
Dash of salt 塩　少々
2 egg yolks (divided) 卵黄　１個分＋１個分
1 Tbsp dark rum ラム酒　大さじ１
A little bit of water 水　少々

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 180°C (356°F). Peel the sweet potatoes, then cut into rounds 3 cm in width. Place the sliced potatoes into a bowl of water as you cut them, then drain when ready to proceed to the next step.

Fill a saucepan with plenty of water, then put in the potatoes and heat until the water is boiling. When they can be easily pierced with a chopstick or fork, remove from heat and drain the hot water.

While the potatoes are still hot in the drained saucepan, quickly crush them until they are broken up into small pieces. Add the 32 g of butter and mix well. Then add the 4 Tbsp of milk, 60 g granulated sugar, and salt, then heat on low heat. While stirring constantly, let the moisture evaporate, and mash until the potatoes become smooth.

Quickly cool the potatoes by placing the hot saucepan into a bowl of ice water. When they have cooled a bit, add one of the egg yolks and 1 Tbsp rum, then mix well.

Lay down some parchment paper on a flat surface like a counter or table. Divide the sweet potato dough into four equal sections and place on the paper. Form each into a football-like shape by wrapping them in the parchment, then using a dish towel on the outside of the wrapper to manipulate the hot dough.

In a small bowl, put in the other egg yolk and add a little water, then mix. Place the football-shaped sweet potatoes on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, then lightly brush the tops with the egg mixture.

Put the baking sheet on the top rack in the oven, which should be between 180-200°C (356-392°F). For two potato shapes, bake for 15-20 minutes. For 4, bake for 20-25 minutes. When the tops dry out after baking, take the potatoes out of the oven and brush with the egg mixture once more. Then put them back in the oven for 2-3 minutes. When the tops have browned, they are ready to be taken out of the oven and served.

(Note: Japanese dessert sweet potatoes are often served with a bit of honey on top.)

Vocabulary:

Japanese Romaji Meaning
はかり hakari Scale (ie. Cooking scale)
ピーラー piiraa Vegetable peeler
オーブン oobun Oven
オーブンシート oobun shiito Parchment paper
ふきん fukin Dish towel; dish rag
ハケ hake Brush (here, refers to a cooking or pastry brush)
バター bataa Butter
牛乳 gyuunyuu Milk
卵黄 ranou Egg yolk(s)
たっぷり tappuri Fully; amply; generously
細かい komakai Small; fine
つぶす tsubusu To crush; smash; mash
氷水 koori mizu Ice water
敷く shiku To spread; lay out
生地 kiji Dough
溶きほぐす toki-hogusu To scramble (an egg)
表面 hyoumen The surface; face; ouside; exterior
上段 joudan The upper row, tier, step, or rack

Learn Japanese NYC – Speaking Japanese in a Hotel

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When learning Japanese conversation, or developing conversational skills in general, it’s important to develop “situational fluency.” Language learners should anticipate common situations they’ll run into, and prepare their language skills to meet the demands of those situations. Of course each Japanese language learner has different demands, some might be traveling to Japan later on, others might have more immediate needs in their current workplace. This article will cover very useful Japanese conversation for any language learner that plans on traveling to Japan, and staying in a hotel.

Before getting into the specifics of Japanese conversation vocabulary at a hotel, it’s important to prepare you for the cultural experience you’ll encounter. Japan is a service nation, from McDonald’s to Uniqlo you’ll encounter some of the best customer service on the planet. The hotels are no exception, from extra clean sheets to bowing at every turn to little knick knacks in your room, the hotel is the epitome of Japanese customer service.

Let’s start with something simple for Japanese Conversation, if you already have a reservation and you’re just looking to check -in:

チェックインをお願いします

The word for check-in in Japanese sounds just like the English word, in Katakana it reads: チェックイン (Chi e ku i – in) You use “onegaishimasu” as a more formal version of “please”, so this phrase means Check in, please.

私の名前はビルです。わたしのなまえはびるです。

The above phrase, adding in Kanji as well as hiragana and katakana means my name is Bill.

部屋を見せてください。

The above phrase uses the command phrase, “please” or kudasai. The verb 見せる（みせる）means to show, and 部屋（へや）means room, please show me the room.

