Nihongo Journey

Yojijukugo are four character compounds in Japanese. A lot of the time they are idioms, but other times they are just phrases or compound words. When I come across a new 四字熟語　(yojijukugo) I usually add it to my SRS as its own card. After I have some familiarity with it, I’ll add it in with a normal sentence card. I only know a handful of them though because I’m focusing more on basic verbs and other vocabulary. These are just fun little extras the spice up study when bored.

謹賀新年
きんがしんねん　＝　”Happy New Year.” Literally

弱肉強食
じゃくにくきょうしょく = “Survival of the fittest.” Literally , “The weak meat is the strong’s meal.”

天上天下
てんじょうてんげ　= “The entire world.” Literally, “Above heaven and below heaven.” This is a pretty easy one for beginners with yojijukugo.

温故知新
おんこちしん　＝　”Developing new thoughts and ideas based on the wisdom of the past.” Literally, The kanji could read “warm wisdom, new.”

ひさびさね？ Time for more japanese srs sentences and one with an interesting grammar point. (to me anyway)

全然眠れやしない
ぜんぜん　ねむれ　やしない = “I can’t sleep at all.”
**Grammar Point** Adding やしない　to the masu form of a verb makes that verb emphatically negative. The dictionary says this is a colloquial usage.

眼鏡を外す
めがね　を　はずす　＝　”to take off one’s glasses.”

ウサギが葉っぱを食べている
ウサギ　が　はっぱ　を　たべて　いる　”the rabbit is eating a leaf.” This one was an interesting find for me because I’ve only see leaf written as ”葉”before this.

鍵がなかったので。。。
かぎ　が　なかった　ので。。。　＝　”Because I didn’t have my key…”

Time for more Japanese spaced repetition sentences. Huzzah! …..hurray?…..guys?

野菜をたくさん食べることが大切です
やさい　を　たくさん　たべる　こと　が　たいせつ　です。　＝　”Eating a lot of vegetables is important.”

絵空事ばかりだ
えそらごと　ばかり　だ　＝　”It’s just a pipe-dream.” I like this one because it’s a good demonstration of how cool the kanji can be. The kanji 絵 means “picture.” 空　means “sky.” 事　means “thing.” So put it together and it would literally be “The picture-in-the-sky-thing.” Kind of like how we say “pie in the sky.”

体重が１０キロ減った
たいじゅう　が　じゅう　キロ　へった　＝　”(My) body weight decreased by 10 kilos.” or simply “I lost 10 kilos.”

何故そこまで姉に拘るのか？
なぜ　そこまで　あね　に　こだわる　の　か　＝　”Why are you obsessed over my older sister to that extent?”

私はへこたれない
わたし　は　へこたれない　＝　”I won’t lose heart.”

Here are today’s SRS example sentences. These are some I found while looking through websites for information about Japanese food. People love discussing what they’ve been eating and cooking in their blogs.

オキアミ油はコレステロール値を下げますか？
オキアミ　ゆ　は　コレステロール　ち　を　さげます　か？＝　”Does Krill oil lower cholesterol levels?”

昔の日本食が健康に良い
むかし　の　にほんしょく　が　けんこう　に　よい　＝　”In the old days, Japanese food was good for your health.”

飲みながら話し合った
のみ　ながら　はなしあった　＝　”While drinking, we talked together.”

エビでタイを釣る
エビ　で　タイ　を　つる　＝　This is an idiom meaning “To risk a little to gain a lot.” Literally, it means “to catch a sea bream with a shrimp/prawn.”

生きてるままのエビを食べた
いきてる　まま　の　エビ　を　たべた　＝　”(someone) Ate a shrimp/prawn while it was alive.”