language matters in Japan

As soon as I got up, I went out to buy the Japan Times. It's Sunday. Help Wanted Ads was on the paper. That's what most English-speaking jobseekers in Tokyo do. There was nothing interesting. But, it is not unusual. Today, the things are worse. The paper announced that the price of the Japan Times will be 180 yen (1.50$) per copy from the current 150 yen on October 1st and later, which let me down a bit.

Today's issue was good, though. There's some articles about language.

Japanese: A language in a state of flux

...one may use loanwords just to show off -- despite there being plenty of Japanese expressions to convey the same meaning -- the other may not understand a word rooted in another language. In other words, communication is being lost -- not in translation, but because of no translation.

This is very true.

...Unlike kanji, which are ideograms whose combinations can convey intricate nuances of meaning, katakana characters are phonograms, meaning they convey only the sound of a word -- though their Japanized pronunciations often bear little resemblance to those of the English originals. It's also not unusual for imported words to take on different meanings in Japanese, such as ridusu (derived from "reduce"), which in Japanese refers only to "reducing"-- in other words, cutting down-- the amount of garbage we create.

I just didn't know that to "reduce" means to "cut down" in Japanese. Probably, my Japanese isn't that good.

But, the best part of the article is this:

Perhaps the next prime minister of Japan can demonstrate linguistic, as well as political, leadership. Whoever that person is, he would have to do better than his predecessor, Shinzo Abe, who, despite his nationalist policies and his "Beautiful Japan" slogan, often sprinkled his speeches with katakana jargon.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20070923x1.html

The same page contained a different article by the same author:

"The English alphabet seems to be preferred because katakana phrases are ubiquitous and so they no longer sound fresh," Ito said. "When you consider the size of English-language school chains, and the fact that so many Japanese are studying English, few people find it odd to find English around them any more."

As a result, some movie titles and newspaper headlines today include "the" and "in" between Japanese words, although the grammatical concept of articles and prepositions has never existed in Japanese, Ito said. "It is quite a big deal (if everybody starts using those words), because it means Japanese grammar is changing as well."

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20070923x3.html

I have to admit that the current Japanese is influenced by English. However, that change has never contributed to Japanese people's English language skills.

Surprisingly, today's issue had another article about the Japanese language. The article below explains Japanese idioms that contain "stomach," referring to Takashi Saito's book. He is well-known, but he hasn't reached the level of being called a popular linguist, such as William Safire or Deborah Tannen, I think.

Linguists gutted by body-talk blight
Traditional expressions are dying out as thought patterns change


On this point, Saito says: " 'Hara ga dekite iru' refers to having a calm mind even in times of urgency ? meaning someone who is able to deal with any situation calmly." To put this in its cultural context, he explained: "In the past in Japan, training in Zen or the martial arts strengthened your spirit and allowed you to keep your presence of mind even in the face of death."

It seems like he wants to connect expressions with "stomach" with Japan's traditions. I suspect that few old Japanese had the spirits of Zen or the other martial arts. Also, there's still many phrases that contain "stomach" in modern Japanese.

For example, "hara ga suwatteiru" literally means "stomach is sitting." It means "emotionally stable."

Also, some English idioms contain the word "stomach" in them:

turn sb's stomach: to make sb upset or sick

have butterflies in my stomach: to get nervous

This point is said in this article too.

...However, Japanese do not own the copyright on this line of thinking. In English, too, there are various phrases that make use of this central part of
the body.

...In Japanese, many other terms using hara still exist. There is, for example, hara wo kimeru, literally meaning "decide in your stomach," which denotes that you have made a firm resolution. Then there's hara-guroi, literally meaning "black stomach," an adjectival phrase for someone who is evil-minded.