Summary: I'm pretty sure this doesn't matter to a whole lot of you, but I finally got all my computer issues fixed. What this means to you is that I will hopefully be able to respond faster to things and also be able to create better content faster. So be looking for more videos and other goodies coming down the line in the future. I finally finished the book I was reading: 会話がとぎれない！話し方６６のルール It contained a lot of useful tips on how to have a good conversation and was great practice for vocabulary and overall reading skills/speed. But, I need something more challenging in order to get use to N1 (hopefully) reading. And the grammar and the style of the book wasn't quite that level. It wasn't a cakewalk, but it was simply too easy compared to the essays you find on the test. So, I went to my trusty Book Off store and picked up another book. I'm not sure what category you would put it in, it's kind of a modern philosophy book, something along the lines of what Seth Godin in the states writes. This is by 糸井重里 (Itoi Shigesato) and is called ほぼ日刊イトイ新聞の本(Almost daily Itoi Newspaper, The Book). Which apparently is quite popular in Japan, ranking #173 on Amazon out of all books. Anyway, the material in this little book is absolutely priceless, very similar to what you will see on the N2 and N1. If you are in Japan, I encourage you to pick it up (It's only Y620 shipped!). For those outside of Japan, you can of course check out tenso.com, which will reship it for around Y1400 or so. Pricey, but not impossible. And you can always pick up a used copy to save a little yen or pile on a few more JLPT books to make it worth your while. Or, who knows if there is big enough interest I might give it away in a contest. Anybody want a book? (after I'm done reading?) Abbreviations are Everywhere Abbreviations are pretty much apart of any language out there. We have more than our fair share of abbreviations in English. We've got PC for personal computer, ATM for Automatic Teller Machine, … the list goes on and on. Shortening is also done in Japanese, but in a slightly different way. For example, personal computer becomes pasucon and remote control becomes remocon. In standard Japanese at least, they don't use that many letters when doing the abbreviating. They choose instead to do a different kind of shortening, simply cutting the first part of the two words off and combing them to make a new word. WTF is KY? So, you are probably thinking that that is all old hat. After all, everybody knows that pasucon means personal computer. But what about KY? I recently overheard a conversation amongst some colleagues and they used the phrase KY. I was really baffled by the whole thing because well KY brings up a slightly different image than what they were obviously talking about. So, I got a little curious and did some snooping. I came to find out that KY actually means kuki yomenai , which roughly translates to can't read the air or atmosphere. It's used to describe someone or a group of someones that aren't able to get a grasp on the situation or misunderstand what is going on. Kind of like the geek that shows up to the house party in a tux. I found out that there are actually a few of these running around. A few of the popular ones are IW for imi wakaranai (I don't understand the meaning) and CB for cho bimyo (Really doubtful/unreliable). In case you were wondering, cho is kind of like uber in English, it is a cool way to emphasize something. It is mainly used in the Tokyo area and is considered a bit slangy, although I've heard my boss use it before. Where do they come from? They seem to come out of the language that is mostly used by high school kids. They take the first letter of two words and use them to create the abbreviations. What is interesting is they used the romanization system most often used by foreigners ( ちょ = cho) instead of the system that is more commonly used (or so I've heard) in Japanese high school ( ちょ = tyo).
