言霊 (kotodama) as a Japanese Ancient Wisdom about Words

I want to introduce one of the Japanese words which has existed since ancient times. This is the word to refer a concept, and there isn’t an exact word to translate it into English. ‘言霊(pronounced ‘kotodama,’) is composed of two words; ‘言う(to say/tell)’ and ‘霊(spirit).’ ‘言霊 (kotodama)’ is first seen on the ancient song book compiled between the fifth and eighth century. The word means a mysterious and excellent power which lives in each word. In ancient times, people believed in that power: a word brings about the exact phenomenon that it means.

There have been growing signs of an economic recession. It seems impossible to spend just one day without seeing, hearing, and saying words related to the recent economy, such as ‘recession,’ ‘depression,’ or ’crises’. I have recently met many people who state things like, "the economy is very bad and it is only going to get worse." Because they make these statements with such certainty, I feel as if they contribute to making the economy worse, which is most likely the last thing they hope. Every time I encounter that situation, I remember ‘言霊 (kotodama)’ and carefully frame what I am going to say.

Japanese tradition says that the word you say will return to you. That means if you curse something or someone, the curse word will return to you, thus you actually curse yourself! As I have been teaching Japanese, I have noticed that Japanese has very few curse words than those in English. Perhaps I’ve watched too much “South Park,” but it seems English is littered in swear words. Japanese in early times believed the power of the word, and I believe they didn’t underestimate the influence of the words they spoke.

I think ‘言霊 (kotodama)’ is a wonderful word and I keep its concept in mind. If I don’t want something happen, I don’t talk about it. The bad economy might be the reality, however, you don’t always have to talk about it, like you talk about the weather, do you? The more you affirm the bad economy, the stronger it becomes. Do you want the bad economy to become disastrous? According to ‘言霊 (kotodama,)’ the word ‘bad’ has the power to manifest the phenomenon as well as the word ‘overcome,’ ‘thrive,’ ‘better,’ ‘good,’ ‘flourish.’

Head Start for Mastering Japanese (2) -How to improve Japanese listening comprehension

The Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) by the Japan Educational Exchange and Services (JEES) is coming up on December 7th. According to the JEES, approximately 524,000 people from all over the world took the test last year, while it was only about 7,000 people at the first time it was administrated in 1984. The contents of the test are as follows; writing/vocabulary (100 points,) listening (100 points,) and reading/grammar (200 points.)

I have met some people studying Japanese who say that improving their listening comprehension is the hardest part of the JLPT. I have some advice to help your listening skills develop. It is not only for the JLPT but for all people who want to improve their communication skills.

In Japanese, which do you think is easier, listening to monologues or dialogues? In my experience, I have found listening to Japanese dialogues is much harder than listening to monologues. Why? For an in depth explanation, please refer my first Article 'Japanese –Indirect Communication-.' In order to help your listening skills progress, please find some Japanese monologue material that is slightly easier than your level, and make sure it comes with a written script. At first, try to listen to it without reading the script and check how much you could understand. Then repeat listening to the recording while reading the script. Repetition is necessary for improving your ability to catch sounds in a new language.

Take me for example; my first English listening material was a movie "When Harry Met Sally…" Meg Ryan used to be the most popular Hollywood actress in Japan and I was her biggest fan. You know Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal talk so fast each other. I could understand 10 % of what they said. I decided to stop messing around, and get serious about enjoying their dialogue. I bought a listening material with an appropriate speed for me. I studied the easier material again and again for couple of weeks. Then I watched the movie again. Behold! I was able to understand what's going on between Sally and Harry (although I could not perfectly follow it word by word)!

Please keep in mind that repetition and persistence is the key to improving your listening comprehension. The more you repeat, the more progress you will make. Every time you practice, please tell yourself that you will catch more sounds than you did last time. Don't try to convince yourself that you won’t understand very much. Just relax and enjoy the learning process and one day you will suddenly notice how much you are actually able to catch.

Listening material recommendation: http://www.ask-digital.co.jp/tadoku/

Expressions from Japanese News Items about the Presidential Election

November 4, 2008 was an historic day not only for American citizens but for people all over the world. I think I am blessed to be in America, and to witness the notable moment when Obama became the President of the US. Of course, Japanese media gave its full attention to report the election. I picked up on three interesting expressions they used in their news items.

