Kinda 和製英語：Freeter

During a recent playthrough of Pocket Academy I noticed some things. Things that hadn't latched on the first time around. That is the general purpose of subsequent playthroughs, so huzzah. One particular word leapt out at me. "Spectacular! Another 和製英語 for the scrolls," thought I. But it was a little more complicated than that.

There is an ever-expanding trove of katakana words attached to the Japanese language. Many are obvious enough.  I imagine that「ハンバーガー」has befuddled relatively few who have toiled to learn the runes. But then there are others; they are words which, for we natives of the English tongue at least, straddle the boundaries of "Whathewhat?" and "This...could be of English origin...?" They often claim cloudy or error-laden origins. There are so many English-derived katakana words, you see, that specimens of other inspiration can be somewhat distressing. 

And so it was with 「フリーター」. At first I thought it was clearly 和製英語. I know enough English to know that "free" is definitely a word we use. A quick dictionary look-up revealed that a フリーター is someone who is a permanent part-time worker. I suppose they drift from part-time job to part-time job. But how does "free" relate to this? There must be something else at work here. 

I condemned this digital child to a life of retail vagrancy, for you.

As much as I love the new age of Google search, a part of me still appreciates the simplicity of my good old electronic dictionary. So that was where I first turned for answers.

"Does this qualify as 'old school' yet?" I pondered.

Ah-ha! So it's ドイツ語 (German), then. Well played, Japanese. But hold on moment - the entry says 和製 free + Arbeiter ドイツ)の略. So it's 'Japanese' use of "free" + some German (that is the origin of アルバイト, by the way - another troubling katakana denizen). 

So it's....Engerman? And so we do ultimately turn to Google for help.

Wikipedia has the story. It's a bit of a read, so we'll just skip to the bottom line of what we're interested in:

語源は

英語のフリー free（「時間の自由な」という意味の略）

ドイツ語で労働を意味し、日本語では非正規雇用を意味するアルバイト Arbeit

「～する人」という意味の英語 er、または同じ意味のドイツ語 er

の3つをつなげた和製の造語（「フリー・アルバイター」の略称）である。

So 

1. English's "free" + 

2. German's "arbeit" + 

3. Engish's "er" (someone who does something) 

= フリー・アルバイター. Then we shorten, which almost completely removes the German part but leaves a sewn together incomprehensible English result. フリーター. Freeter. That's 和製英語-y enough for me.

Word.

TEPCO tries to summon walls of ice?

RocketNews24 reported that TEPCO is trying to create walls of ice (reinforced by soil and cement) around the Fukushima No. 1 reactors so as to keep in the contaminated water. Unfortunately the walls aren't shaping up as planned.

Only 3 mana? What's the problem?

You can read more about the story at RocketNews or the Asahi Shimbun. I haven't been following the reactor news super closely, as the situation always seems to be that basically "things are bad." However it's an important story to keep track of, both for Japan and other countries that use nuclear power. I'm neither gung-ho for or against nuclear energy, though I lean more towards it being a necessity until we can achieve more efficient sustainable energy (we're still far from cheap and abundant solar or wind power). Still, it quite evidently does have its risks, especially when power plants are not well-maintained.

Regardless, shall we take a look at Yahoo Japan!'s article for a quick J lesson?

If you've studied Japanese for a bit, you're probably familiar with the word for "refrigerator," even if you're not familiar with the kanji: 冷蔵庫 (れいぞこ). For the longest time, extending through my years in Japan, I could never remember the similar word for "freezer," which is 冷凍庫 (れいとうこ).

Here in this article, the kanji for "freeze" abounds! Let's look at a couple of excerpts from one sentence:

1.「氷の壁」が４月末の着工から３カ月たっても凍らないため...

"Since the construction on the wall of ice began in April, and it has not frozen despite three months passing... "

凍る (こおる) = to freeze. 

I think the easiest way to remember this is to think of かき氷 (kakigori).

As it happens, こおり (氷) means "ice" and こおる (凍る) means "to freeze." I have a hunch that 氷る can also mean "to freeze," but I've never seen that kanji used that way.

