http://lang-8.com/satoshi/journals/rss satoshi's latest journal entries Lang-8 Inc. Wed Jun 19 14:46:31 UTC 2013 Wed Jun 19 14:46:31 UTC 2013 Lang-8 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Lang-8
The City of Coca Cola
The City of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China
The City of Samsung
...

Cf.
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/politics/news/20120321-OYT1T00682.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Izumisano


Posted at Wed Mar 21 09:02:31 UTC 2012
]]> http://lang-8.com/satoshi/journals/1375645 http://lang-8.com/satoshi/journals/1375645 satoshi Wed Mar 21 09:02:31 UTC 2012 https://employment.en-japan.com/desc_300930/

The man in photo is 坂本, but, of course, his name is a false name. You will probably be assigned to the Public Security Section 9.

Occupational Category: Special law-enforcement agent
Founded: 1874
Capital: none
Description of Business: Prevention, suppression, investigation of crimes, arresting of suspects, direction and management of traffic, and etc, activities for keeping safety and peace in Tokyo.
...

The Tokyo Police rejects ones who don’t have nationality of Japan. However, I don’t know why they don’t write “accept only ones who have nationality of Japan”. It is possible that it can sound like rejecting ones who have other nationalities in addition to Japan. You can apply to it if you also have the US citizenship, anyway.

Posted at Tue Mar 20 00:17:23 UTC 2012
]]> http://lang-8.com/satoshi/journals/1373255 http://lang-8.com/satoshi/journals/1373255 satoshi Tue Mar 20 00:17:23 UTC 2012
She said she had been shocked that a friend of hers in Fukushima said to her that she could feel easy about radiation when the friend gave her a gift.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCWLGCVm4n0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQzLuBRkpEI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SF6kqjeaN0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDPB63WnEKU


Posted at Mon Mar 12 11:46:14 UTC 2012
]]> http://lang-8.com/satoshi/journals/1360481 http://lang-8.com/satoshi/journals/1360481 satoshi Mon Mar 12 11:46:14 UTC 2012
I came across an interesting notice at a post office in Tokyo.
入口 Entrance
この位置でお待ち下さい Please Don’t Go Ahead Before You Are Called
個人情報取扱中 Personal Information Under Handling

Are you able to understand what they mean? Think yourself before you read the following.

If you stand in a line after a person who is putting a letter at a window, you will see something written on the letter, which is what the post offices see as violation of personal information. I think it is foolish.


Posted at Wed Feb 29 05:50:59 UTC 2012
]]> http://lang-8.com/satoshi/journals/1339554 http://lang-8.com/satoshi/journals/1339554 satoshi Wed Feb 29 05:50:59 UTC 2012
Some mass media often use expressions, ○○すぎる□□, like 美人すぎる市議, which means he/she is too beautiful as a city councilor. These expressions usually sound tabloid. However, tabloid interests sometimes teach us something unexpected. I came across a story of 美人すぎる市議 with a bit peculiar personal history like a heroine of manga. Tachikawa Asuka (立川明日香), 26, began to tell a medium that she didn’t know her parents’ faces because she was left in an orphanage. She doesn’t know when she was left. She told more about her life in the orphanage. Anyway, she is now a personality and a model, and a new member of city council to the north of Tokyo, Saitama.

Her story is:
http://sankei.jp.msn.com/life/news/120226/trd12022612000003-n1.htm


Posted at Sun Feb 26 12:37:19 UTC 2012
]]> http://lang-8.com/satoshi/journals/1334807 http://lang-8.com/satoshi/journals/1334807 satoshi Sun Feb 26 12:37:19 UTC 2012
（彼が）日本語を話せるということは，彼は頭がよい。(a)
彼は，日本語を話せるということは，頭がよい。(b)

These are natural. However, the following are odd.

