Getting older, getting better －年をとること、上手になること－

Welcome to another weekly blog entry.  I have been posting every Thursday since I started writing this blog.  This is my 53^rd regular weekly posting, which means that a full year has passed since I started.  Happy birthday to me!  Send me an email and I’ll give you the address to post your presents and cheques to!

Sometimes people feel like celebrating their birthdays, and sometimes they feel like forgetting them.  My wife and I encountered a scene yesterday which might make anyone feel sad about getting a year older, especially if the birthday they were having was their 46th.

We passed a small store which sells onigiri.  For those who don’t know, onigiri is a kind of salted rice ball wrapped in seaweed, usually with a filling in the centre.  This store’s onigiri is very nice and reasonably priced.  I recommend the ikura filling.

But the thing that caught my wife’s notice was a sign they had, advertising a vacancy for a new member of staff.  The sign gave some details about the position – how many hours per day, how many days per week etc. – and it also gave some information about the type of applicant they were looking for.  The sign said that applicants for the job should be no older than 45.

We were both surprised by this requirement.  In the first instance, what is so arduous about making onigiri?  I can understand why a soldier or a miner or fireman might have to be young and at the peak of health.  But do you need such strength to push fish eggs into a ball of rice?

The next surprising thing was that this could be advertised openly.  Isn’t it against the law to discriminate against someone on the basis of age, as we expect it to be for gender, race, sexuality etc.?  A 46 year-old, or a 64 year-old, might not be energetic enough to do the job.  But surely, they at least deserve the chance to go to the interview and to be judged after being seen and not before?

Actually, someone I talked to thought that this is against the law in Japan, and the onigiri store might get into trouble if someone complains.

I like to think that the older you get, the more skilled you become.  If you’ve been making onigiri at home for 30 years, I’ll bet that you get very good at it.  Hopefully, the same is true for blog writers.  Sadly, my posts are still at the infantile stage.  Ga-ga goo-goo.  But by the time I’m celebrating this blog’s 46^th birthday, my posts will be Zen masterpieces.  And maybe intelligent robot slaves will be making all the onigiri.

 

Vocabulary:

a cheque – a slip of paper you fill out and sign in order to pay for something

for something to catch one’s notice – for something to be interesting or stand out in some way, so that it is noticed by someone

an applicant – someone who applies for something; someone who desires to join or be selected for a job, role etc

to be arduous – to be difficult, tough

a miner – a person who digs minerals like coal out of the ground

the peak of something – the highest point of something, like a mountaintop

to discriminate against someone – to treat someone differently, or unfairly, because of something they cannot help

to be infantile – to be like a small child

ga-ga/ goo-goo – These are baby noises.  The Queen song “Radio ga-ga” uses this term

 

 

 

 

Size isn’t everything －大きさが全てではない－

Recently I have been reading a number of Japanese folk tales and have been greatly enjoying them.  They tend to be short and fairly simple.  But it can be fun to speculate over why these tales became popular and what message, if any, they were supposed to impart.

It also made me remember reading Western folk tales and consider the similarities to the Japanese ones.  My favourite Japanese folk tale so far features a man whose head is cut by an axe, into which falls the seed of a tree.  Soon a tree sprouts out of the wound and he is able to make money by selling the chestnuts he gathers from the tree growing out of his head.  The story continues, and I love the evident humour running through it.

A Western folk tale with a similarly enjoyable thread of humour running through it is “The valiant little tailor”.  I have taken the start of it from Grimm’s fairy tales, and edited it below. 

An edited extract from, “The Valiant little tailor”, from Grimm’s fairy tales

One fine day a tailor was sitting on his bench by the window in very high spirits, sewing diligently, and presently up the street came a country woman, crying, "Good jams for sale! Good jams for sale!"

So the tailor bought some jam.

“This jam will give me fresh strength and vigor," he said. Taking the bread from the cupboard, he cut himself a large slice and spread the jam upon it. "That will taste very nice," said he; "but, before I take a bite, I will just finish this waistcoat." So he put the bread on the table and went back to work.

Meanwhile the smell of the jam rose to the ceiling, where many flies were sitting, and enticed them down, so that soon a great swarm of them had gathered around the bread. "Hey! who asked you?" exclaimed the tailor, driving away the uninvited visitors; but the flies would not be driven off, and came back in greater numbers than before. This made the little man very angry and, snatching up a cloth, he swiped the air where the flies were. When he looked he counted as many as seven lying dead before him with outstretched legs. "What a fellow you are!" said he to himself, astonished at his own bravery. "The whole town must hear of this."

Hastily, he cut himself out a belt, and then put on it in large letters, "SEVEN AT ONE BLOW!" "Ah," said he, "not one city alone, the whole world shall hear it!" and his heart danced with joy, like a puppy-dog's tail.

The little tailor bound the belt around his body, and made ready to travel into the wide world, feeling the workshop too small for his great deeds.

