Study through Sake

Kim and I have both recently stepped up our commitment to studying Japanese. Now, there are many theories about how best to study a language, and I will bore you all later with a post about my theories on how best to go about remembering the Kanji. But in the meantime let me relay a little story as I introduce one of the most effective ways to remember vocabulary - learning by action.

Last week's word was bo-nen-kai, and it was easy for us to remember this word because we went to one. Our brain often finds it difficult for a new word to stick unless there is some ulterior motive for remembering it. But with the introduction of this personal link, the word becomes second nature.

This weekend the new word that has been permanently etched onto Kim's brain is futsuka-yoi.

Futsuka-yoi literally translates as "drunk for two days". It is the way that Japanese express the concept of a hangover. Of course, in Japanese it would be too impolite to mention that someone is actually physically ill from the excess consumption of alcoholic beverages, so they just imply that they are "still drunk" (which of course is much more acceptable in Japan). I also find the word amusing because of its potential double-meaning: yoi is also the word for "good". Thus, I originally took the phrase to mean "you'll come good in two days".

Kim's futsuka-yoi was the result of the Orphan's Christmas Party that we threw at Albert's place on Saturday evening. Not only were orphans (foreigners living in Japan) present but we invited a few of our Japanese friends along to show them how Aussies and Canadians celebrate Christmas (the Americans snobbed us, but we don't hold that against you Mark L and Stephen).

Highlights of the evening include me winning the booby prize in Secret Santa, and a 1:30am brainwave to trudge through the cold night air to a karaoke house that is always packed, we knew would be packed, and in fact turned out to be packed. Kim demanded that it was worth us waiting around for 40 minutes until a room became free because singing karaoke is fun. She managed to communicate this to me even though she had lost her voice.

Luckily it was a three day weekend.