（彼が）日本語を話せるのは，彼は頭がよい。(c)
彼は，日本語を話せるのは，頭がよい。(d)
（彼が）日本語を話せるというのは，彼は頭がよい。(c2)
彼は，日本語を話せるというのは，頭がよい。(d2)

You need から at the end like this:

（彼が）日本語を話せるのは，彼は頭がよいから。(c')
彼は，日本語を話せるのは，頭がよいから。(d')
（彼が）日本語を話せるというのは，彼は頭がよいから。(c2')
彼は，日本語を話せるというのは，頭がよいから。(d2')

Moreover, you can replace them with:

（彼が）日本語を話せる理由は，彼は頭がよいから。(c'')
（彼が）日本語を話せる理由は，彼は頭がよいから。(c2'')

However, the following are somehow odd:
彼は，日本語を話せる理由は，頭がよいから。(d'')
彼は，日本語を話せる理由は，頭がよいから。(d2'')
They at least need 彼が like the following, though they are still odd. You can use c'' and c2'' instead.
彼は，彼が日本語を話せる理由は，頭がよいから。(d''')
彼は，彼が日本語を話せる理由は，頭がよいから。(d2''')
(This suggests that 彼は and 彼が are quite different.)

That is:

1. "ということは" for ということの意味は can't be replaced with の.
2. "のは" means 理由は at least in these examples.
3. "理由は" often requires the nominative.

Accordingly, these sentences are odd:
（彼が）日本語を話せる（ことの）意味は，彼は頭がよいから。(c''')
彼は，日本語を話せる（ことの）意味は，頭がよいから。(d''')


Posted at Tue Jan 31 01:22:46 UTC 2012
]]> http://lang-8.com/satoshi/journals/1291672 http://lang-8.com/satoshi/journals/1291672 satoshi Tue Jan 31 01:22:46 UTC 2012 There are some ways of saying it in Japanese. The basic forms are these two ones.
（彼が）日本語を話せるということは，彼は頭がよい。(a)
彼は，日本語を話せるということは，頭がよい。(b)

However,
彼は日本語を話せるということは，頭がよい。(b2)
sounds odd. The reason is that “は” and “は，” are actually different phrases, and “は，” shows the structure of sentences. By contrast, “が” just shows actors, so it is called a nominative case postposition. “は” is not a case postposition.

彼は，日本語を話せるということは，頭がよい。(b)
has the following structure.
彼は，
彼が日本語を話せるということは，
頭がよい。

You can move “彼は，” in the front toward the back like this:
彼が日本語を話せるということは，
彼は，
頭がよい。
Actually, this structure is the same as:
彼が日本語を話せるということは，彼は頭がよい。(a)


Posted at Mon Jan 30 15:36:48 UTC 2012
]]> http://lang-8.com/satoshi/journals/1291141 http://lang-8.com/satoshi/journals/1291141 satoshi Mon Jan 30 15:36:48 UTC 2012
This picture appeared on the very top on the front page in today’s Asahi newspaper. I think it is one which gives the worst damage to China among Japanese people.

Many Japanese people know many Chinese people don’t like Japanese people, and there are full reasons for that, so Japanese people won’t be unsettled in the pictures in which Chinese people show hated against Japanese. However, Japanese people don’t like those pictures like this because they remind Japanese people of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (文化大革命) in China from 1966 to 1976. It wasn’t against Japan, but against humanity and freedom.

This picture was taken in 2010 and came from an official website in a local government in China, according to the Asahi. Those people were punished in public in front of the central offices of the government and aired on TV; the reason was that they complained to the Beijing government about the local government. Making direct appeals to the “Emperor” in Beijing, though it is not criminal but nationally legal, disturbs an established order in local governments, so they should be punished, the local establishment thinks. According to the Asahi, the Beijing government often forbids local governments from punishing the people by reason of direct appeals to Beijing, but public “punishment” still lasts; though the Asahi also wrote the police in Beijing supported the local governments.

Furthermore (なお), the Asahi newspaper used to be pro-China. (I think it is inconvenient that there are no words in English for なお.)


Posted at Mon Jan 30 11:49:18 UTC 2012
]]> http://lang-8.com/satoshi/journals/1290692 http://lang-8.com/satoshi/journals/1290692 satoshi Mon Jan 30 11:49:18 UTC 2012
父からの電話に出たら，いますぐ帰らなければならないと言っていた。(a)
父からの電話に出たら，いますぐ帰らなければならないと言った。(b)

I feel there is a big difference between them; the actor of the second half of (a) is “I”, while that of (b) is “he”. Accordingly, the first one means “I got the phone from my father, and I heard him saying he had to return home immediately.” The second one means “…, and he said that he had to return …”

The evidence is that (b) is a bit unnatural unless it is like the following:
父からの電話に出たら，父はいますぐ帰らなければならないと言った。(b2)
Further, the following is even more natural.
私が父からの電話に出たら，父はいますぐ帰らなければならないと言った。(b3)
By contrast, (a) is still natural as it is. Of course, you can write as follows:
父からの電話に出たら，父はいますぐ帰らなければならないと言っていた。(a2)
However, that is not necessary.