Now here’s some beginning phrases for Japanese conversation if you don’t have a reservation. It gets a little more complicated here:

ようやくをしたいんですが 　ようやく means reservation. This is a very useful phrase and is used at either restaurants or at hotels. The correct way of asking for a reservation is literally like above, “I would like to make a reservation but…” “But” in Japanese, especially when used with the たい or “to want” form, means to lighten the request, to ask politely.

Naturally the next question you’ll have to answer is how many people per room. Below is how to answer one person (hitori) through three people (san nin)

一人　ひとり

二人　ふたり

三人　さんにん

If you’re on a budget, you might ask how much per room:

部屋代は一泊いくらですか？部屋代(へやだい) heya is a word we learned previously, literally meaning room. When you combine this with the character 代dai, it literally means “the price of the room”. To ask per night, you ask:　一泊（いっぱく）(ippaku) means one night, or in this context it means per night, and then of course how to ask how much, or ikura desu ka?

Here’s how you say one night (ippaku) through three nights (sanhaku):

一泊　いっぱく

二泊　にはく

三泊　さんはく

And finally, before going to your room you’ll have to ask “When is check-out?”

チェックアウトは何時ですか？ チェックアウト　as with Check-in, Check-out is also in katakana, and resembles English. The second part of the sentence is nanji desu ka, literally what time?

So now you’ve learned the basics of Japanese conversation at a hotel. One of the drawbacks to Japan and learning Japanese conversation however, is with excellent customer service comes “keigo”, very formal Japanese language. You the customer of course do not have to worry about using keigo when you speak, but when the front desk or concierge speaks to you in Japanese they’ll be using keigo. Therefore when learning Japanese conversation for hotels it’s important to learn both the formal versions of keigo, and of course more rudimentary forms of Japanese for yourself. This article covered the rudimentary Japanese, next article we’ll work on the keigo.

Learn Hiragana – The Foundation for a fruitful Japanese language experience

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There’s good news and bad news with learning Japanese. The bad news is there’s three alphabets, two with about 50 characters, and a third, Kanji, with 2-3,000. The good news is the first alphabet you learn, Hiragana, has sounds that are repeated for the rest of the alphabets. So once you’ve mastered Hiragana, you should be able to pronounce all Japanese sounds going forward. Not only pronunciation, but Hiragana is also an alphabet that any Japanese word can be written in. So to summarize, once you’ve learned Hiragana, you can speak, write, and read Japanese!

Well, not exactly, to add a disclaimer all Japanese periodicals, tv shows, road signs, etc. are written in all three alphabets: Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji. In order to become fluent a Japanese language learner will have to learn all three of these alphabets, in the order: Hiragana, Katakana, and then Kanji. (Or, Kanji characters can be learned along with Katakana, but Hiragana must be mastered first) However, once someone who’s learning Japanese has learned Hiragana, they can write full sentences and even paragraphs to a Japanese speaker and he or she would completely understand. They can also read articles or any Japanese periodical, but it would have to be translated all into Hiragana. For example, some early children’s books for K-1st graders are written all in Hiragana.

Hiragana comes in bunches of 5 characters. Each character in Japanese has a vowel sound attached to it, as you’ll recognize by looking at the below sample sounds. It actually makes for really great rap music: it’s probably one of the easiest languages to rhyme in. The sounds also repeat, once you learn perfectly how the first bunch of 5 characters sound, then the remaining 9 bunches of 5 characters are just variations off the initial sounds.

In today’s article we’ll focus on the very first 5 characters, again as mentioned earlier the pronunciation of these characters is key: once learned every sound after it will just be a variation on these sounds (note: with a few exceptions). The first five characters with pronunciations added are below:

aiueo

The rhyme describes what every college graduate without a job goes through. He or she might want to live away from home, but they can’t afford food! Katrina Needs Food Hates Home (this is of course not an official rhyme and if you think of something more catchy please let me know!) The vowel in each word reflects each sound of the first bunch of 5 characters. Katrina actually has three vowel sounds, but the first and last a are the “a” sound for the Japanese character: あ.

