The Thirty Articles of the United Nations

The Thirty Articles of the United Nations
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Purpose: To make them aware of their thirty basic rights from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights so they know them, grant them to others, and defend them for themselves. This area will focus on fourteen of the articles. The students should know there are more rights then the ones gone over and they should read the rest of the booklet. Words from these articles are also included in the glossary, in case the students have questions when reading the booklet on their own.

Note: Make sure they understand the words in each article so that the concept is clear to them. With each article that is gone over here, there are activities to do in regards to them to help make the concepts of the articles real to them. These are suggested activities but if you find that one will not suit your classroom, you are welcome to create one that would better suit your students.



Article 1 — We are all free and equal — We are all born free. We all have our own thoughts and ideas. We should all be treated in the same way.

1. Go over the definition of free.

2. Go over the definition of equal.

3. Have them read and understand Article 1 from What are Human Rights?

4. Split the class into two equal groups. Title one group, "The Elites" and the other group "The Normals". Give "The Elites" special privileges for no apparent reason (not because they did something to earn it, just because you feel like it). These privileges can include things like taking bathroom breaks whenever they please or getting to chose where they sit and by whom. Do this for half the time period allotted for this activity, whether a day or a few hours, with "The Normals" being aware of these privileges but receiving none themselves. For the second half of the activity switch the groups so that "The Elites" are "The Normals" and vice versa. Do this with no prior warning that it will happen at the beginning of the activity.

5. Have the students write a brief essay about how this made them feel and why it is important that everyone be treated as free and equal.



Article 2 — Don't discriminate — These rights belong to everybody, whatever our differences.

1. Go over the definition of discriminate.

2. Go over the definition of difference.

3. Have them read and understand Article 2 from What are Human Rights?

4. Using what they remember from the example of "Hamburger Guys" and "Pizza Guys," have the students draw two pictures, one example of discrimination and one example of people of all kinds getting along and accepting each other.



Article 4 — Slavery — past and present — nobody has any right to make us a slave. We cannot make anyone our slave.

1. Go over the definition of slavery with them.

2. Have them read and understand Article 4 from What are Human Rights?

3. Split the class into pairs. For half the day or half a selected time period for this activity, have one child be the slave of the other (making sure no physical roughness is used by the students). Switch for the other half of the day.

4. Discuss with the students what it was like to be a slave and if they think that people should have to live that way and be subject to physical harm.



Article 5 — Torture — nobody has any right to hurt us or to torture us.

1. Go over the definition of torture with them.

2. Have them read and understand Article 5 from What are Human Rights?

3. Have the students write a poem about why they feel torture is bad and should not be allowed.

4. Go over the points they bring up in their poems and allow any who wish it to read their poem to the class.



Article 11 — Innocent until proven guilty — nobody should be blamed for doing something until it is proven. When people say we did a bad thing we have the right to show it is not true.

1. Go over the definition of innocent with them.

2. Go over the definition of guilty with them.

3. Have them read and understand Article 11 from What are Human Rights?

4. Set up a mock crime in front of the class with some selected students, make it so that one of the students is wrongfully framed for the crime. Something like Joe kills Bob but makes it look like Sally did it. Then have Sally arrested and thrown in jail with no trial. Discuss with the students why this is unfair to Sally and how this allows Joe to go free.

5. Next, with the same crime scene, have Sally given a fair trial (setting the students up as jury and judge) and have it proven through evidence that Joe did it and have Joe thrown in jail and Sally let free. Discuss with the students how this is fair Sally is free as she should be and Joe is in jail as he should be.



Article 12 — The right to privacy — nobody should try to harm our good name. Nobody has the right to come into our home, open our letters, or bother us or our family without a good reason.

1. Go over the definition of privacy with them.

2. Go over the definition of good name with them.

3. Have them read and understand Article 12 from What are Human Rights?

4. Have the students write an essay as to why they wouldn't want their privacy violated and wouldn't want people going through their private stuff without their permission.

5. Go over what they would consider a "good reason" that someone could search one's private property. Make sure they are aware of search warrants and special conditions in which private property may be searched for legal and safety reasons.



Article 18 — Freedom of thought — we all have the right to believe in what we want to believe, to have a religion, or to change it if we want.

1. Have them read and understand Article 18 from What are Human Rights?

2. Split the classroom into several groups of about five students depending on the size of your class. Have each group get together and create a play that has two parts, the first part would be an example of being in a group (they can create what they wish) where one cannot think or believe what they want. Maybe there is one person in charge and only he decides what the group thinks, or something along this line. The second half will be the same group but this time the family members are free to believe what they want.



Article 19 — Free to say what you want — we all have the right to make up our own minds, to think what we like, to say what we think, and to share our ideas with other people.

1. Have them read and understand Article 19 from What are Human Rights?

2. Have the students research and bring in examples of people freely expressing themselves, perhaps from magazines or newspapers. Have them go over this the next day and talk about why it is better for people to be able to say what they think than not being allowed to express oneself.



Article 23 — Workers' rights — every grown-up has the right to do a job, to fair wage for their work, and to join a trade union.

1. Go over the definition of wage with them.

2. Go over the definition of trade union with them .

3. Have them read and understand Article 23 from What are Human Rights?

4. Give each student a specific job around the classroom and have them perform this task for the day. Give them fake money for pay. Chose a select few and tell some of them they are not allowed to work. Give them a low wage compared to the others. After a few hours of this, have the students who where pulled aside speak about what it was like to not be allowed to work or get a low wage.



Article 24 — The right to play — we all have the right to rest from work and to relax.

1. Have them read and understand Article 24 from What are Human Rights?

2. Have the students write a short essay about why the right to play is important and what it would be like if they had to work ALL day and only had a few hours at night to sleep, leaving no time to play.



Article 25 — A bed and some food — we all have the right to a good life. Mothers and children, people who are old, unemployed or disabled, all have the right to be cared for.

1. Have them read and understand Article 25 from What are Human Rights?

2. Have the students write poems to people in third world countries who have no homes and can't afford proper housing.



Article 26 — The right to education — education is a right. Primary school should be free. We should learn about the United Nations and how to get on with others. Our parents can choose what we learn.

1. Go over the definition of primary school with them.

2. Have them read and understand Article 26 from What are Human Rights?

3. Pick five students at random. Have them get together and create a made up language. In this language, that only they know, have them write a set of rules. They will then tell the other students these rules and they must follow them. The other students are not to be educated in the language and therefore cannot read the rules. Let the five students add and subtract to the rules as they please for a period of time.

4. Bring the students back together and have them go over what it would be like to live in a country without being educated so that you could not even read the laws of the land and see if they were being violated.



Article 29 — Our responsibilities — we have a duty to other people, and we should protect their rights and freedoms.

1. Go over the definition of responsibility with them.

2. Go over the definition of duty with them.

3. Have them read and understand Article 29 from What are Human Rights?

4. Set the class room up into a pretend village, with people playing various roles. Chose one student and have him yell "Fire!" so that the others run out of the room.

5. Bring the students together again and ask them whether it was correct for this student to use his right to free speech to scare others and cause them to panic or possibly get hurt. Help them realize that one should not only protect and defend their rights but also not impede other's rights or cause harm to others through their rights.



Article 30 — Nobody can take away these rights and freedoms from us.

1. Have them read and understand Article 30 from What are Human Rights?

2. Have the students write a short essay as to why it is important that everyone be granted these rights and why they should not be taken away. Have them add to the end of this essay which right they like the most. This can include rights not gone over in this course but read separately in the booklet.

Human Rights

Every person is entitled to certain rights – simply by the fact that they are a human being. They are "rights" because they are things you are allowed to be, to do or to have. These rights are there for your protection against people who might want to harm or hurt you. They are also there to help us get along with each other and live in peace.

Many people know something about their rights. They know they have a right to be paid for the work they do and they have a right to vote. But there exist many other rights.

When human rights are not well known by people, abuses such as discrimination, intolerance, injustice, oppression and slavery can arise.

Born out of the atrocities and enormous loss of life during World War II, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was created by the United Nations to provide a common understanding of what everyone’s rights are. It forms the basis for a world built on freedom, justice and peace.



Educators
Glossary
Abuse
treat with cruelty or violence. To use something for a bad purpose or wrongly.
Advocate
somebody who publicly supports or says good things about something.
Afford
to have money enough to spare for. Also be able to buy — to be able to meet the cost of something.
Affordable
inexpensive; reasonably priced.
Asylum
a place where one is safe and secure.
Court
a place where law trials are held. Also a meeting of all the persons who are to seek justice in a law case, including the judge or judges, the lawyers, and jury.
Culture
the ideas, skills, arts, tools, and way of life of a certain group of people.
Declaration
a public statement; announcement.
Defend
to keep safe from harm or danger; guard; protect.
Democracy
government in which the people hold the ruling power, usually giving it over to representatives whom they elect to make the laws and run the government.
Detain
to keep from going; to keep for a while in custody; confine.
Difference
a way in which people or things are not alike.
Discriminate
to treat one person or group worse than others or better than others, usually because of vested interests, prejudice about race, ethnic group, age group, religion, or gender.
Duty
something that a person should do because it is thought to be right, just, or moral.
Equal
having the same rights, ability, or opportunities as another.
Ethnic
having to do with a certain group, often from a specific area, that has the same culture.
Fair
just and honest; according to what is right.
Free
not under the control of another; not a slave or not in prison.
Freedom
the condition of being free; liberty; independence. Also the condition of being able to use or move about as desired.
Good name
somebody's reputation for honesty and integrity.
Guilty
having done something wrong; being to blame for something. Also judged in court as a wrongdoer.
Human
having to do with or belonging to people in general.
Innocent
not guilty of some crime or sin; blameless.
International
having to do with two or more countries.
Law
all the rules that tell people what they must or must not do, made by the government of a city, state, nation, etc.
Life
existence in the physical world. Also whole time somebody is alive.
Nation
a group of people living together in a certain area under the same government; state; country.
Nationality
the condition of belonging to a certain nation by having been born there or by having been made a citizen of it. Also a national group, especially of immigrants in their new country.
Non-governmental
(NGO) not governmental. NGOs are groups that are not part of the government but usually work with the government to improve things in the world.
Prejudice
deciding something about someone, especially bad, before knowing them. Disliking someone without a good reason, especially disliking them because of what they look like, where they are from or what group they are a part of, without actually knowing anything about them.
Primary school
primary (first in time or order; basic) + school. Also a school at which children receive their first formal education.
Prison
a place where people are kept locked up. Also a building with cells for locking up people who have done crimes or people awaiting a trial.
Privacy
the state or condition of being free from being observed or disturbed by other people.
Protect
to guard or defend against harm or danger; shield.
Responsibility
the state, fact, or position of being accountable to somebody or for something. Also a thing or person to be taken care of or looked after.
Rights
something you are allowed to be. Something you are allowed to do or receive; a freedom to do something.
Roosevelt, Eleanor
wife of former U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. She was in charge of the group that made the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Search warrant
a paper given by a court that gives people like the police permission to search someone's property.
Slavery
slave (a person owned by another person who has no freedom at all), a condition of being a slave; bondage.
Social security
a governmental system that provides benefits to retired persons, the unemployed, and the disabled. Also any government system that provides money assistance to people with inadequate or no income.
Tolerance
the accepting of the differing views of other people and fairness toward the people who hold these different views.
Torture
the act of greatly hurting someone on purpose, as a punishment or to cause the person to confess to something.
To try someone
to take someone to trial or court. Also to examine or investigate in court.
Trade union
An organized group of workers in a trade (a skilled job, typically one requiring skills and special training), group of trades, or profession, formed to protect and further their rights and interest.
Trial
the act of hearing a case in a law court to decide whether a claim or charge is true. Also a formal examination of evidence by a judge, typically before a jury, in order to decide guilt in a case.
United
joined together in one; combined. Also joined together for a common purpose, or by common feelings.
Universal
of, for, or by all people; concerning everyone.
Wage
money paid to an employee for work done.

Science and Pseudoscience (transcript)

[NB The following transcript of the talk contains additional passages that Lakatos subsequently included in the text version of his talk published in Philosophy in the Open and in The Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes: Philosophical Papers Volume 1. They are highlighted in italics within square brackets. Other passages he omitted from the published text are emboldened.]

Man's respect for knowledge is one of his most peculiar characteristics. Knowledge in Latin is scientia, and science came to be the name of the most respectable kind of knowledge. But what distinguishes knowledge from superstition, ideology or pseudoscience? The Catholic Church excommunicated Copernicans, the Communist Party persecuted Mendelians on the ground that their doctrines were pseudoscientific. But then the problem of the demarcation between science and pseudoscience is not merely a problem of armchair philosophy: it is of vital social and political relevance.

Many philosophers have tried to solve the problem of demarcation in the following terms: a statement constitutes knowledge if sufficiently many people believe it sufficiently strongly. But the history of thought shows us that many people were totally committed to absurd beliefs. If the strengths of beliefs were a hallmark of knowledge, we should have to rank some tales about demons, angels, devils, and of heaven and hell as knowledge. Scientists, on the other hand, are very sceptical even of their best theories. Newton's is the most powerful theory science has yet produced, but Newton himself never believed that bodies attract each other at a distance. So no degree of commitment to beliefs makes them knowledge. Indeed, the hallmark of scientific behaviour is a certain scepticism even towards one's most cherished theories. Blind commitment to a theory is not an intellectual virtue: it is an intellectual crime.

Thus a statement may be pseudoscientific even if it is eminently 'plausible' and everybody believes in it, and it may be scientifically valuable even if it is unbelievable and nobody believes in it. A theory may even be of supreme scientific value even if no one understands it, let alone believes in it.

The cognitive value of a theory has nothing to do with its psychological influence on people's minds. Belief, commitment, understanding are states of the human mind. But the objective, scientific value of a theory is independent of the human mind which creates it or understands it. Its scientific value depends only on what objective support these conjectures have in facts. As Hume said:

If we take in our hand any volume; of divinity, or school metaphysics, for instance; let us ask, does it contain any abstract reasoning concerning quantity or number? No. Does it contain any experimental reasoning concerning matter of fact and existence? No. Commit it then to the flames. For it can contain nothing but sophistry and illusion.

But what exactly is 'experimental' reasoning? [If we look at the vast seventeenth-century literature on witchcraft, it is full of reports of careful observations and sworn evidence - even of experiments. Glanvill, the house philosopher of the early Royal Society, regarded witchcraft as the paradigm of experimental reasoning. We have to define experimental reasoning before we start Humean book burning.]

In scientific reasoning, theories are confronted with facts; and one of the central conditions of scientific reasoning is that theories must be supported by facts. Now how exactly can facts support theory?

Several different answers have been proposed. Newton himself thought that he proved his laws from facts. [He was proud of not uttering mere hypotheses: he only published theories proven from facts. In particular,] He claimed that he deduced his laws from the 'phenomena' provided by Kepler. But his boast was nonsense, since according to Kepler, planets move in ellipses, but according to Newton's theory, planets would move in ellipses only if the planets did not disturb each other in their motion. But they do. This is why Newton had to devise a perturbation theory from which it follows that no planet moves in an ellipse.