Before he set out, however, he looked about his house to see if there was anything he could carry with him, but he found only an old cheese, which he pocketed, and observing a bird which was caught in the bushes before the door, he captured it, and put that in his pocket also.

Soon after he set out boldly on his travels. His road led him up a hill, and when he arrived at the highest point of it he found a great Giant sitting there.

But the little tailor went boldly up, and said, "Good day, friend; truly you sit there and see the whole world stretched below you. I also am on my way to seek my fortune. Are you willing to go with me?"

The Giant looked with scorn at the little tailor, and said, "you wretched creature!"

"Perhaps so," replied the tailor; "but here may be seen what sort of a man I am;" and, unbuttoning his coat, he showed the Giant his belt. The Giant read, "SEVEN AT ONE BLOW"; and supposing they were men whom the tailor had killed, he felt some respect for him.

Still he meant to test him first. So, taking up a pebble, he squeezed it so hard that water dropped out of it. "Do as well as that," said he to the other, "if you have the strength."

"that's child's play," said the tailor. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out the cheese and squeezed it till liquid ran out of it, and said, "Now, I fancy that I have done better than you."

The Giant wondered what to say, and could not believe it of the little man. So, picking up another pebble, he flung it so high that it almost went out of sight, saying, "There, do that if you can."

"Well done," said the tailor; "but your pebble will fall down again to the ground. I will throw one up which will not come down;" and, dipping into his pocket, he took out the bird and threw it into the air. The bird, glad to be free, flew straight up, and then far away, and did not come back. "How does that please you, friend?" asked the tailor.

 

Vocabulary:

to impart something – to make something known; to communicate something, like advice

to be evident – to be clear; obvious

to be valiant – to be brave

to be in high spirits – to be happy, in a good mood

to do something diligently – to do something with proper care/ hard work; to do something well

vigor – energy; strength

to entice someone or something – to attract someone; to tempt them

a swarm – a large or dense group of flying insects

to swipe something – to hit or try to hit something with a swinging blow

to set out – to start a journey

to pocket something – to put something in your pocket

to do something boldly – to do something bravely; confidently

a pebble – a small stone

to fling something (past tense: flung) – to throw something

 

 

Fiendish idioms －悪魔のイディオムズ－

In my last blog post, I talked about Robert Johnson and the legend that he sold his soul to the Devil.  It got me thinking about some idioms we use in English involving the Devil or Hell.  Here are three of the best known ones.

1 – Speak of the Devil.

If we are talking about someone or something and they suddenly and unexpectedly appear, people say, “Speak of the Devil.”

This is short for something like “Speak of the Devil and he shall appear.”  It is not meant to insult the person who appears, or to call them the Devil.  It is just used to show that the sudden appearance is a strange coincidence.

For example:
A: Did you hear that John is starting a new business?
B: No, I didn’t.  What kind of business is it?
(John suddenly appears)
A: Speak of the Devil.  Why don’t you ask him yourself?

2 – The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.

Imagine a road, or a path leading to Hell, a really bad place that you don’t want to go.  The road is not paved, or covered, with stone or dirt or any other normal material.  Instead, if you walk down that road, you are walking on good intentions.  How did those good intentions get there?

According to one interpretation, people started with good intentions and then abandoned them, moving towards Hell instead.  Thus, good intentions are like a kind of litter on the road to Hell.  So the idiom warns that it is harder to actually do something good rather than simply wish to do something good.  Doing good takes a lot of hard work and so good intentions are easily abandoned.

For example:
John is overweight.  He decides to go on a diet.  Excitedly, he tells his friends that he is going to lose a lot of weight and become thin.

His friend says, “The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.”  That means, “It is easy to say that you are going to lose weight.  But I will believe it when I see it.”

Another interpretation of the idiom is that the good intentions are not litter.  The road to Hell was always made of good intentions.  This implies that even if people try to do good, sometimes it results in bad consequences.

For example:
The country has a large debt and the government tries to reduce the debt by increasing the rate of taxation.  Unfortunately, the increased levels of taxation damage the economy and the country’s debt actually increases.  A newspaper commentator remarks, “The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.”
 

3 – The Devil finds work for idle hands

Idleness is the opposite of activity.  So idle hands are doing nothing.  This idiom is a warning that if you don’t keep busy, then you may be tempted to do evil.
 

Vocabulary:

an interpretation – A way of judging the meaning of something; one possible way of reading something

litter – Rubbish dropped or left about, especially in public

to imply something – To suggest something

a consequence – A result of an action

debt – Money that is owed or must be repaid

 

Devilishly inspired － 恐ろしく見事な －

Have you ever taken a guitar lesson?  It’s fiendishly expensive.  It will typically cost at least 5,000 yen per lesson.  But prices are at least falling.  Back in the 1920s, a lesson with the greatest guitar instructor available cost much more – you had to pay the price of your immortal soul.  And the instructor wouldn’t come to your house, or let you pick the time of day, either.  You had to meet him at the crossroads at midnight.

