“Hanashi” is the root for the verb “hanasu” (話す、はなす), or “to talk”. Hanashi is “a” talk, more specifically. It is speech; it can also be taken as conversation, though we’d use “kaiwa” for conversation per se, and “soudan” for a discussion per se. 

“Hanashi ga aru” can be read as “I have a talk (to have with you)“. In something that resembles English, this is very much like “We need to talk.” There’s an unspoken emphasis behind this; as in, we need to talk, now. You can also legitimately read this as “I need to talk to you.” In this case, there’s an implication of “to you, in private“.

The example that prompted me to write comes from the Valkyria Chronicles anime. I played the first game on PS3 in Japanese and loved it; the anime diverges quite a bit in places, some good things and some not, but it’s very pretty. One of the divergences is that the two main characters become part of a budding love triangle involving the leading male’s best friend going after the leading female.

After a lot of awkwardness, and the girl (Alicia) moping over it, she suddenly realizes that this is way too much thinking for her and she needs to make things clear. So, she storms over to the guy (Welkin), invading his office, and demanding a talk with him:

“Welkin!! Chotto hanashi ga aru n da kedo…”

The other words that modify and alter the tone of the phrase are as follows:

Chotto: This actually has kanji, though you’ll probably never see it in normal use; literally it’s a tenth of a small unit of measurement. In practice, it stands for “a bit” or “a little bit”. So a “chotto hanashi” is a wee little talk.  This is slight verbal understatement (with a loud voice mind you).

N da: This is a softened version of “no da”, which would be a plain form of “no desu”. In other words, it’s a sort of middle point between really formal and really informal/ rude. It’s a pretty neutral in that sense.

Kedo: This is like a verbal ellipsis, like “ka” is a verbal question mark and “tte” is like verbal quotation marks. It’s a softener expressing something like “but”… <- just like these three dots. In other words, not literally “but” so much as making it come across less as an order. (Alicia is an NCO and Welkin is her officer, see.)

So, in toto, the most harmonized way to deal with it is “We need to have a little talk…” The grammar includes the three dots, but this would be very delicate to voice act with perfection. The bias would have to lean towards the strong tone. – J

Small Words. Big Trouble.

Sometimes it’s simpler for me to point something out in anime and, in so doing, give it context. Today’s subjects are the words “kata” (型) and “kei” (系). When playing second fiddle in a compound word, “kata” -> “gata”, but “kei” remains the same. (That’s because “H Dei” would be really, really awkward to say.)

The anime this is from is a quirky semi-romantic comedy with a lot of sex jokes. A quick viewing of the opening theme (which all but anime newbies will know as “the OP“) explains the context of the kata/gata part: various girls are being rated according to their breast sizes. (^^;) I expect this would be A-cup, B-cup, C-cup, etc. So, our heroine is a B.

The “H Kei” part is from the girl having a revved-up sex drive and is on a personal mission to lose her virginity. Her problem is that she’s squeamish about actual physical contact and relationships, which is where most of the humor comes in. Her lust is willing, but her inner maiden is not. Quite a quandary, isn’t it?

So how do we actually translate these words? As it often is, we first need to understand what the words do in their own language before mastering what they do in ours.

Things vs. People

At its most basic, “kata” covers things and “kei” covers people. 

A “kata” fundamentally represents the physical shape of something. That is why, in the industrial world, such-and-such kata generally represents a model or pattern. A “kataban” (型番) , or kata + number, usually reaches English as a pattern number. Similarly, “katagami” (型紙) – the same “gami” as in “origami”, so kata + paper = pattern paper for making dresses.

“Kei”, on the other hand, addresses groups, systems, and lineage. Have you ever heard the term nikkei? The kanji is 日系, with “sun/ Japan” and “kei”. This means of Japanese descent. Keizu (系図) is kei + map, meaning a genealogy. A direct descendant is a chokkei (直系), straight/ direct + kei.

What we’re really learning here is that the exact English words used may vary, but there is a much bigger difference between how the words are used in the Japanese language. There is no reason for confusion. A “kata” refers to a physical characteristic (in this case, breast size); a “kei” refers to the group that the heroine belongs to, namely “H” – for hentai, pervert, deviant, and so forth. (^^;)

I didn’t watch the whole show myself but it did have its silly laughs. For a mature audience, of course.

At some point animators got lazy and made the kanji on the shoulder "hyaku hyaku" instead - during the actual show.

Bonus: The Hyaku Shiki

Another word similar to those two is shiki (式). This one gave me some trouble before I was even working professionally because fictional robots using such a name don’t seem to correspond to American naming conventions. That’s right! They don’t! This actually sounds more like it’s British. After all, Japanese civilization has been in touch with lots of British naval culture for a long time.

