虫の歌
頭が溶けて
書こうかな

In one of my Japanese classes I was studying transitivity pairs of verbs: in each pair both verbs have the same basic meaning, but one is transitive and the other is intransitive. (A transitive verb requires an object; an intransitive verb does not.) For example, one of the pairs was 「出す／出る」, which means “take out / go out”: 「ごみを出す」 means “take out the trash”; 「出る」 means “I’m leaving”.

The textbook then described how the meanings would change in the present imperfect tense (the book didn’t call it that; it just called it the 「＋ている」 form). Transitive verbs describe an action, so the present imperfect tense of a transitive verb describes an action in progress; this is a normal use in English. But intransitive verbs describe a change, so the present imperfect tense of a intransitive verb describes a state that is the result of the change. That made sense, and I hope it still does.

But then came the example sentences. They are usually good examples that can be used in normal conversations, so I wasn’t surprised by the intransitive imperfect for “break”: 「このコンピューターは壊れています。」, meaning “this computer is broken”, is a useful phrase. But the corresponding transitive example was 「ゴジラが町を壊しています。」 translated as “There goes Godzilla, destroying the city.”

Karen was reading Perl Buzz and noticed that Perl6 on Parrot will be called “Rakudo”, which is a shortened form of “rakudadou” or 駱駝道, the “way of the camel”. But I think that “rokudo”, a shortened form of 六道輪廻, would be a better name; it even has the number 6 (六) at the start.

At YAPC::Asia Ingy told us all about Sporx, explaining that it was a combination of Spork and Takahashi, and so should be pronounced “Sporkahashi”.  When I began to tell Karen about “Sporkahashi” she said “That was clever” when I had only mentioned the name.  Because she knew little about Spork and nothing about Takahashi she had assumed the “hashi” was 箸 instead of 橋.

Well, Karen wouldn’t have thought about the kanji characters, but she knew that “hashi” (箸) meant “chopsticks”, so she thought a “spork and chopsticks” name was a smart idea from Ingy.

I don’t think anyone else spotted that.  The “hashi” (橋) in Takahashi (高橋) means “bridge”; 高橋 is a surname that means ”high bridge”.

I started a Japanese language course at the EIC Japanese Language Center. I only have 3 weeks left in London, and 2 evenings per week available for lessons. Normal lessons would not suit because my existing knowledge of Japanese is weird: I understand some advanced grammar but my vocabulary is miniscule. The staff at EIC handled my requirements very well, and I really like my new set of flash cards.