Equally important along with the pronounciation is the stroke order for each Hiragana character. When writing each character, it is important to not take your pencil off the paper until each stroke is completed. With the first character あ, for the circle make sure to start and then curve around with your pencil, without stopping and taking it off the paper. いand うare self explanatory. For え、the directions on the second stroke are as follows: left to right, right corner to left corner, then trace back up a little bit and curve the tail. For お and the second stroke, it goes top to bottom, then curve around for the final touch.

Now you’ve hopefully learned the beginning 5 bunch of Hiragana. This article will continue to explain in detail the following 9 bunches of Hiragana, but it’s important to master both the concepts and the reading, writing, and pronunciation of the first 5 bunch before moving forward. Pat yourself on the back, learning Hiragana is the first step to learning this wonderful and fascinating language of Japanese.

Why Learn Japanese?

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This is a certainly a question that is asked of both myself, and of Hills Learning. Japanese in the 80’s was what Chinese is today, a language that is learned for business, political, and most importantly future expectations. If a language is perceived to become more prominent, people will try to learn it. Chinese is seen as a language that might even take over English in prominence, so people are desperate to learn it. Potential students for Japanese these days, so people tell me, are manga and anime fans.

While manga and anime fans certainly have an interest in Japanese culture, I would say still today schools, businesses, and individuals are still legitimately interested in learning Japanese. The majority of our own students are not manga and anime fans, but professionals, business owners, private schools, and other entities that see Japanese as very much a part of their lives and their children’s lives. I’ll also argue that Japanese is still very prominent, and learning Japanese can help both beginners and advanced speakers alike in today’s environment. Here’s why:

Strengthen or create your niche in the job market by learning Japanese When asked in an interview, “So recently what have you been doing?” I can’t think of a better response than “learning Japanese.” This instantly shows commitment and an openness to try new things, both characteristics that employers are looking for. But on a broader scale it creates a unique marketable skill, a skill that is instantly recognizable (obviously to any potential Japanese institutions or employers) but also to American, International, or European ones. Remember that ancient question, “what are your skills?” Language is something that’s instantly recognizable and respected; just don’t boast about your Japanese skills. Believe me, I’ve failed multiple interviews because the perception of my Japanese skills was much higher than what they actually were, so just be careful to articulate your skills accurately.

Japanese culture is ubiquitous throughout New York City There are multiple things Japanese in New York City, so much that I’d argue it has almost all the Japanese amenities that Tokyo has. There are multiple book and video stores that are dedicated solely to selling Japanese books and Japanese videos. There’s the typical argument of “sushi”, I know it’s everywhere, but beyond that New York City has a wide variety of Japanese restaurants: Japanese Korean BBQ, Ramen shops, Izakaya (Japanese Pubs), fast food Japanese, and noodle restaurants. There are also Japanese holidays in New York: Japan Day (50,000 attend annually), Cherry Blossom Festival, Anime Festivals, etc.

Japanese Companies Are Ubiquitous in New York City If you still don’t believe me, try walking into an electronics store that doesn’t have 50% Japanese products. Or purchasing a car and not thinking about Honda or Toyota. How about the Nintendo store near Rockefeller plaza? How many Japanese companies advertise in Times Square? Japanese company names are household names in America, but I can also attest to 300 or so Japanese East Coast (or American) headquarters being either in, or near, New York City. That gives you a wide variety of potential employers and ex-pat Japanese populations living in New York City.

These are just some of the reasons why New Yorkers, when thinking of which culture and language they’d love to learn about next, should consider learning Japanese. If you have any further reasons please list them, or if you disagree your comments are welcomed.

WIT Life #86: 日本の企業家精神

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WITLife is a periodic series written by professional Writer/Interpreter/Translator Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken CIR, 2000-03). She starts her day by watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese, and here she shares some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her own observations.

