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@stemcat
A new cat color has been spotted in Finland. This is really interesting. A lot of common cat coat patterns have only evolved in the last 1,000 years. The tabby cat coloration only evolved in the Middle Ages.
they’re calling it salty licorice because of its visual similarity to the popular Finnish sweet, it reminds me of blue tick coloring in dogs or the blue roan coloring in horses and cows.
My favourite salmiakki ever 😺 The prophecies have come true! 🐈⬛
I have this as a patch in my student overalls 😅
Monday 27.5.2024
New beginnings
Eukaryotic cell gang!! We love women in STEM.
The organelles of the cells have been translated into human anatomy, so the nucleus is the brain, the vacuole function as the lungs, and the mitochondria is the heart since it’s the… you already know, I don’t have to say it ;)
TIL that gray tabby is called サバトラ in japanese.
I thought サバ sounds familiar and it actually means mackerel. トラ means tiger so gray tabby is mackerel striped tiger <3
As a comparison:
Abnormal Study/Work Things that Actually Help Me
Scrolling through Pinterest, Tumblr, YouTube, etc. for study vibes. Lots of people would say this is a waste of time, but getting in the mood to study significantly helps me. As someone that rarely has the motivation to do things and struggles with low-energy levels daily, seeing aesthetic pictures or watching study-with-me videos gives me the inspiration and motivation I need.
Multitasking is my best friend. If I’m interested in what I’m working on, this isn’t always necessary, but usually, having multiple things to do at once is helpful. Jumping between similar assignments, working 20min on one long assignment or chore, then finishing a smaller one, then going back to that longer thing, etc. It helps me avoid burn-out and taking breaks that turn into just giving up.
On the subject of breaks, taking breaks isn’t always the best for me. I know a lot of people rave about the pomodoro method, and while it works to help me get started on something, I eventually let go of that timer once I’m in the groove of working. Taking a break– long or short– will usually just incentivise me to stop working altogether because that ‘break’ is sooo much better than working. I much prefer long hours or scheduled out work vs play times.
Having multiple drinks on my desk. This is another form of multitasking to me. Water is always a necessity, but juice, coffee, tea, etc. is a needed addition. Similar to chewing gum, it helps stabilize me and prevent burn-out since my brain has multiple forms of stimuli.
Long to-do lists. I will literally have 20-30 things on a to-do list typically. Sure, I don’t always finish it all in a day, but writing out that to-do list helps get my mind organized and keeps me focused. Plus, it also helps to avoid procrastination. If I only write out 5-6 things, I’d think “Sure, I can wait to do those. There’s only a few” whereas 20-30 things pushes me to work as soon as possible.
A lot of people would disagree with how I work, or tell me that there’s a better way, but these are just some things that work for me. Some of us are wired a bit differently, and that’s perfectly fine. Do what works best for you.
I love this so much. I've recently found out through trial and error that this is the method that works the best for me too. Nice to see that there are others who can't adjust to the pomodoro technique 😅
I’m gonna depress the hell out of all of you. ready? ok go
so, that “stop devaluing feminized work post”
nice idea and all
but the thing is, as soon as a decent number of women enter any field, it becomes “feminized,” and it becomes devalued.
as women enter a field in greater number, people become less willing to pay for it, the respect for it drops, and it’s seen as less of a big deal. it’s not about the job- it’s about the number of women in the job.
observe what happened with biology. it’s STEM, sure, but anyone in a male-dominated science will sneer at the idea of it being ‘for real,’ nevermind that everyone sure took it more seriously when it was a male dominated field. so has happened with scores of other areas; nursing comes to mind
so the thing is, it’s not the work or the job that has to be uplifted and seen as more respectable. it will never work out, until people start seeing women as respectable
but there’s a doozy and who the fuck knows if it’s ever happening in my life time
“observe what happened with biology. it’s STEM, sure, but anyone in a male-dominated science will sneer at the idea of it being ‘for real,’ nevermind that everyone sure took it more seriously when it was a male dominated field.”
Personal anecdote time! I’m in a biology graduate program. An acquaintance wanted to introduce some guy to me because his son was thinking about becoming an undergrad science major. When he found out I was in the biology department, he grinned and said, “Well, I guess that’s kind of related to science.”
I gave him what I hope was an icy look and said, “Isn’t it strange how men outside the field started saying that right around the time biology majors shifted from mostly male to mostly female?”
