Thursday 13 March 2014

ugly kanji.

My allergies are back. I am covered in red spots. It's very sexy. NOT.*
It started a few days after I settled in Japan. I wonder if I'm not allergic to Kanjis...
I am working on flashcards so that I can be independent when buying food (vegan people travelling to japan, go here). Here is a short and simple illustration of my despair:

 Bonito looks like this 堅魚, which is easy because it includes the kanji for flipping fish.
You would just THINK, wouldn't you, that flaked bonito is just the same with a kanji for flaked.
Well nope. It looks totally different:削り節 which are the kanjis for sharpen/pare ('til here ok) and...


clause;
honor;
joint;
knob;
knot;
knuckle;
melody;
node;
occasion;
period;
season;
stanza;
tune;
verse;


Insert my painful lack of teacher, lesson, class, school, structure, native speaker HERE - 
how do I make sense of this? 
Just pass me the gun, please, will you?
What? WHAT? I mean what IS this language? Man, learning Hebrew and Arabic after learning Japanese is going to feel like playing those large shapes games for babies, where the triangle goes with the triangle, the circle with the circle, blue goes with blue...


* Yesterday the boy I look after ran after me, pointed to my new japanese shoes, and shouted 'kireinaaaaaiiiiiiiiii'. Meaning... Ugly. 
Cheeeeeers...!




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