13 SE cue TS SPEAKING Giles Murray KODANSHA INTERNATIONAL ‘YorkeLondenIF you wnt iaknow more about The Sces fo Spaking Fen opanese ‘ound sith seeret Website at hepa speaking japanese com cor Tet Capigh0 199 yes My Mang Cop (rg 9 30) 19 by Ce Mary da Nama CONTENTS INTRODUCTION seoner ‘1 ‘ABBREVIATIONS How to Speak vith Maximum Eiency srenen *2 EXPLANATORY PHRASES ow fo Communicate Despite Not Knowing the Right Word seenen ‘3, READABLE PHONE NUMBERS How to Maser Number om It 10 nomen “4. STATISTICS How fo Maver Numbars over 10,000, srenen *5 HYPOTHESIS How to Go beyond the Merely Factual sxemen *G —___ SYNONYM GENERATOR ort Be Five Times os Fluent 2snemen "7 im INTERNATIONAL RELATIONSHIPS How to Make Romance Werk for You INTRODUCTION amee’g ADVERBS VB ee rat et nn se eciay dese Howto Benet fom Foying Chiston’s Word Games ter an oat Peet het i asteoe ys —— both beginner and advanced students. Oe ae 13 Secrels for Speaking Fluent apse has been designed to help stu PREFIXES AND SUFFIXES. dns make the tanstion from the tame word ofthe language textbook. i? thinking, speaking and memorizing Japanese quickly, efficiently anc ee —— —— eponely.Aough many flere ars of he angunge a JOKES AND PUNS “ra the strategies (or “secrets") have all been selected for one and the fe secret guarantees 2 sulden and ees ce peel Fe Sufoes cb Largpoge, ee Tey wok Bey in nt “Ttamatc improvement in stents” powers of expression. ' In 13 Seouts for Spating Flue! apne information that it woukl lake severl year” esence in Japan encounter at random has been ‘lec ar src ool stadt oer the masa ean with the minimum of effort Quantity, however, is not everything, The natn dents kowing aml vcr Hy hot use it Ultimately the ability t© manipulate Knowledge #8 more [Important than the ability to accumulate it This book dhereove teaches, Stents hove to peeset their “mind ils” so thay can remember more vor an expressions and then goon to combine them more rely 49 maximum mileage from whatever they know, ee cry diverse book with mate 13 Ses Spin Flat ances avery rial ranging rom manga and Kids jokes, Hough readable telephone umber ane statistics, ono slang and the language of romance. Since it tines aspects of pop culture and everyday few teach language: points, Ttademt who use this book are alerted othe fact that very significant smoner "12 mei LOANWORDS AND JAPANESE ENGLISH Hor to Aetna the Jopanaes That You Already now sous 9h MANGA How to Expo Jopanese Comic 0 Leaning Resource MAD MNEMONICS AND LOONEY LINKS How to Remembor Vocobulary though Associaton GLOSSARIESlonguage-leering opportunites canbe foun in everyday things and events. This book transforms the sty parsdigm from one of passive seliance on a teacher in the cassoom, ts proative awareness of hove to get out there and tach youre, Saves for Speaking Fluent pans avshly strated. The ha trations, however, are there fora reson, Fist they make the book attractive and fan to read. Secon they work to stimulate the imagine ‘on and, trough the imagination the memary. They ten the beck nto © kind of virtual universe In which students do not perform exercises merely for exercises’ sake, bt use Japanese to describe or ret to hat they actully see—as they wil have to inthe real world Used correctly 13 Secrets for Spoking Fue Janne will give ade ‘atic boost to students’ Japanese, turing them imo perpetual motion ‘machines of knawledge-acquisiton and krowledge-processing wil also prove them with the mental and verbal props they need for ue selfexpression in Japanese will each students how to say what they ‘vant to say nthe way they want to say i All the "secrets follow the same basic format, An English inttoduc tion explains the thrust ofthe chapter. This is followed by the mains som, then the quiz, Each “secret” concludes with the answers t the ‘quiz, and a vocabulary is. All words and sentences ae ven in Japa, ‘ese in romanized Japanese and in English. There arv comprehensive slssaries atthe end of the book 13 Sevres for Speaking Fon! Jape is the result f a tam efor 'Nooko ito helped with research and pre-checked the Japanese. Tadashi Nomura drew the hypothesis manga and Commodore Perrys tine travel pictures. Peter Prout drew all the other pictures Gordon Ces designed the cover. Machiko Moryasu edited the Japanese, snd Pl Hubert patiently and expertly nurtured the pret fom is origins a a mishmash of inchoate braln spurts to the publishable text you ee today. Thank youll very mach Finally T should like to thank Popuresha for permission to eprint the jokes on page 121 and Olzum Shoten for the jokes on page 123 Very special thanks also 10 Teznka Productions for allowing me to reprint lad on pages HH-155, Without thes kind cooperstion {3 Sel fr Speaking Fluent Japanese