The guy got this look on his face like he was about to play the “just a joke” card, and then an older woman who had been standing nearby, talking to someone else, turned to me and said, “The same thing happened with real estate.” She went on to explain that, over the course of the career, the male-to-female ratio among real estate agents had dropped, and the pay and “prestige factor” of that job dropped along with it.
This is also famous for happening to teaching. Keep an eye on medicine over the next fifteen years and watch as it becomes less prestigious and less well-paid.
It also happened to secretarial/administrative work - in the 19th century, clerical work was utterly respectable and seen as requiring quite a lot of talent and skill (which it still does!) but then along came the typewriter and women entering the field and HEY PRESTO “she’s just some secretary”
at my university, chemical engineering, or chem eng, was often referred to as “fem eng” why? because it’s an exact 50/50 ratio of women to men, which clearly makes it too feminine. in the 70s/80s chemical engineering was one of the most important and hardest engineering fields (plastics! pulp and paper! OIL) but now that there are more women in the field it’s considered an easier field, in comparison to other fields.
for example, i once heard a girl in mech eng list some of the engineering fields in the order she thought was hardest to easiest. you know what it was? electrical, mechanical, chemical. it’s absolutely no surprise that this list is also a handy ordering of fewest women in the field to most women in the field.
AND, another point! this happens the other way around too. computer science related fields used to be dominated by women, which made it not very important (switchboard operators? yup). once men started taking over the field, well that’s when the big money and prestige came in.
The field of anthropology, which is becoming female dominated from what I can see, has been determined to be useless by some. (I’ve even had girls in STEM fields tell me I don’t study a “real science” so how’s about that internalized misogyny for ya) When I was majoring in anthropology, Gov. Rick Scott determined that Florida didn’t need any more anthropologists and wanted to reduce funding to programs and increase funding to STEM programs. While not considered a STEM field, anthropologists have contributed to the research behind STEM programs and provide a wide variety of services to Florida alone. A team of anthropologists created a powerpoint “This is Anthropology“ to talk about dozens of programs and services they contribute to in Florida which include healthcare programs, education programs, disaster relief, forensic investigation, environmental programs and conservation efforts, research for fortune 500 businesses, agricultural programs, immigration programs, programs and services for the elderly, etc. I’m also in the field of education, and we’re constantly made out to be overpaid (we’re not) and made out to be incapable of doing our jobs without very strict guidance.
It’s all very insulting, really. No matter what we study. No matter what we do to earn a living. It will never be good enough.
It isn’t limited to the US either. In my father’s home country, medicine is mainly pursued by women, and thus, being a doctor isn’t seen as prestigious or respectable.
I’ve had the same thoughts, especially in regards to bio and anthro.
This is why the supposed “debunking” of the wage gap is utter bullshit. Anti-feminists want to tell you that women make less than men because they “just go into different fields”, completely ignoring the race gap and completely ignoring the fact that “just going into different fields” erases all context and social conditioning regarding WHY women go into different fields and WHY those fields are less paid.
the opposite also happens, when women are pushed out of a field and that field consequentially starts going up in value as it becomes more male-dominated. computer programming was initially a female job - i don’t think it was ever vast majority female, but the first computer programmer ever was a woman and the field had more women in it in the 1980’s than the 2010’s.
now, computer science is one of the most valued fields. it’s also one of the most male-dominated fields. this is not a coincidence.
In case anyone wants a citation: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0022103121001372
Whether baffled by riches or picking up sticks, cats and dogs make their appearance in a number of Japanese proverbs.
Japanese proverbs starring cats.
猫に小判 — Neko ni koban. The koban was a gold coin in the Edo period (1603–1868), and “giving koban to a cat” means providing something to someone who does not understand or appreciate its value, and thereby cannot benefit from it.
猫に鰹節 — Neko ni katsuobushi. Meanwhile, katsuobushi are dried bonito flakes. This phrase, meaning “placing katsuobushi alongside a cat,” imagines placing the tempting fishy treat next to the animal, and represents a dangerous situation or one where a high level of vigilance is needed.
猫の手も借りたい — Neko no te mo karitai. To say that one “even wants to borrow a cat’s paws,” despite knowing this feline companion is not going to help out very much, is a way of describing how extremely busy one is.
Among the next mixed bag of sayings are those that emphasize cats’ diminutive and cute side.
猫の額 — Neko no hitai. A “cat’s forehead” is used to refer to something that is extremely small, such as, commonly, a garden or plot of land.
猫をかぶる — Neko o kaburu. To metaphorically “put on a cat” or act like the animal is to pretend to be quiet and harmless, hiding one’s true nature. It also describes someone putting on an air of innocence.
