Kanji: Fruit, Truth, Reality

Meaning: fruit, reality, truth - 実 - み

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This kanji has 8 strokes and is taught in 3rd grade. 

There are 3 parts to this kanji. 1) roof, 2) earth, and 3) big.

Gen. 1:11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, 

and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth:and it was so. 12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, 

and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind:and God saw that it was good. 

 

Gal. 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

(The following analogy is of my own making and only to help me recall the kanji character 

and it's meaning.)

God has provided a big earth in which to grow fruit in. 

God has provided a covering (atmosphere) which makes it possible for plants to grow. 

In like manner, it is a "truth", a "reality" that we can not produce spiritual fruit in our lives without God's help, His "covering!"

Really, it is not us that produces fruit in our lives at all!! But it is God working in and through us. After all, that's why it is called the fruit of "the Spirit!"

Pensioner sues NHK for using too many foreign loanwords

Now this is funny! It is true that more and more English loan words are being used in Japanese, but suing over it is quite American don't you think!? Ha-ha!

Pensioner sues NHK for using too many foreign loanwords

TOKYO —

A pensioner is suing Japan’s national broadcaster NHK for emotional distress, claiming the overuse of foreign loanwords has rendered many of its programs unintelligible, his lawyer said on Thursday.

Hoji Takahashi, 71, is demanding 1.41 million yen in damages for the broadcaster’s reliance on words borrowed from English, instead of their traditional Japanese counterparts.

“The basis of his concern is that Japan is being too Americanized,” lawyer Mutsuo Miyata told AFP. “There is a sense of crisis that this country is becoming just a province of America.”

Japanese has a rich native vocabulary, but has a tradition of borrowing words from other languages, often quite inventively and sometimes changing their meaning in the process.

Most Japanese speakers do not think twice about using words including “trouble”, “risk”, “drive” or “parking”, among many others.

Although English provides the bulk of loanwords—an inheritance of the post World War II U.S. occupation and subsequent fascination with American culture—words borrowed from many other languages are also in use.

Thus, the word for part-time work is a Japanized version of the German “arbeit”, “concierge” comes from the French and the Spanish “pan” is understood as bread.

However, Japan’s phonic structure, in which sounds are usually made of a consonant and a vowel, renders many of these borrowed words unintelligible to speakers of the language from which they came.

The English “trouble” becomes “toraburu”, for example, while the French “concierge” is pronounced “konsheruju.”

Takahashi, a member of “Nihongo wo taisetsu ni suru kai” (The Treat Japanese as Important Association), brought his suit because entreaties to NHK had been ignored, his lawyer said.

“Young people can probably understand a lot of this stuff, but for older people like myself, when I hear ‘asurito’ (athlete) and ‘konpuriansu’ (compliance), I don’t know what it means,” Takahashi was quoted as saying.

“He decided to file the suit because the broadcaster did not bother to reply to him,” said Miyata, a former highschool classmate of the plaintiff.

“This is a matter of Japanese culture, the country itself, including its politics and its economy,” he said.

NHK said it would refrain from commenting on the matter as it has not received any legal documents from the court.

Traditionalists in France and French-speaking Canada also worry about the erosion of their native tongue as the influence of Hollywood spreads.

In 1994, French parliamentarians passed the “Toubon Law”, which stipulates that the language of education in France must be French, bar some exceptions.

Quebec has a government agency to enforces rules that demand a certain amount of written material must be in French.

© 2013 AFP

Here's my "two" cents!

Today, let's look at the kanji for the number "2"! For whatever my two cents are worth, I think the kanji for "2" looks like a roman numeral two that is just plain tuckered out! ;)

Japanese Kanji (from Chinese)

=

Roman Numeral

=

Arabic Numeral (Some say India before that)

It is pronounce "Ni" which sounds like "knee" in English. You might be thinking, "Well, what's all this fuss about kanji being hard for?!?! It seems pretty easy by looking at this number 2 kanji!" Sure one and two, and even three stroke kanjis aren't that hard... but how about... say... 18 strokes or 25 strokes! HA! I think that the kanji "difficult" is even a bit difficult at 18 strokes!

