Tag: japanese

I started Hebrew, which is why I’ve been dead on this blog, but I don’t think I can ever properly convey to you guys the sheer cultural whiplash of spending years learning Japanese from Japanese teachers and then trying to learn Hebrew from an Israeli

  • Japanese: you walk into class already apologizing for being alive
    Hebrew: you walk into class, the teacher insults you and you are expected to insult her back


  • Japanese: conjugates every single verb based on degree of intended politeness, nevermind keigo and honorifics
    Hebrew:
    Someone asked my teacher how to say “excuse me” and she laughed for
    several seconds before saying we shouldn’t worry about remembering that
    since we’ll never need to say it


  • Japanese: if you get one stroke wrong the entire kanji is incomprehensible
    Hebrew: cursive? script? fuck it do whatever you want, you don’t even have to write the vowels out unless you feel like it


  • Japanese: the closest thing there is to ‘bastard’ is an excessively direct ‘you’ pronoun
    Hebrew: ‘bitch’ translates directly

Memento mori: (Latin: “remember (that you have) to die”)
The
medieval Latin theory and practice of reflection on mortality,
especially as a means of considering the vanity of earthly life and the
transient nature of all earthly goods and pursuits.

Mono no aware (物の哀れ): (Japanese: “the sensitivity to ephemera”)
The awareness of impermanence (無常 mujō),
or transience of things, and both a transient gentle sadness (or
wistfulness) at their passing as well as a longer, deeper gentle sadness
about this state being the reality of life.

L’appel du vide: (French: “call of the void”)
The
psychological phenomenon in which people, with no desire to die, find
themselves faced with a steep cliff and experience a strong desire to
leap.

Amor fati: (Latin: “the love of one’s fate”)
An attitude in
which one sees everything that happens in one’s life, including
suffering and loss, as good; or, at the very least, necessary.

This tummy blanket for trees is called a komomaki
(written as 薦巻 or こも巻き). It’s an old Edo period method to control pine
moths. The insects feed on pine leaves, but when it gets cold in winter,
they crawl down the tree to spend the winter in the dead leaves on the
ground. The mat serves as a trap: it’s loosely tied at the top but
tightly fastened at the bottom. The insects crawl into the mat, where
it’s snug and warm, and then in spring you remove the mat and burn it
with all its inhabitants.