Last night I attended a symposium on Entrepreneurship in Japan (日本の企業家精神; nihon no kigyouka seishin) hosted by the Columbia Business School’s Center on Japanese Economy and Business.  The three panelists (two present, one via video from Tokyo) represented a variety of generations and backgrounds.  In 1985, American-born Ernest Matsuo Higa revolutionized Japanese home pizza delivery after obtaining the exclusive license to Domino’s Pizza.  Atsushi Imuta (participating from Tokyo) quit his job at a Japanese bank to found RISA Partners, an invesment banking firm.  Kohei Nishiyama, the youngest of the group who was raised in Columbia and went to university in Japan, invented the Design To Order system which allows manufacturers to reduce risk by carrying out product development based on customers’ requests.

An article on Japanese entrepreneurship in last month’s Eurobiz Japan highlights how within the Japan’s educational system there is the idea of entrepreneurship and risk-taking being undesirable, and that in order for things to change education needs to be used as tool advocating entrepreneurship.   Higa expressed that the climate for entrepreneurs was improving, perhaps as a side effect of the economic recession.  Before the best and brightest would have automatically entered the top companies, but now that this option is not always available, many have no choice but to become entrepreneurs.  But rather than a default option, the next generation needs to hear the message that starting something new is cool and making money as an entrepreneur, something often criticized in Japan, is not a bad thing.

According to Higa, all entrepreneurs in Japan are mavericks as they are pursuing something uncertain that is high risk and low return.  One reason is the government’s pro-establishment stance, which includes high personal income and inheritance taxes which are a disincentive for entrepreneurs. Also in terms of social status, even someone who is a successful entrepreneur receives less acclaim than someone who took the traditional path and entered a large company.  Whereas in the U.S. we might support the underdog, in Japan they tend to side with stability.  Also, whereas here failure can be seen as a badge of honor before you dust yourself off and try again, in Japan it has more negative associations.

Risk aversion also factors into the financing of entrepreneurs.  In Japan there is lack of a venture capitalist network, hindering access to sophisticated investors.  You can get loans from banks if you have collateral, but they tend to shy away from taking a chance on something different.  Nishiyama (pictured above, courtesy of John Ellis-Guardiola) detailed how he had to get his start-up money came from angel investors based in the U.S. or those who had spent a significant amount of time in the U.S.

Imuta emphasized the importance of spreading the culture of entrepreneurship in Japan, namely the fact that it’s fun to start something new and manage a company and its risks.  He recalled that when he quit his job at the bank, 10% of the people admired him but 70% were suspicious of why he did, thinking he was involved with embezzlement or other illegal activity.

Clearly, in order to further cultivate Japan’s budding entrepreneurs societal and regulatory changes are necessary.  This is occurring on an incremental basis, as evidenced by the appearance last fall of the Japan Times column The Wisdom of Entrepreneurs, which profiles up and coming entrepreneurs .   At Columbia Business School, entrepreneurship is the most popular track for students, and getting the Japanese as passionate about this concept could go a long way in exploiting the country’s latent entrepreneur culture.

WIT Life #84: 国勢調査

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WITLife is a periodic series written by professional Writer/Interpreter/Translator Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken CIR, 2000-03). She starts her day by watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese, and here she shares some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her own observations.

We are rapidly coming up on the deadline for the 国勢調査 (kokusei chousa) or national census, so I hope everyone has already filled in and returned their forms.  Every morning during the Japanese news there are advertisements running in Japanese advocating participation in the census as one’s civic duty.  Also, I have come across some interesting Japanese language print ads that I would like to share.

The one on the right shows a young girl holding an origami crane, and the accompanying text reads: “You can help improve our community in the time it takes to fold one paper crane.”  The one on the left shows someone of an unidentified gender tying おみくじ (omikuji).  These are the ubiquitous fortunes of various degrees of luck found at Japanese shrines.  It is said that if you are happy with your fortune you can take it home with you, but if not that it is better to tie it to a tree or rope at the shrine in order to avoid having it come true.  This poster’s slogan translates as: “Hope for the improvement of our community.”

I haven’t been paying close attention to census advertising targeting other ethnic groups (or average Americans for that matter), but the cultural specificity of these posters really struck me.  Not only do their images grab your attention, but they tug at your heartstrings as well by providing a cultural touchstone.  Even for me who is non-Japanese but who has spent significant time in Japan, they conveyed a strong message and seem to be a smart way to appeal to Japanese to pick up their pens and be counted.