Category Archives: Japanese Language
Singing the Osaka Dialect Blues
Last night I dreamed I was sitting across a huge conference table from one of my company’s high-level executives. He was in the place of honor in the middle, of course, and I was one chair off from the middle … Continue reading
July McAtee, Global R&D Disaster
Sigh. In several places on that form I was complaining about a few blog posts ago, I entered my title as 惨事 (“disaster”) rather than 参事 (“councilor”). I’ve only been studying Chinese characters for thirty years. In the online review … Continue reading
Drowning in Bureaucracy
Please, someone, save me from my company’s online accounting system. I have to buy my plane ticket for Berlin in three days, but I can’t buy it through the online system without my director’s online approval. However, I can’t fill … Continue reading
A Tip for Working Your Stupid, Crazy Gaijin Image
My friend Kelly from China who’s lived in Japan for many years gave me a trick for when I want to seem like a really stupid foreigner, to get rid of unwanted attention. Instead of saying “Nihongo wakarimasen 日本語分かりません…I don’t … Continue reading
New Words Are Moving In, But Not Fast Enough
I hear a funny word: chuu-ta-han-pa. It sounds familiar. I’m pretty sure I’ve heard it and have even looked it up before. It doesn’t sound like Japanese, not even like the normal two-syllable Chinese-borrowed words. Suddenly I hear it everywhere—on … Continue reading
Words
A dusky lace of sadness overlays my thoughts every time I smile at an English word spelled or created charmingly. I smile at the “Fancl House” clothing store and remember how many in Tohoku are still freezing with clothes washed … Continue reading
July's Culture Medium 