{"id":196,"date":"2008-08-06T09:19:25","date_gmt":"2008-08-06T16:19:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.guidetojapanese.org\/blog\/?p=185"},"modified":"2012-06-27T12:26:19","modified_gmt":"2012-06-27T17:26:19","slug":"using-%e3%80%8c%e3%81%a8%e3%81%af%e3%80%8d-to-look-up-strange-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.guidetojapanese.org\/blog\/2008\/08\/06\/using-%e3%80%8c%e3%81%a8%e3%81%af%e3%80%8d-to-look-up-strange-words\/","title":{"rendered":"Using \u300c\u3068\u306f\u300d to look up strange words"},"content":{"rendered":"

The edict dictionary<\/a> is one of best online dictionaries available, better than any print E->J dictionaries I know of. It is also continuously being expanded from user submissions. Even in the rare instance that it doesn’t have what you’re looking for, you’re covered with the monster huge \u5927\u8f9e\u6cc9 and \u5927\u8f9e\u6797 J->J dictionaries available for free at Yahoo!\u8f9e\u66f8<\/a>. If you have the patience to work through the Japanese definition, you should be able to find a definition for every word in any print dictionary available to native speakers. However, with new words and slang being invented all the time, you might run into words that are not in any traditional dictionary. The good news is that a lot of Japanese people won’t be familiar with them either. Here’s a quick tip from me to easily find Japanese sites that explain and define words of this nature. In the process, I’ll also discuss a very special double particle.<\/p>\n

The \u300c\u3068\u306f\u300d double particle<\/h2>\n

While you can guess the meaning of most double particles from the sum of it’s parts such as \u300c\u306b\u306f\u300d (a target that’s also a topic), \u300c\u3068\u306f\u300d really has a meaning of its own. Simply put, it is a somewhat formal and concise way to define something. For example, try searching on Google for \u300c\u3068\u306f\u300d and you’ll get pages with titles like \u300cIT\u3068\u306f\u300d and \u300cWWW\u3068\u306f\u300d. If you go to the site itself, it’ll give you a short definition of the relevant term.<\/p>\n

You can probably see where I’m going with this. When I run into a term that’s not in the dictionary (which in my case is usually new expressions or slang too stupid to put in a real dictionary), I search the term in Google with \u300c\u3068\u306f\u300d.<\/p>\n

For example, when I was listening to \u771e\u934b\u304b\u3092\u308a’s podcast<\/a> titled \u3042\u306a\u305f\u306e\u5468\u308a\u306e\uff2b\uff39\u306a\u4eba<\/a>, I had forgotten what “KY” meant. Now, looking up a term like “KY” is usually very difficult because there isn’t a lick of Japanese in the “word” (and I use that term loosely). But all I had to do was attach \u300c\u3068\u306f\u300d and soon found this neat and in-depth definition in no time.<\/p>\n

\nFrom http:\/\/zokugo-dict.com\/09ke\/ky.htm<\/a><\/p>\n

\u305d\u306e\u5834\u306e\u96f0\u56f2\u6c17\u3084\u72b6\u6cc1\u306a\u3069\u3092\u5bdf\u3059\u308b\uff08\u611f\u3058\u308b\u30fb\u63b4\u3080\uff09\u3053\u3068\u3092\u300c\u7a7a\u6c17\u3092\u8aad\u3080\u300d\u3068\u3082\u8868\u73fe\u3059\u308b\u3002KY\u306f\u3053\u306e\u300c\u7a7a\u6c17\u300d\u3068\u300c\u8aad\u3080\u300d\u306e\u982d\u6587\u5b57\u3067\u3001\u4e3b\u306b\u7a7a\u6c17\u304c\u8aad\u3081\u306a\u3044\u4eba\u3092\u610f\u5473\u3059\u308b\u3002\u307e\u305f\u3001\u9006\u306b\u305d\u3046\u3044\u3063\u305f\u4eba\u306b\u300c\u7a7a\u6c17\u3092\u8aad\u3081\u300d\u3068\u63d0\u8a00\u3059\u308b\u969b\u306b\u3082\u300cKY\u300d\u3068\u8033\u5143\u3067\u56c1\u304f\u306a\u3069\u3057\u3066\u4f7f\u308f\u308c\u308b\u3002\u5973\u5b50\u9ad8\u751f\u304c\u30e1\u30fc\u30eb\u306e\u3084\u308a\u3068\u308a\u3067\u4f7f\u3044\u3001\u666e\u53ca\u3057\u305f\u3002<\/p>\n

