Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Japanese in Depth Vol.5
    Japanese in Depth Vol.5
    Japanese in Depth Vol.5
    Ebook34 pages32 minutes

    Japanese in Depth Vol.5

    By International Communication Institute

    5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    This is vol.5 of the collection of monthly columns contributed to The Daily Yomiuri, Japan's nationwide English newspaper. It amusingly illustrates how mindsets are different between English and Japanese. It's an eye opener for English as well as Japanese.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherInternational Communication Institute
    Release dateAug 10, 2012
    ISBN9781476020914
    Japanese in Depth Vol.5
    Author

    International Communication Institute

    The International Communication Institute is a language institute based in Tokyo, Japan.ICI was founded in 1987. Since then, it has continued to bridge cultural differences through communication. Recently ICI created a unique Japanese textbook series called "Step Up Nihongo". It went on to develop the e-learning version of the textbooks called "eSUN" and now has an online class to study with a Japanese instructor.ICI is continuing to do its best to provide meaningful content for those interested in studying Japanese.

    Read more from International Communication Institute

    Related to Japanese in Depth Vol.5

    Related ebooks

    Japanese For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The Music Of Language

      Jun 19, 2019

      Words can make magic. Skillfully put together into sentences, words can transfer ideas and images from a writer’s mind into the minds of readers—that, by itself, is powerful verbal magic. When we exploit the musical characteristics of language, we ca

      6 min read

    • Article

      Osu!

      Jul 21, 2020

      Osu!
      4 min read

    • Article

      Figures Of speech

      Aug 4, 2021

      Figures Of speech
      2 min read

    • Article

      Is the Chinese Language a Superstition Machine?: How ambiguity in language can create unique taboos.

      Jan 5, 2017

      Every year, more than a billion people around the world celebrate Chinese New Year and engage in a subtle linguistic dance with luck. You can think of it as a set of holiday rituals that resemble a courtship. To lure good fortune into their lives, th

      9 min read

    • Article

      Is the Chinese Language a Superstition Machine?

      Apr 12, 2018

      Every year, more than a billion people around the world celebrate Chinese New Year and engage in a subtle linguistic dance with luck. You can think of it as a set of holiday rituals that resemble a courtship. To lure good fortune into their lives, th

      9 min read

    • Article

      Ideas To Help Polish Your Writing

      Aug 3, 2023

      For many people, ‘Give me a vowel’ will bring up an instant reference to the TV programme Countdown. In the context of the game show, vowels and consonants were linked to letters of the alphabet, with A-E-I-O-U being vowels and the other 21 letters c

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Tyranny of the Verb To Be

      Jun 13, 2022

      The Tyranny of the Verb To Be
      9 min read

    • Article

      Writing In Rhythm

      Jun 19, 2019

      Often when people talk about “the music of language” they make it sound like a mere frill, something we add to “dress up” plain writing. I don’t agree with this view. At the heart of language, I hear music—word-music, akin in many ways to instrumenta

      8 min read

    • Article

      How to, Like, Speak Better

      May 2, 2023

      How to, Like, Speak Better
      8 min read

    • Article

      The Art of Translation

      Feb 13, 2019

      AFTER a recent translation conference, a young colleague brought up an interesting question: “I keep hearing people say that they translate from the Spanish, they translate from the French. Why the?” Why indeed. This was asked of a carful of people,

      12 min read

    • Article

      The Waning Use Of The Word ‘Whom’

      May 16, 2019

      Whom is now mostly relegated to written language, appearing in literature, academic papers, and the Mueller report.

      2 min read

    • Article

      Watch Your Words

      Mar 16, 2021

      Watch Your Words
      4 min read

    • Article

      This Simple Structure Unites All Human Languages

      Sep 19, 2019

      Take a deep breath. As you breathe in, your lungs fill with air. The air is carried through every part of your lungs by tubes. These tubes are organized in a particular way. They branch off, one into the left lung, one into the right. The tubes fill

      9 min read

    • Article

      Slipping Into A Subjunctive Mood

      Oct 1, 2020

      Slipping Into A Subjunctive Mood
      2 min read

    • Article

      Hello There

      Jan 15, 2023

      Hello There
      1 min read

    • Article

      Translating Haiku

      Mar 6, 2020

      While haiku are very short and simple, they can be difficult to translate. The Japanese is often intentionally ambiguous, with no pronouns included and no clear indication of whether a subject or object is singular or plural. Each haiku can be interp

      1 min read

    • Article

      Found In Translation

      Oct 13, 2021

      Found In Translation
      2 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Japanese in Depth Vol.5

    5/5

    1 rating0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Japanese in Depth Vol.5 - International Communication Institute

      Japanese in Depth vol. 5

      Copyright 2006 by International Communication Institute

      Smashwords Edition

      41. The subtlety and variety of no

      By Shigekatsu Yamauchi

      Founder of ICI (the International Communication Institute)

      www.stepupnihongo.com

      www.icijapan.com

      Last month's article was all about the particle to, which is typically seen in the ‘X to Y’ combination. Seeing this combination could very naturally remind readers of another combination, "X no Y." Today we will talk about this "no."

      Unlike "X to Y," where the particle to combines the two nouns on an equal basis (Y with X), "X no Y" is a phrase where noun X modifies noun Y. Because of this, it is often said that no here means Y of X or X’s Y; most textbooks go on even further to say no is a possessive particle. This explanation is misleading because it covers only one aspect of no's entirety.

      As I've noted in the past, Japanese is built upon three main pillars, i.e. three major word classes: verbs, adjectives and nouns. Each word class behaves differently, but within a word class there is generally consistent and regular behavior. Today’s theme relates to how words of each class behave when modifying nouns.

      Before going further, remember a golden rule of Japanese: modifiers come before the modified.

      When you think of typical phrases with modifiers in English, like the tall man or a pretty woman, you might think the rule quite natural and that English obeys it, too. However, only when the modifier is an adjective alone, do the two languages behave the same; if the modifier is a longer phrase or a clause (a sentence-modifier), then it goes after the modified noun in English:

      - a man 20 years of age

      - the man reading a paper over there

      - a woman who looks much younger than her age.

      In these examples, 20 years of age, reading a paper over there and who looks much younger than her age modify man and woman respectively, and they are all placed after the modified word (man and woman). In other words, English does not observe the same rule. In English, modifiers may come before or after the modified noun. It just depends. In contrast, however lengthy they may be, Japanese modifiers always come before the modified.

      Recall that Japanese follows its rules very strictly, and is very regular. When an adjective or a verb modifies a noun in Japanese, the modifying word simply goes in front of the modified noun, such as:

      - oishii osake (tasty sake)

      - oishikatta osake (sake which tasted good)

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1