One can today easily demonstrate that there can be no valid derivation of a law of nature from any finite number of facts; but we still keep reading about scientific theories being proved from facts. Why this stubborn resistance to elementary logic?

There is a very plausible explanation. Scientists want to make their theories respectable, deserving of the title 'science', that is, genuine knowledge. Now the most relevant knowledge in the seventeenth century, when science was born, concerned God, the Devil, Heaven and Hell. If one got one's conjectures about matters of divinity wrong, the consequence of one's mistake was no less than eternal damnation. Theological knowledge cannot be fallible: it must be beyond doubt. Now the Enlightenment thought that we were fallible and ignorant about matters theological. There is no scientific theology and, therefore, no theological knowledge. Knowledge can only be about Nature, but this new type of knowledge had to be judged by the standards they took over straight from theology: it had to be proven beyond doubt. Science had to achieve the very certainty which had escaped theology. A scientist, worthy of the name, was not allowed to guess: he had to prove each sentence he uttered from facts. This was the criterion of scientific honesty. Theories unproven from facts were regarded as sinful pseudoscience, heresy in the scientific community.

It was only the downfall of Newtonian theory in this century which made scientists realize that their standards of honesty had been utopian. [Before Einstein most scientists thought that Newton had deciphered God's ultimate laws by proving them from the facts. Ampère, in the early nineteenth century, felt he had to call his book on his speculations concerning electromagnetism: Mathematical Theory of Electrodynamic Phenomena Unequivocally Deduced from Experiment. But at the end of the volume he casually confesses that some of the experiments were never performed and even that the necessary instruments had not been constructed! ] If all scientific theories are equally unprovable, what distinguishes scientific knowledge from ignorance, science from pseudoscience?

One answer to this question was provided in the twentieth century by 'inductive logicians'. Inductive logic set out to define the probabilities of different theories according to the available total evidence. If the mathematical probability of a theory is high, it qualifies as scientific; if it is low or even zero, it is not scientific. Thus the hallmark of scientific honesty would be never to say anything that is not at least highly probable. [ Probabilism has an attractive feature: instead of simply providing a black-and-white distinction between science and pseudoscience, it provides a continuous scale from poor theories with low probability to good theories with high probability.]

But, in 1934, Karl Popper, one of the most influential philosophers of our time, argued that the mathematical probability of all theories, scientific or pseudoscientific, given any amount of evidence is zero. If Popper is right, scientific theories are not only equally unprovable but also equally improbable.

A new demarcation criterion was needed and Popper proposed a rather stunning one.[ A theory may be scientific even if there is not a shred of evidence in its favour, and it may be pseudoscientific even if all the available evidence is in its favour. That is, the scientific or non-scientific character of a theory can be determined independently of the facts.] A theory is 'scientific' if one is prepared to specify in advance a crucial experiment (or observation) which can falsify it, and it is pseudoscientific if one refuses to specify such a 'potential falsifier'. But if so, we do not demarcate scientific theories from pseudoscientific ones, but rather scientific methods from non-scientific method. [Marxism, for a Popperian, is scientific if the Marxists are prepared to specify facts which , if observed, make them give up Marxism. If they refuse to do so, Marxism becomes a pseudoscience. It is always interesting to ask a Marxist, what conceivable event would make him abandon his Marxism. If he is committed to Marxism, he is bound to find it immoral to specify a state of affairs which can falsify it.] Thus a proposition may petrify into pseudo-scientific dogma or become genuine knowledge, depending on whether we are prepared to state observable conditions which would refute it.

Is, then, Popper's falsifiability criterion the solution to the problem of demarcating science from pseudoscience? No. For Popper's criterion ignores the remarkable tenacity of scientific theories. Scientists have thick skins. They do not abandon a theory [merely] because facts contradict it. They normally either invent some rescue hypothesis to explain what they then call a mere anomaly and if they cannot explain the anomaly, they ignore it, and direct their attention to other problems. Note that scientists talk about anomalies, [recalcitrant instances,] and not refutations. History of science, of course, is full of accounts of how crucial experiments allegedly killed theories. But all such accounts are fabricated long after the theory has been abandoned. [Had Popper ever asked a Newtonian scientist under what experimental conditions he would abandon Newtonian theory, some Newtonian scientists would have been exactly as nonplussed as are some Marxists.]

What, then, is the hallmark of science? Do we have to capitulate and agree that a scientific revolution is just an irrational change in commitment, that it is a religious conversion? Tom Kuhn, a distinguished American philosopher of science, arrived at this conclusion after discovering the naivety of Popper's falsificationism. But if Kuhn is right, then there is no explicit demarcation between science and pseudoscience, no distinction between scientific progress and intellectual decay, there is no objective standard of honesty. But what criteria can he then offer to demarcate scientific progress from intellectual degeneration ?

In the last few years I have been advocating a methodology of scientific research programmes, which solves some of the problems which both Popper and Kuhn failed to solve.

First, I claim that the typical descriptive unit of great scientific achievements is not an isolated hypothesis but rather a research programme. [Science is not simply trial and error, a series of conjectures and refutations.] 'All swans are white' may be falsified by the discovery of one black swan. But such trivial trial and error does not rank as science. Newtonian science, for instance, is not simply a set of four conjectures - the three laws of mechanics and the law of gravitation. These four laws constitute only the 'hard core' of the Newtonian programme. But this hard core is tenaciously protected from refutation by a vast 'protective belt' of auxiliary hypotheses. And, even more importantly, the research programme also has a 'heuristic', that is, a powerful problem-solving machinery, which, with the help of sophisticated mathematical techniques, digests anomalies and even turns them into positive evidence. For instance, if a planet does not move exactly as it should, the Newtonian scientist checks his conjectures concerning atmospheric refraction, concerning propagation of light in magnetic storms, and hundreds of other conjectures which are all part of the programme. He may even invent a hitherto unknown planet and calculate its position, mass and velocity in order to explain the anomaly.

Now, Newton's theory of gravitation, Einstein's relativity theory, quantum mechanics, Marxism, Freudism, are all research programmes, each with a characteristic hard core stubbornly defended, each with its more flexible protective belt and each with its elaborate problem-solving machinery. Each of them, at any stage of its development, has unsolved problems and undigested anomalies. All theories, in this sense, are born refuted and die refuted. But are they equally good? Until now I have been describing what research programmes are like. But how can one distinguish a scientific or progressive programme from a pseudoscientific or degenerating one?

Contrary to Popper, the difference cannot be that some are still unrefuted, while others are already refuted. [When Newton published his Principia, it was common knowledge that it could not properly explain even the motion of the moon; in fact, lunar motion refuted Newton.] Kaufmann, a distinguished physicist, refuted Einstein's relativity theory in the very year it was published. But all the research programmes I admire have one characteristic in common. They all predict novel facts, facts which had been either undreamt of, or have indeed been contradicted by previous or rival programmes. In 1686, when Newton published his theory of gravitation, there were, for instance, two current theories concerning comets. The more popular one regarded comets as a signal from an angry God warning that He will strike and bring disaster. A little known theory of Kepler's held that comets were celestial bodies moving along straight lines. Now according to Newtonian theory, some of them moved in hyperbolas or parabolas never to return; others moved in ordinary ellipses. Halley, working in Newton's programme, calculated on the basis of observing a brief stretch of a comet's path that it would return in seventy-two year's time; he calculated to the minute when it would be seen again at a well-defined point of the sky. This was incredible. But seventy-two years later, [when both Newton and Halley were long dead,] Halley's comet returned exactly as Halley predicted. Similarly, Newtonian scientists predicted the existence and exact motion of small planets which had never been observed before. [Or let us take Einstein's programme. This programme made the stunning prediction that if one measures the distance between two stars in the night and if one measure the distance between them during the day (when they are visible during an eclipse of the sun), the two measurements will be different. Nobody had thought to make such an observation before Einstein's programme.] Thus, in a progressive research programme, theory leads to the discovery of hitherto unknown novel facts.

In degenerating programmes, however, theories are fabricated only in order to accommodate known facts. Has, for instance, Marxism ever predicted a stunning novel fact successfully? Never! It has some famous unsuccessful predictions. It predicted the absolute impoverishment of the working class. It predicted that the first socialist revolution would take place in the industrially most developed society. It predicted that socialist societies would be free of revolutions. It predicted that there will be no conflict of interests between socialist countries. Thus the early predictions of Marxism were bold and stunning, but they failed.

Marxism 'explained' all its failures. It 'explained' the rising living standards of the working class by devising a theory of imperialism; it 'explained' even why the first socialist revolution occurred in industrially backward Russia. It 'explained' Berlin 1953, Budapest 1956, Prague 1968. It 'explained' the Russian-Chinese conflict. But their auxiliary hypotheses were all cooked up after the event to protect Marxian theory from the facts. The Newtonian programme led to novel facts; the Marxian programme lagged behind the facts and has been running fast to catch up with them.

To sum up: [The hallmark of empirical progress is not trivial verifications: Popper is right that there are millions of them. It is no success for Newtonian theory that stones, when dropped, fall towards the earth, no matter how often this is repeated. But, ] so-called 'refutations' are not the hallmark of empirical failure, as Popper has preached, since all programmes grow in a permanent ocean of anomalies. What really counts are dramatic, unexpected, stunning predictions: a few of them are enough to tilt the balance; where theory lags behind the facts, we are dealing with miserable degenerating research programmes.

Now, how do scientific revolutions come about? If we have two rival research programmes, and one is progressing while the other is degenerating, scientists tend to join the progressive programme. This is the rationale of scientific revolutions. But while it is a matter of intellectual honesty to keep the record public, it is not dishonest to stick to a degenerating programme and try to turn it into a progressive one.

As opposed to Popper the methodology of scientific research programmes does not offer instant rationality. One must treat budding programmes leniently: programmes may take decades before they get off the ground and become empirically progressive. Criticism is not a Popperian quick kill, by refutation. Important criticism is always constructive: there is no refutation without a better theory. Kuhn is wrong in thinking that scientific revolutions are sudden, irrational changes in vision. [The history of science refutes both Popper and Kuhn: ] On close inspection both Popperian crucial experiments and Kuhnian revolutions turn out to be myths: what normally happens is that progressive research programmes replace degenerating ones.

The problem of demarcation between science and pseudoscience has grave implications also for the institutionalization of criticism. Copernicus's theory was banned by the Catholic Church in 1616 because it was said to be pseudoscientific. It was taken off the index in 1820 because by that time the Church deemed that facts had proved it and therefore it became scientific. The Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party in 1949 declared Mendelian genetics pseudoscientific and had its advocates, like Academician Vavilov, killed in concentration camps; after Vavilov's murder Mendelian genetics was rehabilitated; but the Party's right to decide what is science and publishable and what is pseudoscience and punishable was upheld. The new liberal Establishment of the West also exercises the right to deny freedom of speech to what it regards as pseudoscience, as we have seen in the case of the debate concerning race and intelligence. All these judgments were inevitably based on some sort of demarcation criterion. And this is why the problem of demarcation between science and pseudoscience is not a pseudo-problem of armchair philosophers: it has grave ethical and political implications.

www.lse.ac.uk/collections...anscript.htm

Arigatou. - Thank you. / Thanks.

Recently I went on a business trip to Beijing (formerly known as Peking but still called Peking in Japanese because Cantonese refers to the city as Peking while Mandarin calls it Beijing - go figure) with a co-worker from Hong Kong. She is Hong Kong Chinese and speaks Cantonese, Mandarin, Japanese, English all fluently and now is studying Italian. She moves fluidly from one culture to the next, assimilating quite easily into the language and the lifestyle. I envy her.

While I was in Beijing I had to use a lot of gestures out on the street. Asking for a receipt (particularly useful if you are a business executive on a tight budget and an even tighter salary) with a lot of jumping, pointing, making funny faces, etc. proved challenging. I got by and got what I wanted. We had to get around to various business engagements via cab and do you think I would have been able to do that without the native language?
However, at that time I certainly felt it would be very nice to be able to communicate, even if only rudimentarily, to the locals, expressing my basic needs ("Toire wa doko desu ka?" - remember that?). Very nice indeed.

Well, the business trip ended and as it was only a three day stint it wasn't too bad. I returned to the airport (old Beijing Airport - very old) and waited for the pre-boarding announcement. Across me was sitting one of the most beautiful young women I have ever seen in real life. She was intently working on something, writing in a notebook. I didn't want to seem like a total jerk so I tried not to stare too hard. Next to her sat a refined gentleman in his middle age with a very trim and proper looking beard and the stature of an aristocrat.

We boarded the plane, all heading back to Osaka and Typhoon No. 18. Sitting next to me at the emergency exit were none other than Mr. Aristocrat and Ms. Beautiful. It turned out that the young woman was on her way back to Australia where she would meet up with her fiance. He had been transferred to Tokyo and she was excitedly working on trying to remember useful phrases for her arrival into Japan.

As we talked I learned that she believed it was of great benefit for her to pick up useful words and phrases that would help her get through her daily life. Often, when we take classes we start from point A, move to B and then on to C, D, E. However in real life when we begin at A often we are tossed over to G or H without any knowledge of how we got there. If our studies are at level C and we need to know something pertaining to G, we are just plain out to ohiru gohan (lunch). My new-found friend was preparing for this leap by making a list of words and phrases that she felt she would need upon first contact. The grammar would come later. After all, who really needs to be able to say, "that red pen in the box over there is my red pen, not yours!"? All you need to do is grab the pen, thumb your nose at your antagonist and walk away with your head held high. Never underestimate the power of gestures. She had the right idea, was going about it exactly the right way, I believe.

In this lesson, what I am NOT going to do is to bother you with grammar. You can get that from Lessons One to Five and also in future lessons. We are parting from the usual for a moment.

In this lesson what I AM going to do is give you some get-down-get-dirty phrases and words that I feel might help you in the trenches. For, after all, if you make a trip to Japan that is where you are going to want to be, right? Who wants to come to an exciting new country and spend over half of the time sitting in a flourescent room studying from dry textbooks? (Well, I did, but that's beside the point - learn from the error of my ways, folks).

If you would like to know some words or phrases that are not listed here, and I am sure there will be many as everyone's situation differs, please ask.

Also, you could greatly help us all out by sending in all the phrases you think would help others, or have helped you in the past. Remember, this doesn't have to be directly related to Japan because when we visit any new country, we are bound to require the same knowledge base in order to communicate our most rudimentary concerns. The language changes but the concept stays the same. So send in your suggestions and I will continually update this page. No profanities please. Onegai shimasu.

Just a quick note: I interchange between "ha" and "wa". Never really sure which one to use. Technically it should be "ha" because the character for this is "ha". But the sound is "wa". If you mistakenly write the character "wa" in this place, it will be incorrect in Japanese. But in English, some books go with the phonetic "wa" while other textbooks prefer the more correct "ha" (pronounced "wa"). Confusing? So is life.


