Tobacco and naked arms: understanding Engrish

The English translation of this sign seems to be straight out of an automatic translation machine. But in fact, Google Translate does an even worse job: "Summer. Passing tobacco and arms, naked." (This sounds like the beginning of a bad novel about a tough, chainsmoking mob boss who deals in weapons and prostitutes.) FreeTranslation.com is hardly any better: "Summer. The arm that passes with tobacco is nude." (This sounds like an erotic haiku for people with a fetish for smokers.)

But what does the sign actually say?

The Japanese reads: 夏。たばことすれ違う腕は、裸だ。

The first kanji simply means "summer", and is followed by a full stop. Next it says (in romaji, with translation): "tabako[cigarette] to surechigau[to cross paths without touching] ude[arm] wa, hadaka[naked] da[to be]." Suddenly, the translation in the image doesn't sound so bad. Let's go through the sentence:

• tabako to: not sure what 'to' means here, I doubt that it's 'and'.
• surechigau ude wa: the cross-paths arm [topic], the arm that crosses paths (with the cigarette).
• hadaka da: is naked.

So literally, it says "Summer. The arm that crosses the path of a cigarette is naked."

The sign is meant as a warning to smokers, that in summer, their lit cigarette may touch someone's naked arm and burn them. But note how the Japanese version is completely neutral, to the point that you don't even know if it's directed at the smokers or the short-sleeved people. Quite apart from that, even having such a sign is quite unusual outside of Japan.

All this goes to show that translating Japanese is about far more than vocabulary or grammar. (Cultural) context is everything.

Useful phrases for visitors of Kyoto

Two-thirds of SHK's bloggers are currently in Kyoto, and the remaining third is jealous. But in the spirit of solidarity, I'll give some short, handy expressions I've heard during the past few days, listening to a large number of Beginners' lessons on the japanesepod101.com Web site.
I selected these words or short phrases specifically for practical use in conversations: you can easily put into any sentence or even often say them on their own. They're also in romaji just to make it easier. Groeten uit Amsterdam!

kakkoi	cool
maji desu ka?	Are you serious?
muri	impossible
dame	absolutely not, no way
saikou	the best, great
yappari	just as I thought/I knew it!
kedo	but, however, use as 'ga'.
subarashii	fantastic, breathtaking
X ga ippai	full of X
X ga hitsuyou desu	I need X
mochiron	of course, obviously
kochira koso	same here!
gojuushin	place of origin, where you're from
ryoukai	got it!, I understand
yossha!	all right then!
uso	That's a lie! Get out of here! You're kidding!
kitto	surely
tatoeba	for example
hotondo	mostly
zettai (ni)	absolutely, unconditionally
tonikaku	anyway, anyhow
tondemonai	outrageous, offensive, bullshit

New Japanese keyboard

One of the biggest problem with typing Japanese on a computer is that you can't type a kanji. Luckily, Google Japan unveiled its special Japanese keyboard yesterday. Check it out, it looks awesome!

Stuff I learned from one Japanese conversation

Finally, I had the chance to sit down with a native Japanese speaker and spend an hour or so speaking Japanese as best I could, and listening to it. It went better than expected, but far from smoothly. The best thing is that I took notes and apart from hearing all kinds of new words, I also picked up some of the little remarks or adverbial phrases that you won't easily find in written text. They should come in handy for certain unnamed parties who will be visiting Japan shortly. Here's a list:

• は - used after a number and 回 (かい), this means 'at least'. So ６回は = 'at least 6 times'.
• 大事 (だいじ) means 'important', but in written Japanese, you'd sooner see 重要 (じゅうよう).
• ～様になる (～ようになる) is a standing expression, which means 'to reach the point that ~'. My conversation partner used it in the sentence しゃべれる様になる. しゃべれる is a form of しゃべる, to talk or to chat. The form means to be able to talk. Combined with the (～ようになる), it means roughly 'to become proficient', 'to become able to talk' (Japanese in our context).
• たまに (normally written in kana) - once in a while, sometimes
• そんなに - in combination with a negative verb, this means 'not so much'.
• 気づく (きづく）- to notice. The 気 ('mind', 'spirit') is also found in 'genki', 'tenki' (weather), and 'kibun ga warui' (I don't feel well).

Subtle, very subtle. Thanks, guys.

You're gonna love these two kanji:

• 水 (みず) meaning: (cold) water
• 氷 (こおり) meaning: ice

Furigana for Firefox

So, you were translating the webpages in Japanese only because you didn't know all the Kanji? With this nifty little Firefox plug-in, you can get Furigana for the Kanji. You can even set it up from add-on settings to automatically inject the Furigana in pages.
This plug-in requires Ruby Support add-on to function correctly. Just follow the steps after installing the Furigana Injector plug-in, and the gates to the world of indecipherable Kanji is suddenly opened  before you.

Listening exercise

The monster without a name is a short animation. A good way to hear Japanese and, if you get lost, pause the video and check the subtitles. I'll be trying (veeeery slowly) to transcribe this video as much as I can.