2. ...来週にも１日１０トンの氷を投入し凍結を促す対策を開始することを明らかにした。

"...a plan has been announced, starting next week, to begin dumping 10 tons of ice per day into the ice trenches in order to quicken the freezing process."

凍結 (とうけつ) = freeze (the act or process of freezing)

This other reading of 「凍」as 「とう」is the reason I always froze up and couldn't remember the word for "freezer." I'm not sure there is a great way to remember it (if you think of one, let me know). But if you can remember that, you can easily remember 「冷凍庫」 - just one character different from "refrigerator."

Bean Knowledge

This week I'll be taking part in a jointly run JETAADC-JASWDC Izakaya Pub Quiz event. The way I put our team together, we're lacking in the J-person department (just 3 white guys and 1 half-J guy), so I think we'll be at a disadvantage there. Normally wouldn't be a problem, but the questions are being billed as half English and half Japanese, and I'm not sure we're up to snuff on our Japanese pop culture. Still, we do possess some kernels of knowledge. Or beans of knowledge.

Yes, that is the sorry lead-in to today's Japanese nubbin. The word is 豆知識 (まめちしき), which literally means "bean knowledge." ALC defines it as "bits of knowledge," so I imagine you're supposed to visualize little scattered knowledge beans. Rikai-kun also offers "trivia" as a possible definition.

I know there are other (perhaps more ubiquitous) terms for "trivia," so I just did a cursory couple of searches.

「トリビア」turns up almost 4 million results.

「豆知識」, meanwhile, comes up with 28 million. Judge for yourself.

Kotowaza: Spare the rod

This morning I was driving to work and the Hazards of Love came up on my iPod. Sometimes I forget how much I love the Decemberists, and that was a fantastic album. Anyway, the track that started playing had this one lyric: "Spare the rod and spoil the child, but I prefer the lash." That got me wondering, for some reason, if there's a corresponding saying in Japanese for our "spare the rod and spoil the child."



Although "spare the rod" is more explicitly evocative of corporal punishment, literally "if you don't beat your children they will be spoiled," these days it's more liberally understood to mean that undisciplined children become spoiled.

In Japanese, the closest expression (or 諺) that I was able to find is 「可愛い子には旅をさせよ」(かわいいこにはたびをさせよ」. Literally, something like "send your precious child on a journey." The reasoning is that if you coddle your child and keep him safe at home, he will become spoiled. Rather you must send him out into the cold and unfriendly world to learn to take care of himself, and thus he will become a better person.

One thing I love about Japanese (and I'm sure this is the case with other languages, as well) is that these kinds of similar yet distinct sayings and proverbs abound.

From the Archives: Warm and Cold

I don't usually repost old material, but lately the weather has really been making me think of this Japanese expression that I introduced a few years ago. Although perhaps now I'd translate it as "three cold four warm," as this time of year it doesn't really get "hot." Anyway, if you're living in a temperate clime and just biding your time until spring arrives, here's some Japanese for you, originally posted in March 2010:


The last couple weeks have been pretty mild. There was even a day or two that got up to around 18 C (about 64 F). And then it got cold again. And rainy and miserable. Towards the end of the week, though, things may heat up again. This kind of weather isn't unusual for the end of winter in temperate climes.

The other day I learned that there is a Japanese expression for this type of weather behavior. It's even a yo-ji (word or phrase made up of a 4-kanji chain)! Ready? Here it is:

三寒四温

It's pronounced 「さんかんしおん」(sankan-shion). Literally, the kanji mean "three cold four hot." When put into its proper context, it refers to the weather cycle that follows the rough pattern of three cold days and then four warm days.

I think it's a pretty cool phrase to know, but just be warned that it's not exactly mainstream. I learned it from a teacher that I work with, and although I tried to sneak it into conversations with some of my Japanese coworkers and friends, only about half of them knew what I was talking about.

Punked

Relatively early on during my time in Japan, I bought a used bicycle. It wound up faithfully serving me for my three years, but naturally I had to refill the air in the tires on occasion. One time, though, that didn't seem to do the trick.

