Something funny

I probably learned this once before now - but I find that some things just don't stick in my head until the eleventeenth time I 'learn' them.

くんよみ　ー　Japanese reading

おんよみ　ー　Chinese reading

Why the heck I couldn't understand this very important distinction is beyond me even as I write this. I was trying to figure out why I could always say certain kanji in one way but not another. I realize now that I usually learn verbs the Japanese way and nouns the Chinese way (in Japanese - go figure).

What I'm blogging about at the moment is not very important unless you're studying for a more advanced Japanese level and you haven't had this drilled into your head until now.

Learn the bloody Japanese way first. Other teachers may advise the opposite - but I part with their wisdom for a very basic reason - we're learning Japanese.

Had I learned all the Japanese readings first, I wouldn't have these half-words in my head where I know 歩行者 in the 'my part of the road' sense, but couldn't read it in it's phonetic purity. All I could interpret was 'walk go person'. It's precisely because I can interpret these three kanji's meanings (from learning the Japanese readings first) that I know I'm a pedestrian, and yes, the white stripes parallel to the cars is where I should be stepping.

Once you've got the meanings down - then go back and learn how to say it. In this case, ほこうしゃ。 Afterall, buri to you if you can say the Japanese word but I won't get hit by the cars.

Meanings > readings.

なみょうほうれんげっきょう

The title is the main 'word' (because there's probably a more official term that I don't know) of my wife's family's Buddhist flavor. It is a word that draws a guttural groan from my smiling lips each time I hear it.

I'm all for freedom of religion. I have my beliefs and others are welcome to theirs. What I cannot tolerate is for any person to force their beliefs upon others to the degree that grown men and women must chant because their father commands it - especially when these people have expressed a clear contrarian position to that of the Alpha Male.

九州男児（きゅうしゅうだんじ）is how we refer to these men here in the South of Japan. Men more correctly identified as boys on a standardized word-association test. The infuriatingly smug way they say 'shall we begin?' as though everyone is looking forward to the moment with the same anxious anticipation barring a torrent of glee from spilling forward as water from an ancient dam.

No one is looking forward to it. Trust.

I don't take part in these pointless rituals because I have my own way to wander of course, but I can't even respect the act because the feet do not follow the mouth. They preach a cleansing of the soul through meditation and reverence for our ancestors and the creators of this world and all the life in it. They chant for an hour at a time scrubbing away at a day full of impolite words and actions heaped one upon another like peasants stacking bricks of mud around themselves and calling the atrocity 'home'.

九州男児　ー　the category of the generation prior you hope dies off with the last living example. There's a word in every language.