As English speakers, we already know quite a few Japanese Vocabulary Words, without even realizing we know them. Japanese is a language where words get put together to form new words. We know a lot of compound words, and you can break those compound words down into their smaller pieces to get a whole ton of free vocabulary. These Japanese vocabulary words are words you already know, because you know words made up out of them.
In addition to longer words splitting into shorter words, it's also very common for longer words to split into common word-parts which are not words by themselves, but are common enough to be worth knowing. I'll call them suffixes, even though they can be prefixes as well. They're similar to English "rootwords" like the "psych" in "psychology".
Note that many of these words are pronounced differently in Japanese. For example, in English we completely butcher the pronunciation of "karaoke", which is actually pronounced more like "car-ahh-okay", without the final "y".
The format is:
Compound word (kanji): List of smaller words that make it up.
COMMONLY KNOWN WORDS
Aikido (合気道): au (合う) = "to match, to fit", ki (気) = "spirit; energy" (think of "chi" from Karate movies). dou (道) = "road, way" is actually a suffix, not a word by itself.
Hara-kiri (腹切り): hara (腹) = "stomach", kiru (切る) = "to cut".
Kamikaze (神風): kami (神) = "god", kaze (風) = "wind".
Karaoke (カラオケ): kara (空) = "empty". oke (オケ) is not a word itself, but an abbreviation for the English word "orchestra".
Karate (空手): kara (空) = "empty", te (手) = "hand".
Kendo (剣道): ken (剣) = "sword". dou (道) = "road, way" is actually a suffix, not a word by itself.
Kimono (着物): kiru (着る) = "to wear", mono (物) = "thing".
Origami (折り紙): oru (折る) = "to fold", kami (紙) = "paper"
Sashimi (刺身): sasu (刺す) = "to stab, to pierce", mi (身) = "body".
Shogun (将軍): shou (将) = "commander, leader", gun (軍) = "army".
Teriyaki (照り焼き): teru (照る) = "to shine", yaku (焼く) = "to bake, to grill".
Yakitori (焼き鳥): yaku (焼く) = "to bake, to grill", tori (鳥) = "bird".
I'm so passionate about languages that I did a 30-day French self-teaching challenge just to learn more about how languages are learned. I did a daily writeup every day, so you can also benefit from my journey. Read about how I learned (a little bit of) French in 30 days.
The Japanese language is very big on onomatopoeic words, or sound effect words. They even have sound effects for things like staring or even silence! Read some examples of Japanese onomatopoeia.
Japanese is an example of a skill, but learning Japanese is an example of a metaskill. Read about skills and metaskills. Metaskills are skills which you use on other skills, like learning a skill, teaching a skill, and so on.
If you want to memorize lots of vocabulary (or, anything else, for that matter), check out Spaced Repetition Systems. Spaced Repetition is to memorization what eyeglasses are to vision. It's the future of memorization.
Are you open or closed? Read about openness. Openness is, showing your true self, and being genuine. Although openness requires courage, it also trains courage.
In addition to longer words splitting into shorter words, it's also very common for longer words to split into common word-parts which are not words by themselves, but are common enough to be worth knowing. I'll call them suffixes, even though they can be prefixes as well. They're similar to English "rootwords" like the "psych" in "psychology".
Note that many of these words are pronounced differently in Japanese. For example, in English we completely butcher the pronunciation of "karaoke", which is actually pronounced more like "car-ahh-okay", without the final "y".
The format is:
Compound word (kanji): List of smaller words that make it up.
COMMONLY KNOWN WORDS
Aikido (合気道): au (合う) = "to match, to fit", ki (気) = "spirit; energy" (think of "chi" from Karate movies). dou (道) = "road, way" is actually a suffix, not a word by itself.
Hara-kiri (腹切り): hara (腹) = "stomach", kiru (切る) = "to cut".
Kamikaze (神風): kami (神) = "god", kaze (風) = "wind".
Karaoke (カラオケ): kara (空) = "empty". oke (オケ) is not a word itself, but an abbreviation for the English word "orchestra".
Karate (空手): kara (空) = "empty", te (手) = "hand".
Kendo (剣道): ken (剣) = "sword". dou (道) = "road, way" is actually a suffix, not a word by itself.
Kimono (着物): kiru (着る) = "to wear", mono (物) = "thing".
Origami (折り紙): oru (折る) = "to fold", kami (紙) = "paper"
Sashimi (刺身): sasu (刺す) = "to stab, to pierce", mi (身) = "body".
Shogun (将軍): shou (将) = "commander, leader", gun (軍) = "army".
Teriyaki (照り焼き): teru (照る) = "to shine", yaku (焼く) = "to bake, to grill".
Yakitori (焼き鳥): yaku (焼く) = "to bake, to grill", tori (鳥) = "bird".
I'm so passionate about languages that I did a 30-day French self-teaching challenge just to learn more about how languages are learned. I did a daily writeup every day, so you can also benefit from my journey. Read about how I learned (a little bit of) French in 30 days.
The Japanese language is very big on onomatopoeic words, or sound effect words. They even have sound effects for things like staring or even silence! Read some examples of Japanese onomatopoeia.
Japanese is an example of a skill, but learning Japanese is an example of a metaskill. Read about skills and metaskills. Metaskills are skills which you use on other skills, like learning a skill, teaching a skill, and so on.
If you want to memorize lots of vocabulary (or, anything else, for that matter), check out Spaced Repetition Systems. Spaced Repetition is to memorization what eyeglasses are to vision. It's the future of memorization.
Are you open or closed? Read about openness. Openness is, showing your true self, and being genuine. Although openness requires courage, it also trains courage.
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2 comments:
I enjoyed this post. Very interesting for even the non-word nerds.
Wow, that's really cool. I love finding out what the roots of words are. Some, like origami, seem very straightforward, but others, like sashimi, aren't so much. And it's really funny that part of karaoke is already borrowed from English, and now we've borrowed it back!
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