It never rains but it pours
I would never in a million years have guessed, at the age of 25, I'd be eating raw squid quite happily. But then, I would never have guessed I'd be living in Japan either. When I was younger I didn't really even want to travel abroad, let alone live there. The thought of not understanding and not being able to communicate made me almost fearful. Indeed I still feel that way and I feel a great sense of guilt going to a place and not knowing the language. This goes especially for countries where I feel I should know the language. Languages that are relatively close to English like European languages. I went to France for the first time a few years ago and had to rely on my Japanese friend, who spoke French but not much English, for almost everything. Staying at a hotel together was quite interesting because there wasn't a language the hotel staff could speak in that we could both understand; I struggled with French, she struggled with English. So it was either the staff repeating the same thing twice in English and French, or one of us translating to the other in Japanese. Quite a kerfuffle I can tell you.
But anyway back to the topic of Squid.
I suppose it's not that strange - we have calamari in Europe, but I have never really acquired a taste for it, too much chewing without getting anywhere for my liking. I have been opposed to eating squid, along with octopus, for a long time since coming to Japan, purely based on the grossness of it all. However, recently, amazingly I have been enjoying it both cooked and raw. It all started when I was in the supermarket looking for some pre-made food goodness for my lunch the next day. I am a big fan of okonomiyaki, enough that I could probably eat it for days on end without tiring of it. It just so happened there was pre-made okonomiyaki goodness at the supermarket that day and bought it despite the clear "contains ika (squid) and tako (octopus)" label - I figured there wouldn't be many pieces and I could just pick them out. But when it came to eating it, half out of laziness and half out of curiosity I didn't bother to take them out...and found that I quite enjoyed the springy sensation of chewing on the squid (same kinda thing with tapioca, but firmer)
You see squid doesn't really have much of a flavour, it's all about the texture. In fact a lot of Japanese food is about the texture and that could explain why there are so many words in Japanese to describe such textures and sensations; "mochi mochi", "pari pari", "saku saku", "fuwa fuwa", "funwari" "neba neba" "assari". As you can see these mimetic words usually involve a repetition of the same sounds. This, I have found, is one of the hardest things to learn in Japanese. All the sounds seem so similar that I can't remember if it's "gunyo gunyo" or "gunya gunya"! (In fact both of those exist and have similar yet slightly different meanings) There are so many of these goddamn things and often it's simply a matter of personal preference about what you use them to describe, thus relying on the Japanese's unique skill of telepathy for communication. One of my friends (a Japanese teacher) uses these onomatopoeic and memetic words so much that she barely speaks a sentence without one, and usually they aren't officially recognised words either - she'll just make up the sounds herself to describe what she is trying to communicate. And actually, Japanese people can usually deduce what she is trying to communicate using their 6th sense. Although first incredibly perturbed by these mischievous little words, I have grown to love them.
Recently one of my fillings fell out as I was chewing gum and led to my first trip to the Japanese dentist. I was slightly worried that I would be bombarded with dentistry terms that I had no hope of understanding, but it wasn't the case. In fact Japanese technical terms are a lot easier to learn and remember than the English equivalents, but that's another story. However I was told a few ways to "kande", to bite my teeth, with onomatopoeic words, and for some reason, although I had only just heard them for the first time I understood what they meant. I was told to "gachi gachi kande", with "gachi gachi" expressing the sound of hard objects hitting each other continuously. Then I was told to "guri guri kande", with "guri guri" expressing the action of making circular motions whilst pressing down. Then after that I was told "gachin to kande", with "gachin" being a derivative of the previous "gachi gachi" except this time it expresses the sound after hard and heavy objects have hit each other (contrasting with the continuous nature of "gachi gachi"). So can you imagine what kind of biting I was doing? First I was chomping my teeth together repetitively, then I was grinding them, and then I was biting them together hard and holding them there.
Well I'm sure you can find better expressions to translate those words than I, and that is my terrible downfall. I love translating and would love to do so professionally but... even if I can quite clearly understand what's being said or the meaning of a text, I cannot always translate it well; it is more often that my English ability fails me than my Japanese. It tears me in frustration when I can clearly understand the meaning in my mind but to not be able to express it in words. Of course there are also times when I can translate quite well and it is that sense of satisfaction after successfully transcribing from one language to the other that I do so love. Interpretation on the other hand is impossible. Whereas translation is generally only marred by my insufficient vocabulary and writing ability, interpretation involves an entirely different problem.
The way our 1st language is stored in our brains is that words are tied to images, sensations or concepts. When we hear the word "tree", we understand it because we link the word to the image. When we hear the word "cold" we understand it because we link it to the sensation. However when we learn a new language as adults we tend to use translation over association to remember new words. I remember in GCSE French we were given "aide memoire" lists to memorise, French on the left, English on the right. All the French words were given an equivalent English word to link to, with no association of the actual object, image or concept. Although I too have had these translation word lists as part of my Japanese study, I remember clearly my first lessons of Japanese were done using flashcards. The teacher would hold up cards with images expressing simple adjectives such as cold, far, short, and verbs such as walk, eat, close. These flashcards were use to test our recall and we were given no translation. The word "mijikai" was linked to the image of a short pencil contrasting a long pencil and not the English word "short". Throughout my study I have learnt words in different ways, but the best and least stressful recall has been linking words directly to images. Especially now in the more advanced stages of language acquisition I tend to learn new words using Japanese->Japanese dictionaries or having people explain to me in Japanese. This means that the new words are not linked with English ones and therefore interpretation, which requires quick translation from Japanese to English difficult. Some teachers seem to like to use me as a walking dictionary and will at often very random times ask me the word for something in English. When I can't answer immediately first they wonder if I don't know the meaning and then when I explain I do they're like but your a native speaker of English, why don't you know!? And well, I feel kind of embarrassed, but switching between languages can be hard.
