The Kansai / Kinki region

I'm from Hyogo prefecture, born and brought up there.
In a broader term, Hyogo is one of the prefectures that belongs to the "Kansai" region, or the "Kinki" region.

Let me start from the term "Kansai."

The Kansai region used to be a cultural, historical centre of Japan. "Kan" means "a checking station" (through which people pass into the strange countries) and "sai" means "the west."
Actually, the use of "Kansai" is a recent phenomenon. This is because "Kansai" was created later as opposed to "Kantou."

In the past, "Kantou" (tou="the east") pointed to an area where strange, exotic people dwell. This is the way in which "the west" people perceive it to be, a perspective from the centre tinged with a subjective and slightly derogatory taste.

Shoichi Inoue, a lover of Kansai, sees a growing popularity of the geographical term "Kansai" as an irony. The west people never described themselves as "Kansai" people because they, occupying the central position in Japan, only deemed the east (beyond their territory) as "Kantou," no other way round. He concludes:

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この現状は、関西地方が文化の中心から辺境へ落ちていったことを、物語る。
そう、「関西」という言葉の隆盛そのものが、この地の衰退を示している。（201）
[The present situation speaks volume for the fall of the Kansai from cultural centre to the periphery. Indeed, the flourish of the term Kansai itself indicates the decline of this land.]
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How is the semantic change of terminology related to another way of referring to "Kansai," "Kinki"? It seems another irony that escapes him is now falling onto "Kinki" as well.

To be continued...


Works Cited:
井上章一, 『関西人の正体』朝日新聞出版, 2016.

"Homosexual" - a word testing the linguistic aesthetic taste

Words always succeed the event. New words are invented to refer to the things and events that have come into being and influence our life.

The word "homosexual" was translated from German and entered English in 1892, to describe a person sexually attracted to a person of the same sex. A little later to the introduction of the word "homosexual", a trial accusing Oscar Wilde for sodomy was the talk of the town, and I think this new word must have been used in the trial.

H. Havelock Ellis (1859 - 1939), a physician and a writer who studied human sexuality, expressed his abhorrence to this new word. He said in his book:

'Homosexual' is a barbarously hybrid word, and I claim no responsibility for it. It is, however, convenient, and now widely used. 'Homegenic' has been suggested as a substitute. (H. Havelock Ellis, "Studies in Psychology" 1897)

I am sure Oscar Wilde, an aesthete who had "found it harder and harder every day to live up to his blue china", would have shared the same revulsion to the word 'homosexual' when he heard it used in his trial. The word 'sodomy', with its biblical origin, would have suited Wilde's taste far more than the newly invented word in describing his sexual orientation.

How come the word 'homosexual' is barbarously hybrid?

 'Homo' comes from Greek and 'sexual' is Latin origin. 

You might think, 'is that all?!' but I highly recognize the aesthetic taste of Ellis; fusing things of different origin is like eating strawberry jam on rice. Agh!

Japanese, too, are not so sensitive to this kind of linguistic aesthetic taste. From our earliest history, we are so used to adopting and adapting words and letters from foreign languages. There are even some words that have become so familiar in our vocabulary that not many think that it has a foreign origin.

'Tempura-don' is a name of a typical and popular Japanese dish, and it has tempura on a bowl of rice. The word 'tempura' comes from Spanish word 'tempero', and I think not many Japanese people would know that, and '-don' is a short form of 'domburi' which means 'a bowl' in Japanese.

'Tempura-don' is actually an amalgamate word of Spanish and Japanese. 

I bet Ellis and Wilde would have abhorred the word.

flagrance/fragrance

Just one spelling difference makes a huge difference in meaning.

fragrant
--- Pleasant, sweet smell

flagrant
--- (Of an action considered wrong or immoral) conspicuously or obviously offensive

Alas! The choice of "r" and "l" produces a totally different sense.

Then, Maki, a born linguist, comments in response to this and makes superb phrases:

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fragrant lilies （かぐわしいユリ）
flagrant lies （いかがわしい嘘）
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How atmospheric!

Mind AND enjoy the gap.

Language and Mind 01 - Interpreting is like a state of possession

Quite a big title I have put up for this article, but I would like to write in series (and from my experience) about language and its influence to how we think.

I do Japanese to English interpreting in Aikido (one type of Japanese martial arts) seminars. The Aikido master explains and shows the seminar students the moves and principles, and the interpreting has to come consecutively, without lag, for it is crucial in this kind of seminar that the students hear the explanation when that certain move is demonstrated.

In England, I was doing this interpreting for 3-day seminar of my Aikido master. Although I have studied with my master for many years and understood what was going on, interpreting the seminar was another thing. I had to use very different part of my brain.