would not have been complete ‘I ABBREVIATIONS How to Speak with Maximum Efficiency re Japanese are acknovedged to be the masters of minia- tuzation in manufacturing: Tape recorders are reduced to Walkmans, compact discs to MiniDises, and desktop computers to palmtop computes. This passion forthe pete finds expres son in the world of words too. Long anel awkward. kanj-com- pounds are made shorter and smoother with the omission of tvery second character. Koku-sai-en-go, the United Nations, is cut doven to Koku-ten and Nihon Kei2ai Shimbun, the Japanese ‘equivalent ofthe Wal Street Journal, is reduced to Nik: kel Foreign loanwords are among, the most frequent victims of this miniaturizaion-through-amputation process. Already in the Taisho era (1912-1926) the young men and women who dressed in exotie Wester fashions and frequented th eafés and dance halls ofthe Ginza were referring to themselves as = (Mobo, from Moder Boy) and (Moga, from Modern Gir). And stil today whatever’ fashionable tends to be shrinkable, The Spice Girls, for example, ae telescoped down to % 1647 (Supa-Ga), Jimmy Hendrix to ¥ 3 - <7 (dimi-Hen) and even AmoldSchwarzenegger i reduced to the mini-moniker of 2 2.7% 4 A (Shuwa-ehan), Shuwa-chan is hardly a name fit for a mascle-bound kiling ‘machine, and in many cases English words lose much of their dignity in the shrinking process, suffering not usta reduction in size, but a reductio ad absurdum. The word sexeal harassment, for ‘example, sounds serious enough in English, but the chispy and staceato sekuhara (7) sounds more like lighthearted fun! ‘The English word intellectual conjures up images of earnest cone ssumptive Russians plotting the overthrow of the Tsar. As intri (4 779), however, it takes on some of the pejorative and belit- ting nuances of nerd or egghend. Some Japanese abbreviations are not so much inappropriate in tone as just downright misleading. The English word fran. storming transmogrifis into the misleadingly Partonesque bure suto (7 L % b), while a Japanese sando (I) sounds far les appetizing than an English smd The ultimate oddities of the abbreviation world are the bizarre hybrids of Japanese and foreign words, The chart on the facing page introduces and explains six of the more commonly used expressions of this type 3 tizr24% | Towash yourhair with shampoo (2/927 Asashan suru | inthe morming (2 =). wrote “To escape (#29) the salaryman lie (959 — Datsusara suru | v7 0917 yay Amansion apastment (7.32) that eoss ‘Okushon ‘more than 100 lion (+884) yen 2 A wally gutsy portsman’s (2IK—”) fight- Spokon ing spirit (=A 3) notr An empty (25) orchestra (47% 1) Keoraoke more A foreign (9509 ( (A) show business per Gaitare sonality (U7 F) The last and simplest group of abbreviation are acronyms. Many fof these, such as OL (Office Lady) or OB (Old Boy) are from uunchangeal English words and are therefore very easy to under- stand ae ol ll [Now you are familiar with the various pattems of abbreviation in Japanese, read the following story about a day in the life o Mr, Shigeo Tada, research scientist and part-time twacher, The story Is written in English but contains thirty-three loanword abbreviations, Try and figure out what the various abbreviations ‘mean, then check your answers with the key on the pages 8-9,“The Ades of Shi Tae ting excied about some politician taking bribes, but mont. he juicy details were being kept (5) 77 foto) Bored with che same old commonplaces, Tada tum on the TV and wached some 6) fealy, he pote ofall the (7) CM tiem tha kepe Freaking up the progam and wing the (8) UEIZ rimokon, (9) AVR ebuisoe0 electing (10) Y 2/9 (ashates) and (11) GIR Gi pan). On Sanus he worked a a (2) (anime nse, svitches lf the wh Tala pot dresed, tau, reaching science ‘Asaasign of his independence hhenever took the tain at week ced, preferring to make the Chuger many (13) #0) (roto the choo, a is second baad Journey by ea I ot eked and bumped aa ade alot trang ois fre fal topped Todd ad an (14) E272 Fons! Lack, joe at thar very insane the police were going by ina (5) Ch || (oot and gave him a eth rest ofthe way to work Bete is eons began Tas went tothe eanten and Fh (16) 942 tnd) whieh he pi for at she (17) DY «in. i He taught his classes une 3PM, then from 3 il 430 he wrote epor Prevculy he ha sed (18) 7 apa) ut new he prefer his brand-new (19) CY Ipasokon (One ting he liked sboue ie was that be cou pretend to wrk when i fact he was only playing video mes, the wey nese ha at home on his (20) 77 S17 voto) his reports, Ta Ale inhi ‘thoughe about gong tothe gym. He loved exerci. His hobbies were (21) AR fsunobo) in winter, and (2) 23m oukebin summer. His other 1 See onsen on page See baers cn peesTe Advis f Shes Tat favorite spor were