Learn about 自暴自棄 and 一日千秋
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| INTRODUCTION |
| なつこ: こんにちは、なつこです |
| Peter: Peter here. |
| なつこ: 四字熟語 |
| Peter: Lesson 22. Japanese You’ve Been Waiting to Learn. |
| なつこ: Wow! |
| Peter: Again I think these titles are starting to reflect the phrases we are going to look at in the lesson. |
| なつこ: Umm so we have to see which phrase comes up for this lesson. |
| Peter: その通りです Now for those of you new to Yojijukugo, this is a 25-part series. This is the lesson 22. You can go back and listen to the previous ones and inside, we take |
| なつこ: Yojijukugo. |
| Peter: Japanese idiomatic phrases and we’d look at the kanji characters that make them up. They are each made up of four kanji characters. By understanding those meanings, we can understand the idiomatic phrase. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Peter: Natsuko san, what do we have first? |
| なつこ: 自暴自棄 |
| Peter: Abandon, desperation. |
| なつこ: じぼうじき 自暴自棄 |
| Peter: Let’s take a look at the individual characters. First we have, |
| なつこ: 自 |
| Peter: One self. |
| なつこ: 暴 |
| Peter: Violence. |
| なつこ: 自 |
| Peter: Oneself. |
| なつこ: 棄 |
| Peter: Abandon. So oneself, violence, oneself abandon. ______ (0:01:26) looking at the two kanji character compounds, the two of them, we can understand this a little bit better. First we have, |
| なつこ: 自暴 |
| Peter: To harm oneself. Second one, |
| なつこ: 自棄 |
| Peter: To abandon oneself. So if we take it altogether, |
| なつこ: 自暴自棄 |
| Peter: It means to lose one’s reason and give into despair. This is usually caused by a series failure or series of failures. Natsuko san, this is similar expression. |
| なつこ: Yes やけくそになる |
| Peter: So kind of being desperate? |
| なつこ: Yes right. |
| Peter: How about the usage? How is it used? |
| なつこ: 自暴自棄になる |
| Peter: So it’s used together with になるto give in to despair. How about a sample sentence? |
| なつこ: 僕は大学受験に失敗して自暴自棄になった |
| Peter: I’ve given into despair because I failed to pass the college entrance exam. |
| なつこ: 僕は彼女にふられて自暴自棄になっている |
| Peter: I am feeling desperate because I was dump by my girlfriend. |
| なつこ: 自暴自棄になって、役所をやめた役人がいる |
| Peter: There is a government employee who gave up and left the government. It’s not really desperate so much as what is the feeling here? |
| なつこ: It’s more like an anger and not caring about the result. So the action may vary you know maybe someone like quit the company or someone may go drinking. Like doing something really reckless because they don’t care anymore and another thing is, I think this phrase is more used in third person form. |
| Peter: Speaking about someone else. |
| なつこ: Yes. |
| Peter: What you think. |
| なつこ: It’s pretty kind of objective nuance. |
| Peter: Is it used a lot or is it common, not that common? |
| なつこ: I think it’s more used in written language like in recent years, you know 自暴自棄になって事件をおこした |
| Peter: Hah see, it kind of gave up on life and he caused that incident. So usually sometimes you read about really horrible things in the news or something. |
| なつこ: Yes I see them occasionally in news. |
| Peter: Kind of like basically giving up on the game of life. |
| なつこ: Right. It’s like that. |
| Peter: Umm and after that, you know, you could go either way. You could harm yourself or harm others or…. |
| なつこ: Umm right. |
| Peter: This one was a tough one, challenging one. |
| なつこ: Hmm… |
| Peter: Hopefully the next one is not as bad. What do we have next? |
| なつこ: 一日千秋 |
| Peter: Really looking forward to. |
| なつこ: Hah this one is better. |
| Peter: Break it down. |
| なつこ: いちじつせんしゅう 一日千秋You also pronounce this いちにちせんしゅう |