This suggests that 言っていた is a kind of subjective report by a narrator, while 言った is literally to have said.


Posted at Mon Jan 23 14:12:01 UTC 2012
]]> http://lang-8.com/satoshi/journals/1280754 http://lang-8.com/satoshi/journals/1280754 satoshi Mon Jan 23 14:12:01 UTC 2012
In addition, Kamel Daoudi has been kept a punishment of deportation for years. After he served his term of imprisonment in France, he has still been watched by the police and forced to stay in France and apart from stations, freeways, and such; though, the French government is bearing all of his expenses. That was once often taken by the Soviet government, which was called banishment to Siberia. It must be old-fashioned in Russia, but still active in France. In Japan, such kind of treatment is absolutely impossible because the US, France, and the UK once taught the Japanese people that it was impossible.

If you want to eat the best French dishes, you have to go to Tokyo. Like that, you have to go to Japan if you want to enjoy western liberalism.

Posted at Mon Jan 23 12:17:00 UTC 2012
]]> http://lang-8.com/satoshi/journals/1280521 http://lang-8.com/satoshi/journals/1280521 satoshi Mon Jan 23 12:17:00 UTC 2012
I was surprised to learn that a Japanese man who is じょうじ can obtain his passport of Japan in the name of “George”. That is, he can choose among the following:
Joji
Jouji
Johji
George
(The regulation has changed in 2008.)

A woman who is りえ can choose among these:
Rie
Lie

There seem to be women whose names are 愛 with reading らぶ. (It’s surprising to me.) They can choose from:
Rabu
Love
So, “Ms. Tanaka Love (田中愛)” is possible, and she can be the same person as “Ms. Tanaka Rabu”.

Cf. http://www.evernote.com/shard/s14/sh/fbae8464-9e9b-4ad9-8558-120c5dccd888/3545113b49f640819f952c347002f115

Posted at Sun Jan 15 08:54:57 UTC 2012
]]> http://lang-8.com/satoshi/journals/1268549 http://lang-8.com/satoshi/journals/1268549 satoshi Sun Jan 15 08:54:57 UTC 2012
Cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_homicide_rate

Instead (?), this kind of a bit odd mugging is not so curious in Japan. According to the press, lately, there were women who were robbed wearing their boots of on the street in Osaka. A mugger, a man, stripped their boots off on the street.

http://www.asahi.com/national/update/0115/OSK201201140191.html

Posted at Sun Jan 15 00:07:27 UTC 2012
]]> http://lang-8.com/satoshi/journals/1268044 http://lang-8.com/satoshi/journals/1268044 satoshi Sun Jan 15 00:07:27 UTC 2012
His father was poor, had a hard time, succeeded, and became a Tory. Tony wanted to change the Labor Party into the party for those people.


Posted at Wed Jan 04 12:15:52 UTC 2012
]]> http://lang-8.com/satoshi/journals/1252597 http://lang-8.com/satoshi/journals/1252597 satoshi Wed Jan 04 12:15:52 UTC 2012 Your friend writes an essay
Right thereafter you read it.
Right thereafter it burns away.
Ten years later you say to him that it is (was?) well written.
What should you say?
よく書けていた？
よく書けている？

The answer is clearly よく書けていた。 This is easy. Next:

Your friend writes an essay.
It is in the room A.
He is in the room B.
You read it in the A.
You go to him in the B.
You say to him that it is well written.
The essay is still in the A.
What should you say?
よく書けていた？
よく書けている？

You can say either. Both are very natural. This suggests this た is not the maker of the past tense. I think this た means you experience something in the past, not something that you are talking about occurs (occurred?) in the past.