one-hunusl-peoent American —23) FX b amofo) and (24) AZ osu He dreamed of going tothe Wese Const, t0 (25) 2 (rose, tee his hotoes the Lakers play. Perhaps he woul go therefor hs honeymoon... A, mareiage “Tata's former glsend had been an (26) OL (oo but bis present giiiend was a (27) $10 kdopags. She oer ated an elevator wearing wif something lke a ight steendant She did like her ob because ofall the (28) 22105 atthe hands of 29) L9F (sehuharl she was subjected 2 locehina old men. He looked atthe phoeo they a taken at (30) 747 (purr) andl sighed. his esearch went well, fhe could dice some kid of miracle dru, hen he could gc a bom matey brand take her aay from all that But lec is breakthrough wait tll Monday morning! One de advantage of gerd ob sural he tine. Wesker Chaper public holidays, you name i! He couldn’ meet her tnight, + what should he do? Hedi eel up to exercise, an! he ule bear ogo back to the dreary (31) IH ope) wher he lived, so Tid dee ogo f rink. His frend on (32) OB (i fem his university oes a (33) 1 > foster anew place downtown, Ab whe thought sf othe det of eer! THE END Seo LANIER RCo Reea) St @)URKS 6) 39H, ex @)42v3 © oe mem yea (avarn anyeey aneny (2) 3) #0 (i) E2Ab (5) b= (19) BYE by (18) 9-70 wy yay abo rajikase masukomi shiiema Fimokon buikonpo wal shatsu iikpan iro patoks sando ‘ji wapuro pasokon laboratory radio cassette recorder (amass medi) off the} econ animated features (ae toons) ‘commercials remote control sudio-visual component white shirt jean pants seminar (tam schoo!) Aaometer engine stoppage (tal) patrol ca (police car) sandwich cash register word processor personal computer (PC) (00) 275 en ast (22) aera OW 7XIb (on 1r (5) 0% OL. VF )eONS oy Tyee 60) 2U93 62: 62) 08 (FY ‘amikon sunobo sukebo amefuto basuke dopaga sokuhara ecchina purikura ope family computer (Ni tendo: of Pay Station-ype ame machine) snowboard skateboard American Football basketball Las Angeles fice lady deparment store git” sexsal harassment firs letter of ental per vert in Japanese) means wal” and “ait” an is pronounced ecchi print lub (instant min Photo booth). cooperative (squalid apart rent) old boy (alumnus) bartenderEXPLANATORY PHRASES How to Communicate Despite Not Knowing the Right Word A hiynenativ emer of Japanese ts only natural no and then to find yourself a alos for words, or, to be more precise, ata loss for one specific word. Were you preparing an ‘assignment at home or in the library free from the time pres- sures of an actual conversation, you would be able to solve the problem by reaching for your English-Japanese dictiona real life, however, this is impractical. Nothing stops a conversa- tion so fast as a four-inch-thick lexicon, Nor is the preemptive In memorization of the entire English-Japanese dictionary a very real possibility The best solution to overcome the sense of inadequacy you feel at your lack of Japanese vocabulary is to effect a radical shift Jn your consciousness. You must abandon your obsession with vocabulary-accumulation, and switch to an improvisational technique of speaking. You must change from a fearful linguistic hoarder into a fearless linguistic ad-ibber To achieve this mental sift, you need first to realize how ‘even in your native language, you suffer from mental-block, hott least temporarily-—prevent you coming up with the right word, You then need to be aware of how you reactin such instances. Without hesitation and without self-consciousness, 1 substitute an explanatory pase forth word you hae forgotten. i the word osteopath escaped You, you might well say some- thing like “a kind of doctor who deals with bones.” Unemploy- ‘You might describe as “the state of not having a jb. You may no have spoken with maximum elegance or econ- son you're talking to understands your mean- omy, at the ps iy, Communication has been achieved. Language has performed is function, To not know or to have forgotten a specific word is sn speakers, To feel ashamed not a problem exclusive 10 fore and be hesistant about explaining a concept with other words, To speak really natural and flowing Japanese, the secret is hot to memorize the entire English-Japanese dictionary, but to learn to manipulate a minimum number of basic words with sximum flexibility. Think like a dictionary yourself. Define sncepts using simple words [uch as mono (thing), koto (action), (ota (state), tokoro or basho (place), and hito(person)], and you an say almost anything! Below I have listed a number of words in English that probably don’t know in Japanese. In each case I provide an alte halve way to express the same idea using simple words, Study the examples, then test your powers of flexible speaking by Joing the quiz| oy Lidia cedieah acd inci Sunn acto poe » TA YEDVERDOLD