The 日本語 Project

Month: August 2016

  • How Earthquake Resistant are Buildings in Japan?

    How Earthquake Resistant are Buildings in Japan?

    Introduction

    It’s no secret that Japan experiences several noticeable earthquakes every year. On August 19th 2016, an earthquake measuring 5.3 on the Richter scale hit 170 km off the cost of Miyako, a city in Iwate prefecture. It was followed by another 6.0 earthquake on Sunday, which was also then followed by another 6.0 tremor.

    Why so many earthquakes?

    The nation sits on a triple junction of three tectonic plates. The Boso Triple Junction is the point at which the North American Plate, the Philippine Sea Plate and the Pacific plate meet. As a result, Japan does experience rather frequent earthquakes, daily in fact, although the majority of these are minor tremors unable to be felt by people. However, they can still be detected with seismic equipment. For such an earthquake prone nation, how earthquake resistant are the buildings in Japan?

    According to the Building Standard Act, all buildings in Japan must have some type of earthquake resistant structure. There are three structures which are currently used in order to meet the building code.

    Types of Structures

    Earthquake Resistant Structures

    Earthquake resistant structures are the most commonly found throughout houses in Japan. Under this category, there are two components. Buildings can have a rigid structure, which allows them to be resistant against a collapse. The flexible structures are designed to bend, allowing for the seismic force to be spread out through the building.

    Another method of adhering to the code is by using damping structures. These structures are designed to absorb the shocks caused by the seismic energy. There are various types of damping structures used in buildings not only in Japan but also in other nations, for simplicity sake, all you would need to know is that these are structures that are integrated into the structure of the building in order to absorb shocks from seismic activity.

    The final category consists of seismic isolation structures, these are typically used in high-rise buildings. Earthquake absorbing materials are placed as part of the foundation, underneath the building. This design means that earthquake tremors are absorbed into the isolation structure rather than absorbed full on by the building. The benefit of this design is a major reduction in the level of the tremor felt.

    Conclusion

    At the end of the day, there is no structure than can be billed as “earthquake-proof”. All of the buildings in Japan are earthquake resistant. The strict building code in Japan means that if you are living in Japan, or plan to move to Japan, you can put aside at least a part of your worries. Buildings in Japan are quite resilient even to rather powerful tremors.

    Sources:
    Real Estate Tokyo
    United States Geological Survey

  • The Kana – Building Blocks of Japanese

    The Kana – Building Blocks of Japanese

    Hiragana and Katakana can be considered to be the basic building blocks of the Japanese language. While Kanji  (Borrowed Chinese characters) does have a huge role in Japanese writing, all of the words that any Kanji character can represent can be shown using Hiragana or Katakana.

    What’s the difference?

    Hiragana tends to be used for words that are native to Japan (although there are exceptions). Hiragana also tends to be used for words which do not have a kanji character associated with the word, or if the kanji is rare enough the writer may opt to use the hiragana instead.

    Katakana is typically used for loan words. Usually it is not used for Chinese loan words (ie. We can use Kanji instead), although sometimes they can be used for that purpose as well. Katakana is also used for onomatopoeia in Manga as well.

    How Fast can I learn the Kana?

    This largely depends on how much time you have to practice. There are 46 basic hiragana characters, and another 46 for katakana. The good news is you have some similarities with the characters so you aren’t learning 92 characters that are completely different, there is some overlap.

    Everyone will vary. Some people can learn the all of the kana and modifiers within a week, others a month or more. It really depends how much time you have to dedicate to the task. Practice is very important as well. A general rule that my university had followed was 1 week for hiragana and 1 week for katakana. In the span of two weeks we were expected to have learned all the Kana including their modifiers (eg. が、ぎ).

    So a good time frame to have is learning the kana within 2 weeks. This should be doable with 1 hour of study per day

    (This is greatly exaggerating the time needed, we only did 4 hours of study per week at my university, meaning within 8 hours we were expected to learn all of the 92 sounds that the hiragana and katakana would produce).

    I can read it, but I can’t write! What should I do?!

    Relax, this is something that is inevitable with learning Japanese, and any other language for that matter. Chances are that before you fully learn how to write out the kana, you will be able to recognize them. This is a GOOD thing. This simply means that you are able to remember the kana.

