I have just started my first year at Princeton University as an AB student. Being an AB student means that I have a language requirement to fulfill, and instead of continuing to learn Spanish, I decided to start learning Japanese.
I don't really have a special reason for wanting to take Japanese; I just always thought that it was a pretty language to speak and write. However, other reasons for wanting to learn the language include words such as komorebi (木漏れ日).
Komorebi (木漏れ日) is an exclusively Japanese word that means "sunlight filtering through the trees." When I discovered this word through a friend of mine, I came to the realization that there are so many untranslatable words out there with beautiful meaning. Japanese isn't the only language with untranslatable words, but I hope that learning this language will lead me to learning more languages and more untranslatable words across the globe.
So far, JPN 101 is a lot more intensive than I thought it would be. Even from the very first day, the professor made us speak and talk to our classmates in Japanese. It hasn't been overwhelming, but it's definitely much more fast-paced than what I expected.
I'm looking forward to see how much my currently non-existent Japanese skills improve throughout the semester, and throughout the year.
こんにちは、こちらはゆきです！
ReplyDeleteキムさん、I saw your comment under my blog, ありがとう！
This phrase, 木漏れ日, is really beautiful, and there are a whole bunch of other phrases in Japanese look like that as well! I learned this word when I played a game called CLANNAD, and the TV version of it has a song named 木漏れ日, which is really beautiful.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DW63f0IpmI
Talk about the beauty of Japanese, I really have a lot to share with you! But there's not too much time for me to talk about it! I guess I'll talk about few about the colors. They really have a lot of unique words to describe color. For example, I use fountain pens a lot, and there's a ink series of PILOT called "いろしずく" 色雫。The color names are just amazing: 天色、紺碧、夕焼け[especially this one that describes the burning color of sunset]... I felt those colors are just gorgeous to use . There is also a set of pencil by Felissimo, a Japanese brand, that has 500 different color of pencils and each one own a special and unique name! The colors, are called 寒空の三日月、白百合のつぼみ、ランプの灯火。。。 I just can't find any other languages that have so many detailed and sensible 繊細な word to describe colors.
http://www.felissimo.co.jp/asia/feature/index.cfm?lang_id=en&cid=47639
Hope that you can learn a lot about the beauty of Japanese words!