wain 0 akeru tame no meno ie winnoNRER! \cALL rating in the sew DEWTRET EDO lumi no naka de iki o suru tame hae Word) or Ks PEE hing or loving th WEAK LO ha 0 migaku mono Used) caLcUL aro SPE hin ta suse Lo d su AES E SICH BO keoisan 0 suru tok ni tsukau mono ACTIONS Plain form + & (koto) ike CLcRAPIY Ze iene aco wring neat eters f So SHUR PERCE “jas kireina jo kak koto ) \S ikon xen eet ito 0 korosu koto Snes PE ato HES shokujiotsukuru koto WikRooR WA! Dxs..HINC SPB gto sing thing eyo are aslo wecoeM. VAAREDERSIE ete ir aida fronna mano 0 miru koto SSMUBveTRIGTE «=tat of there being noting tat fesMAIE BV Ea Die tabemono ga nani mo na otal RM tor 3) i=) SERA He store of wot knowing where you re el FoEbSmbHH EVER ZEW ‘doko niu ka wakaranal ota) weed + | Savana RaRATE | Busy rXasy ee eee ea ci) Oey seed ea) Wikis Word swoKrS CORNER avo tao tabako 0 sutte mo i tokoro Sie pn AETELINT hon o kashidasu tokoro mend rar SPE pacer ow on pk ea i kuruma o tomeru basho Sea veRREERy an pARATS 1s| xa Ph Cue Use ed sors se Pe BEGSA, kun © mamoruhito defends his country Unkspamet) asrsononen Sib person ho studies the ters KARO EWES A tentai no koto 0 benkyo suru hito ikem) Lvrccn Satin Pie akan Sis 0 perso who sys ings that ave nol Lue pYTIEEY A hhonte de wa nai kato o iu hito 6 Ste wodabulay an age 19 Pina aed i so HAD NH is bbyOKi no hitoo hakobu kuruma ko ith ices in these, ge ns ppl, and appre nthe moe Jaws WIEA, AZSSB, Pa— AL Ev} we Am Umi ni sum, hit 0 taberu, ‘Jo2u" 101 eiga ni deta dobutsu sata bok ans nly See vocabulary on ge 19°PTS Pe . THINGS 2) terror aAy ain wine a f teed ahora ‘wopen sail es ul en ton ao ikiowins tobe ' re a —B conasin a to iu eiga a movie called = = om ‘dobutsu ‘animal soe Ade Seana | a ‘Can you survive in a dictionary-tess envi CE 3. paralyzed (use jotai) = ve 4. movie theater (use tokoro/basho) * eae»ng that looks ke a plate and comes fram see PME RSMALU LD tlh kara kuru ara main MONO 2. the et of not eting in onder to lose weight RB DLAI oft Ve b ‘yoworu tame ni nan mo tabenai KOTO 3. thestote of ot ig able o move your brady see shots Ea een farada o upokaru koto ga dina JOTAL 4 place where you wath Wem Ea = 2 ga 0 miu TOKORO sapere af pl fet AEN A, tito eau HITO 6. ex aninal i nos FORE Cb Jeu ui ge toteme naga! DOBUTSU PTUs mar a ole aoe a 7 ro cae S a ar a a ee Jong. ‘3 READABLE PHONE NUMBERS How to Master Numbers from 1 to 10 To mater lhe efron readings ofrunters upton by sud ing te “rode” phone rants cf Jopanew busines, arathon runners hit a “wall” of fatigue halfway through the race. If, however, they can grt their teeth and smash through that wall, they can find resources of energy to carry them for the whole grveng twenty-sixmile distance, Learning Japanese is like running a mental marathon and bumping up against not one wall, walls You get through hiragana, only to find that katakana is waiting for you. Once you've passed katakana, far from being safe, you'te confronted with kanji! The same is true of spoken Japanese. In your first textbook you leam standard, formal la guage. You then discover that most ofthe time Japanese people an endless succession of Jon’t speak in such astif and proper way. You devote yourself to mastering the informal style. That done, you find out that to Func tion successfully in Japan occasional outbreaks of lavish politeness are indispensable. And soit goes, on and on, an unending series ‘of humiliations (One ofthe first (and happily flimsies) walls to surmount is that of the Japanese counting system, The Japanese are oftenaccused of being conformist. Their numbers are anything but! ‘The carina for one is ich or hitotsu, The fies of the month is tsuitach, but one person is hit, One bottle is ippon, but one animal is ippik or ito. ‘This chapter is designed to help you enjoy learning the many different ways in which to count from one to ten by reading Japanese phone numbers. In the United States the letters of the alphabet have been ‘assigned to the ten digits ofthe dial to allow forthe easy memo- tization of business phone numbers. There is however no gen- tine phonetic link between the number one, and the letters A, B and ‘In Japan precisely because every number can be pronounced in various ways, business phone numbers are often created as 2 species of genuinely readable catchcopy that promotes the ser~ vice or product and enhances number-reall at the same time Recently a business trip took me to Kyushu on Japan Air Sy tems, » major domestic air carrer. On board T noticed thatthe headrest covers displayed the manufacturer's phone mumber— (0120-450714, The first four digits (0120) represent the standard toll-free code, but the last six read yo-go-re-na-yo, or won't get dirty! Waiting, for my baggage inthe terminal