Falling

You know, I keep intending to pick back up the pace around here and really get rolling again. And yet June is nearly over and this is post #2 for the month. Oi. I guess between having a girlfriend now and dividing my free time between gaming and productive outlets like translation, my energy to blog has suffered. 許してね。

I think I've talked about how when it comes to manga and Japanese reading, I prefer somewhat educational fare. Often they're called コミックエッセイ (comic essays). There's one I've been picking away at on and off for about a year now. Usually I go through them quicker, but this one is a little more difficult than the likes of ダーリンは外国人 (My Darling is a Foreigner) and 日本人の知らない日本語 (Japanese that Japanese People Don't Know). This one is called 意外に知らない間違いやすい漢字 (Unexpectedly Easy to Mistake Kanji), and as you might expect, the subject matter contains a lot of difficult kanji distinctions. Still, interesting material.

Throughout the book, characters talk with their teacher about Japanese characters, words, and expressions that perplex them or that they're unsure of. There's one frame at the end of a chapter where a character humorously mixes up two 四字熟語 (4-kanji compound idioms) about falling and is corrected by an old woman. That's what I wanted to share today.

In English we have expressions like "if at first you don't succeed, try try again" and "if you fall off your horse, get right back on." In Japanese, there's an idiom with a similar meaning:


七転八起 (しちてんはっき). Let's break it down for the sake of analysis. 七 (7), 転 (turn around, change; this kanji is often also paired to mean some kind of "fall"), 八 (8), 起 (get up). So somewhat literally "7 turns, 8 rises." Or stretching a little further, if you fall 7 times, get up 8. This expression is sometimes used to denote that life is full of ups and downs, but also as encouragement to keep trying.


On the other side of things...


七転八倒 (しちてんばっとう). Again we see 七転 (7 turns), plus 八 (8) 倒 (fall, collapse). So this time we have 7 "turns" or falls, and 8 more falls or "collapses." This basically means someone writhing in agony; they've fallen 7 times and collapsed 8 times (I picture someone doubling over and then falling completely afterwards instead of getting up).

I can't think of any similar English expressions for that second one. Any ideas?

Just Another Manga Monday #5

Julie's a little busy lately taking care of her new puppy (it's a Japanese breed, so maybe she'll post a few pictures sometime soon), so I'll be standing in this week.

As I may have mentioned, I'm not a huge manga or anime enthusiast. But that's not to say I dislike them categorically. As for manga, I've tried reading a bunch of different stuff, but I find that the genre that most appeals to me is education, if that's a real thing. Of course one of the main reasons for a non-native speaker to read Japanese manga is to pick up the language. I think this has to go hand-in-hand with enjoyment. If you try reading something you don't really like, you'll eventually get bored or discouraged and give up. On the other hand, though, I don't think there's much immediate practical benefit from learning the words for things like "sword of divine destiny" or "robotic fusion core." Sure, you may want to work up to that if your ultimate goal is fluency, but it's not going to help you in daily life. I like to read manga that are more down-to-earth and focus on normal(ish) people and situations.

The first manga I read that I really enjoyed and sparked my interest in this "genre" is called ダーリンは外国人 (My Darling is a Foreigner). Several people I've spoken to about it have been aware of the movie by the same title that came out in 2010, but disappointingly haven't been familiar with the comic. This is unfortunate, because from what I've read and heard about the movie, it fails to do the manga justice. While the cinema version is a love story between characters Saori and Tony (the husband and wife of the manga series), the comic isn't a story at all, per say. It's a collection of little dialogues and interactions between Saori (who is the author and illustrator of the series) and her husband Tony (who writes small essays that are inserted between segments). Their episodes together vary greatly by topic, but tend to gravitate both towards language and comparative culture. Not only is Tony a foreigner living in Japan, but he is also a linguaphile both by interest and profession. As such, he is constantly offering up anecdotes about life abroad or lessons about the languages or histories of foreign cultures.

Tony is also very knowledgeable about ketchup...

There are several volumes out now, including "My Darling is a Foreigner" 1&2, "Inside My Darling's Head" 1&2, "With Baby," and a few that I haven't throughly investigated. At least the first one has also been released in English, though I'm not sure if it's being sold abroad.

If you like language or education-oriented manga, I suggest you give this one a try.