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gorgynei

im joining the war on gross disgusting pornographic content on the side of gross disgusting pornographic content

byjove

it’s remarkable how much money you can save by not leaving the house and not eating and not moving

byjove

looking at my bank account after a month of being in a depressive coma like wow. I’m so good at budgeting

bombshellblitz

The less you eat, drink and buy books; the less you go to the theatre, the dance hall, the public house; the less you think, love, theorise, sing, paint, fence, etc., the more you save – the greater becomes your treasure which neither moths nor rust will devour – your capital. The less you are, the less you express your own life, the more you have, i.e., the greater is your alienated life, the greater is the store of your estranged being.

Karl Marx, 1844, Human Requirements and Division of Labour Under the Rule of Private Property

nando161mando

nihongoseito

How to write formal Japanese emails・正式な日本語のメールの書き方

The nonprofit I work for recently gave all us interns a really informative talk on the protocol for writing profession emails in Japanese, so I thought I’d share what I learned with you guys! Just so you know, I’ll be using some advanced vocab (including 敬語) in this post and pretty much won’t gloss any kanji. So if you’re feeling up to it, then let’s go! 行きましょう！

Subject line

For some reason our presenter did this one last, but I’m going to put it at the beginning. As in English subject lines, be plain and mention the specific purpose of your email. I have temporarily lost SO many work emails due to inane or repeat subject lines. Include your last name in the subject line if you think it’s necessary. Here’s a sample subject line for an internship application:

インターンシップ申し込み（XX大学・［名字・名前*］）

Here’s one for the nonprofit I work for:

【［非営利団体］】トピック３：コロナウイルス（11月9日開始）

Please don’t ask what I do here…it’s semi-ridiculous. (And I don’t even get paid.)

*If you have a Western name where your given name comes before your family name, it’s more up to you which order you put them in and which one you use in general, especially if you don’t know if your Japanese recipient will be able to recognize which is which (or if you’re like me and your last name is nigh unpronounceable in kana). You might want to think about this on a case-by-case basis.

Addressing the recipient

Usually the first thing you do in an English email is greet who you’re talking to. This is the same in Japanese. Here’s a basic template:

株式会社ABC XX部［名字・名前］様

First, you name the company* your addressee works for; second, the department; and third, their full name, accompanied by 様（さま）, not さん!

*Be careful here: not all companies are 株式会社. Basically, the first line is for their workplace. If you’re a university student like me, you might be emailing someone who works for ABC大学.

Introducing yourself

Next, you should say who you are. The format for this varies on whether you are telling them who you are or reminding them, i.e., if this is your first time emailing them or not. Here’s an introduction template for a university student:

初めてメールをお送りいたします。ABC大学XX学部YY学科*の［名字・名前］と申します。

With a first email, you state that it’s the first email and introduce yourself using 申す to be extra polite. You also state your university (if they don’t work for it already, presumably), your major, and 学科* if necessary. If you’re a double major like me, you can write XX学部 twice in a row.

Here’s a template for a second email:

いつもお世話になっております。ABC大学／XX学部の［名字］です。

Basically, you thank them for talking with you again and briefly reintroduce yourself, depending on if your university or your major is more relevant. No need to use 申す.

*I’ll be honest: I don’t really know what a 学科 is or how it differs from 学部／専攻／専門. Our presenter called it a “sub-major.” No clue what that means. Concentration, maybe? Tread carefully, my friends.

Email body

Just as in English emails, Japanese emails should be simply written and get to the point as immediately as possible. That’s more basic email etiquette than anything—after all, does anyone really want to be reading emails?

You should also use 敬語 in the email body if you can. Pick whether to use 尊敬語 or 謙譲語 and then stick with your choice for the entire email. I gotta say, I have no idea how to decide which one to use! 敬語 is so hard! Do your best!!!

(Also, here’s a 敬語 Quizlet I made a while ago!)

Here are some useful phrases to include in your email body:

XXを添付しておりますので、ご確認お願いいたします。 = I have attached XX for you to check.

ご質問などございましたら、遠慮なくお申し付けください。 = If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask.

ご不明な点などございましたら、お気軽にご連絡ください。 = If anything is unclear, please feel free to contact me.

クッション言葉 (cushion phrases)

In classic Japanese fashion, クッション言葉 are phrases used to soften requests, questions, apologies…basically all manner of inconvenience or imposition. These can get pretty long, which seems to go against the general rule of concision in emails, but in Japanese these are very important. Use them in your email body.