Several weeks before the seminar, I prepared myself by revising articles written by my master and remembering what he had taught and said in the past seminars. Sitting in the seminar, I had to instantaneously convert what was said, so I tried to grasp the perspective of what was being taught and tried to I estimate what could be coming - always equipped with several choices of words, phrases and topics. It is quite a hard work switching languages in one little brain.

On the third day of the seminar, I had got used to the interpreting  and it was going really well. Then something very strange happened to me -  I thought that I was reading my master's mind. I could tell what he was going to say next. My mind was connected to my master's mind.

It sounds a little horrific, but I thought that interpreting is like in a state of possession. Although in a different language, from speaking the words of another person, you start thinking in the same way as that person, you are thinking in the mode of the speaker you are interpreting.

The Invention of Tradition

The invention of tradition is a book edited by E. J. Hobsbawm and T. O. Ranger in 1983.

The book reveals that sometimes the tradition, which is considered to be rooted and to have existed since long ago, does not in fact have such long history. It is recent in origin and sometimes even "invented" in order to boost national prestige and identity.

The title of the book is compelling, an unexpected combination of words.

"To invent" means "to create, produce, or construct by original thought or ingenuity," suggesting the process of creation out of nothing.

"Invention" is completely against the sense that "tradition" has, a practice or custom which is generally accepted and has been established for some time within a society, social group, etc. it is something transmitted, passed down from generation to generation.

"The invention of tradition" consists of words whose sense is quite the opposite.

Hence, the phrase is a fantastic example of "oxymoron."

Super Dry Lost in Translation 05

Whenever I go shopping for some fashion item, if there are any words, phrases or sentences written on it, and especially if it is in a foreign language, I will check if it is grammatically, orthographically, semantically correct. There are just so many incorrect words and phrases written on fashion items, and walking around wearing those items is like telling the whole world what an idiot you are. You go and walk around Shibuya, the youngsters' favourite hangout town in Tokyo, and you would see so many confusing, funny words and phrases, most of them in English. Lost in Translation.

I am reluctant to wear any items with incorrect writings, but one UK clothing brand changed my frail policy; Super Dry 極度乾燥（しなさい）.

The name of the store written on the shop facade absolutely shattered me to pieces with laughter. The Japanese written above "Superdry Store" is a literal translation of "super dry", but it is written in imperative form. It is not in a noun form, it is telling you to "super dry yourself!" (as if we were always wet all over!) 

It is said that the designer of this fashion brand once came to Japan and was inspired by the words and the design of a popular beer of a Japanese brewery company ASAHI.

Unfortunately, the fashion brand "Super Dry" has not come to Japan yet because of the trademark infringement with ASAHI.

When I saw the products of Super Dry, my heart went wild. Logos, labels, T-shirt designs all had confusing funny Japanese written on them. Where the hell did they collect these hilariously non-sense Japanese!! And you see the fashion models on the posters posing so cool, but on the T-shirt it says in Japanese 「堅い天候会社」meaning "tough weather company".... whatever that is...

And in town, you see these fashionable young people dressed really smart, but the Japanese words written on the shirts or jackets are so funny; "highly lubricated" "for staff use only" "Osaka super winner".

I decided to buy some T-shirts and take them back to Japan. I proudly wear these T-shirts with funny Japanese on them, people would always take a double look at what is written on it. It satisfies the little prankster that is inside myself. 

It makes a difference to know or not know what you are wearing.

Speakers of Englishes

Speakers of Englishes are conventionally divided into 3 categories:

1. a native language (ENL)
2. a second language (ESL)
3. a foreign language (EFL)

But there is a fourth group of users, who speak English as:

4. a lingua franca (ELF)

"English as a lingua franca" is an idea in which people of different first languages use English as a tool for "intercultural" communication. This means the communication is achieved without dependence on native-speaker norms.

Born and bred in Japan, it seems that most Japanese people belong to 3, who learn English based on a certain model.

Jenkins explains:

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English as a Foreign Language is the English of those whose countries were never colonised by the British, and for whom English serves little or no purpose within their borders. Historically, they typically learned the language in order to use it with its native speakers in the US and UK, though this is no longer necessarily the case. (11)
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Acquisition of English for the communication with native speakers is "no longer necessarily the case," because the aim of it and the situation differ from person to person. This means that the nature of English learning has been becoming increasingly flexible as well as complicated, making the border between EFL and ELF much blurred.

Still, it appears that most Japanese English learners are not accustomed to the change in thought surrounding World Englishes, or Global Englishes.


Works Cited:
Jenkins, Jennifer. Global Englishes: a Resource Book for Students. 3rd ed. Abingdon: Routledge,2015. Print.