Sunday, August 09, 2009

Interesting things.

I wrote about "maru". And I'm very habbpy to get some comments.
Tim says, "we usually use a check mark.
And MssNIPONdaze comments the way of draw "maru".
They are really ingereseting.

And today I noticed.
These days many "young" pepole use face latters. (sorry, I don't use them much.)
(>_<) ^^; (^^)v (~Q~;)
Can you guess what do they mean???
And did you notice that the way to read was different?
English version is like that -- :-)

Japanese are interesting, we can write and read longways and width ways.


Well, the summer vacation of my husband has started. (I have lesson until Wednesday.)
So I'm busy in preparing meals or going out for meals.

Yesterday we went to a flea market.

I looked for some gadgets for Halloween or Christmas as presents to my students.

And my husband bought it as a pleasure during his summer vacation.
As some people know it, our house is not so big, So to put this big gadget, I put away a single sofa that we seldom use, and that is just a display.
It's OK.
But the master who sold this gadget said, "if you don't use it, it's a good display."
Yes, it is getting a new display instead of a single sofa.
Well, it costs 2000 yen(about 20 $).

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Some of my friends bought exercise machines like this...usually putting them in their bedrooms. And, before long they end up as a clothes rack! Do you know this term? You might grin the first time your husband hangs his coat on the handles and think of this!

Tim Frost said...

In the West we seem to use only sideways "smileys", as we call them. I've seen those wider ones on other Japanese blogs, but they haven't become at all popular in the West. I wonder why?

According to Wikipedia, the first smileys [these ones :-) and :-( ] was "invented" at 11:44 on 19-Sep-1982. Since then there have been many variations to express different emotions, but always in that sideways style.

I'm not sure about the examples you have given, but I'll try to guess.
(>_<) It looks a bit angry to me.
^^; I wonder about the ";". Is it a tear?
(^^)v Could it be maneki neko? (the "v" is the paw)
(~Q~;) There is a lot here. The "~" seem like closed eyes. The Q is like a big round nose (a pig?). I guessed before that ";" might be a tear. So I think it is a sleeping pig having a sad dream that is making him cry. (It is not a serious guess).

The subject is interesting, and I think that people in different countries would understand the emotions expressed by these symbols in different ways. A related example I read about concerned the maneki neko. The article said:

To Americans and Europeans it may seem as if the Maneki Neko is waving rather than beckoning. This is due to the difference in gestures and body language recognized by Westerners and the Japanese, with Japanese beckoning by holding up the hand, palm out, and repeatedly folding the fingers down and back up, thus the cat's appearance. Some Maneki Neko made specifically for Western markets will have the cat's paw facing backwards, in a beckoning gesture more familiar to Westerners.

Similarly, the shape of the eyes and mouth of the "smileys" could be differently interpreted. They are also called "emotions" from the words "emotion icons" and, of course, with modern technology we don't always have to use keyboard symbols, but real little pictures of faces are available. I was interested to read the word 絵文字, which sounds similar (emoji) to emoticon, though the construction is different (emoji = picture-letter). What do you call these faces (>_<)? Is it an emoji, or is an emoji a more complex face (or other picture) made from a dot matrix?

Anonymous said...

He is afraid of that, so it is put in the living room. And it's the best place to hang "my" shopping bags.
Anyway until now (though only 3days passed) it works as a exercise machines.

(>_<) Oh no, What should I do!!!
^^; I'm little embarassed. Cold sweat comes out.
(^^)v smile and peace, we do peace sign with two fingers, it is the same of v sign.ould it be maneki neko? (the "v" is the paw)
(~Q~;) Oh, no! It's my mistake, What a shilly thing. -- the mouth shape is like that we have something really sour.

mss @ nipponDAZE said...

I was thinking more about marking papers. The circle for maru looks similar to the circle for zero. On some kinds of tests, an American teacher will write the number of points given for an answer. So, when I first saw the a paper with a bunch of maru symbols, I thought it meant the student had gotten every question wrong...zero points.

By the way. This month is the 20th year anniversary of my moving to Japan. I am restarting my blog: nipponDAZE. For the moment, I don't have comments open (I'm still working on the set-up). If there is any interest, I might open them up.

Tim Frost said...

Thanks for the explanation. It seems I got four X.

Mieko said...

Mss NIPON DAZE
I didn't know that, you "are" in Japan. And OHITA??. It's wonderful place. I want to go to take a spring. There are many,many hot springs. and You have to have "eel"s.
KYUSYU are is a wonerful place from me because I live in KANTOU.

And you came here as a member of JET program. Wonderul. I know every teacher of JET program is great, and the test is diffcult.

Why you couldn't come to TOCHIGI????
Please enjoy the life of KYUSYU, though they have lots of TAIFU.

And it's possible we meet in JAPAN.
Probably you have a chance to come to TOKYO to attned JET teacher's meeting. At that time please tell me.
And if someone who are intereseted in TOCHIGI, please tell me.I introduce TOCHIGI (or UTSUNOMIYA).

Wonderful, you are here in Japan.

Mieko said...

Tim, your answers are close.
So you got four triangles.
Do you know that maru is correct, batsu is wrong, and sankaku (triangle) is close.