after disembark- ing, a Japan Air Systems poster with another toll-free number ‘aught my eye. The number-—0120-5-11283—reads -tsu-ba-sa, ‘or fine wings, Despite collecting readable phone numbers for this book for over a year, once again I was amazed at how Japanese ‘numbers can be made to say almost anything. The at-a-glance chart below introduces the Chinese and Japanese readings of numbers from zero to ten, with the various possible bbreviated readings inthe right-hand column, Number [Chinese | Japanese | Phone-number Readings 1 [ieni | nitotsu ito 2 ni futetsu | _nifvjitsu + shi__| yottsu | shiyons yo 90 | itsutsu | goritsu é roku | muttsu | roku 7 shiehi | nanateu | na 5 hachi | yattsu | harpawya ° ya ko_| kokonoteu_|_kackyasko a © we Referring to the above chart, try to read the messages concealed in the sixteen authentic phone numbers listed on the following three pages. Be aware that there is an element of copywriters poetic license in these numbers, In some cases syllables are idded to flesh out the message. Sometimes a number i actually res in English rather than in Japanese, Where the numbers anc the readings cleviate in this way, they are printed in boldtype29 41 =9-a4 nibku-yor Moat Gon! BASIC SHOPS AND SERVICES FAMOUS CORPORATIONS. Hl A169 _ 308509 al a1o2 voPha-7 s yor rokku sa.na-yata kook 3 — : 014-0831 (es 2 14946 3 BAY—-AVOL clap 9 =271573b ff tet oyese! EF socuiem 5 Dalous Vee } Rent te Nie rongst | ENGLISH 3 2 562041 14023 9 Ei 78st eS yea 2 cee waeamangan 3 Gols sot! Thats omy etry a 5 1092 3 J-h-9ho-= {9040-4 t0 mi a Tat ome! 3s See vSSaulay on page 27 ‘See vee Sx pog 272sPES SERVICES 2323 “ epee Bushy zushy! od r ikke! Nn Keira Simian ne cava wel borough 304201 voma BLa=t4 | hisho 52-7 yo no fosaiase i cm a nia sell a wal x eo haya ily {| 3 s896 326 gee san omer ai eM Mi E epzAvevIEKo! OS i ok pon 8] ga ha-yacku mushi-san-nidoky = i cwustiba een th 8) Wat qcky 0 te honorable osc poison! oa a fe 376480 rire ertsine Everyone with ero cities!‘You are a private detective in Tokyo who has been hired to inves tigate the private life ofa young man whom we shall call X-san. While X-san is at work you break into his apartment, but find no evidence except for a personal organizer. The personal contains four phone numbers, From “reading” the numbers What can you abseroe and what can you deduce about X-san? Observations 476 -A7FU- ——_yokunero (Les et ete isthe number af a clini or hospital ) M88 BN you haha Mother isthe number of a private investigation service that checks up ona future wife's Background, ) aur A dos tichana (Fine Flowers) she nunaber of ower shop. 4) 90819997764 7 ha-ya-kurbeFk (Quicly Motori) is the numberof Bike delivery service Deductions 1) Xsan, or someone close to Xsan, is not in good health (2) X-san Js thinking of geting married, but is having the future Mrs. Ickes on 3) Xsan likes to send flowers by (2) motorbike courier fois future wie Xsan is slighly schizophrenic (hence the clinic). He suffers from n-swings, plunging from impulsive, eomantic highs (lowers by xpress delivery to suspicion filled depressive lows (hing spouse Investigators) WOCABULARY BEI yokunanu to get bates, sone aval guyPo sECKE TMS STATISTICS How to Master Numbers over 10,000 i-Converter Table Jap. fix 100m 1000 «10.00 The chart below shows Japanese and English number equva- Jens from ten thousand to ten tilion, Notice the difference in the multiplier figure (bold) between the Japanese name and the En ish Nome hundred thousand jp. Name To successlly express numbers kom fon thourand lo en lion aa by dividing them ino fen bands ond inking them to easy-to. reset dot, jomen nya veenonom | teboku ‘Tatts cay sees muni pret opis polar fo sacnctns | the student of Japanese. The counting system seems tobe cen teal to English. Theres none ofthat Germanic inversion whereby a ae twenty-four is expressed as foun kn yomono | texan okt wenty; nor are numbers 110910001 400 x 10900001 Dundes mition tention hundred blion ‘expressed as multiples—as in French—where eighty bocomes four times- tet renaononxina | eho ‘One must, however, resist the delusion that counting in vommocie | eet Japanese is easy. Problems begin at ten thousand, and are only 1 <109n00 900000, the more difficult because the nu The root ofthe problem lies inthe use of df bers involved are bigger. ent units than those with which we are familiar. In Japanese ten thousand is Seven aEaE ice tema tal Tarnsog TO od sand, Multiples ofthis ten thousand unit are then used up to a hundred million whic imillon but as TxmitoF100 milli. Ie is some consolation that Japanese numbers reconverge with Eng lion mark, but at that level the problem becomes one more of in tur is expressed not as 100-unts of 1 Ik numbers at the