So, we could call the “Hyaku Shiki” from Zeta Gundam, back in 1985 and a video game classic, the “Type 100” because it isn’t using “kata” for “model” in the name. Even so, there’s no way a translator would get a free hand in real life. You translate names as you’re told to and that’s the end of it.

Incidentally, the “shikigami” uses the same “shiki” as above. Actually, the term “shiki” usually relates to equation, formula, and ceremony; I view this as being all related to procedure. Put another way, a mathematical formula is a ceremonial rite of a very different kind. These are methods used to get from point A to point B, but since they’re not models or systems, they’re another kind of classification, whatever that turns out to be. – J

I have solemnly come to crash this wedding.

約束、守りに来ました！

At the end of a recent anime (High School DxD), a forced wedding is being crashed by the above youth (with the fancy gauntlet). He couldn’t accept being defeated and seeing the lady he served carried off in a wedding she didn’t want. That, of course, is because the bridegroom is a complete jerk.

The elements in this sentence are:

Yakusoku (約束、やくそく): A promise. While anime presents promises as having almost supernatural power, and sometimes not “almost”, let’s put this in context: trust is extremely important to Japanese society because people want to know a friend, a business partner, a longtime client, etc., will not betray them. Betrayal is very painful and deeply frowned on… but it happens. It’s part of why trust is so emphasized.

Mamori ni (守りに、まもりに): From “mamoru”, usually “to protect” or “to guard”, but it gets translated as “to obey” too because “rule o mamoru” is to follow the rules. In fact, I’d prefer “follow” there, but “obey the rules” does work. The “ni” works as a “to” here. We’ll get back to that in a sec.

Kimashita (来ました、きました): Polite past form of “kuru,” to come. If you haven’t learned verbs yet this can be hard, but otherwise is very simple grammatically.

The total package therefore is:

(I’ve) come to keep my promise! 

In other words, you didn’t see an I or a have in that sentence, but they’re implied strongly and, well, what else could it mean?

Also you can see that “mamori ni” is interpreted as “to keep” because that’s our habitual situation in English. You keep your promises in English. You “mamoru” them in Japanese. – J

I’m going to continue to present some of the oddball things in language. One is “yoku iwareru” (or iwareta, past tense) for “I get that a lot.” I’m not kidding: that’s exactly how it should be read.

Literally, it means “I’m told that a lot” (or past tense: I’ve been told that a lot). The last time this came up, I was watching the TV version of Hellsing (another overdue project). A very tall, regenerates-from-nearly-everything vampire-hunting priest finds out that he didn’t actually kill the high-end vampire he’s fighting (who’s actually on the good side here…

Priest: Bakemono! (lit. monster)

Vampire: Yoku iwareta. De wa, omae wa nanda, hito ka?

So to show off the last sentence, first, it starts with the “I get that a lot.” i.e. being called a monster. (Um, yes, I imagine so.) The rest is easy enough when explained.

De wa: Reflective change of topic.

Omae: Rude, direct 2nd person pronoun (i.e. “you”)

Wa: The usual particle. Because “de wa” indicates a change in subject, it doesn’t take away “wa” ‘s usual indication of the subject (= “omae”)

Nanda: “What?” Simple as that – it’s a question for “what?”. However, the question isn’t complete so the particle got bumped to the end (its proper place).

Hito: Person.

Ka: The “ka” particle asking a question.

Putting it together:

Vampire: I get that a lot. So, what are you, a person?

(Remember the priest can regenerate from virtually any injury so it’s a valid point.)

Since English doesn’t work so well with the past tense, I converted it to present tense for readability purposes. – J

Although there are other ways of expressing certain kinds of fractions, like hanbun (半分、はんぶん) for 1/2 or 50%, 2/3 would be expressed as “san bun no ni” (三分の二, さんぶんのに). That is, “of three parts, two“. Actually, with Japanese grammar it’s nearly impossible to express this any other way.

Consequently, yonbun no san (of 4 parts, 3) is how 3/4ths would be expressed. Once you get the hang of it, it’s pretty simple.

There’s also another expression you should know: gobu-gobu (五分五分, ごぶごぶ), which means 5 parts/ 5 parts, or in “our” language, fifty-fifty. Remember that “juubun” (十分、じゅうぶん) assumes that the “bun” part (for divisions) is 10 parts, and therefore, 5 of 10 parts is half, or 50%, and 10 of 10 parts is all, or 100%. If you’ve put in 100% effort, that’s considered enough. If your odds are 50% success or 50% failure, they’re 50-50, or gobu-gobu.

