A Language is the Key to a new World

So, I have finally graduated and am now officially bored of watching and reading the news to keep up and improve my Japanese. For this reason, I have decided to reopen a book that I bought on my year abroad and keep myself busy and learning with some lighter reading. 「君に出会った４％の奇跡」by 広瀬 未衣 is the book in question, which the author translated to “4% of everything” but I would personally translate as “The 4% miracle of having met you”.

I read the first 30 pages a while ago and will continue there because nothing has really happened yet.

As I am not the best with day-to-day vocabulary, I thought I would record all the words that I encounter and find interesting and share them here with you. Maybe you can find some helpful and interesting phrases here as well!

Okay, here we go

食べ飽きる　(たべあきる) - to get tired of eating

身を乗り出す　(みをのりだす) - to lean forward

脳裏に浮かぶ　(のうりにうかぶ) - to come to mind

なじみ深い　(なじみふかい) - extremely familiar

論理的　(ろんりてき) - logical

直観的　(ちょっかんてき) - intuitive

Also, some interesting grammar structures that I have encountered

せいか - probably because of

I have been watching a lot of Japanese news lately and crime is a constant topic, so I decided to make a list of the words that I most frequently hear. I hope this is helpful for understanding the news. feel free to add, I might also add as other words come to my mind.

性別役割分業　(せいべつやくわりぶんぎょう) - work division by gender roles

日本型雇用慣行　(にほんがたこようかんこう) - Japan-style employment practice

既存の制度　(きぞんのせいど) the system as it has existed until now

終身雇用　(しゅうしんこよう) - life-time employment

年功序列　(ねんこうじょれつ) - seniority based on length of service/ the Nenko system (which is a system used in Japan, where you are guaranteed to rise up in ranks and salary with age. This system guarantees stability, especially in combination with 終身雇用, as it mostly disregards talent, ability and effort. This system is now slowly dying with more women entering the workforce, worsening economic conditions and Japan’s aging population) (just in case anyone is interested)

合理的　(ごうりてき) - rational, reasonal

専門職　(せんもんしょく) - professional job (which requires a special education, usually better paid than 一般職 )

一般職　(いっぱんしょく) - general work

賃金格差解消　(ちんぎんかくさかいしょう) - elimination of the pay gap

管理職　(かんりしょく) - management

採用回避　(さいようかいひ) - avoiding employment

生え抜き（の人）　(はえぬきのひと) - someone who gets a job straight after graduating (University)

昇進率　(しょうしんりつ) - rate of promotion

Some random vocaburaly for discussions about politics

州政府　(しゅうせいふ) - state government

連邦政府　(れんぽうせいふ) - federal government

陰謀　(いんぼう) - conspiracy

離脱　(りだつ) - withdrawl

協定　(きょうてい) - agreement

信条　(しんじょう) - belief

運命 (うんめい) - fate

神様  (かみさま) - god/ the gods; depending on your culture you might want to translate this in the singular or plural; however, I personally would go with the plural because the Japanese cultural sphere has multiple deities and the quote is originally Japanese; (this is an interesting issue to disuss though!)

目論見 (もくろみ) - plan, scheme

偶然 (ぐうぜん) - coincidence

衛星 (えいせい) - satellite

軌道 (きどう) - orbit

冒険　(ぼうけん) - adventure

挑戦　(ちょうせん) - challenge