I asked a friend of mine to accompany me to the little repair shop around the corner; I had visited on my own, suspecting that I had a leak (as the air seemed to be draining out in a manner of days), but I wasn't sure how to communicate the fact. The guy seemed to tell me in what I could only describe as a heavy, gibberish accent, that the tire was okay and just needed air.

Long-story-short, I did indeed have a flat and required a patch on the tire's inner tube. But more importantly, I learned a new word that day from my friend: パンク（した）- to get a flat tire.

Ah, yes - "punk" as in "punctured." 

和製英語: High Touch

Another English Japanese word that took me by surprise was the term 「ハイタッチ」. Apparently Japanese is the only language that uses the expression "high touch" to describe what we in English call a "high five."

I think the reasoning behind "high touch" is self apparent, but I am wondering when and how the change came about. Unfortunately Google search has failed me for once. Wikipedia notes that Japanese is unique in its usage of the expression but doesn't have any further explanation.

Hmm...

lol'ing in Japanese

If you frequent Japanese message boards or comment sections, or perhaps follow some Japanese Twitter accounts or have some J Facebook friends, you've probably seen roman "w"s scattered in with the kana from time to time. And you if you do frequent those sites, then probably know what they mean. If you don't and/or you're not, however, here's a quick explanation for you.

Like English and I suspect may other languages, Japanese has its own evolving "internet language." I suppose this crosses into text messaging realm as well, but I'm not sure if there's some term that encompasses both. In any case, "w" is kind of the Japanese version of "lol."

You see, the word for laughing or laughter is 「笑う」. Sometimes you'll see 「笑」 thrown into posts or comments to denote laughing. This can be further shorted to "w" for "warai."

Here's an example from the wild that I lifted from a Japanese friend's Facebook. The context is that he posted a picture of himself with his hair dyed blond, and a friend commented:

だれ？ｗ　よろしくねーん☆

(Who's that? lol Nice to meet youuuuu)

One interesting additional note is that more "w"s can be added to indicated a longer or more intense laugh. Kind of like changing it to a "lmfao," with room for more degrees in between, I suppose.

和製英語: T-Back

You might not think you'd come across this word very often, but believe it or not (and though I can't place any specific instances), this is one I've heard quite a few times. I swear it isn't part of my normal repertoire, though!

What the Japanese know as a "T-back" (Tバック) , we know as...

Yes, the noble thong. I guess the name is apt enough - not really much need to ponder the meaning of the Japanese for this one. 

Card...ball?

No, I'm not talking about not some amazing new J-game involving cards and balls (though that actually sounds like it could be awesome). See, there's a Japanese word that has confounded me since I learned it years ago, and that is 「ダンボール」. "Cardboard," in English. Usually when you come across a katakana word drawn from English, you can tell fairly quickly what the base word is or at least guess what it's getting at. Even with 和製英語. With this one, I really had no idea.

So, I finally decided to Google it. 

The 「ダン」, as it turns out, is 「段」, which can mean tier(ed). This is most likely because cardboard is corrugated, and if you were to look at a cross-section, you would see two or more little layers kind of connected by ridges. Fair enough.

As for the 「ボール」part, which looks like "ball," I came across one explanation offered at Yahoo Answers-type websites, and one that Wikipedia kind of hinted at that I am going to proffer.

1) Whoever coined the Japanese word for "cardboard" misheard or had trouble pronouncing "board" and said 「ボール」(ball) instead. It caught on and spread, and voila. This was an answer I came across multiple times across the webiverse.

2) 「ボール」is actually short for 「ボールド」. I think this is plausible since so many words in Japanese can be and often are shortened. Wikipedia didn't explicity say this, but it did say the origin of 「段ボール」's 「ボール」 is the English word "board."

So there you have it. Man, now I wish "cardball" were an actual Japanese game.

(Source) If you drop it, you get smacked in the crotch.

和製英語: Reform

Another Japenglish word I remember coming across now and then is 「リフォーム」. Although from the English "reform," it actually means "renovation" or "remodeling."