待ちぼうけを食わされた
This is a phrase to refer to a situation that someone stood you up and you had to wait for him/her a long time. This is more like slang and is rarely used in a formal document. On Election Day, in Richmond, Virginia, the person in charge of opening one of the polling places overslept and hundreds of voters had to wait for him to come over and let them in. Because they could still vote, and this was a minor incident, the Japanese media used the phrase "待ちぼうけを食わされた" to report the incident.

カリスマ司会者
The Japanese media covered an interview with Oprah Winfrey and introduced her as a "charismatic TV hostess." The Japanese use the adjective "カリスマ charismatic" to describe what you do or who you are. For example, the Japanese media introduced Martha Stewart as a "カリスマ主婦 charismatic housewife." Other examples are: "カリスマ美容師 charismatic hairstylist," "カリスマ庭師 charismatic gardener," "カリスマ添乗員 charismatic tour guide," etc.

勝手に　
"勝手に" has multiple meanings, and I picked up on a humorous usage. Obama shi is located in Fukui ken, Japan. Because the town name is pronounced exactly the same as the name of President-Elect Obama, the residents there made "オバマ候補を勝手に応援する会 (the Arbitrarily Formed, Unofficial Organization to Support the Presidential Candidate, Obama.)" There are only 32,000 people and very few are foreigners. It is nonsense to make an organization to support Obama's presidential campaign in such a minor city in Japan. They appeared to expect public attention, like tourism, to bring them some economical benefit. They even sell a variety of Obama goods. Check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJHaV2JqfKM. This video had me at a loss.

Japanese Market: Women's Magazines

On a weekend night, prepare a nice cup of tea, curl up on the sofa, flip through the pages of a magazine, and enjoy the beautiful layouts of women's information such as fashion, accessories, cosmetics, make-up, love, relationships, and more. Doing so is a heavenly moment for me. I like Japanese women's magazines much better than those of America, although I enjoy reading books in both Japanese and English. If you have time, please check out the Japanese bookstores in your neighborhood. The huge variety of women's magazines will surprise you. When I came to America, I hung out in an American bookstore to check them out and I thought, "That's it? Are these all you have?"

In Japan, the women's magazine publishing business is brisk compared to America. One of the reasons is, I think, Japanese women buy many more magazines than American women. Bookstores here allow you to read magazines and books before, or even without purchasing them. To my surprise, you can even sit and read. It is hard to find such a paradise for bookworms like me in Japan. One time in a bookstore in Japan, I was taking a very short note from a book. A quick-eyed clerk saw and warned me, "Miss, this is not a library. Please don't take notes."

Another reason for the more active market of Japanese women's magazines is that Japanese women care about their appearance very much. They usually dress nicely and don't go out without make-up on. They crave information which is supposed to make them prettier and feel better about themselves. My acquaintance, who has 20 years of financial expertise, said that however the economy slows down, industries that target women's needs such as cosmetics, bath lines, accessories and clothes would most likely do well and wouldn't be as badly affected as other industries.

There seems to be two main components that make magazines successful: substantial information about material goods (beauty tools, make-up, hair care products, etc.) and non-material concepts (health, spirituality, divination, love, lifestyle, etc.). Let's check out one of the best selling weekly magazines for decades, "an.an." While it has regular columns about fads and trends in beauty, it also features unique themes. For example, "Special Secret Recipe by Experts," "Control Your Visual Age," "Mission to Upgrade Your Room," "Life-Changing Skills," and even "The Mysteries of S&M" (!!!)

"an.an" targets women in their 20's. Magazines for women in their 30's and up break into a variety of targets, depending on the lifestyle (single/married, with/without kids, working-class/upper-class, etc.) The percentage of single women in Japan has been increasing because more people choose to stay single, while also the divorce rate has been rising. In my research, there isn't a magazine like "an.an" for single, mature women. There will be a market for women who graduate from "an.an" and are looking for a magazine which can be a partner during their next stage of life.