In defense of tomorrow

[pergamond]

"What is the meaning of this Kanji?" Our teacher highlighted two Chinese characters on the sheet being projected to the screen in front of us. One looked a bit like a flower. The other, like a child's climbing frame.

"らいねん," we volunteered as a class. "Next year."
来年 rai-nen.

"And this one?"

The flower was still there but the climbing frame had been replaced by a broken ladder with the bottom-most rung twisted free.

"らいげつ," we replied. "Next month."
来月 rai-getsu.

"How about this one?"

Again, the same flower but now alongside a small chest of drawers.

"らいにち," we started confidently and then paused. "… next day?"
来日 rai-nichi.

"In this case," our teacher explained. "日 (nichi) is understood as if it were 日本 (nihon), Japan. So it means: 'coming to Japan'."

There was a silence as we took this in.

"…. why doesn't it mean 'next day'…?" asked someone at last.
a.k.a. Defend your language, Japanese person!

Our teacher paused. "Well, what is the Japanese for 'next day' or tomorrow?"

"あした," we all chorused.
明日　ashita.

"Yes. That's why."
a.k.a. Silence, you foreigners!

Comments

[februaryfour]

*laughing*

[pergamond]

/scowls at cheating Chinese native speaker :p

[surexit]

:( kanji. I can't do kanji.

[pergamond]

I'm only learning the basics. I find it quite fun (at my level!) but I find remembering the multiple readings unnecessarily complicated.

[surexit]

If I was here longer-term I definitely would, but yeah to the unnecessarily complicated thing. It's a huge learning barrier for me.

[pergamond]

How long have you been in Japan? And... are you really headed to the middle east?

[surexit]

I've been here since August last year, I'm heading home in April. So basically, I could usefully have learned kanji, but I haven't, and now I'm really not going to, you know? And yeah, Sudan looks pretty likely. I mean, I don't really think a job's confirmed until you've got your visa and bought your plane ticket, but it's probably not going to fall through on my end at least.