Often usually there seems to be some reason why the Japanese adopted these slightly off adaptations of English words (sometimes due to an old usage or a discrepancy between American and British English). So it's possible that in the U.K. people don't renovate their homes but actually "reform" them, I don't know. In American English, however, "reform" is most often used in the context of changing something bad about a person or an intangible (like a way of governing). You often hear about reforming healthcare laws or immigration policy.

In Japanese, however, you get something like: 

その店は来週からリフォームすると聞いた。

(I heard that shop will be under renovation from next week.)

Rally

There's a grammar point I wanted to cover, so I figured I'd throw it in with some personal reflection.

Autumn is a pretty nostalgic time for me. All those school memories, maybe. When I went to work at Itami, I arrived at the end of July, so I guess a lot of my early experiences were in the fall, too. I'm finding myself recently kind of locked into this nostalgia, I suppose; it's not that I'm not doing anything, but there's just not a lot going on and I am looking more backwards than forwards. Reflecting, remembering, missing earlier days. I've heard that repatriation can be a difficult process, but it's just really been made all the harder by other circumstances. As I've talked about before, I tend to pretty highly prioritize and treasure my relationships, so when they end, I just have trouble recovering. Not unique, I know. But, it's something I need to break out of...just looking for a catalyst.

Nothing left to do but get back on that horse, I guess. Lots of things to be done. That brings me to the Japanese for this post. You may be familiar with the word 「直す」(なおす), which means "to fix." Well, when we tack it onto a verb stem, it means to "re"~.

Some examples:

やり直す - redo

見直す - look again or reexamine

考え直す - rethink, reconsider

書き直す - rewrite

立て直す - to rally or rebuild

例：

人生は、時々過去を見直していい、でも考え直したくてもやり直せないから立て直さなきゃな。

和製英語: High tension

I can't remember when I first heard this one, but I'm sure I must have been confused. In English, when we talk about "tension," it usually holds a more negative connotation (unless maybe you're talking about "sexual tension"). There's often a high degree of tension between two individuals who don't get along, for example, right?

In Japanese, "high tension" or 「ハイテンション」 has a positive meaning - to be excited or enthusiastic. I suppose this flows from the fact that when we talk about electricity, "high tension" means we're talking about a lot of energy.

An example from ALC:

家族に心配を掛けないよう、ハイテンションで、明るく振る舞うように努めています。
(I strive to be bright and cheerful so as not to let my family worry.)

良い and 良い

I've always kind of just taken it for granted that 「良い」 can be read as 「よい」 or 「いい」 and that they both mean "good." I suppose I never really gave much thought as to when/where 「よい」 is used, as 「いい」is much more common in daily colloquial Japanese. Yesterday, though, I was having a conversation with my boss regarding a push by the ACLU to get U.S. companies to move call centers to America, and I mentioned that I think many Americans regard domestic call centers to be of higher quality than those that are offshore. The Japanese I used was 「いい質」.

Lately my boss has been on kind of a quest to improve my Japanese (I'm grateful for his good will and attention, but this can be stressful at times), and he told me that instead of 「質」, I should say 「品質」. All right, fair enough - I guess because we're talking about a (product or) service? Then he said that I should say 「よい品質」 instead of 「いい品質」. Hmmm.

I asked him about the difference between 「いい」 and 「よい」 and he sat back with a smile and a 「そうねぇ」 and thought for a moment. He explained that 「よい」is used more often in writing, but that in this setting (I'm not clear exactly if he meant as in a workplace or a more academic, research-oriented setting) it's sometimes good to use words that would normally be used in written Japanese. I nodded.

Having done a little searching online, it seems to me that some people believe 「よい」 and 「いい」have different nuances (which would make sense), but I personally had a hard time grasping the difference that said people were trying to explain. I suppose for now it's enough to understand that 「よい」is used mostly in written Japanese.

I wonder if there's anyone reading who could share some additional insight...

The many faces of "ki"

Sometimes getting your thoughts and feelings down on (virtual?) paper can really be helpful, even if they are kind of crazy and/or melodramatic.

On a completely unrelated note, I was thinking that it's about time for me to write up a post on 気 (ki).

