Exploring one’s subconscious via language
Recently I’ve noticed a few mistakes I’ve been making in Japanese and I believe I’ve found the cause. I’ll use two examples, related to pets.
The first is how you count pets. In Japanese, there are “counter” words, which you append to numbers. 10字 (ji) means “10 characters”. 5個 (ko) means 5 small things. 7本 (hon) means 7 long things (beer bottles, trains, pencils). 3台 (dai) means 3 machines (TVs, cars). ４人 (nin) means 4 people.
There are lots for animals. 羽 (wa) is for birds (and also rabbits, as monks long ago were only allowed eat birds, so they started counting rabbits like birds so they wouldn’t feel guilty eating them), 頭 (tou) is for large animals (it actually means “head”, as in “head of cattle”), 匹 (hiki) is for smaller animals (cats, dogs, etc). The problem lies within hiki. I have no problem when using it to say how many dogs I see on the street, but when I’m talking about my own cats at home, I keep using “nin” (人), the counter for people. I clearly consider my own cats as people on some level so I keep making that mistake.
The second problem I have is with the verb used for saying you “have” a pet. When you say you “have” a brother or sister or friend or boyfriend or girlfriend, you say “there is a brother/sister/what-have-you” (いる, iru). For pets, you use a different verb, kau (飼う), which literally means “to raise (an animal)”. You ask “are you raising a pet?” to ask “do you have a pet?”. I have no problem using this for my own cats, but the problem is with the boyfriend/girlfriend situation. Whenever I want to say “do you have a boyfriend?” (wow, it sounds like I use that a lot, doesn’t it? 
), it comes out as “are you raising a boyfriend?” first. On some level, I guess I see romantic partners (at least those of other people), as pets as opposed to human beings.
February 28th, 2008 at 12:01 am
lol interesting post I must try and remember 飼う, I used to always say 「わんちゃんがいます」but it seems I was wrong all along. I hate the way Japanese people are often too polite to correct you, even Chisa doesn’t correct me sometimes I have to keep telling her to. It especially pisses me off when I say something and then realise straight away that it was wrong but the other person doesn’t say anything.
February 28th, 2008 at 4:58 am
Wah. If I was in Japan I’d be all like “fucktard” and they’d be all like “There’s no Japanese for that word. Gomen gomen gomen. Gomen kudasai.” Haha! I’m fucking plastered.
I’m sorry.
But I am fucking plastered.
February 28th, 2008 at 7:55 am
Your Japanese is perfectly correct though, Terran. Maybe alcohol incurs Japanese?
Tilmitt, you’re right. Some of my friends correct me, like Ayumi and Mitsuki, but some don’t at all. It depends on your level, or more precisely, their perception of your level. If they feel you’re making a mistake every sentence, they won’t bother correcting you because then they’d be doing nothing but correcting you all the time, but if they feel that mistakes are rare enough to warrant the time, then they’ll usually give you that time.
I haven’t met anyone who’ll correct awkward phrasing, like telling me “I understand what you said but here’s a more natural way of saying it”, but that’s expecting too much I suppose. To be honest, if a friend corrects me too much, and/or does it in a way that’s just a bit too direct I can get a bit discouraged and just revert to English. It’s happened about two or three times since I came here.
February 28th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
lol I don’t really remember posting that.
I wonder where I got that Japanese from.
Or what I was talking about.
February 28th, 2008 at 8:19 pm
The more drunk I get the better I speak Japanese so perhaps it’s true! I think Terran remembers that stuff from when he used to go cardcaptorz dreamchat and everyone was like “gomen ne, usagi-chan!” and stuff.
February 29th, 2008 at 9:21 am
In conclusion, stimulants rock.