THE PHRASES (Use 'em or Lose 'em Pal)

COMPLIMENTS

(Remember this: Compliments will get you almost anywhere. Smiles will get you even further)

Kyou ha kakkou ii ne. (You look great today.)

kirei - pretty, hatto suru - striking, hansamu - handsome
Responses:
Maa, arigatou. - Oh, thank you.
Arigatou. - Thank you. / Thanks.
Anata mo. (Kimi mo) - So do you./ You do too.
Sou itte kurete arigatou. - Thanks for saying so.

Sono uagi ii ne. (I like your jacket.)

heasutairu - haircut, shaapu pen - mechanical pencil, keshigomu - eraser
kutsu - shoes, nekutai - tie, kaban - bag

Responses:
Arigatou. - Thank you. / Thanks.
Kimi no mo ii yo. - I like yours, too.
Hontou? - Really?
Shinpin nan da. - It's brand new.
Sugoku furui. - Its very old.
Watashi no okiniiri na no. - It's one of my favorites.


Sore ha subarashii! - That's wonderful!

sugoi - fantastic, saikou ni yoi - excellent, suteki - neat, oishii - delicious

Responses:
Arigatou - Thank you.
Sou itte kurete yasashii hito ne. - That's nice of you to say.
Watashi mo suki nan desu yo. - I like it/them too.
Hontou ni kirei da ne! - Isn't it beautiful? (Aren't they beautiful?)
It was a present from my dead uncle. - Shinda ojisan kara morattan da.
GREETINGS (ever try to ignore a greeting? It makes you feel like a real heel, right?)

Choushi wa dou dai? (How's everything?)
Maa maa desu. (Pretty good.)

Genki desu ka? (How are you?)
Genki yo. Arigatou. (Fine, thank you.)

(niko) (smile)
(niko) (smile)
(this one is bound to get you the furthest)

Arigatou. (Thank you.)
Dou itashimashite. (You're welcome).

Oyasumi nasai. (Good night.)
Gussuri nete ne. (Sleep tight.)

Moshi moshi? (Hello? - on the phone)
A, konnichi wa. (Oh, hi.)

Ii otenki desu ne? (It's a nice day, isn't it?)
Hontou ni yoi otenki de. (Yes, it's lovely.)

Boku wa Dracula desu. (My name's Dracula.)
Hajime mashite, Dracula. (Nice to meet you, Dracula.)

A! (Oops! - when you drop something, etc.)
Dou shita no? (What's the matter? What's wrong?)

Itte kimasu, (I'm leaving now.)
Itte rasshai. (See you later.)

Itai! (Ouch!)
Daijoubu? (Are you all right?)

Bai bai. (Bye.)
Mata ne. (See you!)
QUESTIONS (drive 'em nuts with the neverending string of questions, gang!)

NANI (What)

Anata no namae wa? (What's your name?)
Boku no name wa GI Joe, desu. (My name is GI Joe).

Kanojo no adana wa nan desu ka? (What's her nickname?)
Himitsu desu. (It's a secret.)

Shuumatsu ni nani wo shite imasu ka? (What do you do on the weekends?)
Eiga wo mi ni ikimasu. (I go to watch the movies.)

Amerika no biiru wa do omoimasu ka? (What do you think of American beer?)
Koko de henji dekimasen. (I can't answer here.)


DOCO (Where)

Doco ni sunde iru no? (Where do you live?)
Timbuktu desu. (I live in Timbuktu.)

Doko de umareta no? (Where were you born?)
Nihon umare desu. (I was born in Japan.)

Taitei doko ni sukii wo shi ni ikimasu ka? (Where do you usually go skiing?)
Hokkaido desu. (I go to Hokkaido.)

Yuube doko he ikimasita ka? (Where did you go last night?)
Nomisugita kara oboete imasen. Gomen nasai. (I drank too much so I don't remember. Sorry.)


NAZE (Why)

Naze Nihongo wo benkyo suru no desu ka? (Why are you studying Japanese?)
Italia ryoko ni ikitai kara. (Because I want to take a trip to Italy.)

Kyou wa, naze jikoku shita no? (Why were you late today?)
Nesugoshimashita. (I overslept)

Naze sonna ni tabete imasu ka? (Why are you eating so much?)
Urusai! (Shut up!)


ITSU (When)

Anata no tanjoubi wa itsu desu ka? (When is your birthday?)
Ku gatsu juuku nichi desu. (September nineteenth.)

Tsugi no yasumi wa itsu toreru no? (When can you take a holiday?)
Kondo no doyoubi to nichi youbi wa yasumi da yo! (Next Saturday and Sunday are holidays!)

Itsu unten menkyo wo torimashita ka? (When did you get your driver's licence?)
Ni nen mae desu (Two years ago.) / Nijuu ni sai no toki. (When I was 22.)


DARE (Who)

Anata ga suki na sakka/kashu/hanyu/joyu wa dare desu ka? (Who is your favorite writer/singer/actor/actress?)
Berinda Rampuringu ga suki desu. (I like Belinda Rampling.)

Anata no shinyuu wa dare desu ka? (Who is your best friend?)
Anata desu. (You are.)

Oyatsu wo motte koreru hito wa imasu ka? (Who can bring the snacks?)
Hai. (I can.)


DARE NO (Whose)

Kore wa dare no hon/pen/hankachi/fukuro desu ka? (Whose book/pen/handkerchief/bag is this?)
Watashi no desu. (It's mine.)


DORE KURAI (How)

Koko kara otaku made dore kurai desu ka? (How far is it from here to your house?)
Koko kara daitai sanjuu kiro kurai da ne. (It's about 30km from here.)

Anata wa nan nin shujin ga imasu ka?! (How many husbands do you have?!
Tatta san nin desu! (I only have three!)

Gakkou/kaisha ni ha dou yatte ikimasu ka? (How do you get to school/work?)
Basu de ikimasu. (I go by bus.)

Kono nori wa ikura desu ka? (How much is this glue?)
Hyaku en desu. (It's 100 Yen.)


DOCHIRA (Which)

Nihon sha de ichi ban ii no ha dore desu ka? (Which is the best Japanese car?)
Daihatsu desu. (Daihatsu is.)

Dono deguchi kara dereba yoi desu ka? (Which exit should I take?) - remember this one - you will need it when travelling on the Tokyo train system.
Minami guchi desu. (You should take the south exit.)

Koucha to biiru to dotira ga suki desu ka? (Which do you prefer, tea or beer?)
Biiru yori koucha ho hou ga suki desu. (I prefer tea to beer ) - the politically correct response.

Doko no kuni ni ichiban ikitai desu ka? (Which country do you want to visit the most?)
Tai ni itte mitai desu. (I want to visit Thailand the most.)
Interjection:

I just came back from my first trip to Italy (2000.05.18). It was fabulous! Italy is the only country that I have ever been to where I didn't want to come home. It is HIGHLY recommended.

Well, it has been a long time since I have been to a country where I didn't understand a single word of what people were saying. That is right gang, I was in the exact same boat as you are now, should you come to Japan. Actually that's not quite true; if you have come this far you are way ahead of me in the language skills.

So I experienced understanding nothing. Well, I bought a book called Teach Yourself Italian (you guessed right: it is the same series that I am using to base these Japanese lessons on!). On the airplane, and for a couple of days before my trip I tried as best as I could to get some vocabulary. You know what? It worked. It really helped because I learned how to say the following phrases, which really got me far. I will give you the English, and then the Japanese in this case.

MORE PHRASES TO USE OR LOSE

Sumimasen. (Excuse me.)
Eigo wo hanasemasuka? (Can you speak English?)
Gomen nasai. (I am sorry.)
Sumimasen. (I am sorry.)
Nihongo wa dekimasen. (I cannot speak Japanese.) - Literally: I cannot "do" Japanese.
Wakarimasen. (I don't understand.)
Shirimasen. (I don't know.)
Sumimasen. Toire wa doko desu ka? (Excuse me. Where is the toilet?)
Itadakemasu ka? (May I have it?)
Arigatou gozaimasu. (Thank you.)
Do itashi mashite. (You are welcome - for some reason, saying "you are welcome" implies to the Japanese that you are belittling their gratitude (strange). They usually tend to deny the thanks in order to make themselves not worthy of accepting it. Such as, "iie, iie" - no, no).
Ohayo gozaimasu. (Good morning.)
Konnichi wa. (Hello.)
Konban wa. (Good evening.)
Oyasumi nasai. (Good night.)
Ogenki desu ka? (How are you?)
Genki desu! (you know what this means already)
Hai! (Yes.)
Hai? (Yes?)
Iie. (No.)
Kore/Sore/Are wa nan desu ka? (What is this/it/that?)
Reshiito wo kudasai. (The receipt, please. - This one is very important for you business people.)
Ryoushuushou wo kudasai. (A receipt, please. - this is for an official receipt.)
Oaisou wo kudasai. (The bill, please.)
That should just about do it for the time being. If I made it any longer you might give up on studying all together.

The Culture Pocket: Nihon no Otenki (Japanese Weather)

The weather(otenki - "o" is honorific, the word is actually "tenki" - but we must respect the weather) is one of the most talked about topics in Japan. Everyone uses it to begin a conversation. In fact, in any culture you can use the weather to start up a conversation with an acquaintance or even a stranger. It is something that everyone has in common. If you are next to someone you know, it is virtually guaranteed that the rain that is soaking you to the bone is likely soaking her to the bone as well (except that she likely has an umbrella which you, in your macho attitude decided not to bring - smart choice.) So in fact, the weather is affecting you more than her. Well, you can talk about that too. Maybe even share the umbrella if you are lucky!

Here in Japan, the weather is often even used as a greeting. In the spring and autumn the weather is nearly perfect. Warm (or cool), dry, clear days. Comfortable in the day, easy to sleep at night. The cherry blossoms are a great topic, as are the changing leaves in the autumn. Life is grand in these seasons. "Totemo ii o tenki, desu ne!" "So, desu ne."

Then comes summer. Ugh! People, when they hear that it is 36C here say, "oh, it is hotter where I was in India..." Then they come. And nearly die. Remember the old addage? "It's not the heat, it's the humidity." This is so so so true here. The humidity goes up really high in June, the rainy season comes in July, the steamy 5-shower-days season arrives in August. Everyone talks about the weather. "Atsui, desu ne!" And, "So desu yo ne!!" You die in summer.

And then you die again in winter when it rolls around. It is only about -5C at the coldest around here (-25C in Hokkaido - but dry!). The humidity here makes 0C so much colder than -20C, let me tell you. I visited Canada this past Christmas hoping to experience some real cold. But you know what? -30C just didn't feel cold! Everything is always cold here. Especially in the houses. Did you know that we have to sleep with hats on at night? It is true! Imagine the hair you have in the morning. Ugh!

Then everyone greets you like this: "Samui desu ne." And you have to respond like this, "So desu ne. Totemo samui." If you tell them that you don't think it is that cold, or that it is colder where you come from, you just kill the mood. Go with the flow. Agree with them. Think of it as a greeting. Because you know what? It AIN'T colder back home!

Sometimes, just for fun, when I am greeted with, "Atsui, desu ne?", or "Samui, desu ne." I respond in a really strange way: "Konnichi wa." After all. That is what they are REALLY saying. You just have to read between the lines.


Well, it is time to start plagiarizing a different textbook for a while. I want to make the lessons a little shorter, and easier to put out there for you. If I don't do this, I need a good 6-hour block of time to make one lesson. Something I just don't have the time for these days. And as you are important to me, I really think it would be to our benefit if I changed the style a bit. Hope you don't mind.

Self Introductions, or "jiko shokai" are something you get really good at when you come to live in Japan. It may be changing a bit now because we foreigners are infecting the country more and more these days. This means we are not so rare any more. But when I first came here, to the country ten years ago, I was a 6'5" 196cm behemoth that was stared at, pointed at, talked about, greeted with, "This is a pen. he he he he he.", and more things than you can imagine.

My friend, an American fellow has more stories to tell: people try to run him off the road in their cars, they drive on the sidewalks to run him over, they pick fights with him when he is quietly eating his rice in a restaurant. And the stories go on. Maybe he is just a trouble magnet...

But you get really good at introducing yourself, your family, your pet, what you eat, where you sleep, what color your pubic hair is (sorry! but it is true - Japanese people, kids and adults alike, really want to know if a blonde is also blonde "down there" - just tell 'em its green and they will stop asking pretty quick!). You also get good at learning things about yourself you hardly ever thought about before: like your blood type, what the lines in your hands mean, your zodiac sign, your birthstone, the color of your pubic hair, and so on.

Let's memorize a few self introduction phrases. They might come in handy. If you are going on a trip to Japan, and want to know what some phrases mean, ask me.

Some basic phrases, with a few common ways of saying more things. Just fill in the underlined part with the other words, and presto! you are introducing yourself.

Download Qualcomm Pure Voice Here

THE PHRASES

Watashi wa Amerika-jin desu. (I am American.)

Amerika-jin (American)
Nijuu san sai (23 years old)
Sensei (teacher)
Seito (student)
Shufu (housewife)
Sarariman (businessman)
Asagata ningen (a morning person)
Otonashii (shy, quiet)
Shako teki (outgoing)
Majime (serious)
Hito natsukoi (friendly)
Namake mono (lazy)
Wagamama (selfish)
Undo ga suki/kira (athletic/not athletic)

Respond with:

So desu ka? (Oh are you?)
Honto ni? (Really?)
Watashi/Boku mo. (Me, too.)
Uso! (Get outta here!)

Watashi no namae wa Bugs Bunny desu. (My name is Bugs Bunny.)


namae (name)
tanjobi (birthday)
ketsu eki gata (blood type)
suki na tabemono (favorite food)
suki na supootsu (favorite sport)
suki na iro (favorite color)
suki na bando (favorite band)
shuumi (hobby) Bugs Bunny
Ku Gatsu Juuku nich (September 19th)
A, AB, B, O, Z (to stir things up)
suteeki, katsudon (steak, katsudon)
sukii, gorufu, kendo (skiing, golf, kendo)
aka, shiro, kuro, chairo, kiiro (red, white, black, brown, yellow)
Crash Test Dummies
daibingu (scuba)

Respond with:

So desu ka? (Oh, is it?)
Suteki! (Great!)
Watashi no mo so./Boku no mo sou denai. (Mine is, too./ Mine isn't, either)

Watashi wa unten menkyo wo motte imasu. (I have a driver's license.)
Watashi wa unten menkyo wo motte imasen. (I don't have a driver's license.)

unten menkyo (a driver's license)
inu, neko, sakana, kame, wani (a dog, a cat, a fish, a turtle, a crocodile)
gorira 3 tou (three gorillas)
kou ketsu atsu (high blood pressure)
zuttsu ( a headache)
bentzu (a Mercedes)
pasokon (a computer)

Respond with:

Sou desu ka? (Oh, you do?)
Omoshiroi! (How interesting!)
Watashi mo/boku mo. (Me, too.)
Watashi no ......... mo ......... (So does my .........)


