Japanese 101 with Soogi's Story (1)

My name is Soogi. (English)

Boku no namae wa Soogi desu. (Romaji)

ぼく　の　なまえ　は　すぎ　です。 (hiragana)

僕の名前はスギです。 (kanji)

（Note: 僕 and 名前 are kanji, スギ is katakana, all other characters are hiragana）

Here is an explanation of these sentences:

"Boku / ぼく" = the speaker's self. The closest equivalent is "me" but it is not the objective, just a simple noun. "Watashi wa (subjective)" = I, "watashi no (possessive)" = my, "watashi wo (objective)" = me, etc. In kaji, "僕".

It basically means me or I:

Boku: used by boys.

Watashi: used by adults (unisex) and females of all ages. Atashi is used in conversation with common people, a sort of Tokyo dialect.

Ore: used by guys, a bit rough so not used in official talk. Men in conversation with friends usually say "ore".

"no / の" = particle connecting 2 nouns and makes the first noun a modifier of the second.
"Boku (me)" no "namae (name)" = my name
Boku no kuni (country) = my country
Boku no ie (house) = my house, my home, also refers to my family

"Kyo (today" no "tenki (weather)" = today weather = the weather today
"Ashita (tomorrow)" no "yoru (night)" = tomorrow night
"London" no "tomodachi (friend or friends, Japanese do not distinguish singular/plural) = London friend(s) = friend(s) in/from London
"Chicago Bears" no "54" = Chicago Bears #54 = the number 54 of the Chicago Bears. In this case, we usually don't say "Chicago no Bears". We accept the "Chicago Bears" as one proper noun, I think.

"wa / は" = particle connecting words or phrases almost like the symbol of "= (equal)"
Boku wa Soogi: me = Soogi; I'm Soogi

"Kyo" wa "getsuyobi (Monday)": today = Monday; today is Monday

"Fuyu (winter)" wa "samui": winter = cold; the winter is cold


"desu" = be/am. It makes a sentence complete but is often not included in conversations. This word is used in sentences (mostly) with the verb "be" used for nouns and adjectives. I didn't use "desu" in the story to make the sentence sound more like a boy's casual conversation.

"-masu (pronounced "mas")" is another ending which is used for sentences with regular verbs. The sense of "be" or "regular" verbs in Japanese is not exactly the same as English but most them are.

In most cases, the sentence can be understood without "desu" and it is often abbreviated or arranged in conversations. I'll talk about "-masu" later.


"Boku no namae wa Soogi desu" = My name is Soogi
The arrangement of the ending "desu".
"Boku no namae wa Soogi dayo" is how a boys speaks in conversation. If you say this to your boss in the office or to a teacher at school, you'll sound weird and childish. In such a case, use the more formal version: "watashi no namae wa Soogi desu".

"Watashi no namae wa Vanille yo!" This is a girl's way of saying "my name is Vanille". If a male said it this way, it would sound odd. In these two sentences, "dayo" and "yo" indicate the gender of the speaker. ("yo" at the end of a sentence indicates emphasis) Today it's more common for females to adopt the words boys use, but straight males still speak like guys and don't use female words or phrases.

Lesson 1:
Let's make the following sentences.

1) My dog is (a) shepherd (dog = inu, please use the word "shepherd" in English. Japanese do not use "a" "the" and singular / plural)
2) Bears' #54 is Urlacher. (#54 = 54-ban, please use English words for Bears and Urlacher)
3) Christmas is Jesus's birthday. (birthday = tanjoubi)

Lesson 2:
What do the following sentences mean?

1) Urlacher wa Bears no 54-ban desu.
2) Ashita wa kayoubi desu.
3) Serah wa Lightning no imouto desu.


Notes:
Japanese uses 3 different sets of characters (or alphabets): Hiragana, katakana and kanji.

Kanji= Chinese characters. Present mainland China uses arranged (abbreviated) forms of Chinese characters which Japanese cannot read in general. Before the Chinese started to use modern Chinese characters, and when Japanese used Chinese for writing (up to around the late 19th century), Japanese and Chinese could read the both documents. In present society, use and knowledge of kanji represents a kind of intelligence.

Hiragana = phonographic characters. All of the Japanese language can be written in hiragana but misuse and using less kanji generally indicates a lack of education. Using too many kanji characters might be a clue that someone is just showing off. Maybe academic fanatics do this.

Katakana = phonographic characters like hiragana but used mainly for foreign words. I use Soogi in katakana since this is the nickname his western friends have given to him.


1) Urlacher wa Bears no 54-ban desu.
2) Ashita wa kayoubi desu.
3) Serah wa Lightning no imouto desu.

Bokeh 101

Let’s talk about bokeh. I didn’t learn about it in a classroom. It never came up when I was window shopping in Akihabara. For me, understanding came slowly, each time I browsed my favorite photos in Flickr, a website for posting photos and graphics.

Anyone with a Flickr account can take photos of a favorite subject and upload them. Almost every day, I look at these photos. This is how I visit Tokyo these days!  Most of the people I follow on Flickr are living in Japan; Flickr is my portal to Japan.  Bokeh shots happen to be my favorites.

Bokeh is a word of Japanese origin that in one word expresses the concept of using an out-of-focus area of an image to help compose the shot. The photographer can use bokeh to contrast, highlight, or offset the main subject of an image. But bokeh itself can be the main subject too. I think of bokeh as lights, but anything can be the bokeh in a shot. And, although bokeh is a Japanese word, people around the world describe their work as bokeh shots.

This term comes from the following Japanese word: boke (暈け or ボケ), which means blur” or haze”, or boke-aji (ボケ味), the blur quality.” Here is an excellent explanation of bokeh by a photographer, in more technical terms: “Bokeh characteristics may be quantified by examining the image's circle of confusion. In out-of-focus areas, each point of light becomes an image of the aperture, generally a more or less round disc. Depending how a lens is corrected for spherical aberration, the disc may be uniformly illuminated, brighter near the edge, or brighter near the center.” Navigate to the Flickr site and do a search on bokeh. Here are examples of what you will find.

Title Photo by: Eloise Claire

Photo of girl by: achew *Bokehmon*

Photo of reindeer by: Hidesax (Hidehiko Sakashita)

Photo of flowers by: mikenpo

Now, I have an assignment for you. Find a photo in Flickr that uses a bokeh element, then comment on it. Challenge! Find a Japanese photographer (such as Hidesax), and comment on the bokeh photo in Japanese.

Note: You will need to sign up for a free Flickr account to do this.

ナイスショット！ ボケがすごい。 (Nice shot! The bokeh is great.)

これはいい写真です。ボケいいですね～。 (This is a good photo. The bokeh is nice, isn't it.)

One of my favorite contacts on Flickr is Sakashita san, known as "Hidesax." He is a skillful photographer and an expert at taking bokeh pictures, in my opinion. He photographed this reindeer decoration....a little while ago! His caption: "Shot taken tonight in Ageo, Saitama."

For years now, I have enjoyed the photos I find in this site, especially the ones taken of Japan. I add my comments all the time, to say nice job, or thank you for uploading this. Usually much thought is put into composing a photo using bokeh.

A nice comment might make the photographer feel pleased to know people like the work they share. I hope everyone reading this will think about sending a such message of appreciation, too. Please try it!