Difficult

So... let's just stick to the number "two" today. Now, there is not much more that I want to say about two (I mean, how hard is two, right? What else is there to say?) except that based on the number "one" (my first post) and today's number "two", can you guess what the kanji for "three" looks like? :)

Oh yes, one more thing... there are other pronunciations for the kanji "two" besides "knee" that are used all the time. They are: ji, futa, futa.tsu, futata.bi, oto, tsugu, nii, ha, fu, futatsu, fuda, and last but not least wa! 

Eeeeeck! Right?

Gotta love it. :)

How do you say "Jesus Christ is my Savior?"

Good morning from Japan! I'm not sure if you all can see the Japanese fonts in my posts or not. So, today I'll use a graphic and a regular Japanese font to display the text. It'd be good to get some feedback from you all as to whether or not you can see the Japanese fonts. Today I'd like to take a simple sentence a Christian might want to say and explain it:

(Above: Using a graphic to display the Japanese)

 イエス･キリストは私のすくいぬしです。
                           (Using a Japanese font.)


The above means: "Jesus Christ is my Savior."

Here's what it sounds like: 

Let's break it down:

イエス = (Iesu) Jesus and is pronounced "ee-eh-sue" (the "ee" is pronounced like the "e" in email.)


･ = This is a dot used to separate names like a first and last name. It is silent.


キリスト = (Kirisuto) Christ and is pronounced "key-rdee-sue-toh." Please note that Japanese sounds differ from ours so sometimes it is a bit tricky to explain! LOL!)


は = (Wa) Is the sentence topic marker particle. It is pronouced "Wah." It can be thought of as meaning "As for." It is like saying "As for Jesus Christ, (He) is my Savior."


私 = (Watashi) means "I, me." Pronounced "wah-tah-she."


の = (No) Prounced "noh" and is a sentence particle. Indicates possessive among other uses.


すくいぬし = (Sukuinushi) Pronounced "sue-koo-ee-new-she" and means Savior.


です = (Desu) Pronounced "deh-sss." It is basically the polite way to end a sentence and means "to be, is."


。= And lets not forget the period! Ha! In Japanese a sentence period is a tiny circle.

In closing, I have one question for you. Is Jesus Christ your Savior?

See ya next post. - Bro. Alan

Why is this confusing?

Why is it confusing for folks to see that Jesus is Lord? Why is it confusing for folks to see that the Bible is true and should be totally trusted as the complete and perfect Word of God?

Today let's briefly look at a couple "confusing" kanji! The kanjis that make up the word "CONFUSION!" Kanji may seem confusing but after looking at this today I think you'll agree that this truth has the potential to erase some doubts people may have as to faith in our God.

混乱 [こんらん: KONRAN]  def: disorder, chaos, confusion, mayhem.

Wow!

The first kanji, 混 , means: mix, blend, confuse.

The second kanji, 乱 , means: riot, war, disorder, disturb.

Interesting, huh? I'd say that at the Tower of Babel there was a blending or confusing of languages going on which caused a major disturbance and an unbelievable amount of disorder!!! Can you imagine!?

The people there at the Tower of Babel were not worshippers of the God of the Bible. They were disobedient, rebellious, and humanistic. The Bible tells us in Genesis 11:7 what God did:

Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, 

that they may not understand one another's speech.

So, the work on the tower could not continue. Their plans were dashed!

Let's look at the second kanji a little closer. We have:

Tongue

+ PLUS +

Mystery 

= Equals =

Disorder

I think any fellow Christian would agree that the "tongues," or spoken language, that day became a "mystery" and that "disorder," or confusion immediately followed! 

Drilling a little deeper, the first piece of the kanji (舌 shi.ta) means tongue and is in fact a separate stand alone kanji. If you take that kanji (舌) and add the second piece to it, it becomes "disorder." That second piece (or a "radical" as it's called) is the "fish hook" radical. It means "mystery" or "duplicate" or "strange." (Whew! Deep I know, but important.) I am sure the folks that day at Babel thought things were really STRANGE as the language went from one to many! Ha!