til mathematics than of language!If you want to have serious conversations in Japanese, you must bite the bullet and lextn how to say big numbers. Largely because the yen is low-value ewrrency unit everyday use of big num bers isnot restricted tothe rocketscience community. Salaries in Japan, for example, are alway inthe millions (hyaku-man). The population not only of Japan itself, but of ts Asian neighbors Tike China, Indonesia or India isin the 100 million to 1 billion range (ich oku to j0 oku}. And the revenues of Japan's numer- ‘ous worll-beating. companies like Sony and Toshiba are al in the trlions (cho). Don’t wait until you're inthe middle of an eamest discussion ‘on the global food crisis or the relative size of IBM and Hitachi to discover that you are unable to deliver the killer statistic you ‘need to finish off your opponent, Attack Japanese numbers sys- tematically and cool-headedlly and you can master ther! Ifyou divide all the Japanese nambers from ten thousand up to te trillion into groups (see the “Mini Converter Table" above) you will se that there are infact only ten “number type bands." I-you can memorize a single representative number from each of the number-ype bands and keep it in your mind as a refer- ence archetype, you will beable to say any number, no matter how big! Study the charton the next two pages overleaf. It provides you sith a single representative number from each of the ten bands. Make sure you really understand why the numbers are read as they are, Don't be ashamed fo move your lips as you read! Once you feel you understand how to count big, goon to check your numerical ability with the General Knowledge Num- bers Quiz Sour: All the statistics quoted in the following chart are real. Check them foe yourself in the following list of sources. Then learn other interesting statistics to make your Japanese conversations sound more intelligent and informed AN Japa: An strated Eneyclopet(p-75) 1B Asoli Shinde Jon Almanac 198 (p. 228) (© As Shimbun Jape Almanac 1938 (p. 158) Asal Shimbur Japon Almanac 1998 (p. 67) Rendon House Eneylopalis(p. 337) Random House Eneylopalia(p. 136) G Aco Shinn Jp Almanac 1938 (p.96) 1. Japan: An lstrated Encyelopeti(p. 197) 1 Asal Shimbun Jaan Almanac 1998 (p. 98) J) Asal Shimbun Japon Almanac 198 (p, 100)f ‘© tom lehman 1410080 tenthonand and Toxo ok) A000 aadion ‘About 790 pope dn the somlcbonbingo Nagas! ‘he ppalton of nephrin Chi about 8600000 KATeNELEAASC EEL. riiererineenernter ses eirerce, feeec ieee pera etter na cheno el etre n-ne B tom iaman 303000) handstand bind © Tommie yakusks 100100000 tniontant 1280 pool dia in th Great Kanto Eartha (923 Tet’ 196 curing pris were W600 00000. MICKA RASC ealked tt AYE CL CELA NRO RNR DEED IDTOREDIE MECC ie se eer pee "ua oy hn aero © ms? kwman 100210000 onenln tnd 1 go mks 3005 hd i Ineo ay een 7S meeioLcusNieuae a Ia SICIPROMTSL RONAN ED itor ees oem Coat oceie ankaa? wet ‘erm nna ens hin shit rm ae Gichomapeunec cee aay ‘nach: u-roku-man-yon-sen desu, (Mijan lazobu 0 Boytah ae suum iamnnan 10010590 nln band 1 mmm ese cama ame th yer salary he Japanese pine ister is 80 Aaa RES SIE eowmxto -¥AOMMAnGes eee ge man average distance from the eat io themoon © nihyaku-hach-0-man nin population of Singapore D_go-sen-go-hyakusman nin ‘number of people who gave their lives in World War Two. E. san-oku-go-son-man doru fortune of Queen Flizabeth I of Britain F nij0-ichi-oku dora cost of a space shuttle G yon-hyaku-hachija-oku dora fortune of Bill Gates (CEO of Microsoft) H is-son-nana-hyaku-hachi {0c a oku-nana-sen-yor-hyaku-man doru ae revenues of General Motor ——— 1. kya-cho-yon-sen-rop-pyaku-oku kiro one lightye J i0-ni-cha-nana-sen-hyaku-nana-oku en sales of Sumitomo Trading company (No. 4in Japan) = 2 HYPOTHESIS How to Go Beyond the Merely Factual To develop © mastery of al hypothetical forms by intensive ‘xponre to them nf orm oF cstrswritan ranga, Oeste est sete ton you wil experince in he ly stages of learning Japanese is to find that ignorance of the appropriate grammatical forms restricts you to talking excl ively about matters of fact. You are a master of the indicative, You ean discuss what was, what is and What shall be, bt you are unable to discuss what might be, what could be, or what should be. In order to enjoy speaking Japanese you must acquire the lity to speculate, and break out of the limiting prison of the actual as fast as possible. You must not allow ignorance ofa few apparently difficult sentence forms to prevent you exercising your imagination, The language of hypothesis is a litle more difficult than the language of fact. But hypothetical statements often just seen dif. ficult because they come i the form ofa lengthy two-part clause if x, then ¥). Again, teachers often assume that they need not dil students who are advanced enough to tackle hypothesis quite as relentlessly as they drill beginners tackling the indica-tive, and consequently fail to make hypothetical forms stick Finally, many students feel only a muted sense of guilt about not knowing hypothetical forms properly: After all, there is an appropriateness in being vague, inconclusive and open-ended bout hypothetical statements that are themselves intrinsically ‘vague, inconchisive, and open-ended! But [believe that you can master the language of hypothesis if you want tol F plenty of practice and a clear understanding of precisely what kind of English hypothetical statement a Japanese hypothetical Satement equates t0 This chapter provides a highly intensive, but painless method fof mastering the language of hypothesis—a. custom-written iypothesizing in Japanese is not hard. You need! ‘manga, The manga tells the story of Jim, a young ancl enthusias- tic student of Japanese, He goes to study in Japan and has vari fous adventures, romantic and gastranomical, Through his ‘experiences you can learn everything you need to know about the unreal world of wishes and regrets in Japanese I you feel you need a fuller and more grammatical explanation. of hypothetical forms, I recommend the Handbook of Modern Japanese Grammar by Yoko McClain published by Hokuseido Press (pps: 29-37). The Adventures of a Gaijin in Tokyo coo | tures by Tadashi Nomura Story by Giles Mrzay |Chino utansi agi ochsukimasen ne youn give hersdatives, she never cls down a B LS AE 2 Cees BB ky Sa beneath someone tomes by hance Tost brood ru female ofc clerk Temple Rrewi moghn-/ meine in iffTT old and small poriment Tea mn 1K alobu we cramped ava By Gor iret yas hep 2a77 eck fo Biwi weed rons abun dangers ae enya dated ‘ut oF feat are 8 ‘aa apeaive wale together ee anzen fe ec a a nokost wolene aL o i stisur rede ine ayer ie oo alt i lend — EXIT isi ira tbe ange anne 3 become io abn ‘epataton ae if 2IEEROE_-ebayotata only. fahouldhave aD egoroke Engi aby wari bed aC migak polish brash up OEDRDD, Titre boii alone mabe kan go 30 tohave tine 5 au Tome qHETE Shoko sure —_tohave cine vena nina sedatives ie tea experi 73 au ‘winket we Boke Tae) a #0 ‘oi lens amEee ikemesen ant go anne xh wcaim dawn : cle ‘oshime aneme “(> SYNONYM GENERATOR How to Be Five Times as Fluent @ To increote powers of expression by memorizing vocabulary cond conceiving ideas in clits of Fe JR Se micetie mana narily successful? Because while other chip manufacturers con- ‘entrated on the making of low-value-added memory chips, Intel focused exclusively on the manufacture of micro-proces- sors, the thinking and sorting part ofthe computers brain Tf you want to become a world-class Japanese speaker, you too must develop a microprocessorlke soting-and-filtering sy tem in your head. When you are trying to express an idea, and a first search fails to come up with the Japanese equivalent of the ‘word you want, you must activate an automatic switching sys tem that reroutes the thoughtimpulse until an alternative way to express the same idea has been found. Let us start with an English example, Imagine you want to ‘express the idea that something is sy. Due to a mental block {you are unable to recall the word immediately, so your mind urer Intel achieved profits of nearly $7 billion on revenues of $25 billion and was the third ‘most profitable of all American companies despite being only ranked thirty2ighth by revenues, Why was Intel so extraordi- automatically embarks on a search for substitute expressions After a couple of nanoseconds you are presented with five alternatives: (1) A synonymy effvtless. 2) totes (opposite + not not diffcul, @) An overstatement oF exaggeration: a cinch. (4) A somparisan: lite filing off lo. (9) A fantastic statement: [could do it blindfolded stad omy bead There are five different ways to say anything and you already know what they are because you were born with a processor inside your head: A Quintium Processor that multiplies your powers of expression by five! ‘The next four pages are designed to help you develop a Japanese version of this expression-generating processor 0 You can enjoy the same fecundity and agility of thought and language that you take for granted in English, in Japanese. If you can get in the habit of preprocessing ideas through the five-channel ‘Quintium Processor, you will experience a massive boost in fl Look at the following printouts that show the Quintium Processor generating alternative expressions. As you go on you ‘will come across blanks where because of a bug the Quintium Processor has failed to come up with a substitute, Fill in the blanks with an appropriate word