Watashi wa tenisu wo shimasu. (I play tennis.)
Watashi wa tenisu wo shimasen. (I don't play tennis.)

tenisu wo shimasu (play tennis)
gitaa wo shimasu (play the guitar)
doramu wo enso shimasu (play the drums)
Kamishii-mura ni sunde imasu (live in Kamishii mura)
ginko ni tsutomete imasu (work in a bank)
kaisha ni tsutomete imasu (work at a company - this is a very common reply when you ask someone what they do for a living - you aren't any more knowledgeable than before you asked)
paato de hataraite imasu (work part-time)
aikido wo naratte imasu (take aikido lessons)
ohana wo naratte imasu (take ikebana lessons)
kuma no atama wo atsumete imasu (collect bears heads)
dizunii guzzu wo atsumete imasu (collect Disney goods - the girls are crazy about Disney here in Japan - don't know why. Hello Kitty, too.)

Respond with:

So desu ka? (Are you getting the picture by now? )
Sugoi! (That's great!)
Watashi mo. (Me, too.)

Suki na dobutsu wa .... (My favorite animal is....)
Suki na tabemono wa..... (My favorite food is....)
..... ni sunde imasu. (I live in ....)
...... de hataraite imasu (I work at ........)
...... de benkyou shite imasu (I study at .........)
Jibun no ....... wo ai shite imasu. (I love my ........)
...... suru no ga tokui desu. (I'm good at........)
Tsuyoi kyouka wa....... (My strong subjects are.......)
- recall this if you come to Japan. You WILL be asked - and also how fast you could run the 100m dash when you were in elementary school.
....... ni itta koto ga arimasu. (I have been to ........)
....... wo ryori shimasu. (I cook..........)
Watashi no denwa bango wa........ (My phone number is.........)
Boku no suki na shumi wa ........ (My favorite hobby is........)
Tsuma - shujin/ani - otooto/ane - imooto/ wa........... (My wife-husband/elder brother - younger brother/elder sister - younger sister is........)
Boku no ichi ban warui kuse wa....... (My worst habit is.........)
Yatte iru spootsu wa....... (I play...........)
Jibun senyou no .......... wo motte imasu. (I have my own.........)
The Culture Pocket: Referring to Others

Something that I still have trouble with in Japanese is the lack of use of pronouns.

If your name is Curious George and I am talking to you, in English, I would call you, "you". For example, "Do you like Guns 'n Roses?" But in Japanese, we do not use names when referring to that person directly . So instead, I would have to say to YOU, "Jooji wa Ganzu ando Rozezu ga suki desu ka?" Now if our best friend was also called George, I think it could get a little confusing.

Don't get me wrong; pronouns DO exist:

Watashi/Boku/Ore/Jibun (I)
Anata/Kimi (you)
Kare/Kanojo (he/her)

But apparently it is unusual to actually use them. So instead we use the names. And I find that hard to do.

I first of all would like to thank Ms. Anne-May Meulmeester for sending me an email that got tagged by my server as spam and sat there for an entire 10 days before I randomly decided to check my spambox and get rid of all the rolex, viagra, free sony handicam, online cheap downloads, etc. blah blah blah spams that seem to be hitting everyone harder than the devastating South Asian tsunami on December 26th, 2004. The only difference is that the tsunami hit once; spam just keeps coming over and over and over again until the world's killer app known as E-mail is no longer a useful tool to use. Have you noticed that more and more websites say, "if you want to place an order, call or fax my number because I probably won't find your email order in all the spam I get!" Often now a days you won't even FIND a real email link on websites because the spammers are so good at culling them en-masse. Even the form page that people thought would solve that problem has been found to be exploitable by spammer cretins.

Well, Anne-May sent me an email thanking me for my Japanese lessons. I really have wanted to continue them because I know how much you all have enjoyed learning "my way". It isn't standard, but then again, neither is real life, right?

Thanks, Anne-May for kicking my butt and getting at least one more lesson out for all of my loyal followers in the world (before I die). (At this writing I note that I have had over 20,000 people hit this portion of my website! That is a LOT of students!!) - Cam




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In the previous lesson (maybe you forgot if you did it 5 years ago when I made it), we learned all about Self Introductions, or "jiko shokai". I hope that in this time you have had an opportunity to practice and become a professional. If after five years you still can't introduce yourself, maybe you had better give up and become a hermit like me, talking to no one. Just kidding.

So let's say that by now you can introduce yourself. Great! OK, so you have a friend, no; you have two friends. And now you want to introduce your friends to each other so that you can take a break and let them carry on some of the conversations instead of relying on your amazing Japanese language skills (they ARE amazing now, right?). After all, you can't live your entire life alone, talking to your pet or pets. Even if that is the case and you have more than one pet, eventually one is going to leave this world before you (under natural circumstances unless you have a very unique pet like my dog who is going to live for 75 years (not dog years, but years). Well, if you lose one, you will want to get another one, right? So you get another pet. What do you do? You have to introduce this new pet to your old pet so that they can become acquainted. Right? Right!

Therefore, even if you never want to talk to another person again in your entire life, there IS REASON why you might want to be able to introduce others. After all, you care about your pets, right?

As an aside, look up at the kanji at the top of this page. Does it look familiar? Flip back to Lesson 7 and compare. What do you see? Yes! The last two kanji of lesson 7 are the same as these kanji! Amazing coincidence? Maybe. (I trimmed it and put it here for a purpose). Those kanji say "shokai" or introduction. And they are what you are about to do now.

Once again let's memorize a few phrases so that you will not be running off to the front without any ammunition in the chamber. They might come in handy. If you are going on a trip to Japan, and want to know what some phrases mean, ask me.

Some basic phrases, with a few common ways of saying more things. Just fill in the underlined part with the other words, and presto! you are introducing yourself.

Oh, by the way, put some humor into the introduction, will you? Although you may not hear much humor from Japanese people in their speeches and introductions, don't follow suit. After all, YOU want to be remembered, right?

One more thing to note: introductions are usually polite so use the "desu / masu" forms of verbs.

Take a look at the culture pocket below before you start ranting away with the phrases below.

THE PHRASES

Kono kata wa Keisuke Yagiwara desu. (This is Keisuke Yagiwara.)
Kyoto ni sunde imasu. (He lives in Kyoto.)
Suki na dobutsu wa ushi desu. (His favorite animals are cows.)
Toyota de hataraite imasu. (He works at Toyota.)
Keio Daigaku de benkyo shite imasu. (He studies at Keio University)
Kare no petto wo ai shite imasu. (He loves his pet).
Petto no namae wa Bobbu desu. (His pet's name is Bob.)
Tenisu wo suru no wa tokui desu. (He is good at tennis.)
Nankyoku e itta koto ga arimasu. (He's been to Antarctica.)
Toosuto wo ryori shimasu. (He cooks toast.)
Ano hito no namae wa Britney Spears desu. (Her name is Britney Spears.)
Denwa bango wa ..... (Her phone number is....)
Kusai ashi de yuumei desu. (She's famous for her smelly feet.)
Suki na goraku wa geemu desu. (Her favorite pastime is playing computer games.)
Ichiban warui kuse wa kutsu wo nugu koto desu. (Her worst habit is taking her shoes off.)
Terebi no "American Aidoru" no bangumi wo mimasu. (She watches "American Idol".)
Jibun no karada wo kojiri ni shite imasu. (She is proud of her own body.)
Yatte iru spootsu wa kikku bokkushingu. (She plays kickboxing.)
Jibun no senyo no doraiba wo motte imasu. (She has her own chauffeur.)
Kanojo no imooto/otooto ga kawaii/hansamu. (Her younger sister/brother is cute/handsome.)
Respond with:

Watashi/boku mo onaji da? (Mine is too.)
Honto. Watashi wa shinai. / Watashi mo suru. (You do? I don't/I do, too!)
Onaji da ne. (We're the same.)
Chigau ne. (We're different.)
Sugoi ne! (Wow!)
Shinjirarenai!! (I can't believe it!)


The Culture Pocket: Different Strokes for Different Folks

Introducing people in English and Japanese are actually very different. We often say "she" or "he" instead of using their names all the time (remember learning not to use the same noun over and over again? "Paul is happy. Paul went to the store today. Paul bought a bag of donuts. Paul greedily ate them all by himself. Now Paul is obese and Paul deserves it for not sharing." Sounds kind of "low level" don't you think?

But in Japanese, we actually do that. It takes some getting used to it, and even after 15 years in Japan I still feel kind of uncomfortable referring to the person I am directly talking to by their name all the time. But here, it is OK. The pronouns "kanojo" (she) and "kare" (he) exist, but often if you use them, you may get a little giggle by the listener. Why is that? Well, because they more often than not are used to mean "girlfriend" and "boyfriend" rather than the simple straightforward meaning of she and he as we learn in traditional textbooks. Remember, textbook study and real life study are two completely different monsters.

If you want to be polite, you can say "ano hito" (that person), or "kono kata" (this person - honorific). Or you can say the names, "Pooru-san wa ureshii desu. Pooru-san wa kyo, hitori de kaimono he itte kimashita. Pooru-san wa doonatsu no hitofukuro wo kaimashita. Pooru-san wa donyoku ni (greedily) subete wo tabete shimaimashita. Ima Pooru-san wa debu soshite dare ni mo wakenakatta node atari mae desu."

One of the other things to note, as I mentioned earlier I think, is that you can skip the names, and pronouns all together in Japanese. It works.

This does not sound so low level, actually.

The Day The Proverb The Pronunciation and Translation

"Ichi nichi isshou"
A smile a day.
"Genki kubari, Egao kubari"
Be generous with your energy.
Be generous with your smiles.
"Egao wa hamigaki no yo na mono mainichi mainichi migakanakya"
A smile is like a toothbrush. You have to use it regularly to keep your teeth shiny clean.
"Hito wa homerareru no ga daisuki dakara uun to homete"
People love to be praised so do so with all your might.
"Egao wa noryoku."
A smiling radiates competence.
"Anata ga suki, shigoto ga suki, egao ga dai suki."
I like you, I like work, I love your smile.
"Kotoba yonjyu pasento,
hyojo jyugo pasento, omoi jyugo pasento,
egao sanjyu pasento, gokei
komyunikeshon hyaku pasento"
40% words, 15% facial expression,
15% memories, 30% smile,
total =100% communication.
"Egao wa ikiru enerugi."
Your smile is your life force.
"Suu iki yori mo haku iki nagaku,
fuku shiki kokyu de,
nagai iki nagai iki"
It is better to exhale deeply than to inhale.
Breathe deeply from the abdomen for a
Long breath equals long life.
"Ushiro sugata ga waratte iru."
Your shadow is laughing.
"Egao wa kokoro no akusesari Kyo wa dono egao"
Your smile is your heart's accessory.
What kind of smile will you wear today?
"Egao ga areba jibun ga kaeru
tanin ga kaeru unmei ga kaeru"
If you smile youcan change yourself,
others and your future.
" Watashi wa shiawase"
I am happy.
"Dare ni mo machigai wa aru
dakara empitsu ni mo
keshigomu ga tsuite iru."
Everyone makes mistakes.That's why
there is an eraser on every pencil.
"Fuku wa uchi"
Bring good fortune into the home
(this is a part of the phrase "Fuku wa uchi, Oni wa soto" which means "Bring good fortune into the home and send out bad luck" "Oni" means demon.)
"Namida wa egao wo fukaku suru"
Tears deepen a smile.
"Ii koto ga attara, warau no de ha nakute, waratte iru kara ii koto ga aru"
We do not smile because something good has happened; rather something good happens because we smile.
"Hyaku go yori isshou"
A smile is worth a thousand words.
"Jishin ni michita hito no egao wa kagayaite iru"
A person filled will confidence has a brilliant smile.
"Arugamama no egao"
A smile is a smile.
"Kiki jozu wa hanashi jozu"
He who listens well, speaks well.
"Achi muite hoi"
Look over there!
(this is a portion of a Japanese game where you try to get the person to look in the same direction you point your finger while they try not to look in that direction).
"Itsumo egao de itsumo sunao ni"
Always smiling, always honest and gentle.
"Hohoemi wa kokoro to karada no tokkoyaku"
A smile is a special remedy for an injured mind and body.
"Kyo to iu hi wo egao no kinen bi ni shiyo"
Let's make today a stellar day.
"Ureshi kara warau tanoshiii kara warau nakitai toki koso warau"
You smile because you are happy
You smile because it is fun
When you want to cry you should smile.
"Egao wa kokoro no hikari desu"
A smile radiates from the heart.
"Nani o mite nani o kangaeru ka de anata no egao ga kimaru"
Your smile determines how you see and think about the world around you.
"Egao no ichigo ichie"
The smile that blesses in a word is a very precious thing.
(this is almost impossible to translate and I am just guessing here)
"Hasshou nanahai isshoukenmei"
Eight wins(smiles), seven losses; do (smile) your best.
(this is a play on kanji using "smile" in place of the real characters - sound is the same)
"Egao wa chikyugo"
Smiles are international

Now that we have a little bit better idea of how to pronounce some Japanese, let's jump right in and start to learn some of the grammar so that we can start to say some simple, yet very important phrases. In the real world we are always asking questions and looking for information so it might be beneficial to learn how to make a question or two as well. And where would we end up if we always said "yes" to every proposition we were offered? Perhaps the vice president's chair but more likely we would end up either in jail, some deserted back lane or heaven forbid, a cemetery. So as Nancy Reagan once said it, "Just Say No." Was that Nancy? I'm sorry but I don't recall saying that ...

As an aside, rather than have a long vocabulary list at the end of each lesson, I prefer to use the vocabulary that is in the examples. If I decide to make questions using unfamiliar words, I will put those in a table at the end. Otherwise, just consider the lesson as having the vocabulary directly in it. After all, who wants to memorize lists of words, anyway, right?

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The Basic Sentence Structure: A wa B desu.

Japanese has a very straightforward sentence structure as you see above. We do not invert, rotate, or otherwise do funny things with it like we do in English (how many exceptions to the rules are there again?). The basic pattern is A wa B desu. This essentially means "A is B." The verb to be in this sentence is, as you might guess, desu. This is the polite form of the verb. There is also a "dictionary" or ordinary form as well and it is da. The wa in the sentence is a particle that marks the thing or person by means of B. It doesn't change; very simple. Very simple indeed. Let's look at a few examples.

1. Kore wa pen desu. (This is a pen.)
2. Watashi wa dokushin desu. (I am single.)
3. Kanojo wa Kanadajin desu. (She is Canadian.)
4. Kono pasokon wa baka desu. (This computer is stupid.)
5. Buutsu wa neko desu. (Boots is a cat.)

As you can see, the pattern is exactly the same throughout all of the examples. The only thing that changes is the vocabulary. Once you have mastered several useful words in Japanese, you can say very rudimentary statements regarding the existence of things.

Another very easy thing about Japanese is how you describe nationalities. In English we have so many different ways of doing it (American, Canadian, New Zealander, etc.) but in Japanese all you have to do is add jin to the end of a country and you have a native of that location.