Posted at Wed Jan 04 08:14:55 UTC 2012
]]> http://lang-8.com/satoshi/journals/1252330 http://lang-8.com/satoshi/journals/1252330 satoshi Wed Jan 04 08:14:55 UTC 2012
Though I can give you very limited examples, here is one. I want to hear about your comments. If a friend of yours writes an essay and you say it is well written:
よく書けた (a)
よく書けている (b)

The sentence (a) must carry the necessary information, but it actually sounds curt or as if you are saying you yourself wrote it well, not he/she did. Instead, the sentence (b) is common. It also can mean you wrote it, but it is not ambiguous. (Because the context definitely determines which it means. Being polysemous is not the same as being ambiguous. However, I don’t know exact technical terms of this.)

I think the difference between (a) and (b) is something like the one between direct and indirect discourses. The sentence (a) tells something as it is a subjective experience of the narrator. Instead, the one (b) tells something as it is an objective observation of the narrator.

By the way, よく書いた。 is as curt as よく書けた, and it is more vague than 書けた. It also can sound like you are great because you done (=finished) it.


Posted at Tue Jan 03 04:31:33 UTC 2012
]]> http://lang-8.com/satoshi/journals/1250670 http://lang-8.com/satoshi/journals/1250670 satoshi Tue Jan 03 04:31:33 UTC 2012
Posted at Sun Jan 01 08:00:59 UTC 2012
]]> http://lang-8.com/satoshi/journals/1248255 http://lang-8.com/satoshi/journals/1248255 satoshi Sun Jan 01 08:00:59 UTC 2012

I watched this video on today’s news program that seemed to show a room for a Cabinet meeting in South Korea. The person in the center is the president. What is interesting is that there are two people wearing down jackets. It seems that they are governmental officials. Apart from whether it was cold in the room, I think the dress code in South Korea is more progressive than the one in Japan.

The second video was from a news program in North Korea. She was bitterly criticizing the South Korean president with strict moral phrases. However, she looks as if she's in a state of ecstasy. It seems to be difficult for her to hide her feelings of delight.
She said:
We won’t eternally deal with the group of the rebels around Lee Myung-bak, who are morally shabby and lack basic human dignity.
I don’t know how these words sound in English, but they are extremely funny in Japanese because they are very moral and so the speaker seems like a priest in a new cult.


Posted at Fri Dec 30 11:49:13 UTC 2011
]]> http://lang-8.com/satoshi/journals/1246022 http://lang-8.com/satoshi/journals/1246022 satoshi Fri Dec 30 11:49:13 UTC 2011
Furthermore, the worst is, needless to say, TEPCO, one of the world’s largest power companies and the owner of the Fukushima Nuclear Plant. It dropped by 90%. But it is still alive with help by the Japanese government.


Posted at Fri Dec 30 08:36:58 UTC 2011
]]> http://lang-8.com/satoshi/journals/1245856 http://lang-8.com/satoshi/journals/1245856 satoshi Fri Dec 30 08:36:58 UTC 2011
For example, those mothers have the body of their children covered up completely with rain coats with a hood and have them with doubled flu masks on when they go out even if it is clear weather, and they wash the body of them with bottled water every time they are back home. They say they want to leave Tokyo for somewhere at a distance left their husband behind in Tokyo. They try to protect their children from radioactivity with every possible means. I guess those mothers look mad from the view of their husbands, so they are always quarreling with each other.

Is it simply unhappy because those husbands by accident chose with those mothers? I think those women should have been ordinary women before the Fukushima accident.

Cf. http://www.evernote.com/shard/s14/sh/27467974-adfb-4dbe-840b-99b0acb262a5/355a1002eee2e21f698acc26457731e8

Posted at Fri Dec 30 05:26:40 UTC 2011
]]> http://lang-8.com/satoshi/journals/1245673 http://lang-8.com/satoshi/journals/1245673 satoshi Fri Dec 30 05:26:40 UTC 2011
However, there is a big difference between Berlin and Sapporo. You can’t ride a bicycle in the winter without spike tires in Sapporo.


Posted at Fri Dec 30 03:05:07 UTC 2011
]]> http://lang-8.com/satoshi/journals/1245529 http://lang-8.com/satoshi/journals/1245529 satoshi Fri Dec 30 03:05:07 UTC 2011
I would say the reason is:
People are often attracted by opinions that are easier to understand, but economics prevents people from having that temptation. Most daily opinions are “what something should be” and “what is desirable”. Instead, economics coldly answers you can just get “what something cannot help becoming”. For example, the difference between “globalism” and “anti-globalism” are similar to them. Also, the attack by French President Sarközy on financial markets shows that he is confusing “what he doesn’t like” with “what he cannot control”.