(Wow! I'm back now! There was a little chaos in the kitchen! HA! A kitchen cabinet door was falling off! I fixed it and now can continue this. LOL!)

It is a blessing to see this Bible event implanted in the Kanji used here in Japan and throughout China. Sadly, however, generally speaking, people here do not know historic meanings of kanji. Basically, in school they learn the current meanings and how to draw them. That's about it.

Now I'd like to finish today's post by stating that I am no archeologist, historian, expert linguist, or the like. I am just a believer in Jesus Christ, saved by His blood, and born again praise the LORD! And, I am just a missionary and student of this here language... Japanese. So, my explanations may not be perfect. This language, however, is amazing and unbelievers just don't see this precious meaning embedded in the words so I feel it is worth the effort to expose it!

Sometimes Japanese Think Jesus is America's "god!"

Remember how I said in my first post that stroke order is important in writing Japanese Kanji's? Why you ask? ...It just is! Ha-ha. I will tell you as soon as I figure it out myself. No, just kidding. But you will have to check back later for that answer! ;) By the way, stroke order is usually top to bottom and left to right.

Sometimes Japanese think Jesus is America's "god!" Well, Jesus (i.e. Christianity) is not America's "god." Jesus IS God. The Son of God, God the Son. The only true God. Christianity, as it's known today, has been around for thousands of years (And the gates of hell will not prevail against it no matter what the Mormons say! They restored the true church? I don't think so!?!) and our faith in the Creator God of the universe has been since the beginning. If I am not mistaken (and if I am it would not be the first time today!), the good ole' U.S.A. has been around for just around a mere 236 years! Faith in the God of the Bible, called Christianity today, has however been around a long, LONG time. So, Jesus is not America's "god." Some say Christianity has been in Japan (and Asia) only a relatively short amount of time. I don't believe this for one second. There is much historical evidence that Christianity was around and influenced Japanese (and Asian) culture long ago. Today, I want to give you one little piece of that evidence by us taking a look at a simple word... the word boat.

I WILL NOT GIVE AN EXPLANATION TODAY. INSTEAD I WANT YOU ALL TO GIVE YOUR COMMENTS BELOW AND SAY WHAT YOU THINK THIS KANJI'S ROOTS ARE! What is it saying? Is it saying anything? :)

"Fune"(Foo neh) meaning a boat, a ship:

a boat, a ship

boat 

eight 

mouth

Hmmmm? Fune means a ship / a boat. The elements(pieces) of this kanji are three (1) boat, (2) eight and (3) mouth. Hmmmmmmm? Interesting huh? What does this mean? Is there Christian history, yea deep roots, in Asia?

That's it for today's post. Let's discuss this in the comments section of this page! Just click on "comments" below to add your thoughts. See ya. Lord bless.

Today's verse refs.: John 1:1,14; 9:35-37 (God);  Matt. 16:18 (Gates);  Heb. 11:4; James 2:23 (Faith); Gen. 6:14

Different!

I have been in Japan since December of 2000 and I think a good word that summarizes Japan, the Japanese people, and the Japanese language is... "different!" 


Oh, sure, a lot of other words could be used, and a lot of explanation given, but "different" is pretty near a Grade A good choice of a word to sum things up!! Yes, there are a lot of similarities between U.S. culture and Japan, but there are a lot of differences too!

I'd like to start this language-centric blog off with the easiest Japanese kanji there is... in my humble opinion. (kanji: a system of Japanese writing using Chinese characters.)

"1." That's right the number one, numero uno, nummer eins (German...I think?!)!!!

Here it is:

"One" or "ichi" as its called. (Sounds like itchy) Perhaps the easiest Kanji!

You draw the kanji left to right. You might think the direction is not important but it is. I won't get into why right now. If you look at this simple one stroke character, the number "1", do you notice something right off? Yes, you guessed it... it's different! Different than our number 1. In these two languages, Japanese and English, not even the most basic thing like the number 1 is the same!! It is laying down where as the English one is standing! And.. I will tell you "one" thing for sure, after "one" good study session of Japanese you'll be wanting to lay down yourself! Whew!