if you can't sleep, count counting words?

[nnozomi]

Daily life: Still commuting to and from the Edo period for work; I should be there at this moment (or else amid class descriptions for a university sign language project, or helping advertise healthy mineral water, or some other exciting thing). Very little else to report, let's call that a blessing.

Music: The Brahms trio for piano, clarinet, and cello, an old favorite; the slow movement in particular has that Brahmsian sense of "this is not a happy ending, this is heartbreak, but in the end it's meaningful and worth it" that few other composers (or writers) ever manage. In tears.

Books: Lots of delicious Sundial reading this week. I succeeded to some extent in commenting on fics read, for a change; did not manage all of them (or any non-fic media), and also I remain stupidly shy about commenting on explicit fic or RPF, but it was fun! The Guardian fics in particular featured, along with a lot of wonderful Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan, two new and intriguing takes on Zhao Xinci and a variety of background competent!Lin Jing, satisfying me and my weird-favorites tendencies.

Chinese: For work-related reasons (don't even ask, no live organisms involved) I realized that I did not know how to count snakes in Japanese, and asked various ex-colleagues: 一本 (long thin things)? 一匹 (animals small enough to pick up)? Aoki-kun said dryly "I haven't counted very many snakes but I think it's 一匹." Misa said "一匹, right? Same like children? Small wriggling things?". I do, on the other hand, know how to count snakes in Chinese: 一条, the counter for long linear things, same like dragons (thank you 龙哥) and lives (thank you Shen Wei, *sniff*).

Writing: Getting some useful and appreciated advice (some of which boils down, accurately, to "What you are trying to do worked the way you wanted it to, and that's a problem"). Not getting very far ahead; I need to be more serious about setting and meeting word goals for each day, whether writing or revising. Should maybe go find the write-every-day thing again on DW, but I'm always shy about that unless it's being hosted by someone I know.

Photos: Plum blossoms are really my favorite of the flowering trees, but they're so damn difficult to photograph well. Also a few other things that caught my eye; the bottom right photo may be depressingly topical but it made me laugh, as did the cat whose glare dared me to comment on its untidy setting.




Be safe and well.

Comments

[naye]

I love the 梅! Their colors always surprise me. ♥ And aw, that's a comfy cat.

[nnozomi]

I actually saw an 梅 tree with pink and white flowers growing from the same branches! Didn't have my phone on me but will have to go take a picture later...

[luzula]

Here is the current write-every-day journal, if it helps: hopefulmonsters.

[nnozomi]

Thank you! That's good to know. Will definitely keep it in mind and see what seems likely to work.

[extrapenguin]

一匹 (animals small enough to pick up)?
This is hilarious when one considers that in Chinese, 匹 is the counter for horses. Somehow the juxtaposition of that with "small enough to pick up" is really funny.

[nnozomi]

lol, isn't it? I wonder how it got shrunk down somewhere in the process of crossing over from the mainland. (Come to think of it, 一匹馬 is another Chinese counter I know from something Zhu Yilong sings--it's clear what learning materials I find the most memorable ;) ).

[china_shop]

Misa said "一匹, right? Same like children? Small wriggling things?".

I rather love that children and snakes have the same counter. :) :)

Good luck with the writing! ❤

[nnozomi]

Hee! She was kidding--officially children are counted with 一人 like adults, but we agreed that 一匹 for small animals would be a whole lot more applicable. (She has a kid who is probably not more wriggly than the average--I miss Little Mi, she used to come to the office with her mom when she was tiny and sit on my lap a lot.)
and thanks for the good wishes ♡

[trobadora]

I do, on the other hand, know how to count snakes in Chinese: 一条, the counter for long linear things, same like dragons (thank you 龙哥) and lives (thank you Shen Wei, *sniff*).

Hee! I can't remember many classifiers but 条 is one of them, for the same reasons. *g*

(It's a very strange stage of language learning where you can pinpoint exactly which instance of hearing a word made it stick in your head!)

Your pictures are lovely as usual, and the last one made me laugh as well. :D

[nnozomi]

(It's a very strange stage of language learning where you can pinpoint exactly which instance of hearing a word made it stick in your head!)
Isn't it? It is entirely possible that between dramas and songs, I have learned more Chinese vocabulary via Zhu Yilong than from Duolingo.

and thanks! I like the shrine where that statue resides, it has a beautiful camphor tree too.

[clevermanka]

I'm trying to wrap my head around the fact that some languages count things differently depending on the qualities of the thing. LANGUAGE IS FASCINATING. What sort of cultural influences cause that? And how does it in return influence culture? Wow wow wow.

[nnozomi]

It is fascinating and it's also, not to mince words, a pain in the ass when learning the language! Japanese has this one counter word that's used for birds, for instance. So far so good, right? Except it's also used for rabbits, which, you know, are not birds the last time I checked. Are they supposed to flap their ears a whole lot and take flight, or what? And so on. ;)

[chestnut_pod]

I love the idea of the snake-counting words!

[nnozomi]

Someone on the net somewhere was suggesting 一ニョロ、二ニョロ, roughly translatable to "one wiggle, two wiggles..." and so on. ;)

[laireshi]

Let me preface this with saying that I hate counter words. Why!

Same like children? Small wriggling things?
This is amazing though :D

一条, the counter for long linear things, same like dragons (thank you 龙哥) and lives (thank you Shen Wei, *sniff*)
AND THIS IS SAD.

Korean has 마리 for animals and it seems to apply to snakes too, what a relief.

Lovely photos, as ever^^

[nnozomi]

I hate counter words. Why!
I know, tell me about it :( Korean numbers did me in before I ever even got to the counting words, I still can't count higher than twenty-something (meaning that I would have to lie about my age, hm).

Like I was saying in another comment, the counters for snakes and children aren't officially the same, but it often seems like they should be...

AND THIS IS SAD.
I know :( Think of the dragon one instead, that comes from a very cheerful bouncy song Zhu Yilong sang last year sometime ;)

and thank you!

[tinny]

Heeee, I knew the dragon, but not the lives. <3

Blossoms! Yay! Spring is still far off in these parts. I laughed at the masked lion, too. :D

[nnozomi]

Counting lives is from that line of Shen Wei's in the kitchen knife scene: "这条命是我还你的." ;(

I hope winter doesn't drag on too long for you; here the blossoms are blossoming all over the place but we still have some quite cold days, it's super up and down.