猫も杓子も — Neko mo shakushi mo. When saying that all kinds of people were present at an event, one English phrase is “Every Tom, Dick, and Harry.” The Japanese equivalent is to say that “even cats and ladles” were there.
Japanese Pronunciation Series #6 - Japanese Pitch Accent
Japanese Pronunciation Series #6 - Japanese Pitch Accent
What is Pitch Accent?
Pitch accent refers to a characteristic of language where every syllable can be pronounced with a high or low pitch. Pitch accent is considered different from the concepts of stress and tone that appear in English and Chinese, respectively.
English: Stress Chinese: Tones Japanese: Pitch
Pitch in the Japanese Language
Pitch accent varies widely from region to region in Japan. As Japan started to have contact with other countries in the Meiji period, they decided that a “standard language” needed to be established. The Japanese spoken in Tokyo is now known as “standard Japanese,” or hyōjun-go (標準語) in Japanese. The examples of pitch accent provided below are based on “standard Japanese.”
About Pitch Accent
Some assert that English has over 30,000 syllabic sounds. In contrast, Japanese has only 111 (112, according to some linguists). In other words, there are very few “sounds” in Japanese, and as a result, there are many homophones (i.e., words that are spelled the same but have different meanings). These homophones can be confusing. In written language, it is easy to tell the difference between homophones if kanji characters are used. In speech, we use pitch accent in order to differentiate between homophones to avoid misunderstandings.
Example:
Characteristics of Japanese Pitch Accent
■ There are only two levels of pitch - high and low.
■ Pitch does not change in the middle of a syllable. In Chinese, there are tones that go from low to high or high to low in the middle of a syllable. This does not occur in Japanese.
■ First and second syllables cannot be the same pitch. If the first syllable is high, then the second one must be low. If the first syllable is low, then the second one must be high.
Example:
In this example, the pitch changes from the first syllable to the second. These two syllables cannot be the same pitch.
■ We cannot use high pitch more than once in the same word. In other words, once the pitch falls, it cannot go back up again.
For Example: The pronunciation [ mi↑tsu↓bishi ] cannot be [ mi↑tsu↓bi↑shi ], [ mi↓tsu↑bi↓shi ], or [ mi↓tsubi↑shi ].
■ The pitch of a word can change depending on what comes after it.
For Example: [ ka↓nada ] [ ka ↑ nadajin ] (Canada) (Canadian person)
Why we should learn about Pitch Accent
So why is it important to learn about pitch accent in Japanese? Here are a couple of important reasons.
Reason #1: To be able to tell the difference between homophones
For Example:
Reason #2: To be able to tell where a word starts
For Example: The word niwatori (にわとり) could mean “chicken” or “two birds.”
[ ni↑ watori ] ＝ “chicken” [ ni↓ wa ] ＝ “two” (counter for birds) [ to↑ ri ] ＝ “bird”
If it is pronounced as [ ni↓ wa to↑ ri] the listener knows that this is two words, since once the pitch falls it never goes up in the same word.
On the other hand, the pronunciation [ ni↑ watori ] indicates that it is one word. If tori were a separate word, the pitch of to and ri would be different because first and second syllables cannot be the same pitch.
depending on pronunciation, あめ can mean “rain” or “candy” but what’s interesting is that the pronunciation is swapped in 関西弁 (Kansai-ben) vs. 標準語 (standard Japanese) and/or 東京弁 (Tokyo-ben).
[The photo above is from Colloquial Kansai Japanese: The Dialects and Culture of the Kansai Region: A Japanese Phrasebook and Language Guide (Tuttle Language Library) by D.C. Palter and Kaoru Slotsve.]
A friend told me that when a native Japanese comments on your Nihongo speaking by saying きれいな言葉 (kirei na kotoba), it's not really a compliment and is contrary to what the phrase literally means. If this phrase is directed to someone, what's the most polite reaction/action that the person should have/do next?
Hmm. This is a very interesting ask. I wonder if your friend is a Japanese person or a non-native speaker, because it’s not a compliment I’ve heard much. To be honest, receiving praise about my Japanese is a huge pet peeve of mine, so I’d like to delve into this topic a little bit. Let me talk about why they praise us even when all we say is a simple “arigatou,” and then how you can respond to that praise.