How To Make A Question: A wa B desu ka?

This is even simpler than the first pattern and it is extremely easy and a great relief for learners of Japanese to know that once you know the basic sentence structure, all you have to do is put a ka? at the end of the sentence to make it a question. So to look at the same examples as above we see:

1. Kore wa pen desu ka? (Is this a pen?)
2. Anata wa dokushin desu ka? (Are you single?)
3. Kanojo wa Kanadajin desu ka? (Is she Canadian?)
4. Sono pasokon wa baka desu ka? (Is that computer stupid?)
5. Kurinton-san wa neko desu ka? (Is Mr. Clinton a cat?)

Very, very simple, don't you think?

How To Make A Negative Statement: A wa B de wa arimasen.

Now that you know how to say A is B it would probably be helpful to know how to say that A is not B. Again, it is actually very simple. All you have to do is take the A wa B desu, and replace desu with de wa arimasen (or de wa nai in the more informal situations and ja arimasen or ja nai in a contracted format) to get the negative. How is that for straight forward? Couldn't be easier, now could it? Are you remembering all this? Good. I knew you could.

Usually it is also good to know how to say Yes, and No. I am sure every single person on the face of this earth already knows, through TV and the movies that Hai means Yes. But did you know that Iie means No? I bet you didn't. Well now you do. If someone asks you a question, you can answer by putting Hai or Iie at the front of the sentence.

So here are similar examples in the negative:

1. Kore wa juu de wa arimasen. (This is not a gun.)
2. Iie, watashi wa dokushin ja nai. (No, I'm not single.)
3. Kanojo wa Kanadajin ja arimasen. (She isn't Canadian.)
4. Boku wa baka ja nai yo. (I'm not an idiot!)
5. Iie, Kurinton-san wa neko de wa arimasen. Itachi desu.
(No, Mr. Clinton is not a cat. He is a weasel.)

How To Make An Imperative Statement: A wa B desu yo.

Japanese does not use exclamation points, but there is a structure that shows stress and imperative in a sentence. Simply adding yo at the end of a statement makes it similar to an exclamatory sentence. The intonation is usually falling to emphasize the point being made. Look at number 4 in the examples above to see what I mean. Now on your own, take the above five sentences and practice saying them in the imperative.

How To Make A Statement Softer or Agreeable: A wa B desu ne.

In Japanese we try to be as unimposing as possible. It is important to try to agree with the speaker in order to maintain smooth relations and so as not to be offensive. To soften your speech so it doesn't seem quite so forceful, or to agree with what the speaker has said (not necessarily what they mean) just add ne to the end of the sentences. It is a little like adding, isn't it to the end of a sentence in English. Women use this quite frequently at the end of their sentences because it is demure, sweet, and non-imposing, therefore "feminine". The intonation is slightly rising. Look at the example below:

1. Goshujin wa dorobo de wa arimasen ne.
(Your husband isn't a thief, is he.)
2. So desu ne. (Yes, that's true, isn't it.)

How To Make Something Equal to Something Else: A mo B desu.

If A is B and A is also C you use the word mo. This means too, or also. Look at the examples below:

1. Suzuki-san wa sensei desu. Watashi mo sensei desu.
(Mrs. Suzuki is a teacher. I am a teacher, too.)
2. Kyo wa ame desu ne. Ashita mo so.
(It is rainy today, isn't it? Tomorrow, too.)
3. Kore wa ame desu. Sore mo.
(This is candy. That is too.)

Look at how you might answer Yes to the following question:

Suzuki-san mo sensei desu ka. (Is Mrs. Suzuki a teacher, too?)
- Hai, (Suzuki-san mo) sensei desu.
- Hai, (Suzuki-san mo) so desu.

You can omit the subject and mo if you wish. But if you answer No to the same question you omit mo all together and replace it with wa.

Suzuki-san mo sensei desu ka. (Is Mrs. Suzuki a teacher, too?)
- Iie, Suzuki-san wa sensei de wa arimasen.
- Iie, so de wa arimasen.

How To Point Something (or Someone) Out: Kore wa pen desu.

The words kore, sore, are are used to point out objects (sometimes people) in different locations in reference to the speakers. Kore is used for items closer to the speaker than the listener: this. Sore is used for items closer to the listener than the speaker: that. Are is used for items at a distance from both the speaker and the listener: that over there.

If you want to talk about the walking stick in your hand you would say:

Kore wa sutekki desu. (This is a walking stick.)

And when you want to refer to the pistol that someone is holding to your face, you would say:

Sore wa honto no juu desu ka? (Is that a real gun?)

And when you want to inform your assailant that the policeman over there is pointing a shotgun at both of you, you would say:

Are wa sandanjuu desu yo! (That is a shotgun!)

How To Make Something Possessive: A wa B no C desu.

By adding the word no between two words it becomes possessive, relational. In the sentence,

Kore wa Kyan no tsukue desu. (This is Cam's desk.)

you can see what has happened. No allows nouns (people) to act as a possessive adjective and is similar to the 's in English. If no is found after a noun that is a place, it denotes the place of origin of the second noun.

Sore wa Furansu no Jamu desu. (That is French Jam)

If the first noun is any other kind of noun, it will be used to describe the makeup of the second noun.

Nihongo no sensei. (A Japanese teacher)
Are wa Eigo no shimbun, ka na? (I wonder if that is an English newspaper?)

Listen to the above examples here.

If you add no after watashi, you get my. Anata + no will give you your while kare + no = his and kanojo + no = her. Watatashitachi no means our.

1. Kore wa watashi no pen desu. (This is my pen.)
2. Anata no okane desu ka? (Is this your money?)
3. Are wa kanojo no kodomo desu. (That is her child.)

You can use no in conjunction with dare (who), doko (where) nan (what) to make dare no (whose), doko no (from where) ,and nan no (of what) to make even more complex sentences.

1. Kore wa dare no kuruma desu ka? (Whose car is this?)
- Watashi no. (Mine).
2. Anata wa doko no hito desu ka? (Where are you from?)
- Boku wa Doitsujin desu. (I am German.)
3. Yamada-san wa nan no sensei desu ka? (What kind of teacher is she?)
- Rika no sensei desu. (She is a Social Studies teacher.)

Here is a brief list of words that you can try putting together in various different combinations and come up with several different sentences. Feel free to use the vocabulary in the above examples as well:

watashi /boku I
anata/kimi you
kare he
kanojo she
watashitachi we
sensei teacher
okusan wife
shujin husband
tomodachi friend
oniisan elder brother
oneesan elder sister
otooto young brother
imooto younger sister
itoko cousin
inu dog
neko cat
itachi weasel
atsui hot
samui cold
ii good
Kanadajin Canadian
Igirisujin British
mono thing
pen pen
enpitsu pencil
kami paper
okane money
kasa umbrella
shinbun newspaper
jitensha bicycle
okanemochi rich
tabemono food
nomimono drink
biiru beer
sake sake
suteeki steak
sushi sushi
kyou today
ashita tomorrow
kino yesterday


Now try to make the following sentences. Practice saying them so that you get a feel for how Japanese is supposed to sound off the tongue. If you are not sure how to pronounce the sounds, return to Lesson One for revision. When you are done you can listen to the examples by clicking on the icons. I recommend practicing before you listen otherwise it is kind of like looking at your neighbor's test paper for the answers: it doesn't get you anywhere.

1. This is a dog.
2. This is a cat steak.
3. Mrs. Clinton is not a weasel.
4. You are an idiot!
5. He is not a German teacher.
6. Is your cousin from Italy? (Is your sister Italian?)
- No, she isn't. She's from Australia.
7. Whose sushi is this?
- Not mine!
8. Are you single?
-Yes, I am.
9. This is my beer.
10. It is hot today, isn't it?
- Yes, it is. Tomorrow will be hot, too!
11. This sake is delicious.
- Yes, and the steak is too, isn't it.

If you have finished with these, why don't you try making a few sentences up on your own for practice? It can't hurt.

This lesson is a little longer than I originally planned so in order to keep the load time down I will be skipping the culture section.

You may notice that some of my accents are different from others in the same pattern. This is simply because my Japanese is a mix of Tokyo dialect and Fukui (country) dialect. Each area has different speech patterns, words, intonation. I am trying the best I can to make the intonation as standard as possible, but my wife says I sound nothing but country bumpkin!! My retort is, "When in Fukui ..." Have fun with this lesson. I look forward to hearing your comments.

NOTE: A fellow long-term resident in Japan recently contacted me and told me that I should not use any reference to the word "anata" (you). It is not used in Japan like the English use of the word. Rather it is used by women to call their husbands or lovers, or used in a derogatory sense. In a way, this is true. People tend to use the names instead of the pronouns when talking to a person. However I do know some people that use it in regular ways, and there is no bad feeling meant at all. Also, I feel that even though it may not be a commonly-used word in the Japanese vocabulary, it is, nonetheless important to learn the basics. ANATA does exist. Some people DO use it. Some in good ways, some in not so good ways. The choice is entirely up to you, the student to decide how you wish to use the word. However, the person who contacted me did have a very valid, understandable and logical reason for his comment on this topic and I thank him for it.
Where would we get in life without questions and answers? Ever since you were a little grasshopper you had an insatiable curiosity, yes? And as you got older your quest for knowledge grew and grew. No, you say? Well, then why are you here? If you have no desire to learn, you should be off drinking beer and belching while watching reruns of the latest Lakers game (no offense to you Lakers fans out there). Some of the questions in your life that you asked you probably wished you hadn't, and there are probably a whole lot more questions that you wish you had asked but never had the courage to do so.

Fear not for your chance to renew your desire to quest for the unknown is closer than you think. Work with us through this lesson and you will be able to broaden your horizons beyond your wildest dreams. Who would have thought that you would be asking detailed questions in Japanese? Do you know what makes this lesson so great? Since you are conversing in a foreign tongue, the inibitions and barriers of culture and of your youth will be torn down and a clean road will be paved just for you. There is a saying in Japanese, Tabi no haji wa kaki sute which means, "The shame you create while away from the home is easily sloughed off and forgotten". Japanese people do this all the time and now you too, with your newfound love of Japanese, can do things the Japanese way! So in this lesson, let's start to ask slightly more detailed questions, ones that may have a little more relevance to your life (as opposed to, "Is this a pen?")

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The Question

To review, the basic sentence structure in Japanese is, A wa B desu. This pattern is essential to remember as we progress through the various patterns. Just as in English when we first formally learn the verb, to be, we should keep in mind this pattern as well.We then learned how to form a simple question by adding ka to the end of the sentence to make it a question. A wa B desu ka. Gramatically speaking there is no question mark at the end of Japanese questions, but as everything in Japan that has taken on a western taste to it, many people add the question mark to the end. You wouldn't be penalized for it in a letter to a loved one, I don't think. If you would like some practice with this pattern, go back to Lesson 2 and do the problems once again. You are probably a pro by now with this simple question pattern so I don't really want to dwell on it. Enough said, let's move on.

Making Your Speech more "Colorful": The Adjective

Adjectives, like in English, can be placed usually before or after the noun they are modifying. Remember that if you add the ka to the end of the statements they become questions. Here are a few examples of how you would place the adjective before the noun:

1. Kore wa oishii chiizu desu. (This is delicious cheese.)
2. Sore wa hen na hito desu ka. (Is that a strange person?)
3. Ano akai kuruma wa watashi no desu. (That red car is mine.)
4. Chiisai hito wa kirai desu ka? (Do you dislike small people?)
5. Takai hoteru wa ii hoteru desu. (Expensive hotels are good hotels.)

There are basically two kinds of adjectives, one that ends in -i when placed before nouns and another that ends in na before nouns. The na adjectives are usually words of chinese origin (just a tidbit of culture to store away in your ever-questing mind).

Here is a list of adjectives that you can use to spice up your daily conversations. Remember, a pen is just a pen, but a red pen is so much more!

Common -i Adjectives atsui hot
samui cold
atatakai warm
tsumetai cool
ookii * big
chiisai * small
chikai near
tooi far
wakai young (people etc.)
atarashii new (things)
furui old (things)
hayai quick, early, fast
osoi slow, late
oishii tasty, delicious
mazui awful, yucky
Common na Adjectives benri na convenient, useful
fuben na inconvenient
shizuka na quiet, peaceful
shinsetsu na kind
yuumei na famous
kirei na pretty, clean, neat
taisetsu na important
hontoo na true
taihen na serious, awful
hansamu na handsome
ereganto na elegant
shikku na chic
rippa na splendid
hen na strange
shizuka na quiet, silent


*The adjectives ookii and chiisai also have alternate na forms which are ooki na and chiisa na so you could say ookii hito or ooki na hito (big person).

Now let's take a look at adjectives when they come after the noun they modify:

We can use the same adjectives as noted above whether before or after the noun but there are a few subtle differences to remember. While the -i adjective stays the same, the na adjective drops the na altogether. Look at the example:

1. Watashi no kokoro wa wakai desu. (My mind is young.)
2. Watashi no shujin wa hansamu desu. (My husband is handsome.)

The Negative Adjective

It turns out that when you want to change your sentence from positive to negative, and the adjective is at the end, the form actually changes a little bit, but not that much that you can't remember. Japanese is not like English; the rules are rules and do not change. Remember it once and you will remember it forever.

To make an -i adjective negative you replace the final -i with -ku and then add arimasen (polite) or nai desu (informal). To make a -na adjective negative you put the verb desu into the negative: de wa arimasen (polite) or ja arimasen (informal). Ja is a contraction of de wa just like isn't is a contraction of is not. When we speak quickly our words tend to slur and as humans are lazy animals, it is easier not to move the lips much if we don't need to (especially if you hail from the Great White North where the winters are too cold to move the lips anyway). To add to this, you can make your speech even a little less formal by using nai in place of arimasen. Here are a few examples:

1a. Nihon no biiru wa oishii desu. (Japanese beer is delicious.)
1b. Kanada no biiru wa oishiku arimasen. (Canadian beer is not delicious.)
2a. Aki no happa wa akai desu. (Autumn leaves are red.)
2b. Watashi no hada wa akaku nai desu. (My skin is not red.)
3a. Indo karee wa karai desu. (Indian curry is hot.)
3b. Nihon no karee wa karaku nai. (Japanese curry is not hot.)
4a. Brad Pitt wa hansamu desu. (Brad Pitt is handsome.)
4b. Mick Jagger wa hansamu de wa arimasen. (Mick Jagger in not handsome.)
5a. Boku no heya wa kirei desu. (My room is clean.)
5b. Otooto no heya wa kirei ja arimasen. (My brother's room is not clean.)
6a. Keitai denwa wa benri desu. (Cellular phones are handy.)
6b. Botton benjo wa benri ja nai. (Outhouses are not handy.)

Stressing the Adjectives: Very and Not Very

It is quite simple to add a little more stress to describing an adjective. All you have to do is add totemo or taihen before the adjective you wish to modify.

1. Kono hito wa totemo ookii desu. (This person is very big.)
2. Furansu no wain wa taihen oishii desu. (French wine is very delicious.)

