There is no "how for it" (ENG)

I find it very important to let you know in advance that this blog entry isn't backed up by any literature. It's really just a compilation of my experiences while I was still in my baby shoes of studying Japanese. Please keep this in mind while you browse through this entry. Thank you!

I still remember the time after I came back from Japan in 2014, where I kind of forced my boyfriend at that time to use certain japanese phrases that I got used to. It was not just about me being used to it though, but also the feeling that I had when I said "itterasshai" in times he left the house or welcomed him home with the word "okaeri". To be honest, he thought it was "mendokusai", so this didn't become a thing in our daily life. Today I can not be mad at him for that, because who would want to do such a funny thing if it doesn't feel natural? Although it does for me and if I take a look into the future, I can't see myself not using the following phrases in everyday life.
There are just certain things happening in yourself when you discover a new language. Especially if this language is so different from your mother tongue. You start to not feel to weird about certain situations anymore, because you realize they are not weird at all and you just take them as they come. I don't want to say that there is no trouble in the japanese society (for example the sexism that is deeply enhanced in the language as well), but there are a lot of moments where it's just easier to understand the people and their actions when you understand their language.
In the following I present to you my most favourite japanese words and phrases, that partly don't exist in the german language. It's not possible to translate them literally, but maybe it's exactly that what makes them so special and interesting. Enjoy.

Imagine someone putting this delicious, fresh meal in front of you and you just want to dig in your chopsticks and enjoy every bite of it. But don't do that unless you said "itadakimasu". This phrase roughly translates as "Enjoy your meal" into English, but in my opinion there is more to it. If you say "Enjoy your meal", you rather say it to someone else while "itadakimasu" is something you more or less say to yourself. A japanese friend of mine also told me that it is kind of a respectful gesture to the animal that died for me, or the plant that grew in order for me to be able to eat it. So I would rather translate it to "I am going to enjoy this meal" or "Thanks for the food".

It appears to be a little bit different with "Gochisousama deshita". If I remember a situation where we had a family gathering where my grandmother or mother cooked something big, I thanked them for what they did. Or in a good restaurant I give my compliment to the chef who prepared a wonderful meal for me. But these situations are rather the exception, while "Gochisousama deshita" is something you say after every meal you had. I would roughly translate it to "This meal was delicious". But there are certain moments where you should really concentrate on saying it thoroughly, like when someone treats you for dinner. In this case it's rather a polite way of saying thank you for the meal. Also when you leave a restaurant, you can use it again to compliment the chef.

There are also other situations where you use these words. Imagine the following: You made some brownies and give them to a friend. Of course she will effusively say thank you, but it might also happen that she says "Itadakimasu". You are confused, because she doesn't look like she is going to unpack and eat a brownie right away. Soon you realize that she just tried to tell you, she is going to enjoy it later on. After that you might receive a message with the words "Gochisousama deshita" when you ask her how she liked it. In that way she is just saying thank you again for the delicious present from you that she was able to enjoy. For me, it was a very interesting thing to find out, because I always just thought about these words as table manners, but japanese people often use these phrases in their daily lives as well.

This phrase is translated to "Much appreciated" or "That's enough for today". Without context it's rather hard to understand at what times japanese people use this though. At my workplace, when the clock hits 5pm and the music is played through the speakers (to tell kids to go home and lets farmworkers know it's going to be dark soon), one of my coworkers packs her stuff and says goodbye with the words "Otsukaresama deshita, sayounara". It is a polite way to let us know she is heading out and also thanks us for working together that day.
Sometimes, when I text a japanese friend that I had a lot to do today or the day was very packed, he/she also answers with "Otsukaresama deshita". It's the person's way of saying that he/she admires my hard work even if it has nothing to do with him/her. That is one of the things I realized a while after I came here, but now I am also using this phrase when I see someone is putting a lot of effort into something.

Two words I tried to integrate in my everyday life after I came back from Japan in 2014. "Ittekimasu" literally means "I am going" and it is used when you leave the house. I also use that phrase when I arrive at the school, make my stamp and then go off to another class. The normal answer to that is "Itterasshai" and it means something like "Take care". For me this always is really funny when I let people know that I am going to use the bathroom and they answer me with "Take care". No joke. That's a thing.

For these two words I did some research, because I couldn't really tell myself where they came from. If you use the word "Tadaima" you just happen to say it as one full word instead of seperating the words "Tada" and "Ima" (which you normally would, according to the Kanji 只今). This short word comes from the phrase "Tada ima kaerimashita" which literally translates to "I am back now". Well, even japanese people can be lazy sometimes, so it happened that the long phrase "Tada ima kaerimashita" became the short and simple "Tadaima!". You use that phrase when you are back home and you want the other people in the house to know about that. If you are lucky, you have someone to great you with a lovely "Okaeri". This also very short phrase evolved from the long one "Yokouso okaeri nasai mashita", that, like a friend jokingly said to me, I should only use if I want to welcome my master home. Literally translated this long phrase means "Welcome home" and the short phrase kept that exact same meaning.

Everyone who has been involved with Japan at least a little bit - and even if it's just Anime - has heard of this phrase at least once. "Ganbatte ne" means "Do your best" and is just as unexceptional in Japan as chopsticks are. The "kudasai" ("please") is only used in more formal situations. As an answer you of course say "Ganbarimasu", which means nothing less than "I will do my best".
Interesting is that not just one, but two of my japanese friends my age told me, that they use this phrase on a daily basis, but don't like it too much. They explained that everybody is doing their best everyday and it kind of feels like an insult, to say it to someone who is obviously already trying their best. Since then I started to use these words a little less often, because I totally get their way of thinking.

