Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary From the last blog, you know all about men, particularly 男 (DAN, NAN, otoko: man). And you've likely seen 間 in 時間 (jikan: time), which breaks down as hours + interval. So perhaps you'll be as surprised as I to find that 間 combines with 男 to mean "adultery, adulterer" (間男: maotoko). What does 間 contribute to this word? It's tricky to figure out, because 間 has quite a few meanings. I know 間 commonly means "space." Does 間男 imply that a man commits adultery because he needs space from his wife?! But 間 can also refer to rooms. So does the 間 in 間男 refer to the room in which an adulterer proves his manhood? Then again, 間 can mean "timing, situation, occasion," as in... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary My friend Tom seems to provoke Mother Nature's wrath wherever he goes. When he stayed with friends in Michigan last month, a freak windstorm made them lose power for two days. Six months earlier, he visited Titusville, Florida, and a severe tornado arrived at precisely the same time. Not long before that, a tornado accompanied him to Olney, Maryland. When Tom was just six, a tornado hit his family's farm in Illinois. Although the family recovered and rebuilt the garage, another tornado took that one out, as well. Coincidences? I think not. Apparently, Tornado Tom is not the only person with these powers, as the Japanese have a similar concept: 雨男 (ameotoko: man whose... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary You know that wedding reception table where the bride and groom seat misfits who don't belong at any other table? Well, that oddball table is ours today! We'll feast on a smorgasbord of random, cool things pertaining to 中. Speaking of seating, we encountered two seat-related compounds in the last blog: 中座 (chūza: leaving before an event (e.g., a meeting) is over)      in the middle + gathering 座中 (zachū: in the room, gathering, theatrical troupe)     gathering + in the middle My definition of 座 as "gathering" may have seemed strange to you; 座 (ZA, suwa(ru)) more commonly means "seat" or "to sit." Actually, the... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary In the last blog, we saw how -中 is a powerhouse of a suffix. For instance, adding -中 to 日本 (Nihon: Japan) gives us 日本中 (Nihonjū: all over Japan, throughout Japan). What emphasis -中 throws on a compound! With that in mind, here's a quick quiz. What does 訪中 (hōchū) mean? One hint: 訪 (HŌ, tazu(neru)) means "to visit." Take some time to think.... Can you hear the Jeopardy music in the background? OK, time's up. It's certainly tempting to interpret 訪中 as "throughout a visit." But no, 訪中 produces a kanji gotcha! In this case, 中 means "China," so 訪中 is a "visit to China"! This raises a new question: Whenever 中 appears in a compound, does the character refer to China or... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary In last week's blog, we saw how a single 中 can change "deep in the night" (夜中, yonaka) into "all night" (夜中中, yonakajū). Despite its simple shape, 中 packs quite a punch. And with 中, you get three suffixes for the price of one! That is, the suffix -中 has three meanings. As the meaning changes, so might the yomi. Let's look at each meaning.   1. Period of Time: JŪ Let's say you have a compound expressing a period of time (a day, week, month, year, and so on). The suffix -中 (pronounced -JŪ) enables you to convey that something happened throughout that period of time. A few examples:   一日 (ichinichi: one day)一日中 (ichinichijū: all day long) 今週... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary When a Japanese friend emailed me that he likes to stay up all night, it blew me away on two accounts. First, I can't imagine wanting to stay up till dawn. I did plenty of that in college, and I'm not eager to revisit the experience. Second, look how he said "throughout the night": 夜中中 (yonakajū) Two instances of 中 in a row, each with different readings! Let's break this down to see what's going on here: 夜 (YA, yo, yoru) means "night." 中 (CHŪ, naka) means "in, inside, middle." Yonaka combines two kun-yomi (yo and naka) to mean "deep in the night." (When read as yonaka, 夜中 also means "midnight, but let's set that aside.) In 夜中中, the final 中 is a suffix... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary In Japan, where they practically time trains down to the second, you might think that nobody's ever late and that the Japanese wouldn't need a word for "tardiness." Think again! Our old friend 後 (KŌ, GO, ato, ushi(ro): after, behind) provides us with a way to say that. Although 遅れる (okureru) is the main way to write "to be late," 後れる has the same yomi (okureru) and the same meaning. That's true, for instance, in this word: 手後 (teoku(re): too late, belated)     hand + after I have no idea how the breakdown (hand + after) relates to the meaning, "too late, belated," but as long as we're discussing 手後, here's a quick quiz.   ... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary I firmly believe that every kanji has its own personality. And as with people or dogs (or most creatures), it takes a while to get to know a complex kanji. By "complex," I don't mean something like this: Read as KYŪ or kuji, this crazy concoction means "lottery" (though "circuit board" would have been more fitting). It certainly looks complicated. But when I say "complex," I mean a character with ... well, with lots of character! That is, one with emotional depth and many sides to its personality, a kanji that sets a mood or conveys layers of meaning. When you think of 後 (KŌ, GO, ato, ushi(ro)), which generally means "after" or "behind," what associations would... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary While investigating 後 (KŌ, GO, ato, ushi(ro): after, behind), I've been amused to find it popping up in some highly specific words: 髭剃り後 (higesoriato: after shaving)     beard + to shave + after 浴後 (yokugo: after the bath)     to bathe + after 後ろ明き (ushiroaki: clothing that opens in the back)     back + to be open For Other AmusinglySpecific Words Including 後 ... It seems that someone designed these words to expedite discussions of such matters. I say "expedite" because, aside from the charming specificity on display here, blow-by-blow descriptions of morning routines are rarely... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary In Urdu (the national language of Pakistan), the word kal means both "yesterday" and "tomorrow." Context determines the intended meaning. In a similar way, the meaning of 後 slip-slides from compound to compound, as we can somewhat grasp from its assorted yomi: GO, nochi: after, later KŌ, ushi(ro): behind ato: afterward, subsequent, later, back, rear, remainder, retro- oku(reru): to be late, to lag behind, to fall back I say "somewhat" because in one sense, all the definitions look like close cousins. But from another perspective, that's not necessarily so. Concepts of "after" and "behind" can be tricky in both Japanese and English. To explore this, let's think... Show more