Note: You will see me refer to “foreigners” (a.k.a. “Non-Japanese people) as “gaijin” in this article. “Gaijin” （外人） is a truncated version of “gaikokujin” 外国人 (a person from outside of Japan). By removing the middle “koku” (country), we are left with the word gaijin, which literally translates to “outsider.”
Some people see this as an offensive term, and I am one of them. So when I use the word “gaijin,” I do it order to highlight how foreigners are truly viewed as “outsiders” in certain circumstances by certain Japanese people.
Note 2: You are WAY more likely to receive praise if you clearly do not look Japanese. This post is told from my perspective, a girl so white she freaking glows in the dark.
Stereotypes of Gaijin Held by Japanese People
If you go to Japan and try to use Japanese, no matter how fluent or non-fluent you are, you will be complimented on your Nihongo by Japanese strangers. Japanese people are very quick to give compliments even if all you say is a simple “arigatou gozaimasu.” As a people they are polite and complimentary, and they appreciate even small gestures like you taking the time to learn “arigatou” even though you’re a tourist, for example. Some of these compliments are sincere, and other times they say it because even if your Japanese isn’t good, at least you’re trying, and they appreciate the effort.
There are quite a few TV shows in Japan that capitalize on gaijin in Japan, such as “YOU wa nani shi ni Nippon he?” (Why did YOU come to Japan?) in which they scavenge for interesting gaijin at airports and follow them on their trips. (I was once picked up for this show, but when I was like, “Yo I’m just going back home to Hokkaido and starting up work tomorrow,” they were like, “oh, you are not the gaijin image that we want to show Japan” and ditched me lol.)
Basically, most of these shows like to capitalize on a very particular image of gaijin:
They cannot speak Japanese, or at most can only speak broken Japanese, and they certainly can’t read Japanese
They cannot use chopsticks well
They do not like/fully appreciate Japanese food, like raw fish, meat, or eggs
They generally do not understand Japanese customs. (I watched one episode about a hippie dude who was walking around Japan BAREFOOT. BAREFOOT. ENTERING SHOPS AND PLACES WITHOUT SHOES ON, FEET FILTHY. He said, “Japanese people are so nice--no one minds if I come in barefoot.” THEY DO MIND, YOU INGRATE. THEY’RE JUST TOO POLITE TO TELL YOU TO GET THE EFF OUT. Who knows how many Japanese people think that Americans think it’s okay to walk around barefoot now, even though we have “No shoes no shirt no service” signs everywhere for this very purpose!)
Only 3% of the Japanese population is non-Japanese. This means that many, many Japanese people have never met a gaijin in person and base their assumptions of us entirely off the media and the stereotypes proliferated there.
One of the things Japanese people (and most other people in the world, for that matter) mistakenly believe is that Japanese is the hardest language in the world to learn.
Real talk: from an unbiased, purely linguistic standpoint, there is no such thing as a “hard” or “easy” language. There is such a thing as “linguistic distance,” which measures how much one language and another differs. For example, Italian and Spanish share so much grammar and similar vocabulary that their distance is short. Conversely, there is a substantial linguistic distance between Spanish and Korean.
However, a short linguistic distance does not equal “easy to learn.”
Japanese is quite distant from all languages other than Korean. And yeah, kanji’s a bitch. I won’t argue with you there. But from personal experience, as a native English speaker, I found German harder to learn than Japanese, despite German being much linguistically closer to my native language. It all varies from person to person.
But many Japanese people will tell you, “Japanese is so hard, isn’t it? It’s so impressive that you can speak it. It’s the hardest language.” And then their eyeballs drop out of their sockets when you tell them that you can read tHe KaNjI as well.
Many Japanese people are convinced that not only is Japanese the hardest language in the world, but also almost no foreigners are able to speak it. This, coupled with their culture of politeness, leads them to be quick to praise our use of Japanese, no matter how good or bad it is.
And therein lies my pet peeve with quick praise. Just a simple “arigatou gozaimasu” and some Japanese people will fawn over how sugoi your nihongo is, and in my eyes it sort of diminishes the actual level of sugoi my nihongo is. If that makes sense lol. I guess I just wish that people would treat me like a fellow Japanese person instead of a gaijin.
Common Praise
Here are some common phrases you might hear if someone is impressed with your Japanese, listed roughly from most common to least:
日本語がとてもお上手ですね！ Nihongo ga totemo ojouzu desu ne! You are very good at Japanese!
日本語ペラペラですね！ Nihongo perapera desu ne! You’re fluent in Japanese!
日本人みたいに喋れるじゃん！ Nihonjin mitai ni shabereru jan! You can speak just like a Japanese person!