or expression, then check your ideas with the answers provided.oe | Ear, rey pon oc Corry pera STATEMENT as wa | mecaeu errs | meocK-oy | —aBKeMEDo vrs | s-semeientos = im | neon WERE | acovzann rom A\| me | vee | azcnsn FP emino | ovcoonn | mcpsoneem Z) oso veto iry fatten onto | aritotsumitai | are pitobasare hod kr Ards ae som Ng your enthusiasm for the country you opened wp to the word. You tye pep dhe sony fellow up fore eng out for arco um. are not the kind af man to let some pet pezing renophobic bureaont dampen HAABADIA EU LTA FEMELY | [Ninonjin wa gaikokujin ni taishita my ni yasashiil The Japanese are bizarely kin to foreigners! AOU MAIC LU | Yoru no Edo wa saiko ni tenoshiit Nightime in Edo (Tokyo) i supremely enjoyable! AMULERAS TSN AAS TEL Watashi wa Nihon ga tathen suki dat Tam awully fond of Jopan! TL acta anzan gel . Has Honea sur tee bowed onda i iets cowed ExSE ho tnry 7 yal gh ieee ioe nds awe roe sigotu tebly,wonderully © no utara ih prosperous i tun ‘unt E ut ce a ido gpg = tata epenure tohangs Tang pty. ti . Air a eR enh csr ti wei a. ‘nikon ripe ize willyPipa stiy fener oa the packing lo ooking Srv oa god long lee. Below ae your fist impes ns of the motel. Fl in the nisin lve in the Jponese sentence by ref fg beck wo the expe sentence al socahulary ls, Have ance sty ib Tatomono wa fipor: —Farukattal The building was awfully oll Peery ek CChashajo ni kuruma ga sukunakattal There were extraordinarily fer cars in the parking lot! HTD At botWtiot: | Uketsuke no ito wa Kawatta otoko dattal The receptionist was a bizarely eccentric young man! 2 aaa aI RPM RMR oP Hoteru wa enna fun‘ki datal The hotel had a weally strange atmosphere! ikon Bik HHI CARE Hoya no kagi wa ak 86 ni mietal The room lock looked horibly weak emit ance: Kedo watashi wa, tsukare But was feeling appalling tre! yeo-it__ EE ORT Showa wa Kimochi yokatta! The shower felt wonderfully goed! out) latin LU! Yappariryoko wa_______tanoshil! Traveling i supremely good fun afterallRUAN tainen ‘wally ous io cxrmondinaly #3 nyo ni bizarely BhESE hoot relly eu ake ni homibty vec idk appalingly rec sugoku vwonderully aR salto supremely RecN al rama RW ‘a agi ini watachi Kimoctii buiding puking itr all ‘9 KIDS’ STUFF How to Benefit from Playing Children’s Word Games To develop “natu” relaonship to Japanese by mimicking a ative spacers ply slofonsip to the longvoge T increase ‘peed ol wordrozall and wordassciton powers ltconsclously “hard” students who derive a masochistic thrill rom ting inthe grim gulag ofthe grammar book and vocab lary list may regard the theme of this chapter as childish, effete and linguistically unprofitable. They could not be more wrong, Ease, intimacy, and informality are essential to a successful human relationship. So with language. At the very beginning of ‘your studies it may be beneficial to see Japanese as some evil, bullying taskmaster. But for a successful long-term liaison with the language you must learn to be casually intimate. Students who proceed according to the master-slave paradigm will only work themselves to death, Students who flirt and dally with Japanese in a lover-like relationship shall ive happily ever ater! Word games can provide you with a deeper, more three «dimensional sense ofthe Japanese language. They can teach you to pereei sound, or as an idea. The more ways in which you perceive a word, the keener—and the closer to a native speaker—is your sense of language © a word in many ways at ane time: AS a shape, a8 aPes “The first game we shall look at is shiritori. Literally translated this means “bottom-grabbing.” Since this sounds misleadingly like a party-game from a Hollywood orgy, allow me to proffer the more considered translation of “lastsyablecatchball.” “The rules areas follows. Player 1 saya word, Player 2 then has to produce a word that begins with the lst syllable of Player 1's word. Player 2 then responds with a word beginning with the last syllable of Payer 1's word, and so on and soon. If the game were played in English it would run i this: Player? Banana Player2 Nasty Player —__Silishete “The game ends either when a player is unable to come up with @ word beginning with the appropriate syllable, or when a player procluces a word ending in -n (A.)—no Japanese word begins with this syllable. Below is an example of a very short rally of “last-sylable catchboll” with seven words, all of them simple nouns. Notice hhow the game ends when Player 1 introduces the word mikan (tangerine), Since it ends inn (4) Player 1 as lst. Study the example and once you feel comfortable with the ‘game, go out and find someone to play with. Any Japanese chile ‘over the age of five or six should be a more than worthy oppo- nent! A ‘\s CO" window tangerine