気 can be translated in a number of different ways, depending on its usage - spirit, energy, life force, mood, etc. Just as the word itself has several meanings, so is it used in a ton of different expressions. So many, in fact, that I'm not going to attempt to list them all. I did want to jot down a few of the more commonly-used ones, however. And then if any of you have any favorites that I haven't mentioned, I invite you to share them in the comments.

1. 気をつける - 「きをつけて！」is an oft-used expression telling someone to be careful or to take care. You'll often hear it used when parting from a group of friends (or maybe coworkers after a drinking party) in the evening. Kind of like saying "Have a safe trip home!"


2. 気がつく - to notice. Sometimes this one can be used in one of the same ways as わかる. If you're not so observant, you'll want to condition your tongue to saying 「気がつかなかった」.

例：飲み放題は、いくら？値段気つかなかったんだ。
Ex: How much is all you can drink? I didn't notice a price.


3. 気がする - to have a feeling about something or to feel ~. I didn't start noticing this one until recently for some reason, and I get the feeling its usage is a little more broad than simply to "feel." Still, that seems to be the primary use.

例：俺は負ける気がするな。
Ex: I have a feeling I'm gonna lose.


4. 気になる - to be on one's mind or to be anxious about. This is also one feel I've not employed to the fullness of its potential. You can use it to say that you're interested in something (or someone) or that you're worried or uneasy about something.

例：そのレストタンはいつも通ってるけど行ったことないから最近気になってる。
Ex: Recently I've been interested in that restaurant since I always pass by it but have never been there.


So how about it? There are plenty more 「気」 phrases out there. What are some other good ones?

和製英語: Pinch

A Japanese friend of mine posted the following status update on Facebook some time ago:


めっちゃ幸せな気分になりました！充電ピンチやけどwウィラーコンセント付いてへんかな!?(*^^*)

There's kind of a lot going on in this construction, but I want to focus in on the use of 「ピンチ」 here. I'm not exactly sure what my friend was referring to here or why he was so happy, but it seems he was having battery issues with something. He's roughly saying something like:


"I'm in a great mood! Though I'm in trouble with my battery charger lol I don't suppose Willer has outlets?!"

I believe he's talking about Willer buses here - that's one of the bigger highway bus companies. 

Anyway, the Japanese use of 「ピンチ」looks to be derived from the English expression "in a pinch." It basically means trouble, a problem, or a tight spot. Not too far off from the English, I guess, except that as far as I can tell it only has that one meaning and isn't used in quite the same situations as we would use it in (i.e. I'm not sure how natural it sounds to say you're in a pinch with your battery charger or "in a battery charger pinch").

Edit 7/23/2012: As Jturningpin points out in the comments section, I really should have said "(Battery) charge" instead of charger. Charger would be 充電器 (じゅうでんき).

和製英語: Miss

和製英語 (わせいえいご) refers to Japanese words that have been imported from English but with altered meaning. This is another topic that has been covered before, both by myself and others (Daniel, Orchid), and it can provide much frustration for native English speakers. パンツ and ジュース (which don't actually mean "pants" as Americans would understand the word, or "juice" as any English speaker would as far as I know) are big agitators for me personally.

Another one, that I just came across today, is 「ミス」. Most commonly, this is used to indicate an error or failure. I've heard it used in the context of typing ミス (yes, typing mistakes), and spotted it in this headline in a much sadder usage: 心臓手術ミス、4歳男児死亡. It says that a 4-year old boy died during heart surgery due to a 「手術ミス」. That is, a surgical error. What a depressing example of ミス, I know...

Let's Enjoy Japanese: Fail

Watching Game Center CX, it's not uncommon to hear Arino laugh in frustration and moan 「もううう」or exclaim「やられた!」. Another one, similar to 「やられた」in some ways, is 「まいった（な）!」.

参った (まいった) means something like "I lose" or "I've been beaten." If you're thinking in terms of current slang, it might be close to how the young folks these days use "fail." Interestingly, 「参る」 is also 謙譲語 (humble form, usually used along with keigo) for "to go" or "to come," but it also can be used to mean " to be overwhelmed," "to be defeated," etc.

