Japanese is really a very interesting language. It uses 4 completely different writing systems all mixed together: hiragana, katakana, kanji, and romaji. There are thousands of kanji, but only about 3000 in common use, about 110 kana (Hiragana and Katakana together), and 26 romaji. That’s a lot!
A brief overview of Japanese
Kanji are Chinese characters and are ideograms, that is they are pictures that directly mean a concept or word (Not exactly true, as any Chinese or Japanese linguist will tell you, but close enough for this overview). Hiragana are the more curved, pretty Japanese characters you will see and are used mainly to conjugate kanji words or spell out words for which the kanji is a little too complicated to use. Katakana are the straight, angular, simple strokes that are used mainly for foreign words and for emphasis. Finally, romaji is the latin based alphabet most Western languages use.
(That sentence means “The dog barked”)
Wait!, there’s more. There are at least two main systems of romanization being used in Japan today, so this adds a bit of a challenge to using romaji. All this makes Japanese incredibly tough, but at the same time it is so interesting it keeps pulling one back to learn more.
Phew!
As if all this wasn’t hard enough, the Japanese have also developed a way of using numbers for words.
Using numbers as words
Each number in Japan has at least two main pronunciations, the Chinese and the Japanese, and these can be combined in ways to give even the most seemingly random jumble of numbers meaning. Many businesses pick their phone number, for example, based on what message can be read from the numbers.
Some examples:
- The number for JAL international is 0120−25−5931. The 0120 just is a normal toll-free prefix so we can ignore it, but 25 – 5931 can be read nikko kokusai which means “JAL international”.
- The number 25 – 5971 means nikko kokunai, or “JAL domestic”.
- An easier example: 014‑0831 can be read oishii yasai or “Delicious vegetables”.
Neat, huh?
Now because of all this, many dates take on special meanings for people. Today is the perfect example. Today is November 22nd. This can be read as ii fuufu, which means “good couple”, or a married couple who are very close to each other, so today is Good Couples Day. Another example would be 29, which can be read as niku, or “meat”. So often supermarkets will have a sale on meat on the 29th.
Using these tricks, car license plates can take on entirely new meanings!
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Japanese language is so difficult. I wish I knew it better. My 4 year-old speaks it fluently. I only know a few words. .-= Tornadoes28
You and me both! Mine is alright, but not great, and it could be a lot better. You know it’s one of those things, the more Japanese you know, the more you realize you don’t know and the less fluent you feel!
I hadn’t heard of the use of numbers. That’s pretty cool. I won’t look at numbers the same again!
Learn something new every day. .-= PoolofZen
It’s amazingly common. Next time you see an ad in Japan with a phone number, you can bet that number has a special message in it. It never stops surprising me how clever some of these are when Japanese people point them out to me. I saw a car pass by the other day.. 084 on their license plate. My friend informed me that car just greeted me! 084.. o-ha-yo
Japanese language is so difficult. I wish I knew it better. My 4 year-old speaks it fluently. I only know a few words. .-= Tornadoes28
You and me both! Mine is alright, but not great, and it could be a lot better. You know it’s one of those things, the more Japanese you know, the more you realize you don’t know and the less fluent you feel!
I hadn’t heard of the use of numbers. That’s pretty cool. I won’t look at numbers the same again!
Learn something new every day. .-= PoolofZen
It’s amazingly common. Next time you see an ad in Japan with a phone number, you can bet that number has a special message in it. It never stops surprising me how clever some of these are when Japanese people point them out to me. I saw a car pass by the other day.. 084 on their license plate. My friend informed me that car just greeted me! 084.. o-ha-yo
Another one… 4219 — to go to die. 4 2 1 9 shi-ni-i-ku
Actually, it’s not really something you’d use everyday, is it? .-= kyushudan
*edited by me to replace the Japanese characters with romaji. I guess my current wordpress theme doesn’t support Japanese in comments. Maybe. Right now it’s not worth looking into, but if it becomes a bigger problem, I’ll try to fix it.
Another one… 4219 — to go to die. 4 2 1 9 shi-ni-i-ku
Actually, it’s not really something you’d use everyday, is it? .-= kyushudan
*edited by me to replace the Japanese characters with romaji. I guess my current wordpress theme doesn’t support Japanese in comments. Maybe. Right now it’s not worth looking into, but if it becomes a bigger problem, I’ll try to fix it.
ah yes shiniiku.… — for some reason I can’t see the Japanese Characters while I’m on this site…
I like the ohayou! pretty funny. My Japanese friends are always surprised when I point out American ‘Vanity’ plates.… I’ll have to ask them if they are aware of their own version.….…. .-= PoolofZen
It’s pretty amusing when you get into looking for them. Whenever I am out with Japanese people and conversation dies down, we start to “license plate watch” so to speak. For obviously reasons, my Japanese friends are much better at this game than I am. You can find some pretty funny messages if you start looking.
ah yes shiniiku.… — for some reason I can’t see the Japanese Characters while I’m on this site…
I like the ohayou! pretty funny. My Japanese friends are always surprised when I point out American ‘Vanity’ plates.… I’ll have to ask them if they are aware of their own version.….…. .-= PoolofZen
It’s pretty amusing when you get into looking for them. Whenever I am out with Japanese people and conversation dies down, we start to “license plate watch” so to speak. For obviously reasons, my Japanese friends are much better at this game than I am. You can find some pretty funny messages if you start looking.