If you want to say it in the negative, just add amari before the adjective you wish to modify.

1. Jooji Baanzu wa amari wakaku arimasen. (George Burns is not very young.)
2. Kore wa amari benri ja nai. (This isn't very useful.)

Words to Indicate People, Places, Things, Locations.

Little by little we learn how to be more specific. Do you remember in way back in primary school when you forgot to bring your pen to class and you had to ask someone to lend you one? If they were having a bad day, the conversation might have gone something like this:

You: Can I borrow a pen?
Him: Which color?
You: Um, blue I guess.
Him: Sorry, I ain't got blue.
You: Can I borrow a black one then?
Him: Sure.
You: .... Well can I have it?
Him: Which one do you want?
You: The black one. I just said so.
Him: I have four black ones.
You: I don't care. Gimme any one.
Him: You choose.
You: (suck in breath) OK. That one.
Him: Which one?
You: That one.
Him: This one? (evil grin creeps on face)
You: No! That one there! (muscles in face tense)
Him: Oh, you mean this one?
You: NO! I said that one right there! The one withh the green cap!
Him: Ohhhh, you want this one right here, right?
You: AAAARRRRGGGGHHH! (pencils and pens fly across the room, nose blood is spilled)
Teacher: You two over there! Down to the Principals office, pronto!

Well, if you get your indicators specific the first time, you could avoid this test of your patience.

We talked in the last lesson about kore (this), sore (that), are (that over there) which relate to things. There are parallel words when you want to relate to places:

koko - (here, this place) - is for places closer to the speaker than the listener
soko - (there, that place) - indicates locations near the listener than the speaker. It also indicates a relational proximity to the listener, not always a physical proximity.
asoko - (over there, that place over there) - is used for places that are at a distance from both the speaker and listener.
doko - (where) - fits into this class as well and is used to ask questions.

1. Toire wa koko de wa arimasen. (The toilet is not here.)
2. Hachi wa soko desu yo! (The wasp is right there, by you!)
3. Keisatsu-kan wa asoko desu ka? (Is the police station over there?
4. Toire wa doko desu ka? (Where is the toilet?)

You can make your Japanese a little more formal by replacing koko, soko, asoko and doko with kochira, sochira, achira and dochira. And you can make your Japanese even more informal by replacing koko, soko, asoko, doko with kocchi, socchi, acchi, docchi.

If you were in the Honolulu Hilton, you might here:

O-tearai wa kochira desu. (The restroom is this way.)

But if you were in the Hanoi Hilton (if they spoke Japanese at all), it would probably be more like:

Benjo wa kocchi. Omae no neru tokoro. (The pit is here; where you sleep.)

When you pick up the phone, usually you would ask:

Dochira sama desu ka? (Who is calling, please?)

(we put -sama at the end of people's names to give them respect.)

Kore, sore, are can stand alone as a pronoun but the words kono, sono, ano which have a similar meaning must be in front of the nouns they modify:

1. Kono jamu wa mazui desu. (This jam is terrible.)
2. Sono hyaku doru shihei wa boku no desu. (That hundred dollar bill by you is mine.)
3. Ano hito wa baka desu. (That person over there is stupid.)

There are a few words which indicate position. These actually act as nouns and are used differently from English. In English we might say next to X, but in Japanese we would say X no tonari. Here is a list of a few other position words.

chikaku nearby
mae in front
naka inside
ushiro back, behind (people, buildings, etc. opposite of mae)
ura reverse/other side, behind (rear side, buildings, etc. but not people)
ue on top, above
shita underneath

Time for a few examples. I hope this lesson isn't putting you to sleep yet...

1. Toire wa asoko no ginko no chikaku desu. (The toilet is near that bank.)
2. Same wa saafaa no ushiro desu. (The shark is behind the surfer.)
3. Honya-san wa soko no kissaten no ura desu. (The bookstore is behind that coffee shop.)
4. Kaijuu wa ano beddo no shita desu. (The monster is under that bed.)

Renshuu: Practice Makes Perfect

Now it is time to put it all together and practice what you have learned. Put the following conversation into Japanese:

1. Where is the beauty salon (biyoushitsu)?
2. It's that way.
3. Is it far?
4. No, it's not very far. It's near the station (eki).
5. Is it a clean beauty salon?
6. Yes, it's very clean.

You are in a foul mood. Complain about everything:
(the "answers" are examples only. Your answers could vary)

1. the bus you are waiting for
2. the handsome Italian you had a date with
3. the public toilet that you had to use
4. the sound (oto) at the movie theater (eigakan)
5. the "new" computer (pasokon) that is full of used parts

Unscramble the following words and make correct sentences:

1. kissaten, kono, de, wa, arimasen, amari, shizuka, wa
2. desu, wa, Tanaka-san, Nihonjin, hen na,
3. suupu (soup), wa, atatakai, kore, desu
4. ka, desu, dochira-sama
5. ooki na, kasa (umbrella), wa, sono, taihen, desu, kasa

Whew, we're done. I hope you enjoyed this lesson.
Tune in for Lesson Four: You Have a Lot of Cats, Don't You!when we talk about, among other things, posessing living and non-living things.

The Culture Pocket: Daily Life

We all know how important it is to have a daily schedule in order to feel as if we are in control of our life. This is even more true when one lives in a foreign country for the first time. And it is vital when transplanted to a culture that is so different from one's own.

Japan, on the outside, looks a lot like the west. This is mainly because western goods and services abound. Everywhere you look you can see things from the US. To the "new" foreigner, at first it seems as if Japan is not so different. Everyone lives in a house, apartment, condo, drives a car, goes to work, owns a pet, eats food. It is easy to misinterpret the situation and try to live following the same cultural rules that are familiar back home. This, however will lead to several complications after a short while. As mentioned earlier, it looks similar on the outside, but looks can be deceiving. Deep down the roots are totally different, fundamentally different. Basic survival can be achieved by practically anyone on their own: after a few months foreigners will be able to move on their own, eat, shop, use the public transportation and other basic services. But some of the people will not have acquired the rules of the Japanese domain correctly. If, however, the foreigner is guided during the initial stages, adapting to the culture of Japan and the Japanese daily life routine may be near perfect. This will prevent foreigners from the: "why does everyone treat me like a foreigner?" syndrome. To do this it is important to watch the people around you, ask for correction, discuss behavior with Japanese friends and try to immerse yourself in the culture as much as you can. Many acquaintances of mine have lived here in Japan for two to three years in a totally "English environment". They go about their day in a North American way, listen to English music, rent English videos, eat at western restaurants, answer their phone in English, hang out with other native English speakers all the time. And they wonder why Japan always seems so strange and foreign to them. It is simply because they are refusing to try.

Because daily life is more complicated here than many other places it is especially important to make the effort to adapt to the cultural aspects of life. Work hours are longer, there are less holidays, people travel longer distances to work, eat out more, spend more money (save less). I would like to make a few brief comments on various aspects of daily life in Japan, aspects which, if taken into account, should help the newcomer adapt more quickly to his or her new daily life.

Bathing time is important to consider. Most households bathe at night, after the work day is completed. There are showers available in most places but these tend to be mainly for rinsing off before getting into the bath. In the summer months when the heat and humidity is high families tend to take showers but during the cold winter months the bath is important. People here believe that you will catch a cold if you have a shower and not a bath in the winter because you will not be able to heat your body entirely.
Breakfast meals tend to be western-style these days but in some families you will still find the very filling Japanese-style breakfast of rice, miso soup, fish, natto, and a few vegetables. Breakfast is usually not a problem for the foreigner.
If someone is leaving the house before you, walk them to the genkan (entrance) and see them off. As it is a time-honored custom here, to not do so will seem very strange and possibly the foreigner will be thought of as inconsiderate.
When going to and from work or school, many people use public transportation because the roads are always congested (except in the middle of the night - a great time to travel) and parking is at a premium. Public transportation tends to be very crowded during rush hour so don't be surprised to find that there is almost no room to maneuver around. The public transport system here is extremely efficient and runs to most locations with little or no problem at all. Taxis are abundant if not expensive. Usually people who finish their daily work at a bar with coworkers will take a taxi home late at night when the trains are no longer running. Taxis are reliable and drivers taking roundabout routes to make extra money are extremely rare. The rear left door will open automatically for you while the driver sits in his seat and waits for you to enter. Drivers here tend to be quiet and not converse with passengers unless the passenger begins a conversation.
There are three types of lunches in Japan: single dish, set meal, and elaborate course dinner (does not belong to the normal daily domain). Western food, Chinese and Japanese food tend to be the norm for lunch. Many people will have a bowl of noodles (Chinese ramen or Japanese udon/soba) for lunch or perhaps a bowl of rice with egg or pork on top. Set menus usually consist of a meat, vegetable, salad and a soup of some kind. It is not uncommon to see people dropping into the local McDonalds for a lunch or a quick coffee these days. In fact, young people tend to like the western food more than traditional fare. In restaurants there is a consumption tax (5% in 1998) but nobody tips; which makes for poor service at some places because the part time staff have no incentive to work hard at pleasing the customer.
When asking for directions, choose who you ask with care. It is best to avoid large stores because people working there may not live in the area and only know their route to work. Also, people in the street may not know either as they may be travelers as well. It is best to ask for directions at police boxes (small one or two-man stations found on many corners around town) or gasoline stations. Automobile dealers seem to have a good grip on directions as well. Stay away from convenience stores; they are notorious for "trying to please" by giving directions, any directions to you.
In the big cities, most people do their shopping on the way home from work. But as this may be late and the stores closed, Sundays tend to be very popular shopping times. All retail businesses are open on Sundays for the customers' convenience. Convenience stores (Circle K, Lawson, Family Mart, etc.) are open in the evening if you need to do some emergency staple shopping but the prices are a little higher than supermarkets and the selection is less. Except for electronic stores where you might be able to haggle a better deal, all prices are fixed. There is no bartering here like in many other Asian countries. You pay the price on the tag. People are very honest here and do not usually overcharge so you can be sure that you are not paying overinflated prices. Most shops will be similar in price, but it is always good to shop around.
The main meal is dinner at home for families. They usually try to eat together as much as possible. This may even mean that dinner is not until 10pm because Dad gets home late every night. On average, though, dinner is later here than in North America because the work hours are longer. It is not unusual to begin eating at 9pm. Adults often drink beer or sake with the meal. I drink milk and get funny looks.
All homes and apartments have a bath (unless you are living in a very old rural community, in a very old house in which case there will be a public bath nearby that the locals visit every evening). It is very important to observe bathing rituals so that others can enjoy the bath as well. The water in the bath is heated to a high temperature (often too hot for many foreigners) and is used for soaking and relaxing, not for bathing. Bathing occurs outside the bath and care must be taken not to get any soap into the water. The order is usually rinse, soak, wash and rinse, then get back in and soak again. In most homes the bathing order is hierarchical with the father having the first bath and the mother bathing last.
Many young people sleep on beds these days but it is not uncommon to find futons still. Most older people prefer the futon on the tatami floor to a bed. The quilts that are used are fairly thick and heavy. Western-style sheets are not used so most people sleep with pajamas or a t-shirt on to avoid the draft that tends to seep in around the shoulders. Most pillows in homes (the exception is in hotels where they seem to have gone to the extreme and looked for the softest, most uncomfortable ones in existence) tend to be small and hard. This dates back to when people wore elaborately coiffured hairdos and didn't want to ruin it just by sleeping. Most bedrooms do not have light switches and the light are operated by pulling a cord that attaches to the light itself.
These are just a few common things in daily life that may help the foreigner adjust a little more easily. I hope you found this helpful and enjoyable.
I want. I need. You have. I don't have. I take. You don't have anymore? Tough. Gimme gimme never gets. Ain't you learned your manners yet?

There are a lot of things in life that we have or need. For example, I have two mountain bikes; two beautiful mountain bikes that love to work their tires off for me on those steep steep climbs up and then spread their wings on the wicked descents back down to civilization. Maybe I don't need two bikes, but I have them. There is a computer that I have sitting in one of my rooms (if I didn't have a computer you wouldn't have this lesson in front of you right now). It used to be a luxury (want) but has since become a need. I have spam coming out of the wazoo every morning I get up and check my mail. I don't need that. I do need you folks to continue enjoying these lessons. So, for now, I have a following. Or I could say, there is a fairly large group of people who have accessed these lessons are are patiently (impatiently?) awaiting the next lesson which is far too far late in coming.

It is always important to know what is yours and what isn't, if there is something there or if there isn't. If I said to you, "There is a murderer lurking in that alley." would you venture down it? What if I knew there was a murderer there but couldn't tell you so because I didn't know how? How would I explain to the police when they found your remains that I knew there was danger lurking in the darkness, but did not have the ability to tell the victim? Can you say, "good morning, fellow inmate"? Sure, I knew you could. So in this lesson we will learn how to say "I have" and "There is" because at times it can be important.

From now on, new words will be color-coded, easy for you to distinguish in the sentences. (My apologies to color-blind people).

And we have a special treat for you today. The voice you will be listening to is none other than my beautiful wife. I hope you enjoy her voice.

Download Qualcomm Pure Voice Here

The Lead-in

The verb arimasu (aru) means there is and have when you are referring to objects. If you are talking about the possession of people (not politically correct these days), living things or the existence of living things, you would use the verb imasu (iru) to express your thoughts. In the last lesson we learned that desu means to be but with these two new verbs your conversation strategies expand exponentially. Arimasu and imasu are the "polite" forms of the verbs aru and iru respectively, which is not to say that aru or iru is "impolite". Rather, they tend to be used in more casual conversations with family and friends, or when writing books, papers, etc. (although you could use the more polite version when writing to friends, etc. if you so wish. Women tend to use the polite version more often than men do, but that is a cultural thing here in Japan. It seems to be acceptable if men act more impolite on a common basis (although this too is falling into disfavor with many women who find many young men unmannered these days - as an aside, foreign men are viewed by Japanese women to have much better manners than their Japanese counterpart - just for all you single guys out there).

Here is an example of what it would look like in a simple sentence:

1. Anata no ie ni neko ga imasu. (There is a cat in your house.)
2. Watashi no poketto no naka ni sakana no niku ga aru. (I have some fish meat in my pocket.)
3. Boku no mawari ni neko ga sen-biki iru! Tasukete!! (There are 1000 cats around me! Help!!)

The Form

Arimasuand imasu can be used to indicate location as well if used in the following pattern: A wa B ni arimasu/imasu where A is the topic of discussion and B is the place. In this case you must use ni before arimasu/imasu in order to designate the location.

1. Neko wa soko ni imasu. (There is a cat there.)
2. Sakana no niku wa koko ni arimasu. (There is some fish meat here.)

You could also use the previously-learned pattern of A wa B desu to designate a similar meaning:

1. Neko wa soko desu. (The cat is "that place.")
2. Sakana no niku wa koko desu. (The fish meat is "this place.")

Either pattern is fine, but since today we are focusing on arimasuand imasu, let's stick with that pattern, shall we? If you have forgotten how to use desu, please refer back to Lesson Two or Lesson Three of the FREE! Japanese Lessons.