Is this all just because English and Japanese are so goddamn different? Or is it the same with other languages that are more similar in nature?
Yeah, so I've had nothing to do at work recently, probably be writing more soon. Ciao darlings!
But anyway back to the topic of Squid.
I suppose it's not that strange - we have calamari in Europe, but I have never really acquired a taste for it, too much chewing without getting anywhere for my liking. I have been opposed to eating squid, along with octopus, for a long time since coming to Japan, purely based on the grossness of it all. However, recently, amazingly I have been enjoying it both cooked and raw. It all started when I was in the supermarket looking for some pre-made food goodness for my lunch the next day. I am a big fan of okonomiyaki, enough that I could probably eat it for days on end without tiring of it. It just so happened there was pre-made okonomiyaki goodness at the supermarket that day and bought it despite the clear "contains ika (squid) and tako (octopus)" label - I figured there wouldn't be many pieces and I could just pick them out. But when it came to eating it, half out of laziness and half out of curiosity I didn't bother to take them out...and found that I quite enjoyed the springy sensation of chewing on the squid (same kinda thing with tapioca, but firmer)
You see squid doesn't really have much of a flavour, it's all about the texture. In fact a lot of Japanese food is about the texture and that could explain why there are so many words in Japanese to describe such textures and sensations; "mochi mochi", "pari pari", "saku saku", "fuwa fuwa", "funwari" "neba neba" "assari". As you can see these mimetic words usually involve a repetition of the same sounds. This, I have found, is one of the hardest things to learn in Japanese. All the sounds seem so similar that I can't remember if it's "gunyo gunyo" or "gunya gunya"! (In fact both of those exist and have similar yet slightly different meanings) There are so many of these goddamn things and often it's simply a matter of personal preference about what you use them to describe, thus relying on the Japanese's unique skill of telepathy for communication. One of my friends (a Japanese teacher) uses these onomatopoeic and memetic words so much that she barely speaks a sentence without one, and usually they aren't officially recognised words either - she'll just make up the sounds herself to describe what she is trying to communicate. And actually, Japanese people can usually deduce what she is trying to communicate using their 6th sense. Although first incredibly perturbed by these mischievous little words, I have grown to love them.
Recently one of my fillings fell out as I was chewing gum and led to my first trip to the Japanese dentist. I was slightly worried that I would be bombarded with dentistry terms that I had no hope of understanding, but it wasn't the case. In fact Japanese technical terms are a lot easier to learn and remember than the English equivalents, but that's another story. However I was told a few ways to "kande", to bite my teeth, with onomatopoeic words, and for some reason, although I had only just heard them for the first time I understood what they meant. I was told to "gachi gachi kande", with "gachi gachi" expressing the sound of hard objects hitting each other continuously. Then I was told to "guri guri kande", with "guri guri" expressing the action of making circular motions whilst pressing down. Then after that I was told "gachin to kande", with "gachin" being a derivative of the previous "gachi gachi" except this time it expresses the sound after hard and heavy objects have hit each other (contrasting with the continuous nature of "gachi gachi"). So can you imagine what kind of biting I was doing? First I was chomping my teeth together repetitively, then I was grinding them, and then I was biting them together hard and holding them there.
Well I'm sure you can find better expressions to translate those words than I, and that is my terrible downfall. I love translating and would love to do so professionally but... even if I can quite clearly understand what's being said or the meaning of a text, I cannot always translate it well; it is more often that my English ability fails me than my Japanese. It tears me in frustration when I can clearly understand the meaning in my mind but to not be able to express it in words. Of course there are also times when I can translate quite well and it is that sense of satisfaction after successfully transcribing from one language to the other that I do so love. Interpretation on the other hand is impossible. Whereas translation is generally only marred by my insufficient vocabulary and writing ability, interpretation involves an entirely different problem.
The way our 1st language is stored in our brains is that words are tied to images, sensations or concepts. When we hear the word "tree", we understand it because we link the word to the image. When we hear the word "cold" we understand it because we link it to the sensation. However when we learn a new language as adults we tend to use translation over association to remember new words. I remember in GCSE French we were given "aide memoire" lists to memorise, French on the left, English on the right. All the French words were given an equivalent English word to link to, with no association of the actual object, image or concept. Although I too have had these translation word lists as part of my Japanese study, I remember clearly my first lessons of Japanese were done using flashcards. The teacher would hold up cards with images expressing simple adjectives such as cold, far, short, and verbs such as walk, eat, close. These flashcards were use to test our recall and we were given no translation. The word "mijikai" was linked to the image of a short pencil contrasting a long pencil and not the English word "short". Throughout my study I have learnt words in different ways, but the best and least stressful recall has been linking words directly to images. Especially now in the more advanced stages of language acquisition I tend to learn new words using Japanese->Japanese dictionaries or having people explain to me in Japanese. This means that the new words are not linked with English ones and therefore interpretation, which requires quick translation from Japanese to English difficult. Some teachers seem to like to use me as a walking dictionary and will at often very random times ask me the word for something in English. When I can't answer immediately first they wonder if I don't know the meaning and then when I explain I do they're like but your a native speaker of English, why don't you know!? And well, I feel kind of embarrassed, but switching between languages can be hard.
Is this all just because English and Japanese are so goddamn different? Or is it the same with other languages that are more similar in nature?
Yeah, so I've had nothing to do at work recently, probably be writing more soon. Ciao darlings!