I think I've also heard this one used in my Japanese lesson DS game, where the girl will say 「まいったなぁ」sometimes if you get an answer wrong. I'd be willing to bet that it's used fairly often in anime, as well. Below are some more examples of natural usage:

First off, here we have a blog entry posted by someone whose computer appears to have crapped out on him. He tried restarting it several times, but to no avail. If the system restore doesn't work, he is completely out of luck. Fail.

Next up, a commercial for Boss coffee that couldn't be embedded here, so all I have for you is this lousy link. Basically you have a salaryman who looks to be low on sleep (and the lyrics of the song in the background indicate so), but that won't discourage him from getting to work like he does everyday. Hey, when life is a fail, at least there is Boss coffee.

Last, here's one more video for you. Some guy opens up his bento to find that his egg...well, just play it and see. Not a big deal, but still an egg fail of sorts.



Anyone else have any good examples of 参った?

4 words about "understanding"

Japanese, like English, has a number of words to convey "understanding." By this I'm not just talking about saying 「うん」(yeah) in reply to someone. I've found that there are a number of these words that can be difficult to use correctly and naturally without a certain amount of study, practice, and exposure. The upside is that you don't really need to know how to properly use all of these words to communicate effectively in Japanese. Making the attempt, however, will let you add a little more flavor to your speaking abilities...

Thinking about understanding.

1. 知る (しる) - this is a pretty basic vocabulary word that is usually learned relatively early. It means "to know," but knowing what tense to use when employing this one can be a little tricky at first. Most often when we want to use this in the positive to say that we know something, we use the progressive form - 知ってる.

例：

A: 急いで！映画は１０時からだよ。

B: うん、知ってるよ。

A: Hurry up! The movie starts at 10.

B: Yeah, I know that.

When expressing an idea in the negative, however, we switch to future/present (not progressive) - 知らない

(It seems that 知ってない is grammatically correct, but it is much more rarely used).

例：

A: 何やってんの、あのばかやろう？！

B: 知らないな。

A: What the hell is that idiot doing?!

B: No clue.

Also worth noting, a form of 知る is also used in the words for "acquaintance" and "get to know."

知り合い - acquaintance 

知り合う - get to know (discover) someone; 

例：彼女どうやって知り合った？

How do you know her?

2. 分かる (わかる）- this is also a pretty basic word that will get a lot of use in daily life. It means "to understand," though it is also used to say that you know or don't know something. The natural use of it is something I am still trying to work out in some situations, but the good news is that its basic usage is usually fairly straightforward. Although sometimes used in its normal, dictionary form, I find that in the positive it is used pretty frequently in the past tense. I suppose this is because often when you know or understand something, it is because your mind has already done the processing of said knowledge. When? Just now.

例：

A: 悪いけど、調査は明日まで送ってくれ？

B: はい、分かりました。

A: Sorry for the trouble, but could you send me that report by tomorrow?

B: Ok, I understand.

In a recently meeting, I heard my boss use the present tense. He and a colleague were discussing some issue (legislation-related, perhaps?) and he said:

うん、それ分かるけど・・・

Yeah, I understand that but...

So I'm not exactly sure in which cases the present tense would be more correct or natural, but in my experience it's pretty common to hear people using the past tense when referring to something they know or understand.

I have also seen/heard use of the progressive tense: 分かってる. If anyone has any insights into any differences between these three forms, please feel free to leave a comment.

As for the negative, I have found that tenses are generally used as you would expect:

わからない(or わかってない) - "I don't know" or "I don't understand"

わからなかった - "I didn't know" or "I didn't understand"

Another usage, that took me a while to figure out, is the employment of  わかった to indicate that you've figured out something. In English we have separate words for this idea, but in Japanese, わかる can also indicate the process of coming to understand something.

(From ACL)

例：どちらの車が彼のものなのか、私にはすぐに分かった。

I easily figured out which car is his.

3. 理解する (りかいする) - this is one that I have seen fairly often and heard used on occasion, but I am not sure I understand the full nuance of it or how to identify the "correct" situations in which to use it. Checking a J-dictionary may give some insight. My gut feeling is that 理解する is most often used in more academic or technical situations, or those involving emotions. I think it is maybe similar to "comprehend" in English.