Now you can switch around the location of the location in the sentence and put it in the beginning. If you wanted to do that, you would say, B ni A ga arimasu/imasu where B is still the location and A is the topic. If you notice, ga has replaced wa in this case. Why? Simply, because A wa tends to be stuck at the beginning of a sentence but A ga does not have this restriction. If you switch A and B around like this you are also changing the importance of A and B in relation to each other (the difference between the and a). You could also look at this as A wa is already understood or noticed while A ga is noticed for the first time. A wa can also be used when comparing two things, even if one of the two is not actually mentioned (or present) - see example 7. and 8. below.

1. Toire wa asoko ni arimasu. (The toilet is over there.) - does this ring a bell?
2. Asoko ni koban ga arimasu. (There is a police box over there.)
3. Shini-so! Tabako-ya wa soko ni aru no? (I'm dying! The smoke shop is over there?)
4. Shini-so! Soko ni Tabako-ya ga aru no? (I'm dying! There is a smoke shop over there?)
5. Inu wa niwa ni imasu. (The dog is in the garden)
6. Niwa ni inu ga imasu. (There is a dog in the garden.)
7. Sakana wa niwa no ike ni imasu. Neko wa ike no soba ni imasu.
(The fish is in the pond in the garden. The cat is beside the pond.)
8. Sakana wa niwa no ike ni imasu. (The fish is in the pond (wherever the cat may be).)

The Form, Part B

Sentences can become pretty complicated at this stage. The nice thing about Japanese, though, is that you can often omit a lot of words that you would need to have in English. Whereas English cannot function without a subject (be it a noun or pronoun), the subject in Japanese can be omitted altogether if it is already known. Watch:

1a. Watashi (ni) wa neko ga yon-hiki imasu. (I have four cats - hiki is the counter for small animals)
1b. Ippai imasu, ne. (You certainly do have a lot!)
- note, the "you" (anata) is missing in the Japanese.
2a. Imasu. ((I) have (some).)
2b. Takusan imasu. ((I) have a lot.
2c. Kyodai ga takusan imasu. (There are many brothers & sisters/
(I) have a lot of brothers & sisters.)
2d. Watashi (ni) wa kyodai ga takusan imasu. ((I) have many brothers & sisters.)

In number 2. if all of the subjects are known, you can simply say, Imasu (2a) to say the same thing as you would say in (2d) and therefore save yourself a lot of time and breath (especially if you are in a really smoky place and the cigarette smoke is killing you). It makes the language really handy, don't you think?

There is one other pattern that you should be aware of and that is ni wa will sometimes be used in place of wa. See the examples below:

1. Otooto ni wa tomodachi ga ippai imasu. (My brother has many friends.)
2. Kono heya ni wa shii-dii pureyaa ga arimasu ka? (Does this room have a CD player?)

One Final Note (+/-):

When you change from positive tense to negative tense, you usually switch the ga to wa.

1. Otooto ni wa tomodachi wa amari imasen. (My brother doesn't have many friends.)
2. Kono heya ni wa shii-dii pureyaa wa arimasen ka? (Doesn't this room have a CD player?)

Plurals

Unlike English where we put an s at the end of nouns to indicate more than one (in most cases), Japanese does not have singular and plural nouns (in most cases). This would mean that neko could mean cat or cats, depending on the situation. Usually it is understood in the context of the sentence.

However, with pronouns such as I (watashi/boku), you (anata/kimi), he (kare), she (kanojo) we pluralize them by adding -tachi to the end of the noun. We becomes watashi-tachi, you becomes anata-tachi, they becomes kare-tachi or kanojo-tachi. With kare or kanojo, one could also use the form -ra instead of -tachi to signify the plural (this is more informal). Here are just a few examples for you to look at:

1. Watashi-tachi wa ginko ni ikitai. (We want to go to the bank.)
2. Kanojo-tachi wa Nihon ni imasu. (They are in Japan.)
3. Kare-ra ni wa rippa-na ie ga arimasu. (They have a splendid house.)

But, but but but but but, if you attach the plural -tachi to people's names, it takes on a different meaning:

1. Yamamoto-san-tachi. (Mr./Mrs. Yamamoto and those around them. (often the family)
2. Keiko-chan-tachi. (Keiko and her buddies.)

And if you grab that tachi with two hands and swing it around the room you can do some very serious damage because a tachi is the two-handed long sword of Japanese samurai days. Interesting, yes?

Renshuu: Practice Makes Perfect

1. Practice changing the sentences around. If it says, "There is an A there", change it to "The A is there" and vice-versa. Then listen to the answer by clicking on the headphones. Also, try to write down the meaning of each of the sentences for practice. You should be able to put it together if you have come this far. If you are really stumped, send an e-mail to sensei by writing to info @ japanippon (dot) com for details. (be sure to quote exactly what you are looking for - he is not omniscient).

(Note: If you jumped straight into this lesson without reading the introduction to the FREE! Japanese Lessons, go back now and read the Important Note for Power Students. Or you can get the program you need by following the link at the bottom of this or any other lesson. Otherwise you may not be able to hear these sound-tracks - this is the last time I will be making this disclaimer. From now on, you are on your own.)

Rei: Asoko ni niwa ga arimasu. ¨ Niwa wa asoko ni arimasu.
1. Koko ni shii-dii ga arimasu.
2. Niwa no ike ni sakana ga imasu.
3. Keiko-san wa doko ni imasu ka?
4. Heya ni neko wa imasen.
5. Sono teeburu ni biiru ga takusan arimasu.

2. Produce the following sentences. Each one will get larger, but they are all complete sentences. Click on the headphones to hear the answers.

Rei: Arimasu; takusan; okane (money); watashi wa. ¨ Arimasu; Takusan arimasu; Okane ga takusan arimasu; Watashi wa okane ga takusan arimasu.
1. Imasen; amari; tomodachi (friend); imooto (younger sister)
2. Arimasu; san-gai (third floor); pooru (pool); anata-tachi no
3. Arimasu; takusan; okane; kanojo
4. Imasu; oji-san (middle-aged man); futotta; tabako-ya ni wa

3. Say the following in Japanese. Be careful of the use of wa, ga, imasu, arimasu. Click on the headphones to hear the answers.

1. There are (some) cats here.
2. The tobacco shop is over there.
3. Over there is a fish.
4. Honda-san is over there.
5. There is a pen there.

The Culture Pocket: Greetings at Home

When family members come and go from their homes, they usually say set phrases, which do not really have a translation into English because we don't often say anything as we leave or come. There is no order of saying the phrases, so the person remaining in the household can say farewell before the person leaving leaves, or reverse. Number 3. is often said, even if nobody is within listening distance. You can listen to the sounds and then practice them yourself.

1. Person leaving home: Itte kimasu / Itte mairimasu (more polite)
2. Person remaining at home: Itte irasshai / Itte'rasshai
3. Person returning home: Tadaima.
4. Person at home: O-kaeri nasai.

When visitors (o-kyaku-san) come and go, the phrases used are different (much more polite):

Arrival: Host: Dozo, o-agari kudasai.
Guest: O-jamashimasu. / Shitsurei shimasu
Departure: Guest: O-jama shimashita. / Shitsurei shimashita.
Host: Mata dozo. (Please come again)
Guest: Arigato gozaimasu. (Thank you.)
Guest: Ja, shitsurei shimasu. (Please excuse me; good bye)
Host: Sayonara / Sayoonara (Good bye)

Japan is still a fairly safe country (use your judgment, however and play it safe no matter where you go) so often the genkan or entrance is left unlocked when people are expected. Guests will usually open the door, announce themselves and step in without waiting for the host to invite them in. In this case the guests will say something like, gomen kudasai! The standard reply from way in the other end of the house is an exuberant hai!

When one enters a building they will be about one step below the actual floor level. This area is considered to be outside for purposes of dirty shoes. If invited in, the guest will remove the shoes, put on a pair of slippers that are offered by the host (Japanese floors are uninsulated and cold air runs below them so take those tiny slippers or risk getting chilly feet - especially in winter: our house gets down to -4C (30F) in the winter and it is worse than living in a refrigerator!) and literally step up into the living area. This is why the host says "O-agari kudasai" (literally meaning Please step up).

Proverbs

Japanese Proverbs

Art is the illusion of spontaneity.

Beginning is easy - Continuing is hard.

Don't stay long when the husband is not at home.

Fall down seven times, get up eight.

Fall seven times, stand up eight.

Gossip about a person and his shadow will appear.

If you believe everything you read, better not read.

In a quarrel, the higher voiced person will win.

Never rely on the glory of the morning nor the smiles of your mother-in-law.

One kind word can warm three winter months.

The reverse side also has a reverse side.

When the character of a man is not clear to you, look at his friends.



Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.
Abraham Lincoln (1809 - 1865), Lincoln's Own Stories

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.
Abraham Lincoln (1809 - 1865)

Everyone has the obligation to ponder well his own specific traits of character. He must also regulate them adequately and not wonder whether someone else's traits might suit him better. The more definitely his own a man's character is, the better it fits him.
Cicero (106 BC - 43 BC)

Without an acquaintance with the rules of propriety, it is impossible for the character to be established.
Confucius (551 BC - 479 BC), The Confucian Analects

Many a man's reputation would not know his character if they met on the street.
Elbert Hubbard (1856 - 1915)

People grow through experience if they meet life honestly and courageously. This is how character is built.
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884 - 1962), My Day

Forming characters! Whose? Our own or others? Both. And in that momentous fact lies the peril and responsibility of our existence.
Elihu Burritt

Personality can open doors, but only character can keep them open.
Elmer G. Letterman

In attempts to improve your character, know what is in your power and what is beyond it.
Francis Thompson (1859 - 1907)

A person reveals his character by nothing so clearly as the joke he resents.
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742 - 1799)

Our character...is an omen of our destiny, and the more integrity we have and keep, the simpler and nobler that destiny is likely to be.
George Santayana (1863 - 1952), "The German Mind: A Philosophical Diagnosis"

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition
inspired, and success achieved.
Helen Keller (1880 - 1968)

A man's character is his fate.
Heraclitus (540 BC - 480 BC), On the Universe

People with courage and character always seem sinister to the rest.
Hermann Hesse (1877 - 1962)

The farther behind I leave the past, the closer I am to forging my own character.
Isabelle Eberhardt

You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one.
James A. Froude (1818 - 1894)

When the character of a man is not clear to you, look at his friends.
Japanese Proverb

Character - the willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life - is the source from which self respect springs.
Joan Didion (1934 - ), "Slouching Towards Bethlehem"

Men show their characters in nothing more clearly than in what they think laughable.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832)

I take it as a man's duty to restrain himself.
Lois McMaster Bujold, Ethan of Athos, 1986

One can acquire everything in solitude - except character.
Marie Henri Beyle (1783 - 1842)

To succeed is nothing, it's an accident. but to feel no doubts about oneself is something very different: it is character.
Marie Leneru, Oprah Magazine, May 2004

The character of a man is known from his conversations.
Menander (342 BC - 292 BC)

I could never think well of a man's intellectual or moral character, if he was habitually unfaithful to his appointments.
Nathaniel Emmons

The character of every act depends upon the circumstances in which it is done.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (1841 - 1935)

Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.
Oscar Levant (1906 - 1972)

Nature magically suits a man to his fortunes, by making them the fruit of his character.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882)

People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of their character.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882)

I appreciate people who are civil, whether they mean it or not. I think: Be civil. Do not cherish your opinion over my feelings. There's a vanity
to candor that isn't really worth it. Be kind.
Richard Greenberg, NY Times Magazine, 03-26-2006

It is dangerous to be sincere unless you are also stupid.
George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950), Man and Superman (1903) "Maxims for Revolutionists"

The secret of success is sincerity. Once you can fake that you've got it made.
Jean Giraudoux (1882 - 1944)

Judge thyself with the judgment of sincerity, and thou will judge others with the judgment of charity.
John Mitchell Mason

I am not sincere, even when I say I am not.
Jules Renard (1864 - 1910)

Sincerity is the way of Heaven.
Mencius (371 BC - 289 BC), Works

A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.
Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900), The Critic as Artist, part 2, 1891

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler.
Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955), (attributed)

Seek simplicity, and distrust it.
Alfred North Whitehead (1861 - 1947)

It is simplicity that makes the uneducated more effective than the educated when addressing popular audiences.
Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC), Rhetoric

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined. As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler.
Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862)

Simplicity is the peak of civilization.
Jessie Sampter

Nothing is as simple as we hope it will be.
Jim Horning

Manifest plainness,
Embrace simplicity,
Reduce selfishness,
Have few desires.
Lao-tzu (604 BC - 531 BC), The Way of Lao-tzu

I adore simple pleasures. They are the last refuge of the complex.
Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900), The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891

Silence is a text easy to misread.
A. A. Attanasio, 'The Eagle and the Sword'

'Tis better to be silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt.
Abraham Lincoln (1809 - 1865), (attributed)

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.
Abraham Lincoln (1809 - 1865)

He who does not know how to be silent will not know how to speak.
Ausonius

The eternal silence of these infinite spaces fills me with dread.
Blaise Pascal (1623 - 1662)

Oppression can only survive through silence.
Carmen de Monteflores

I think the first virtue is to restrain the tongue; he approaches nearest to gods who knows how to be silent, even though he is in the right.
Cato the Elder (234 BC - 149 BC)

Silence is more musical than any song.
Christina Rossetti (1830 - 1894)

A fair request should be followed by the deed in silence.
Dante Alighieri (1265 - 1321), The Divine Comedy

My personal hobbies are reading, listening to music, and silence.
Edith Sitwell (1887 - 1964)

Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself and know that everything in this life has a purpose.
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

There is no need to go to India or anywhere else to find peace. You will find that deep place of silence right in your room, your garden or even your bathtub.
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Silence is the most perfect expression of scorn.
George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950), Back to Methuselah (1921) pt. 5

With silence favor me.
(Favete Linguis)
Horace (65 BC - 8 BC)

A good word is an easy obligation; but not to speak ill, requires only our silence, which costs nothing.
John Tillotson (1630 - 1694)

Silence is one of the hardest arguments to refute.
Josh Billings (1818 - 1885)

The most profound statements are often said in silence.
Lynn Johnston (1947 - ), For Better or For Worse, 01-15-04

In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in a clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness. Our life is a long and arduous quest after Truth.
Mahatma Gandhi (1869 - 1948)

Well-timed silence hath more eloquence than speech.
Martin Fraquhar Tupper

In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
Martin Luther King Jr. (1929 - 1968)

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
Martin Luther King Jr. (1929 - 1968)

In silence man can most readily preserve his integrity.
Meister Eckhart

Silence is golden when you can't think of a good answer.
Muhammad Ali (1942 - ), "More Than a Hero"

Not merely an absence of noise, Real Silence begins when a reasonable being withdraws from the noise in order to find peace and order
in his inner sanctuary.
Peter Minard