日本人より日本語喋れるじゃん！ Nihonjin yori nihongo shabereru jan! You speak Japanese better than Japanese people do!
ナマリがまったくない！ Namari ga mattaku nai! You don’t have an accent at all!
発音がきれいです！ Hatsuon ga kirei desu! Your pronunciation is beautiful!
綺麗なお言葉です。 Kireina okotoba desu. You speak beautifully.
Y’know, I don’t think I’ve ever heard that last compliment before. To me, it sounds a little...stiff. Like maybe something an employee at a store would say to the customer who is trying to talk to them, and the employee is trying to be polite, but may not be 100% sincere. Sometimes that stiff, formal Japanese hides a person’s true warmth, though, so it’s a bit hard to tell.
How to Respond to Praise
In America, if you are praised, it is common to reply with a “Thank you,” and then you can follow that up with a sign of humility or pride, like “Thank you, but I still have a lot to learn,” or “Thank you, I’ve been studying for a few years now!”
However, in Japan, you do not thank them. Instead, you contradict them. If someone says, “You are very good at Japanese!” you are meant to say “No, I’m not at all.”
This is not only limited to praise regarding Japanese. If someone says your outfit looks cute, you should say something like, “Really? This shirt is so old it’s about to get holes in it.” If someone says you are good at sports you should say, “Oh no, I’m terribly clumsy. Today must be a lucky day.” For example.
If they continue to praise you a second time, deny it again.
If they praise you a third time, then you can say something like, “It’s thanks to you,” or “I’ve had a lot of help to get to this point.” Basically, you make sure that you are not prideful, and you give credit to those around you.
Japanese culture appreciates humility over pride, and puts others before oneself. These two facets of culture greatly shape nearly every social interaction.
Here are some things you can say if someone praises your Japanese:
いえいえ、まだ勉強中です！ Ie ie, mada benkyou-chuu desu! No no, I’m still learning!
いえいえ、まだまだです。 Ie ie, mada-mada desu. No no, I still have a long way to go.
いえいえ、そんなことないです。 Ie ie, sonna koto nai desu. No no, not at all.
My favorite is the “benkyou-chuu” one, because I’ll be studying Japanese until the day I die.
As an extra little thing to make you even more natural, when you say the “ie ie,” do this hand motion (and not the facial expression lol):
This little hand wave in front of the face, with the tip of your middle finger at the same height as the tip of your nose, is a Japanese hand gesture that means...man, how do I put this into words?
“No no, you are thinking too highly of me” or “No no, don’t go to such trouble for me” or “No no, I’m fine, thank you.” It’s a super handy gesture!
HAH, “handy”
Anyways. You can use this gesture when you are declining praise, but you can also use it at a restaurant, for example. Maybe a waitress asks, “Do you want another beer?” And you can give the little hand wave and a smile to mean, “I’m good, thanks.” You can also say “Kekkou desu” as you do the motion.
Hope this post was of use to you!
Phrase of the Day: New Year!
Because today is the first day of the New Year, it’s time to be able to wish someone ‘Happy New Year!’ in Japanese!
Happy New Year in Japanese is:
あけましておめでとうございます (akemashite omedetou gozaimasu)
A more casual way to say it is
あけましておめでとう (akemashite omedetou)
Some people shorten it even more to:
あけおめ (ake ome)
This is a slang term and should be used only in casual situations.
After wishing each other a Happy New Year, Japanese people often say this expression:
今年もよろしくおねがいします。(kotoshi mo yoroshiku onegaishimasu)
It means “I look forward to our continued relationship this year”
A more casual way to say it is:
今年もよろしくね (kotoshi mo yoroshiku ne)
Some people shorten this expression to:
ことよろ (koto yoro)
This is a slang term and should be used only in casual situations
monday 03.01.2022
Two days of heavy snow and exactly one week until the next uni semester starts. I try to plan ahead, but my motivation seems to be hibernating... ☃️😴
let's be honest econs is making my life a mess
it's the last week of the semester
22/3/21 | 13/53 Days of Productivity
Today was very wearing! And it's monday so that's just enough in itself.
In the morning I had classes and after lunch I studied history and write an essay for my private class. The I headed to my best friend's house because we had to make a bithday video to one of our friend.
25.03.2021
Two lectures and several doodles today. It's so hard to concentrate even on a interesting topic when the sun is shining so brightly outside 😎
MAR 08 / 21
another week another weekly spread !!!
insta: https://instagram.com/amandaswork