\u82e5\u8005\u306e\u9593\u3067\u306f\u4ee5\u524d\u304b\u3089\u4f7f\u308f\u308c\u3066\u3044\u308b\u304c\u30012007\u5e74\u3001\u3053\u3046\u3044\u3063\u305f\u982d\u6587\u5b57\u7565\u8a9e\u306e\u5b58\u5728\u304c\u8a71\u984c\u3068\u306a\u308a\u3001\u5e83\u304f\u77e5\u3089\u308c\u308b\u3002<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In fact, thanks to this search, I found the \u300c\u65e5\u672c\u8a9e\u4fd7\u8a9e\u8f9e\u66f8<\/a>\u300d with all sorts of stupid slang that I’ll probably end up wishing I’d kept to myself. Please don’t send me an email along the lines of, “Hey, after reading your blog, I called my boss an AY<\/a> for fun and he actually knew what it meant! He totally MM<\/a>ed on me and now I’m out of a job. What should I do?”<\/p>\n

Anyway, in addition to the regular KY\u8a9e<\/a> (God, it’s turning into its own language now?), this tactic was also useful for looking up Internet slang when I wrote about \u96fb\u8eca\u7537<\/a>. For instance, the first search result for \u300cROM\u3068\u306f\u300d turned up this nice little definition.<\/p>\n

\nFrom http:\/\/d.hatena.ne.jp\/keyword\/ROM<\/a><\/p>\n

\u66f8\u304d\u8fbc\u307f\u3092\u3057\u306a\u3044\u4eba\u306e\u3053\u3068\u3002\u3042\u308b\u3044\u306f\u66f8\u304d\u8fbc\u307f\u3092\u305b\u305a\u306b\u3044\u308b\u3053\u3068\u3002\uff08\u300cROM\u308b\u300d\u3001\u300c\u30ed\u30e0\u308b\u300d\u306a\u3069\u3068\u8868\u73fe\u3059\u308b\uff09<\/p>\n

\u30cd\u30c3\u30c8\u4e0a\u306e\u30b3\u30df\u30e5\u30cb\u30c6\u30a3\u3067\u305d\u306e\u5834\u306e\u96f0\u56f2\u6c17\u3092\u3064\u304b\u3080\u305f\u3081\u306b\u300cROM\u3063\u305f\u308a\u300d\u3001\u300cROM\u306b\u306a\u3063\u305f\u308a\u300d\u3059\u308b\u3002<\/p>\n

\u4ed6\u4eba\u306b\u5bfe\u3057\u3066\u300cROM\u3063\u3066\u308d\u3088\u300d\u3068\u767a\u8a00\u3059\u308b\u306e\u306f\u300c\u9ed9\u3063\u3066\u308d\u3088\u300d\u3068\u767a\u8a00\u3059\u308b\u306e\u3068\u540c\u7fa9\u3002<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So there you have it, a simple neat tip from me to you. I just wish I had better examples that won’t turn your cute little \u300c\u307e\u3059\uff0f\u3067\u3059\u300d classroom Japanese to the dark side. Just don’t be using this stuff when you’re talking to me. You’ll totally get the hand and I mean that.<\/p>\n

LOL! KTNXBYE<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The edict dictionary is one of best online dictionaries available, better than any print E->J dictionaries I know of. It is also continuously being expanded from user submissions. Even in the rare instance that it doesn’t have what you’re looking … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7,13,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advanced","category-colloquialism","category-learning-resources","category-vocabulary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.guidetojapanese.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.guidetojapanese.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.guidetojapanese.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.guidetojapanese.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.guidetojapanese.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.guidetojapanese.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.guidetojapanese.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.guidetojapanese.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.guidetojapanese.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}