Practice and quick processing of these words will enable you to understand the message with startling speed, allowing you to focus on other things. – J

桜前線　（さくらぜんせん)

“Sakura” (cherry blossom) is a word many people know well. Sakura viewing is “hanami” (花見、はなみ), or lit. flower viewing. Outside of a weather context, “zensen” (前線、ぜんせん) would mean “front” in the sense of WWII’s Eastern Front or Western Front in Europe, but here it means weather front. 

The reason for using “zensen” here is because cherry blossoms do not bloom across the entire country at the same time. The “cherry blossom front” moves northward over time as warmer weather hits different parts of Japan. That’s why the information follows normal weather reports during early spring.

I learned the term from this site but you can find a 2012 sakura front prediction (i.e. a schedule) at this link here. I would care to point out that if you’re looking for Japanese tutoring, you can always just ask me, too. Not for absolute free, mind you, but Skype lessons mean instant feedback and help. – J

実

The word jitsu stands for reality and truth, often as part of the word shinjitsu (objective truth, an intangible thing). The word jutsu stands mostly for technique, in the sense of an art, a method, or even a spell. The words majutsu (for magic) and ninjutsu (for ninja arts/ techniques) are two examples.

I was glancing at a fan-translated chapter of Naruto (which I once read a decent amount to find out what I was missing, and then stopped for a while) and noticed “ninjitsu” being used. This isn’t a proper romanization. I realize a lot of people don’t really care; pronunciation has long gone the route of “ninjitsu”, even if it’s technically wrong. Make no bones about it: it is technically wrong. You wouldn’t know that if not for other words using the term jutsu, though.

Majutsu is a catch-all term for black magic. Houjutsu is, outside an RPG context (where the same pronunciation applies to white magic/ priest magic), a word for gunnery, as in, the huge cannons on battleships. Ijutsu is the practice of medicine/ healing arts. Renkinjutsu is alchemy, like in Fullmetal Alchemist. Kyuujutsu is Japanese archery (the Art of the Bow). Kenjutsu is Japanese fencing (the Art of the Sword). Finally, the broad term gijutsu means “technology”, a combination of “skill” and “art”. To a lot of people, there’s more than a little incomprehensible “magic” that rests in technology, too. 

If you’re just reading ninja stories, it probably won’t matter much. It’s only if you want to get into other cool Japanese things that you want to have some consistency and understand a little of the why re: why stuff’s called such-and-such. – J

There are actually two distinct uses for sorosoro (そろそろ). The first is as an adverb representing softly, leisurely, gently, gradually, etc. The second is the one to really watch out for: that something will be done soon, in the near future, even if it has taken some time to get there.

In the first case, you could have a sentence like this:

そろそろ寝るね. (sorosoro neru ne.)

Neru = to sleep (dictionary form)

The “ne” at the end is a friendly, reflective copula.

“I’m going to sleep soon.”

This is the translation that the site I got the sentence from uses, but it’s not the only option. We could also easily use:

“About time I got some sleep, huh.”

The “huh” at the end isn’t strictly necessary, but the “ne” is used to adjust the tone in the original. I’d just keep in mind what kind of speaking style and tone the original speaker is supposed to have. This is simple enough with manga, novels, movies, anime, etc.

Sooner or Later

Now, when used more like a noun, “sorosoro” is used in one type of circumstance: time has gradually moved forward to get close to the proper time for X.

If a military commander of some sort was overseeing an operation, looking for the right time to unleash his secret weapon, he could use 「そろそろだ。」 (sorosoro da) to indicate to his top aide that it’s just about time to strike. That is, perhaps not this second – or he’d say 「今だ！」 (ima da!) (ima = right now) instead – but the time will be very soon.

If an ordinary girl or woman is out shopping with you and checks her watch and says 「もうそろそろ」(mou sorosoro), she’s indicating that it’s already (“mou”) just about time for something unspecified, but in this context, it’s well implied that the woman needs to quit with the shopping and get home. In other words, time snuck up on her; a great deal of time has already elapsed. She’s close to outright late. 

Of course, she might actually be totally late, but we don’t know that. The wording is vague enough to provide a polite way to disengage from the activity and is usually accepted as such in good grace.

One Last Look at the Adverb Version

「そろそろを英語に訳すと」(sorosoro o eigo ni yakusu to)

In this case, “o” (using “wo” in kana but always pronounced simply “o”) indicates a descriptive connection between the “sorosoro” and the verb. The “ni” indicates a modifier to the verb. “Eigo” is English. “Yakusu” is for to translate (dictionary form). The “to” that ends the sentence has an eerie resemblance to the English “to” here, really. Therefore:

“To gradually translate into English”

Having done a lot of translation, I can vouch for not rushing and letting things take a natural pace. Rushing is a bad, bad idea unless you really know the subject matter, and even then it’s not a good plan. – J

“Mushiro” is one of those words that isn’t in everyone’s speaking style, but it’s really good to know what it means and how it’s used. The English output differs because different words fit different sentence situations. The word itself demonstrates the better option among two or more.