例：優しい人だから、彼はいつも周りの人の気持ちを理解できる。

Because he's such a compassionate person, he always understands the feelings of those around him.

4. 了解する(りょうかい) - I believe this one has some similarities to 理解する, but it is also often used as an acknowledgement akin to "Roger that!" or "Gotcha!" I remember that when I hung out with Dylan, he would often use 「了解！」as a response. With this one, you can use it with or without the actual 「する」, though if you're aiming to be polite you should use 「ます」form. As far as I'm aware, you can use present or past tense to mean the same thing (similar to わかる, perhaps).

例：

A: 金曜日に出発しましょう。

B: 了解しました。

A: Let's leave on Friday.

B: Aye-aye.

Nailing down how to properly and naturally use Japanese words and phrases (and grammar, and all that jazz) can be a challenge, and certainly takes time. But I find the discovery and pursuit of understanding to be quite interesting (I daresay fun, at times). I'm going to keep working at it, and meanwhile if you have any thoughts or insights or questions about any of the above, please share in the comments.

Edit: As Joe points out in the comments, 存知（ぞんじ） is another good one that you may come across. It can be used as a ～る verb （存じる), and it is often used in keigo (ご存知ですか？ - Do you understand/know?).

Update: LiY adds another good one in the comments:

 "Just to add another word into the mix: 承知（しょうち；know, be aware）. 
This was popularized in the recent TV drama 家政婦ミタ in which the main character, ミタ, a house maid, would respond to all requests made to her with 「承知しました」. This is used in much the same way as 「わかりました」but I'm guessing it's more polite, or more appropriate for their relationship (maid & clients)."

Let's Enjoy Japanese: What's in a name?

There's a post over at Tofugu today about country names in Japanese. This got me thinking about when I used to play a certain "game" for DS that's basically a Japanese dictionary with some quizzes and such built in. Some of the quizzes ask you to write the kanji linked to certain countries (e.g. 日 is often used for Japan). I remember being struck by this; at the time I didn't realize that many countries have alternate names in Japanese. As I encountered them, they seemed to me like little secret pearls of knowledge that would elevate me from novice to...I don't know, a master of Japanese national nomenclature?

As it turns out, I don't think these alternate names are encountered all that much, but they can certainly help depending on what you're reading. I've come across some of these in newspapers and online publications.

By this point you may be wondering what I'm talking about exactly. Well, as you probably know, the Chinese language uses kanji exclusively. And some of the Chinese names for countries were carried over into Japanese. Over time, however, these Chinese names have come to often be abbreviated in Japanese; reduced to one or two characters to indicate a particular nation or culture. Here's a partial list (link from Tofugu).

As Hashi notes in his piece at Tofugu, these days country names are most often written in katakana. However, there are cases where the kanji are used, especially in 熟語 (じゅくご, kanji compounds).

For those who understand are confident enough in their Japanese, there is a pretty comprehensive list on Wikipedia. But a few are (these are the abbreviated names, not the long Chinese ones):

The United States - 米国 (べいこく) - literally "rice country."

France - 仏国 (ふっこく; though my Japanese input won't even recognize that to convert to kanji) - literally Buddhist or "saint-like" country.

Italy - 伊 - (い) - although I suspect this must have some other meaning, according to my searches, this kanji is used pretty exclusively to mean "Italty"

Germany - 独国　(どくこく) - according to Wikipedia, 独 was converted from 徳 in Chinese. Literally Germany was/is called "virtuous country."

The Netherlands - 蘭 (らん) - "orchid."

Although it seems to often take some research to find out what the original intentions behind some of these names were (if it is even known), it's pretty cool to see how some of these countries are named. "Virtuous country" and "rice country" for example. Of course in many cases these are just cut down versions and abbreviations of longer names, so perhaps they are just nonsense at this point...

I think if you notice these, they will often be in compounds. One that is used quite often in newspapers is 日米関係 (にちべいかんけい), which means "Japan-America relations."

For those of you familiar with these, any favorites or others you'd like to share?