| Peter: Okay let’s take a look character by character. First we have, |
| なつこ: 一 |
| Peter: One. |
| なつこ: じつ or にち |
| Peter: Day. |
| なつこ: 千 |
| Peter: 1000. |
| なつこ: 秋 |
| Peter: Autumn. One day, 1000 autumn. |
| なつこ: Umm? |
| Peter: Then what about the compounds? Let’s take a look at the compounds. |
| なつこ: いちにち or いちじつ |
| Peter: One day and |
| なつこ: せんしゅう |
| Peter: A 1000 years. |
| なつこ: So in a 1000 years, autumn comes 1000 times. |
| Peter: その通りです |
| なつこ: Ah I see. |
| Peter: That’s really clever. |
| なつこ: Yes. So it’s not いちじつせんねん |
| Peter: No. |
| なつこ: Wow! |
| Peter: It’s like a more poetic way of saying it. |
| なつこ: Yeah poetic. |
| Peter: Put it all together one more time. |
| なつこ: いちじつせんしゅうor いちにちせんしゅう |
| Peter: Now it originally meant to feel like you haven’t seen a person you love for a long time even if you haven’t seen them only for a day or two. |
| なつこ: Like waiting for a 1000 years? |
| Peter: Yeah. |
| なつこ: Wow, Romantic! |
| Peter: I don’t know about that. |
| なつこ: Umm! |
| Peter: But yes, you are the expert. |
| なつこ: Uhoo! |
| Peter: Yeah but it is. It’s a very kind of beautiful way of saying it. |
| なつこ: Yes. |
| Peter: But in recent times, it’s come to mean really looking forward to or can’t wait. How about the usage? |
| なつこ: It’s usually used in a set phrase 一日千秋の思いで待つ |
| Peter: So to wait while really looking forward to. |
| なつこ: You look forward to it so strongly that you feel like one day is 1000 years long. |
| Peter: Yeah I know the feeling actually. |
| なつこ: I think I know it too. I hope. |
| Peter: I like that little clause at the end, I hope. Okay what about the sample sentences? |
| なつこ: 僕は一日千秋の思いでしずかちゃんからの返事を待った |
| Peter: I was really looking forward to response from Shizuka. Yeah I am pretty sure the translation doesn’t do this justice. Maybe something like it seemed like in an eternity while I waited for Shizuka’s reply. |
| なつこ: Wow that’s good. |
| Peter: Umm but a little better than the original one. What do you have next? |
| なつこ: 僕は合格発表の電話を一日千秋の思いで待った |
| Peter: I couldn’t wait for the telephone call announcing the test results and finally, |
| なつこ: 母は息子の帰りを一日千秋の思いで待った |
| Peter: Mother really looked forward to her son’s coming home and again, you kind of get the idea that maybe he’s been away for a while or that this is kind of what she is thinking about every single day. |
| なつこ: Do you know the phrase 首を長くして待つ |
| Peter: Yes. |
| なつこ: So it’s kind of similar right. This one is also funny. |
| Peter: Yeah that one is more like ET I think. |
| なつこ: ET |
| Peter: Can you give the phrase one more time? |
| なつこ: 首を長くして待つ |
| Peter: So to extend your neck – and wait, so you are kind of looking in the distance if someone’s there but I always think it’s like ET is waiting for his friend. |
| なつこ: おかしい |
| Peter: Just jump back a second. Do we use this one a lot? This is the first time I heard it. |
| なつこ: Yes this is not a casual word. |
| Peter: But let me ask you this Natsuko san. |
| なつこ: Yes. |
| Peter: If you got a text message from let’s say someone you had feelings for and they use this, would you be impressed? |
| なつこ: Umm definitely. |
| Peter: All right. Well there you have it. I think that’s the hint to go text or email somebody. |
| なつこ: Yes. |
| Peter: With this and be sure to let us know how it goes. |
| なつこ: Yes. Don’t use it too often. |
Outro |
| Peter: Yeah. Okay that is going to do for today. Don’t forget to check the PDF especially the final phrase. I think it’s very, very interesting, the 1000 falls. |
| なつこ: Yes I like that. 勉強になりました。それじゃあまた |
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