Rocking in Hakata

This was fascinating for me to hear. This clip is Mark Steyn commenting about the nature of dual language countries and his personal confusion over why any country would choose to become such a place. I teach English as a second language in an area of Japan that honestly doesn’t see much value in English. This leads me to sometimes wonder if I’m actually teaching useful language or merely indulging a quasi-fetishistic view of foreign languages. I’m still not really sure one way or the other and I sway from day to day on the topic. Also, as an immigrant here, I’ve learned Japanese to the best of my ability so that I can go about daily life and have adventures and whatnot. I very rarely feel upset when something is not translated into English (which is actually considerably rare in most of urban Japan) - the only recent exception being a survey for foreign people. But that was no big deal, really. For those who aren’t quite sure what Mr. Steyn’s referencing, Senator Obama was taking questions from the crowd in Georgia recently when someone asked about bilingualism in America, implying that they’d like to see the country move in that direction. Here’s Senator Obama’s reply.

I don’t understand when people are going around saying, ‘We need to have English only.’ They want to pass a law ‘We want English only.’ Now I agree that immigrants should learn English. I agree with that. But understand this. Instead of worrying about whether immigrants can learn English. They’ll learn English. You need to make sure your child can speak Spanish. You should be thinking about how can your child become bilingual. We should have every child speaking more than one language. It’s embarrassing when Europeans come over here, they all speak English, they speak French, they speak German. And then we go over to Europe and all we can say is merci beaucoup, right?
(YouTube)

Now, I’m really not attempting to get into a political brawl here, so let’s just leave the presidential politics at the door. Instead, I’m curious about your thoughts on bilingualism. Or rather, a country’s purposeful transition to multiple mainstream languages. (In other words, I know most of you, like me, are totally thrilled with learning new languages, and we see the value in that as individuals. But what’s your take for society as a whole?) This question also leads into topics like immigrant assimilation and involved communities versus linguistically segregated ones. So…thoughts?

• » Comments (12)

Genghis Khan: Man or Mutton BBQ?

Yes, that Genghis Khan. Or Чингис Хаан, or Chinggis Khaan, Činggis Qaɣan, or just plain Temüjin to his mom. If you’re confused, I’ll explain. It recently came to my attention (again) that the vast majority of my high school students hear this name and think of a dish associated with Hokkaido. It’s basically grilled chunks of mutton, though some dictionaries call it mutton barbecue. You see, if you’re talking about the person, you don’t say ジンギスカン (Jingisukan), you say チンギス・ハーン (Chingisu Haan).

Here are the definitions given by my ancient Canon G50 Wordtank.

ジンギスカン
[人名] Genghis Khan ((アジアの大部分とヨーロッパ東部を征服したモンゴル帝国の始祖；１１６２？－１１２７))
[料理] ジンギスカン鍋 (a) mutton barbecue

Genghis Khan
チンギスハーン, ジンギスカン (成吉思汗) (c. 1162-1227) ((モンゴル帝国の祖(在位1206-27)))

ジンギス-カン
ジンギスカン料理
羊肉の焼肉料理.薄切りの羊肉を,ニンニク,ショウガなどを加えた醤油（しょうゆ）のたれにつけ,独特のなべにのせて焼く.(現)
★蒙古料理を連想させる名だが,現地にはない.北京料理の烤羊肉（カオヤンロウ）の変形.

Now, the same definitions fully in English (romanized to show the differences).

Jingisukan
[Person's Name] Genghis Khan ((The founder of the Mongolian Empire that conquered most of Asia and Eastern Europe; 1162? - 1127))
[Food] Jingisukan Nabe: (a) mutton barbecue

Genghis Khan
Chingisuhaan, Jingisukan (成吉思汗) (c. 1162-1127) ((Founder of the Mongolian Empire (reign 1206-27)))

Jingis-Kan
Jingiskan Cuisine
Grilled meat dish made with mutton. The mutton is cut into thin strips, dipped into a marinade with a soy sauce base and garlic, ginger, etc. added. Then it is grilled on top of a special type of pan. (Modern)
★The name of this dish associates it with Mongolia, but it does not actually exist there. It is simply a variation of the Beijing dish called 烤羊肉 or kaoyanrou.