The most interesting phrase I've come across so far. A friend told me that "Shouganai" isn't just a phrase, but rather the way of thinking of japanese society. It is so deeply fixed in the mindsets of japanese people that I sometimes can't help myself but view it with a good portion of sarcasm in my head. "Shouganai" - a phrase that describes that something's just can't be helped. To me it feels like the complete opposite on what myself and a lot of other german people grew up with. There are like a hundred ways to translate it: "Oh well", "It can't be helped", "I can't help it", "There is nothing you can do about it", "That's life", and so on. Since my japanese friend opened up this chest and gave me an insight on the secrets of this phrase, I'd come across it all day everyday - in daily life or in anime. A sentence you use to make clear that there is no possibilty of changing the situation. A sentence that has a mindset I can't follow up on, just because I believe in the power that people are always able to turn a shitty situation into a good one. I mean, seriously - if I would've just said "Shouganai" on the day I received my first letter of refusal from ijgd, I wouldn't be sitting here today writing this.

"Shouganai" originated from "Shio ga nai" and literally translates to "There is no 'how' for it". "Shikatanai" has the exact same meaning and you hear it just as often. In an anime I watched I heard the male lead say "Shouganai", while the female lead replied with a sentence where she used "Shikatanai". It has nothing to do with gender though, all genders are allowed to use this phrase as often as they want - and they certainly do.

Oh yeah, I love this word. It is amazingly confusing for foreigners who are trying to study the japanese language! And the best thing about it, no japanese teacher will ever teach you that before you go to Japan - probably to keep you away from confusion. Which is going to be much bigger as soon as you arrive in Japan and hear people around you using the word "Kanji" all the time. A word that is also used to describe the chinese characters of the alphabet. And so it frequently happens to you that you ask yourself the question "WHY THE HELL DO THEY ALWAYS TALK ABOUT THE CHINESE CHARACTERS?! THAT DOESN'T MAKE ANY FUCKING SENSE RIGHT NOW...!?" over and over again.
After I tried to understand the meaning of it a few times when asking japanese citizens about it, I had no other choice but to jump to my own conclucions about it. The dictionary translates it to "feeling, sense, impression" and that's definitely something to start with. An example: In the english club that I am visiting every week with Claire, we always ask everybody about their weekends first. One of the people who come is a woman that has a hard time speaking english, so she always uses japanese phrases and sentence structure to tell us about her weekend. At the end she quietly adds "tte Kanji" to make clear "Yeah, that's kind of what I wanted to tell you". Another example: A friend has to explain something to me twice, because I didn't get what he said at the first time. When I finally understand him, I say something like "Aaah, kona Kanji" to express "Ah, so that's what you mean".
It really is a complex word that is used very often and in different situations. I think, there is no possible way to really understand the true meaning of it, but you just get used to using it at the right moments - although I believe I still use it in the wrong moments from time to time. Well, you gotta make mistakes while learning a language.
Background knowledge: The Kanji for the chinese characters are 漢字, while the Kanji for the just explained phrase is 感じ. It is the exact same word though. How do people seperate these words from another while using it in communication? Well, to be honest, the chances are pretty low that you hear people talking about chinese characters in a daily conversation. And if they are, you are gonna know.

• "Mendokusai めんどくさい"
  "annoying, bothersome, tiring to do" > A word japanese people use very often. Normally it is followed by the phrase "Shouganai" though. It's bothersome, but there is nothing you can do about it.
• "Ii nioi　いい匂い"
  "Nice smell" > It is funny to me because in Germany we rather use interjections to show how much we like the smell of something. Like "Hmm" or "Ahh", while in Japan you simply say "ii nioi" - "nice smell".
• "Itai　痛い"
  "Pain" > Why I think that's funny? Because it is interesting how different people express pain, just because they grew up so far away from each other. While I bump my head somewhere and express the pain with "Argh", "Ouch" or "Ow", you will rather hear a japanese person mumble the word "itatatatai". The good thing about it: I barely make the people around me worry, because they mostly don't realize that I just hurt myself.
• "Mezurashii 珍しい"
  "Rare"
• "Mata ne　またね"
  "See you later"
• "Urayamashii　羨ましい"
  "Envious"
• "Kimochi ii　気持ちいい"
  "Nice feeling"
• "Natsukashii　懐かしい"
  "Nostalgic" > A word that is used quite often, even by younger people. If, for example, a smell reminds me of something in Germany, I use this word to express the feeling I have at that particular moment.

So, how did you like this little journey into the mindset of the japanese culture? And only by taking a look at the language. I hope you had as much fun reading it as I had writing it. :-)

Jya mata ne,
Eure Eva :-)

Why is this blog entry in English while all the other ones are in German?

There is a very simple answer to this. At the time of writing that blog entry, I was kinda dating someone that I frequently conversed in English with. He said he really wanted to read something I wrote, so I made the effort to translate every tidbit of this article into English. We didn't end up together, which was probably for the best, but for the sake of keeping the originality of my old blog, I decided to seperate the one page into two and don't delete the memories it contains.