1. Japanese Words
Many people understand that geisha, kimono and haiku are Japanese
words, but did you know that typhoon, tsunami and tofu are also
Japanese words? Here are a couple of other Japanese words we listen to
within our everyday lives: shiitake, karate, karaoke and Pokemon. Let
us possess a look in the meanings of those words.
Japanese is known as an agglutinating language because new expressions
may be made by connecting current language components collectively.
Japanese is written using kanji and each kanji represents one or more
suggestions. Thus Japanese nouns tend to be developed by putting two
or more kanji together and the new word's which means is associated
with the mixture of those meanings.
Tsunami for example is created using the kanji for harbor and waves,
tsu and nami since previously the waves arrived without warning and
did most damage in harbors.
Another natural force, the typhoon, can also be created with two
kanji. This really is pronounced taifuu in Japanese and is created
with kanji for tai and fuu. The very first kanji indicates standing
and also the second indicates wind. Despite having high wind speeds,
typhoons journey very gradually therefore the which means may be
imagined in the combined components - a typhoon is a wind that appears
to stands in a single place for a long time.
Typhoons may be very destructive and each and every 12 months a large
number of trees are toppled by them. It's not all bad information
although because typhoons can result in fresh, wild shiitake
mushrooms! Within the wild, shiitake mushrooms are usually found on
the decaying trunks of fallen Japanese oaks. Shii-take literally means
oak-mushroom. Consider means mushroom and shi is a type of Japanese
tree related to oak trees.
Here is another meals from decay - tofu. Tofu breaks down into tou-
fu meaning beans-rot. It might not sound appetising but tofu is really
soured soy-bean milk so "bean rot" is a fairly correct description.
Tofu may be a part of a healthy way of life and doing karate can
really enhance your fitness too. Like a pure martial artwork, karate
has the meaning of empty-hand. "Kara" indicates empty and "te" means
hand.
The kara in karaoke also indicates empty but "oke" is a Japanese
abbreviation of "orchestra". So karaoke means empty-orchestra. It
might appear a unusual name to English speakers but the idea seems to
match - an orchestra without humans.
Pokemon is our last example. Foreign words are often absorbed in to
the Japanese language and reused in strange and unfamiliar methods,
such as the phrase orchestra in karaoke. Pokemon originates from
POcKEt-MONster.
I hope this article has aided you create a small much more feeling of
Japanese words and created learning Japanese seem a little much less
monstrous!
anime lover