Note: 成吉思汗 is apparently how the name Genghis Khan is written in old Chinese characters. You can see the original Mongolian script (pulled from Wikipedia) here too, though. In Japanese, these kanji don’t retain the readings necessary to pull the same sounds out. I asked if the were effectively ateji (当て字) or phonetic equivalents, but the answer was that they are not Japanese ateji. But I imagine that somewhere back along the line that they were just phonetic representations of the Mongolian name made with Chinese characters. (Unless his name was “to become, good fortune, thinking, sweat,” that is.)

So, like I was saying, my kids know nothing of the Mongolian Empire or its founder. Instead, this legendary man’s name has become the word that they use to describe a touristy mutton dish fed to people on their class trips to Hokkaido. Awesome. It reminds me of a similar word re-appropriation. This time, a whole group of people. The word is “Viking.” If you’ve been in Japan for any length of time, you’ve probably had a “viking” lunch. (Check the bottom of the disambiguation page for the reference under “Other Uses.”) You see, “viking” means “all you can eat buffet” here. Not the Norsemen with funny helmets who ransacked European port cities and whatnot. No, really. Those guys are ヴァイキング (Vuaikingu). Here are the definitions. I like the extraneous ones entries, sometimes.

Viking: Norse Pillager or Buffet Lunch?

Viking
-n
1 ヴァイキング, ヴィーキング ((8-11　世紀に欧州の北部および西部を略奪した北欧人));[v-]海賊;((口))スカンディナヴィア人
2 ヴァイキング((米国の無人火星探査機；１９７５年に２機打ち上げ))

バイキング
1　[西洋史] a Viking
2 (バイキング料理) (a) smorgasbord; バイキングの店 a buffet-style restaurant offering as much as one can eat for a fixed price

バイキング
1 スカンジナビアに住んでいたノルマン人の異称. ８－１１世紀、船に乗ってヨーロッパ名国を侵略.
2 バイキング料理
バイキング計画 [Project Viking]
NASAの火星無人探査計画.１号は１９７６年７月に、２号は同年９月に打ち上げ、７７年７月軟着陸に成功.火星の極冠が二酸化炭素の氷の他,水氷にも覆われていることなどを発見した.(現)
バイキング料理
食べ放題料理.一定の料金であらかじめ用意された１０－２０種類の料理をセルフサービスで好きなだけ食べられる.(現)北欧のスモーガスボード[smörgåsbord(スカンジナビア式の前菜)]を日本向きに改称,昭和３３年（１９５８）帝国ホテルが始めたのがおこり.

And again, for a romanized half-translation of the above definitions.

Viking
-n
1 vuaikingu, viiking ((Norsemen who pillaged northern and western Europe in the 8-11　centuries)); [v-] pirates; ((slang)) a person from Scandinavia
2 Vaikingu ((American unmanned Martian probe; 2 launched in 1975))

Vaikingu
1　[Western History] a Viking
2 (Viking cuisine) (a) smorgasbord; Viking shop: a buffet-style restaurant offering as much as one can eat for a fixed price

Vaikingu
1 A term used for Normans who lived in Scandinavia. In the 8-11 centuries, {they} rode boats and invaded Europe.
2 Vaikingu Cuisine
Vaikingu Program [Project Viking]
NASA’S unmanned Martian probe program. #1 was launched in July of 1976, and #2 was launched in September of the same year; in July of 1977 they succeeded in making soft landings. They discovered that the Martian polar caps were covered by frozen carbon dioxide, ice, and water, among other things. (Modern)
Vaikingu Cuisine
All you can eat cuisine. For a set price, one can help themselves to anything they like from a selection of 10-12 dishes prepared beforehand. (Modern) Northern Europe’s smorgasbord [smörgåsbord (Scandinavian style hors d'ouevres)], renamed to suit Japan. The Imperial Hotel started the trend in Showa 33 (1958).