Posted at Mon Dec 26 08:30:33 UTC 2011
]]> http://lang-8.com/satoshi/journals/1240839 http://lang-8.com/satoshi/journals/1240839 satoshi Mon Dec 26 08:30:33 UTC 2011
Posted at Sun Dec 25 01:28:54 UTC 2011
]]> http://lang-8.com/satoshi/journals/1239254 http://lang-8.com/satoshi/journals/1239254 satoshi Sun Dec 25 01:28:54 UTC 2011
I would feel that somebody is not 大人, for example, when he is eager to ask and know something that is not “necessary” just after he comes to know me. For example: On chat, you want to see photos of the other sex whom you have just begin to talk to. It is natural that you want to know if the person you are talking is beautiful or not, but asking it immediately is childish. I think that you should first wait until the person you are talking to begins to talk unless that information is “necessary” to both he/she and you.

As you may know, generally, the Japanese people stay 子供 longer than the people in western countries. That has both advantages and disadvantages. I think that one of the advantages is that it is it that has produced Japanese anime.


Posted at Sat Dec 24 02:15:42 UTC 2011
]]> http://lang-8.com/satoshi/journals/1238149 http://lang-8.com/satoshi/journals/1238149 satoshi Sat Dec 24 02:15:42 UTC 2011
Posted at Tue Dec 20 15:43:20 UTC 2011
]]> http://lang-8.com/satoshi/journals/1234106 http://lang-8.com/satoshi/journals/1234106 satoshi Tue Dec 20 15:43:20 UTC 2011


This morning, when I saw a machine for fare adjustment at a subway station (the picture one), I thought, why it was crying. The white flag seemed to show a facemark crying tears like ＼(x_x)／
When I got close to it, it looked like something different. Is it an image of a panda?


Posted at Tue Dec 20 04:16:38 UTC 2011
]]> http://lang-8.com/satoshi/journals/1233279 http://lang-8.com/satoshi/journals/1233279 satoshi Tue Dec 20 04:16:38 UTC 2011
Cf.
http://www.nhk.or.jp/anime-blog/104124.html
http://www9.nhk.or.jp/anime/bakuman/


Posted at Fri Dec 16 11:16:02 UTC 2011
]]> http://lang-8.com/satoshi/journals/1228593 http://lang-8.com/satoshi/journals/1228593 satoshi Fri Dec 16 11:16:02 UTC 2011
Cf.
http://s.nikkei.com/rNk6FF

Posted at Tue Dec 13 04:20:05 UTC 2011
]]> http://lang-8.com/satoshi/journals/1224118 http://lang-8.com/satoshi/journals/1224118 satoshi Tue Dec 13 04:20:05 UTC 2011
The “61%” mothers fact reminds me of Takagi Shujin's mother in the manga and anime Bakuman. She was an ex-school teacher and her only wish was that her son, Shujin, would go to a famous university. She wouldn’t care at all about what Shujin wanted to do. Her husband once worked for a bank, which means, in anime, he was a member of the elite, but he was fired due to an internal dispute in the company. Accordingly, Shujin’s mother wished for Shujin to take her husband’s revenge. That is very odd, but it sounds possible to the “61%” mothers.


Posted at Mon Dec 12 04:36:07 UTC 2011
]]> http://lang-8.com/satoshi/journals/1222656 http://lang-8.com/satoshi/journals/1222656 satoshi Mon Dec 12 04:36:07 UTC 2011
右回りに回す (turn clockwise)
右を向くように回す (turn something so that it is facing right) 右に向ける

If you turn something from 6 o’clock to 9 o’clock, it is faster to turn it so 右に回す(clockwise) as to 左に回す.


Posted at Sun Dec 11 13:37:11 UTC 2011
]]> http://lang-8.com/satoshi/journals/1221866 http://lang-8.com/satoshi/journals/1221866 satoshi Sun Dec 11 13:37:11 UTC 2011 http://www.asahi.com/national/update/1209/OSK201112090056.html


Posted at Sat Dec 10 15:49:26 UTC 2011
]]> http://lang-8.com/satoshi/journals/1220730 http://lang-8.com/satoshi/journals/1220730 satoshi Sat Dec 10 15:49:26 UTC 2011