A little about this blog...

I live and work in Tokyo, and speak the language pretty well, but my reading skills are still painfully weak. To study I read kid's books, but I am notorious for never making a decent attempt at memorizing vocabulary.
This is a blog where I'll put down the words I learn in everyday conversation, new situations, book chapters, etc. and their definitions, so I have an easy way of looking them up later.
Educational? Definitely! Boring? Most likely!
But if you're attempting to learn intermediate Japanese, why not study along with me? よろしく!

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Disaster Vocab

There is always new vocabulary to learn in extraordinary situations. Sitting in my living room watching the news after the great Touhoku Earthquake, Great Touhoku Tsunami, and Great Tohoku Nuclear Plant Failure, I am barraged by vocab I don't know, and really feel I ought to for my own safety. The following is a list of all the words I personally learned through osmosis in the last two weeks.












vocabreadingmeaningcomments
余震よしんAftershockYou probably already know 地震, or earthquake, right? but you might not know this one. We had several hundred small ones, and several dozen big aftershocks.
買いだめかいだめstockpilingAs in, 'STOP THE 買いだめ' = don't make a run on the shops.
震災しんさいearthquake disaster In japanese, there is not just one word for 'disaster' - you write the type of disaster in the first kanji, then add 災as a suffix: 火災,戦災etc.
放射能ほうしゃのうradiation.
行方不明ゆくえふめいwhereabouts unknown
安否確認あんぴかくにんchecking on a person's safetyThis can mean you contact the person you're worried about, or they contact you.
停電ていでんblackout Also good to know: 計画停電【けいかくていでん】
(n) planned power outage

輪番停電【りんばんていでん】
(n) rolling blackout
献血けんけつblood donationalso:血液型(けつえきがた)means blood type.
募金ぼきん(money) donationas in, 赤十字に募金しましょう:let's donate to the Red Cross!

Sorry to start the blog on depressing vocabulary, but it's more depressing feeling helpless and in the dark in these situations. Learn what you can, do what you can!
頑張れ日本!

2 comments:

  1. What? No

    放射線 radiation
    放射能 radioactivity
    寄付 contribution (like, a donation to a charity)
    補給 supply, replenish. Like, water pools in nuclear reactors.
    原発 abbreviation for 原子力発電所 nuclear power plant.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I got the 放射能... ;) I didn't know the others, clearly I have been slacking on my 'jisho-hiki'!

    ReplyDelete