Fascinating what you learn when you look stuff up. Anyhoo - if you know of any other interesting changes, leave them in the comments. (But remember - Japan has no monopoly on turning people and people groups into foods, so feel free to include any country’s additions.)

• » Comments (10)

Well, it’s that time of year again, folks. When the insects not only outnumber, but outshine the people in volume too. They get mighty talkative in the summer months, you see. Many of the chirp or sing or warble or otherwise make noise as proudly as possible at this time. Here’s a happy bug outside on my balcony, just as loud as can be. He was singing alone, but usually you hear them in choruses. Hundreds making the same patterns over and over. If you look carefully, you can see that the undulations of his body match the pitches you hear. Good vibrations? I’m not an entomologist, but I’d wager that those vibrations are the bug version of “How you doin’?” Anyway, thought I’d share. Sorry about the hand held camera shot.

• » Comments (6)

Short one today. Obviously, from this week’s Batman post, I’m hoping to catch The Dark Knight here in Japan. But what would really rule is if I could find an IMAX theater somewhere. I did some poking around online and I came up with….squat. I found some site that claimed that X percentage of the digital projectors leased to theaters were in Japan, another one that looked like it was built by me 13 years ago in Microsoft Frontpage and basically had the word Osaka in red and then a bunch of images that don’t load (though it lacked background music), and I even struck out on the official IMAX site. It lists no theaters in Japan. What gives? Is there not an IMAX anywhere in this country? I mean, sure, I’ll settle for a smaller screen, but I’d love to see films that were meant for the big big screen on the BIG BIG screen. Know what I mean?

• » Comments (10)

I am insanely addicted to this type of banana soy milk. How addicted you ask? Addicted enough to buy 12 small ones at a time because I cannot buy them on my island. Addicted enough to go to the websites I found mentioned in small print on the packaging to try and find out whether a larger container of it is available for purchase. It is really, really good. I hit these two sites: Tamabijin, the Honda Trading page about soy cultivation and importation, and Kibun Food Chemifa [sic], the folks who make the banana soy milk drinks with said soy - though they are apparently not proud enough to actually list the glorious banana drink on their products page. What gives?

Well, guess what I discovered? This beloved banana soy milk concoction is made with American soybeans. Beans from southern Michigan and Ohio, to be precise. Japan’s a huge soybean producer, right? I mean, the number one condiment associated with Japanese food is soy sauce, right? And tofu is a huge deal here too, right? So Japan’s gotta be big in the soybean market, right? WRONG. Surprisingly wrong. While Brazil comes in at a very close second place, America dominates the field. (U.S.A.! U.S.A.!) I was really bewildered when I discovered this fact. Granted, I’m from South Carolina - our agriculture tends to gravitate around corn, cotton and tobacco cultivation. (Though chicken, turkey, and cattle pull in gobs of money for us - the majority, actually. I’m discussing crops, so I’m ignoring them.) So maybe my soy ignorance is forgivable.

According to this animation put together by a consulting group, in 1961 America had a 69% share in the global soybean market. That’s nuts. (Soy nuts, even.) In 1972 it topped out at 74% of the market, and as of 2005, it sits at 40% of the global market. Wow. I had no idea. And according to the most recent data available, America produces 66,780,000 metric tons of the total 184,560,000 metric tons produced globally. Not bad. Japan, number 17 on the list of producers, contributes 230,000 tons. I guess that means that it would be way cheaper to buy American soy for banana drink purposes than domestic soy. (And I have no idea about governmental price controls for soybeans here, but I know that they do it with rice. In my opinions that hurts Japan’s agriculture and just makes the farmers dependent on government. But I digress.) Interesting stuff.

By the way, there are no large sizes that I can find. I went to the Kibun Soy Milk Lineup page, too, but they only offer the banana delight in 200 ml singles or 3 packs. However, it seems you CAN buy cases of 18 small ones online for delivery from retailers. (Yay for the Kibun-approved link to Rakuten!) Hmmmm…

• » Comments (7)