Asking for help, making a request:

恐れ入りますが… (note: 入 here is pronounced い)

お手数おかけいたしますが…

ご迷惑おかけいたしますが…

Asking a question:

少々お尋ねしたいことがあります。

Making an apology:

誠に／大変申し訳ございませんが…

There are probably lots more of these to be discovered. Maybe someday a Japanese person will write YOU an embarrassingly polite email!

Closing

Ah, conclusions—the worst part of any piece of writing. Luckily, we have more templates. This is another case where the format varies depending on whether you’ve emailed this person before. Here’s the template for a first email:

お忙しいところ、お手数おかけいたしますが、何卒、よろしくお願い申し上げます。

Probably the most commas I’ve ever seen used in one Japanese sentence. This is all 謙譲語.

Here’s a template for if you’ve emailed them before:

今後とも／引き続きよろしくお願いいたします。

Basically, you have to thank them for their continued support/tolerance of you.

Signature

And here we have just what we did for the addressee at the beginning, but now for you, the sender.

［名字・名前］ ABC大学XX楽部XX学科* 携帯番号：XXX メール：YYY@

Optionally, you can also link any webpage you might have (like LinkedIn) or include your home, school, or business address. I’m not totally clear on what the protocol is surrounding your cell phone number, since in the US at least I would never give that out in an email signature, but you can probably delete it or easily replace it with a work number.

*Again, substitute your place of work if necessary.

お疲れ様でした！

Yikes, that was a lot of content at once, especially since most of it is just canned phrases to memorize or keep on hand. I hope this will help you guys in all your scary email-writing endeavors!! またこの次までね！

#japanese

mylanguagesblogger

https://www.facebook.com/DeutschSeite/photos/a.330316637052655/3482856698465284

#german ref

fashion-runways

BORA AKSU Spring/Summer RTW 2022 - part 2 if you want to support this blog consider donating to: ko-fi.com/fashionrunways

#fashion

fuckyeahchinesefashion

making colorful jiaozi(chinese dumplings) by 心妹儿的慢生活

#food #reference #god #amazing #i do enjoy eating fresh dumplings but god are they a pain to prepare

empresssuggestion-deactivated20

the signs as chinese idioms

Aries: 义无反顾 (yì wú fǎn gù) - not to flinch or shrink back in pursuing for a righteous cause

Taurus: 百折不挠 (bǎi zhé bù náo) - with a determination that stands against all odds

Gemini: 变幻莫测 (biàn huàn mò cè) - to have unpredictable and irregular changes/behavior; capricious

Cancer: 关怀备至 (guān huái bèi zhì) - to give utmost care and concern, typically in looking after someone

Leo: 金石为开 (jīn shí wéi kāi) - sincerity can warm the coldest of hearts; a strong will can overcome any challenge

Virgo: 精益求精 (jīng yì qiú jīng) - to seek constant improvement or perfection even in an area of strength

Libra: 苦尽甘来 (kǔ jìn gān lái) - the bitterness ends and good times begin anew

Scorpio: 潜移默化 (qián yí mò huà) - an imperceptible influence; to be affected subconsciously by

Sagittarius: 豁然开朗 (huò rán kāi lǎng) - to experience a moment of clarity in an eye-opening experience

Capricorn: 呕心沥血 (ǒu xīn lì xuè) - to put one’s heart into, or throw all of one’s energy and concentration into something

Aquarius: 博大精深 (bó dà jīng shēn) - to have a vast knowledge and wide, profound thinking

Pisces: 世外桃源 (shì wài táo yuán) - a peaceful haven or utopia, undisturbed by the matters of the world

#mandarin

gathermoments

#the dream life

rockjumperbirdingtours

Photo of the Day – What better way to end off our Holliday Week than with a Bird-of-Paradise? An Indonesian endemic, the Red Bird-of-Paradise (Paradisaea rubra) is a awesome find, especially when a male is showing off for a female, as seen here!

This stunning photo was taken by K. David Bishop

Have a great New Year everybody!

#birds

thesilicontribesman

Ilton Temple, Masham, Yorkshire, 14.8.17.

#let's go #vibes

mingsonjia-deactivated20170120

武当山五龙宫遗址

Five Dragons Temple, Wudang Mountains, China by Liu Xu

#let's go

fashion-runways

DAVID KOMA Resort 2022 if you want to support this blog consider donating to: ko-fi.com/fashionrunways

#fashion #q

mingsonjia-deactivated20170120

fuckyeahchinesefashion

南京阅江楼

Yuejiang Lou, Nanjing City, China

#let's go #q

tanadrin

A historian or a sociologist will say something like “technology doesn’t exist on a simply hierarchy like in a video game,” and I think people whose exposure to history is primarily through pop culture will go “huh? that seems like nonsense. I mean, an automatic rifle beats a sword. 21st century America is richer than 3000 BC Mesopotamia. Our medical technology right now, today, is better than anything in the Middle Ages. Of course you can ‘rank’ technology!”