So goes the legend, anyway.  And the great guitar instructor was of course the Devil himself.

There is a legend surrounding the great blues guitarist Robert Johnson that he sold his soul to the Devil in return for becoming the greatest guitarist in the world.  Unfortunately, if true, the bargain didn’t work out too well for Johnson, since he didn’t become successful in his lifetime and died in poverty at the age of 27 in 1938.  The cause of death has not been clearly established but another blues musician claims that Johnson was poisoned by the husband of a woman he had been flirting with.

The rumours of Johnson making a pact with the Devil may have started because he mastered the guitar very quickly, and because he used to practice by playing in graveyards.  This is probably a reasonable place to play since the residents aren’t in a position to complain!

The legend has also no doubt been helped by several references Johnson makes to the Devil in his lyrics.  Below are extracts from two of his songs, “Me and the Devil blues” and “Hellhound on my trail”.  I’ll leave you to make your own mind up whether he was inspired by the Devil, or just devilishly inspired. 

An extract from “Me and the Devil blues”:
Early this morning, when you knocked upon my door,
And I said, “Hello Satan.  I believe it’s time to go.”
Me and the Devil {were} walking side by side,
And I’m going to beat my woman until I get satisfied.
 

An extract from “Hellhound on my trail”:
I’ve got to keep moving,
Blues falling down like hail,
And the day’s keep on worrying me.
There’s a hellhound on my trail. 

Vocabulary:

devilish, devilishly – This can mean like the Devil, ie. Cruel, evil etc.  Or it can mean very difficult (“the English test was devilishly difficult.”)  It can also mean “very” or “exceedingly”, ie. “He is devilishly handsome.”

fiendish, fiendishly – The same as “devilish” above.  “Fiend” is another word for “Devil” or “demon”.

immortal – undying; something which lives forever

a bargain – a deal; an agreement

to flirt with someone – to make romantic approaches towards or give sexual signals towards someone

a pact – a bargain; an agreement

Satan – The Devil, according to Christian tradition

hail – hard ice, which falls from the sky like rain

a hellhound – Literally, a dog from Hell

 

 

 

 

Arrest that weasel! － あのイタチを逮捕せよ！－

“It wasn’t me.  You can’t prove anything!”

So might say the weasel upon being accused of eating an egg.  According to the Wikipedia entry on weasel words, an account of how weasels eat eggs given in Shakespeare may explain the origin of the term “weasel word”.

Shakespeare claimed that a weasel would suck out the inside of an egg without breaking the shell, thus leaving little evidence that they had eaten it.  So if the animal police came to arrest him, the weasel could put up a good defence.

The Wikipedia article also states that weasels do not eat eggs like this, but it is a good image to use to understand “weasel word”.

Weasel words allow the speaker or writer to avoid taking responsibility for what they are saying or writing.  They dilute the meaning of their statements or suggest an authority that they do not really have.

I was recently listening to some lectures on world history and they were extremely annoying because they were full of weasel words.  Here are some examples that I can remember: 

1 - “The two societies were somewhat similar.”

What does that sentence mean?  Were the two societies similar or not?  The word “somewhat” is a weasel word, allowing the historian to mean that the two societies were very similar, or only a little bit similar.  It would be hard then to prove him wrong! 

2 – “The Roman Empire is often said to have been less culturally innovative than Han China.”

Really?  Who says that?  Are they experts on both the Roman Empire and Han China?  How did they come to their opinion?  Does the speaker of the sentence above agree with what “is often said”?  We don’t know.  Using the passive voice to avoid assigning responsibility for an opinion is a very common form of weasel words. 

3 – “It could be argued that the Roman Empire needed continual expansion to survive.”

Aaargh!  Stop it, stop it!  Did the Roman Empire need continual expansion to survive or didn’t it?  Anything could be argued, but I want to know if that is what you are arguing or not and what evidence you have to support your argument.

Sometimes it is useful to use phrases like “somewhat” or “It could be argued”.  They can demonstrate your lack of certainty about the topic you are discussing, giving the listener warning that perhaps they should check the facts themselves.

But weasel words are not appropriate for scientific articles, historical opinion pieces, news reports etc.  We need to know where the information for these articles was gained in order to properly judge how reliable it is.

The course of lectures I listened to was an amazing achievement which managed to teach almost nothing in 35 half an hour lectures.  I only listened to the end to marvel at how poor the quality was.  There were a lot of reasons for that.  But chief amongst the culprits was the weasel.

Vocabulary:

to suck – to draw (liquid, air, etc.) into the mouth by movements of the tongue and lips.

to dilute something – to reduce the concentration of something.  Strong tasting drinks may be diluted with water to make them easier to drink.

to be innovative – To be good at coming up with new ideas or ways of doing things.

the passive voice – A way of making sentences, which leaves out the subject or puts it at the end.  For example, “It is said...”, “It was built by him.”

to marvel at something – To wonder at something; to be amazed by something.

a culprit – Someone guilty of or responsible for causing a crime, problem etc.