Picking Shoe Color

Japanese

その服には青よりむしろ茶の靴が似合う. (sono fuku ni wa aoi yori mushiro cha no kutsu ga niau.)

English

Brown shoes are a better fit for these clothes than blue ones.

The Words Being Used

sono = this

fuku = clothes (general)

ni wa = defining what precedes as the topic and what follows as relating to the topic

aoi = blue

yori = what follows is “more than” what precedes

mushiro = defines what follows as the better option, the higher preference

cha = “tea color”, a lighter brown like a lot of leather clothing

no = connects the preceding with the following

kutsu = shoes

ga = defines the subject of the verb that follows

niau = verb; to suit, to match

You Should’ve Done It Yourself

Japanese

彼に頼むくらいなら、むしろ自分でやったほうがいい (kare ni tanomu kurai nara, mushiro jubun de yatta hou ga ii)

English

If you could ask him to do it, you ought to have done it yourself.

The Words Being Used

kare = him

ni = the following applies to the preceding

tanomu = verb; to request, to ask someone to do X

kurai = degree

nara = if

mushiro = the better option

jibun = yourself, oneself

de = “by” in this case; indicates the means of doing something

yatta = verb; past tense of ‘yaru’, a general verb for “to do”

hou = direction; think of options as arranged in a circle around you

ga ii = declaring that the preceding “is good”

Expanding On These Sentences

Here’s how the structure works:

The first option discussed  -> The better, higher option

There’s other instances this could crop up, too.

“We could go to the baseball game, or rather, the mall.”

Perhaps you see the problem here? A lot of people would never use “or rather”. That’s the same in Japanese as it is in English. In the first place, the “or” would be indispensable if using “rather” in this location. If not “or”, it’d have to be more like this:

“We could go to the baseball game, but I’d rather go to the mall instead.”

This is why you can’t just blindly translate from dictionaries. The context is dictating the grammar. Indeed, the grammar is dictating the vocabulary in turn. My advice for dealing with “mushiro” is to focus on what it means, rather than what it says. If I’m just skimming Japanese text, I don’t need to worry about translating; I just accept “mushiro” is stating a preference and move on. It’s only if I have to turn it into English that I have to fiddle around.

I reiterate: the real issue is not drowning in the grammar when someone else uses the word. Learners probably shouldn’t try to use it themselves until they’ve heard it used in context at least a good hundred times. Even then, using it properly would not work in all settings. It’s still really good to know what it means and not trip all over it. – J

The image at the top of the post is of Shiro Amada, the main protagonist of “Mobile Suit Gundam: 08th MS Team”. Before the “proper” show starts, Shiro Amada was an Earth Federation soldier serving on a space colony that saw its entire civilian population wiped out by poison gas during the Republic of Zeon’s first strikes against the Federation. Shiro was saved because of his military issue spacesuit, but was helpless to save anyone else. While this was not shown in the anime itself, it was represented in an animated cut-scene in a Gundam video game I once played and enjoyed.

During the first episode, Shiro sorties in a crude prototype of a zero-G construction vehicle that has been weaponized for combat, a “Ball” (that looked like one, except with two cannons stuck on the top) that was considered unable to fight any mobile suit (the big humanoid, man-piloted robots) in one on one combat. He sortied from a transport shuttle, risking his own life, to save a survivor of a Federation mobile suit squad with a damaged machine.

In making his sortie, he said to him self, “Side 2 no ni no mai wa gomen da!” In other words, he wouldn’t allow a repeat of Side 2, which wasn’t really a mistake so much as a circumstance: his own helplessness while others died.

As fate would have it, he and the enemy mobile suit essentially had a double K.O. and both pilots, himself and a beautiful enemy soldier, were forced to cooperate to survive aboard a Federation shipwreck until they could send out a signal and attract rescue from their respective sides. The soldier Shiro saved returned to rescue him the moment his mobile suit was sufficiently repaired, and was transferred to the squad Shiro became the leader of: the 08th MS Team, as we call it in English. (The Japanese word “shoutai” (小隊), which can be ID’d when used in a military context, almost always reads as “platoon”.)

Anyway, I use this example from an anime I know well to show how “ni no mai” is used. Remember, it’s “mai” not “mae” (forward/ front). “Mai” is for dance, here. – J