But the real answer is still no; because no technology exists apart from its context, and the question you are forgetting is–better how? Better in what situations?

The Ancient Greeks knew the principles necessary to build steam engines, and probably would perfectly understand the principle of operation of a steam locomotive; but they didn’t build trains, because they didn’t have the metals to build trains with, and they didn’t have the metals to build trains with because the economy of the ancient eastern Mediterranean didn’t support the manufacture of steel; and it didn’t support the manufacture of steel because bronze and the iron they had solved all the problems they needed metals for, a king of ancient Greece devoting his city-state’s spare productive capacity to mining iron ore and turning it into steel would have been wiped out by neighboring states who didn’t waste time and energy doing that, and spent their time making a bunch of bronze swords and beating the crap out of that king and his soldiers. Even if the Greeks could have built trains, what would they use them for? Railroads are a solution to transportation when you have industrial quantities of goods moving around to support a highly integrated economy, a rich source of high-carbon fuel easily available, and (for instance) warfare based on massive formations recruited from a mobilized, industrialized population.

None of which ancient Greece had. If you Connecticut-Yankee’d your way into 5th century BC Greece, you would find that trying to bootstrap an industrial economy from the ground up would require first speedrunning 2300 years of intervening demographic and economic developments, as well as technological ones, and even then a modern Greece surrounded by a Bronze Age world would be a very different animal, along all those dimensions, than a modern Greece surrounded by a modern world.

If you wanted to go Alexander with modern combined arms tactics and maneuver warfare, you could–but modern combined arms tactics and maneuver warfare is a solution to modern arms, and you might find it was significantly cheaper to arm your hoplites with slightly upgraded versions of the old spear-and-shield, and invest all the materials and energy you would have spent on tanks in building up the wealth of your state–because remember, everything you spend on building a better tank you’re not spending on anything else. This is why German technical skill was a miserable failure in WW2–their overengineered bullshit was expensive, and for each fancy German tank they pumped out (from a much worse position resource-wise than the Allies), the Allies made many less fancy, good enough tanks, and the Nazis got overrun. To recall the earlier metaphor: your automatic rifle is only any good if the other guy is way over there. If he sneaks up on you with his sword, you might wish you had a sword instead, though that won’t help you if you’ve only ever practiced using a rifle, because it’s “better.”

Even the process of innovation is not like most people imagine it, I would argue. The bulk of innovation comes from incremential trial-and-error improvements in processes that accumulate over decades, if not centuries or millennia. Incremential improvement is hard; unless you have a wild overabundance of resources, too much experimentation is just going to waste scarce materials; the thing that drives major innovations is having a problem that needs solving, and (again, until a resource becomes superabundant) a reliable method that produces consistent results is better than wasting time and effort testing a new way of producing something that may or may not work.

If you want an antibiotic or to send a message across the world, or figure out what the Moon is made of, yes, modern technology is better for all those things; and there are periods of cultural and societal change that open up the space for innovations: the steam locomotive was impossible in 5th century BC Greece, and inevitable in 19th century Britain. But it only became inevitable because of economic changes that only became inevitable because of demographic changes that started much earlier; those in turn were dependent on factors beyond the control of any single person or state.

Technologies can be dependent on each other, or on other factors, in the way living organisms are dependent on each other or on environmental factors in a food web; but a shark isn’t “better” than a jellyfish because it has a more complicated anatomy. It’s solving the problem of how to be a shark, while the jellyfish is solving the problem of how to be a jellyfish. Even our industrial, “scientific” technologies can struggle in environments they’re not suited for, which more “primitive” technologies do perfectly well in–because even our best technology (and our best scientists) are constrained by the environments and assumptions they are developed in.

quasi-normalcy

I’ve started to look at it as a sort of evolutionary process, where instead of saying that this or that technology is “better”, you need to look at as “this or that technology is better for this or that particular thing in this or that particular socioeconomic context.” Instead of having one generic variable of “goodness”, you have a multi-dimensional space of different variables for which a particular technology may be good or bad; and even “primitive” technologies can still be optimal in some specific niche.

#anthropology #q