    Repetition  is simply the best way to remember how to write the kana. At my university we did it the old-fashioned way, pencil and paper. You might be wondering why I’m not recommending apps like Obenkyo or Anki now, that’s because these apps are wonderful for getting you introduced into the kana and helps you to remember them, but the best way (at least in my opinion) to learn how to write them is simply to keep writing them out. Spending 20-30 minutes a day writing out the characters and testing yourself is a great way of practicing. Before you know it you’ll be able to write all the kana! The sooner you do this the better though, since the kana are seen so frequently in Japanese that as you further your studies, it will become difficult to forget the basic kana.

  • Welcome to The Nihongo(日本語)Project!

    Welcome to The Nihongo(日本語)Project!

    So you’ve decided to learn Japanese? Great! Deciding to learn a new language, or even reactivate a language which you haven’t learned in a while is always a challenge worth doing. Even though it requires a lot of time, dedication and practice, there’s no reason to go at it completely alone. The Nihongo (日本語）Project is a place for me and the readers to begin documenting their progress, collaborate on other projects, and share study tips for a better learning experience. No one ever said learning would be easy, but the trick is to stay positive and have a genuine interest in learning Japanese (or any other language for that matter)

    Why Japanese?

    As you begin to go through the process of learning Japanese, this is a question you will start to probably hear more often. Different people will have different reasons as to why they want to learn how to speak Japanese. For some people Anime and Manga was their introduction into Japan, and that’s totally fine. For some it will help in furthering their career, others will want to learn Japanese because they like Japanese culture and learning the language really can help an individual to learn more about the culture, not to mention you begin to see the world differently when you can speak another language. It gives the learner a new cultural lens so to speak.

    What inspired you to start learning Japanese?

    Ever since I was in middle school, I have been fascinated to no end about Japan, the people, the culture, the language and the society itself. To be completely honest, aside from the mainstream Anime playing on YTV (Canadian television station) such as Dragonball Z or Pokemon, I didn’t really have much Anime exposure, heck I only started reading Manga on and off just over a year ago!

    I was far more interested in the history of Japan rather than Anime or Manga. But that’s just me. Everyone will be a little different. Often times people who like Anime and Manga are criticized for learning Japanese, and unfairly so sometimes. If someone decides they want to get to an intermediate level of Japanese proficiency solely for the purpose of being able to watch Anime or read Manga, that’s totally cool!

    Being able to speak Japanese fluently with others, watch NHK (Japanese public news broadcaster) or picking up Mainichi Shinbun (Japanese newspaper) and having the ability to feel comfortable with the language would be a great accomplishment. Language is also a great way get in touch with the culture on a deeper level. Some of you may not quite understand what I mean here but that shall be better explained in the next subsection!

    My Background

    So first things first, I am a Canadian, which as many of you know,  means that I speak English (yeah, you know the language that you WROTE this entire article in, yeah that language, we noticed). BUT here’s the confusing part. English is not my native language. I was actually born outside of Canada in Kenya. Now yes I know what you guys have googled and yes Google was telling the truth, Kenya has two official languages, Swahili and English. HOWEVER, my ethnic roots come from Somalia, which is right beside Kenya anyway.

    Even though I was born in Kenya, I speak fluent Somali (although my parents will beg to differ). I can also communicate in English with native fluency. Due to my ethnic background and culture, I do regard Somali as my native language, or “mother tongue” if you will. To me, native language and native fluency are the same but different (Okay, now he’s gone off the deep end).

    Hear me out on this one though. I came to Canada when I was just about to turn 2 years old.  This meant that from Kindergarten to University I had been taught in English (and French for 6 years because Canada is also a bilingual country). I’m able to communicate in English at a level that your average English speaker would be able to communicate in as well. This is because I learned English through immersion. By being in an environment where I am completely immersed in the language, and as a 2-year-old I had no grasp of any real language (which means that any languages that kid grows up with, so long as they routinely continue to practice it, they will acquire fluency in that language or languages). That’s basically the sole reason I can speak English. Because I grew up in Canada. I grew up hearing English and that is the language I had spoken all my life.

    Going back to the point I made about speaking Somali earlier, I also did learn how to communicate in Somali. Very similarly to English as well. My family can speak the language and at home that is what we would speak most of the time. As a child, you are able to concurrently learn multiple languages. This is why today I can speak English and Somali, switch between the two mid sentence, have thoughts in either languages, and be fluent in both.

    I guess the entire message of the last two paragraphs is that even if you speak a language with native fluency, you don’t necessarily have to be associated with the culture of that language and there’s no problem with that either. If I studied French to the advanced level and become completely fluent, it would be another language that I could be fluent in (native fluency) but I don’t culturally associate with as my background (mother tongue/native language).