I have often regretted my speech, never my silence.
Publilius Syrus (~100 BC), Maxims

It is better wither to be silent, or to say things of more value than silence. Sooner throw a pearl at hazard than an idle or useless word; and do not say a little in many words, but a great deal in a few.
Pythagoras (582 BC - 507 BC)

The cruelest lies are often told in silence.
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 - 1894)

Nothing is so good for an ignorant man as silence; and if he was sensible of this he would not be ignorant.
Saadi (1184 - 1291)

Silence propagates itself, and the longer talk has been suspended, the more difficult it is to find anything to say.
Samuel Johnson (1709 - 1784)

It is a great thing to know the season for speech and the season for silence.
Seneca (5 BC - 65 AD)

Never pretend to a love which you do not actually feel, for love is not ours to command.
Alan Watts

Such is the inconsistency of real love, that it is always awake to suspicion, however unreasonable; always requiring new assurances from the object of its interest.
Ann Radcliffe, The Mysteries of Udolpho, 1764

To love deeply in one direction makes us more loving in all others.
Anne-Sophie Swetchine

Perhaps the feelings that we experience when we are in love represent a normal state. Being in love shows a person who he should be.
Anton Chekhov (1860 - 1904)

To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.
Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970), Marriage and Morals (1929) ch. 19

Love is not enough. It must be the foundation, the cornerstone - but not the complete structure. It is much too pliable, too yielding.
Bette Davis (1908 - 1989)

Clarity of mind means clarity of passion, too; this is why a great and clear mind loves ardently and sees distinctly what it loves.
Blaise Pascal (1623 - 1662)

The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.
Carl Jung (1875 - 1961)

Nothing takes the taste out of peanut butter quite like unrequited love.
Charles M. Schulz (1922 - 2000), Charlie Brown in "Peanuts"

There's an evolutionary imperative why we give a crap about our family and friends. And there's an evolutionary imperative why we don't give a crap about anybody else. If we loved all people indiscriminately, we couldn't function.
David Foster, House M.D., TB or Not TB, 2005

To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides.
David Viscott, How to Live with Another Person, 1974

There's a lot to be said for self-delusionment when it comes to matters of the heart.
Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider, Northern Exposure, First Snow, 1993

Oh, life is a glorious cycle of song,
A medley of extemporanea;
And love is a thing that can never go wrong;
And I am Marie of Romania.
Dorothy Parker (1893 - 1967), Not So Deep as a Well (1937), "Comment"

One's first love is always perfect until one meets one's second love.
Elizabeth Aston, The Exploits & Adventures of Miss Alethea Darcy, 2005

All love that has not friendship for its base, is like a mansion built upon sand.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox, O Magazine, February 2004

Love is everything it's cracked up to be…It really is worth fighting for, being brave for, risking everything for.
Erica Jong, O Magazine, February 2004

When love is in excess it brings a man no honor nor worthiness.
Euripides (484 BC - 406 BC), Medea, 431 B.C.

There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 - 1900), "On Reading and Writing"

What else is love but understanding and rejoicing in the fact that another person lives, acts, and experiences otherwise than we do…?
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 - 1900)

Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence.
H. L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)

Sometimes when you look back on a situation, you realize it wasn't all you thought it was. A beautiful girl walked into your life. You fell in love. Or did you? Maybe it was only a childish infatuation, or maybe just a brief moment of vanity.
Henry Bromel, Northern Exposure, The Big Kiss, 1991

There is no remedy for love but to love more.
Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862), Journal, July 25, 1839

Just because you love someone doesn't mean you have to be involved with them. Love is not a bandage to cover wounds.
Hugh Elliott, Standing Room Only weblog, February 16, 2004

Passion makes the world go round. Love just makes it a safer place.
Ice T, The Ice Opinion

Love is the difficult realization that something other than oneself is real.
Iris Murdoch (1919 - 1999)

We can only learn to love by loving.
Iris Murdoch (1919 - 1999), O Magazine, February 2004

When you have seen as much of life as I have, you will not underestimate the power of obsessive love.
J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, 2005

But when a young lady is to be a heroine, the perverseness of forty surrounding families cannot prevent her. Something must and will happen to throw a hero in her way.
Jane Austen (1775 - 1817), Northanger Abbey

Friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love.
Jane Austen (1775 - 1817), Northanger Abbey

I cannot think well of a man who sports with any woman's feelings; and there may often be a great deal more suffered than a stander-by can judge of.
Jane Austen (1775 - 1817), Mansfield Park

Qual o papel do Geógrafo no mundo de hoje?

Por que a Geografia é uma ciência sujeita a uma nítida pulverização?
Uma das questões que mais preocuparam os Geógrafos no decorrer dos séculos era a integração e a diferenciação das áreas. Isso sempre exigiu da Geografia um esforço analítico e sintético que hoje parece ter sido trivializado pela opção de um somatório de técnicas em permanente mutação. Entretanto, a aprendizagem conceitual do mundo em que vivemos perde em profundidade no que ganha em extensividade. Possuímos uma visão mais dilacerada do mundo e isso impede a participação do geógrafo nos eventos nos quais sua presença se faz mais importante.
Isso contribui para o isolamento e por fim para o desaparecimento da ciência enquanto tal, pois a apropriação de partes da geografia por outros empreendedores, faz com que o espírito holístico e global dessa ciência também desapareçam.
A amplitude dos estudos geográficos deveria ter uma valorização concomitante num mundo de intensa complexidade. Porém, o que assistimos é uma rápida trivialização dos tópicos de extensa elaboração pelos Geógrafos.

The Berlin Wall

Berlin is a city of monuments and memorials, commemorating the good with the bad, acknowledging the past without dwelling in it. Berlin is a city constantly changing, a living monument itself, and a testament to the reunified Republic. Geography plays an important role in the placement of key monuments in Berlin, the Berlin Wall, the Berliner Philharmonie, and the Daniel Libeskind Judisches Museum. The importance of geography in the placement of key Berlin monuments and museums elevates Berlin from Stadt des Denkmals, or City of Memorials to Denkmal Stadt, the Memorial city, creating a memorial from the streets, and houses, and museums.

The Berliner Philharmonie by Hans Sharoun was originally intended as the cultural center of a resurrected Berlin following World War II. In 1956, the Society of the Friends of the Berlin Philharmonie invited twelve architects to submit designs for the new home of the Philharmoniker; ten replied. In 1957, Hans Sharoun was commissioned to build the new Philharmonie. Kemperplatz was decided on as the location of the new Philharmonie. Located at the geographical center of Berlin, the new Philharmonie was to act as the cultural as well as geographical center of Berlin. In 1961, the ribbon cutting ceremony of Sharoun’s Philharmonie was to be overshadowed by the opening of a much more recognizable Berlin structure, the Berlin Wall.

Daniel Libeskind’s Jewish Museum in Berlin, titled Between the Lines is, in the author's own words, "a museum which explicitly thematises and integrates, for the first time in post-war Germany, the history of the Jews in Germany and the repercussions of the Holocaust.” Liebeskind’s architecture, particularly on the ground floor, gives visitors a sense of great disorientation. The Garden of Exile, a series of 49 columns, plunges visitors deeper into a sense of wandering and homelessness. Designed as a museum for the preservation of German Jewish history, the Jewish Museum Berlin focuses on the entirety of Jewish History from the middle ages to the present.

Another monument in which geographical location is key to the symbolism of Libeskind’s design, the Jewish Museum Berlin is located on Lindenstrasse next to the Kollegienhaus, a former Prussian courthouse which represents Berlin in a time before the Third Reich and would eventually be incorporated into the final design as the main entryway and reception. Libeskind plotted an invisible matrix of the homes of prominent Germans and Jews, poets, musicians, composers, artists and writers, crossing the physical boundary created by the Berlin Wall. The path of the museum was inspired by Walter Benjamin’s One Way Street. In the text of One Way Street Benjamin refers to the ‘Stations of the Star,’ each of the sequence of 60 sections along the zigzag of the building represents one of the ‘Stations of the Star.’

The Berlin Wall, the symbol of the divided Germany stood as a concrete barrier dividing East from West from 1961 to 1989. Today, the streets bear a visible reminder of the Wall’s former path. Like many of the monuments and memorials in Berlin, the railroad irons and cobblestones that run the former course of the wall serve as a painful reminder of the past, and a symbol of the future, a fading scar on the face of Berlin itself.

The Wall was intended to stop the rapid exit of East German citizens. Even following the construction of the Wall, people with apartments in the East with windows facing the West would make death-defying attempts to escape, such as jumping out of second or third story windows, or in the case of the residents of No. 7 Bernauer Strasse, the fifth floor. Berlin’s Haus am Checkpoint Charlie is a museum designed specifically to document its history and tyranny.

The Wall itself became a monument, visited by millions to view the protest art that became the Wall’s signature. Mauerkunst, as it became known, “was a unique collective artwork, which changed daily and often overnight – paint actions disappeared the next day by somebodies [sic] new work of art or was modified in new surprising ways.”

Following the official destruction of the Wall, beginning June 13, 1990 and completed November 30, 1990, the concrete of the wall was crushed and used to make roads in the former German Democratic Republic, using the symbolic and physical division of Berlin and the two Germanys to aid in the reconstruction of the unified German Republic. Further aiding in the reconstruction of Germany, 250 sections were auctioned off for sums ranging from DM 10,000 to DM 150,000, adding to the monies allocated by the Bundestag for the rebuilding of the East German infrastructure. German writer Peter Schneider admitted," demolishing the Wall in the head will take longer than it will take for a demolition firm to do the same job ".

Berlin’s tumultuous past has created a city very aware of its blood stained past. From unified capital to the world’s divided city to the capital of the Reunified German Republic, Berlin has enjoyed a rich past of accomplishments, a dark past in which the streets of Berlin ran red with blood. Today, Berlin is a world capital with a strong democratic government open to public scrutiny, proving that the resolve of the German people to rectify their past atrocities is stronger than the influence of their forefathers. Berlin, the Denkmal Stadt, incorporates reminders of its past to create a new, glorious future of diversity and acceptance.

Lennon's Assassination

Following the death of John Lennon in 1980, the media coverage of the event took on an expected somber tone. Lennon was eulogized as a martyr; his murder dubbed an assassination and his legacy, the peace of the whole world. This image of savior and fallen hero lies in stark contrast to the description of The Beatles in a 1964 article appearing in The New Republic. In “The Feeling of Youth”, The Beatles were compared to the Nairobi Trio, a group of gorillas who appeared on television playing one song over and over again.

In a 1963 article titled "Beatlemania", Newsweek, talks about The Beatles as a phenomenon to be reckoned with, causing large crowds, thousands upon thousands, to gather for the show at the London Palladium. This early coverage of The Beatles mentions Lennon as the leader of the group; however, the language used to describe the music of Lennon and McCartney is far from the florid, gracious tone that will characterize retrospectives and eulogies in the 1980s. In 1980, a Newsweek article titled “Death of a Beatle” the descriptions of memorials are more suited to royalty or statesmen than that of a popular musician. The article describes vigils held in San Francisco, Boston, New York and London, For example, the draping of the front of the Tate Museum in London, an honor usually reserved for artists whose work is of great significance, was granted Lennon, statements are also included from then president-elect Ronald Reagan, President Carter and the Lord-mayor of Liverpool.

In the January 22, 1981 issue of Rolling Stone, an issue dedicated to John Lennon, Scott Spencer speaks of the ability of Lennon to “capture the imagination of millions … He teaches us faith in oneself, and confidence in and affection for the human community.” It is with great irony that the early coverage of The Beatles uses war metaphors and similes, i.e., “The British Invasion”, since Lennon will be eulogized mostly as a bearer of peace. An article in Life in 1964 describes the popularity of The Beatles much like the newspapers of the 1940s described European battle campaigns of World War II. “First England fell … Then, last week, Paris surrendered. Now the U.S. must brace itself.” Even The Beatles’ famous haircuts were something to be feared; another article in Life claims that this ridiculous style brings out the worst in boys.

At least two articles published in the wake of Lennon’s assassination use Lennon’s death to further a political agenda, perhaps one Lennon may have approved of. In “Life and Life Only” in the January 22, 1981 issue of Rolling Stone, Greil Marcus, blames the changing political climate of the United States either directly or indirectly for the circumstances leading to Lennon’s death. He describes the “secret message” of the 1980 election as one of exclusion and fundamental right and fundamental wrong: “with the blessing of God, God’s messengers will separate the one from the other.” In “Ghoulish Beatlemania,” Dave Marsh uses Lennon’s death to advocate for gun control proclaiming that we don’t know if gun control would have saved Lennon’s life but now we’ll never know.

The articles of the early 1960s, those that dealt with the “British Invasion,” depict a society afraid of change being attacked by an outside force against which it must fight with all its strength and might. The articles of the popular media in the 1960s depicted The Beatles as a sinister force, bent on wreaking havoc in the United States. The expected familiarity with the members of The Beatles that the articles from the 1980s assume is lacking, the reporters refer to them only as “One Beatle”, or “Beatle John”.

The articles following Lennon's assassination depict The Beatles and Lennon himself in a much more favorable light. Lennon is even depicted by some as a saint. Readers in December of 1980 and the months that followed would have thought a world leader or a figure of great social import had died.

Readers in the 1960s might have been under the impression that their way of life was at stake, that these boys from England would cause rioting in the streets leading to a complete breakdown in social order. However, teenagers might have viewed the same observations from a very different point of view, one of anticipation and excitement.

John Lennon was indeed a great leader, a pioneer in music and he greatly influenced the world in the seventeen years from the onslaught of “British Invasion” to the night he was slain outside of the Dakota in New York.

その財布は黒いです。

その財布は黒いです。 それは白くはありません。 その家は茶色です。 それは赤くはありません。 その木は緑です。 オレンジではありません。 そのトラックは黄色です。 それは赤くはありません。 その建物は青いです。 それは紫ではありません。 そのドアは茶色いです。 それは緑ではありません。

その さいふ は くろい です 。 それ は しろく は あり ませ ん 。 その いえ は ちゃいろ です 。 それ は あかく は あり ませ ん 。 その き は みどり です 。 おれんじ で は あり ませ ん 。 その とらっく は きいろ です 。 それ は あかく は あり ませ ん 。 その たてもの は あおい です 。 それ は むらさき で は あり ませ ん 。 その どあ は ちゃいろい です 。 それ は みどり で は あり ませ ん 。

sono saifu ha kuroi desu. sore ha shiroku ha ari mase n. sono ie ha chairo desu. sore ha akaku ha ari mase n. sono ki ha midori desu. orenji de ha ari mase n. sono torakku ha kiiro desu. sore ha akaku ha ari mase n. sono tatemono ha aoi desu. sore ha murasaki de ha ari mase n. sono doa ha chairoi desu. sore ha midori de ha ari mase n.


A bolsa é preta. Não é branco. A casa é marrom. Não é vermelho. A árvore é verde. É laranja. O caminhão é amarelo. Não é vermelho. O prédio é azul. É roxo. A porta é marrom. Não é verde.