また、明日。

Another observation is that Japan does not have an Army as such. It is the Japan Self-Defense Ground Force with missions and capabilities commensurate to defending the homeland, domestic civil relief,  and international peace cooperation and having no power projection capabilities (http://www.mod.go.jp/gsdf/). This is a result of the conclusion of World War II. By the same token, there is neither a Navy nor Air Force but rather a Maritime Self Defense Force and an Air Self Defense Force (http://www.mod.go.jp/msdf/ & http://www.mod.go.jp/asdf/).

Finally, the particulars on the modern rank structure. A JGSDF captain is now 一等 陸尉 which seems to transliterate to first class land officer. The next rank is 三等 陸佐 or major, which seems to transliterate to third-class land assistant. It is interesting that the election has been for a numerically-based 三等、二等、一等 system to replace the old 少、中、大 system.  More egalitarian and less bellicose, I suppose.  (http://www.uniforminsignia.org/).  Other than this and the interposition of 陸 between this and 尉 or 佐, as appropriate, it is exactly the same as past practice. Oh, and the rank immediately below is 二等 陸尉 or first lieutenant. I am aware that this looks counter- intuitive.  The number in Japanese is two and I have used the term first, implying a one. For the Japanese rank, the two speaks for the second rank amongst junior officers. The term first lieutenant implies the senior- most lieutenant in the command, or at least one with some seniority.  There is a historical basis for this but I’ll only bore you to death…

If the discussion had to do with the JMSDF, then just replace 陸 with 海, land for ocean. It is all perfectly logical…

just gone through - maybe it was my computer.
yoroshiku onegai shimasu!

mikuji

is there a problem with posting? I had just posted a reply on this page but it is not showing up.

Is this because thereis a lag while waiting for moderation? It does not seem to apply to other parts of the site (e.g. blog).

Please advice

mikuji

Strictly speaking, should the title not be: ‘’who is watching whom?’

Francisco-san,

Here are my suggestions for building a personalised phrase book, building on the other excellent other suggestions already given above:

step 0:
learn hiragana! it can be done in a weekend and it is absolutely essential!

step 1:
make a list of WORDS and EXPRESSIONS you think you are going to need, in ENGLISH

step 2:
go on www.alc.co.jp and put them WHOLE or SIMPLIFIED phrase into the search field and press the search button [the search field is obvious from the way the page is laid out]

step 3:
see what comes up and ask you girlfriend to point out the phrase/s which sound more natural out of those that look simple enough to remember(or pick the ones that feel more natura to you).

NOTE: you can also cut an paste a JAPANESE phrase you find and get the alc search to retranslate it back to you, so you get a feel for the level of formality and also obtain more literal translation

step4:
use rikaichan or popsyo to reveal the kana equivalent of the phrases so you can learn the pronunciation.

step5 (last but not least!):
browse the relevant japanesepod101.com lessons in the survival, beginner and season 2 beginner series. and listen to those that are most suitable - this gives you listening practice. I do not recall any on the subject of ‘meet the inlaws’ though!

You can go a long way with the above procedure.

If you wish to know how the the language works a bit more in detail you can do what I did the couple of months before touring japan [admittedly only for one week] with no help from any native speaker.

I used the Oxford Take off in Japanese course (see link below), which is a bit more compact that the Japanesepod101.com material but uses similar ideas(soap opera to help).

http://www.amazon.ca/Oxford-Take-Off-Japanese-Cassettes/dp/0198602782

Let us know how it goes! and don’t forget to let the JPOD team know if approaching their lessons from a such a specific stand point yielded useful material.

Cheers!

mikuji

I think in the military sense, it means understanding and compliance.

Another great show today! I’ve finally caught up after being behind for months, thanks to the recent week’s break and the holiday episodes over Christmas. Phew!

Anyway, regarding the military ranks, I use this as a reference to them:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Military_characters_of_the_Fullmetal_Alchemist_anime#Military_Ranks

It’s written for a particular anime (and a very good one at that), but also has the romaji for each of the ranks. The one difference, as the text says, is that they don’t have Captain before Major.

But then you know Captain (taii) anyway from the dialogue

Boy, you dated yourself with the bit about using 了解(りょうかい) instead of having to write 分かりました in text messaging. I don’t have to write more than わ before the choices pop up for me and I scroll for it.

みなさん、

Have you been visiting the blog? It’s being updated several times a week. I hope you’ll read my “Samurai Theologian in Tokyo” series there and leave lots of comments. Please go there and check out my latest on Kua’Aina:
http://blogs.japanesepod101.com/blog/category/samurai-theologian/

さらば！

I guess I’ll have to bank on that bit about how foreigners speaking Japanese is just like dogs talking: it’s not that they do it well, it’s that they do it AT ALL!

In honesty, I find it all quite fun. One nice thing is that my in-laws are coming to Europe to meet us, so I have home court advantage!

One not so nice thing is that Kyushu dialect is…erm…peculiar, no?

Anyway, for now I wake up each morning looking forward to my time with Jpod101, so that’s a good thing.

I’ved another trip planned for this autumn It was going to be this spring, but life is complicated at the moment.

Alan-san, nice tip for the trip. As for me, I know I will be speechless…..
Just thinking about trip to Japan, it makes me nervous.