Sunday, May 06, 2007

Today's kanji : 枯

The blue part describes "tree"
The red part describes "old"

When the tree becomes very old...


Can you guess the meaning?
See the comments page for the answer!

4 comments:

  1. When the tree becomes very old…

    枯 means “wither, die (trees)”.

    For example…
    枯れる (kareru) : wither, die
    木枯らし (kogarashi) : cold winter wind
    枯れ葉 (kareha) : dead leaves

    A little while ago, I saw a TV commercial for an cosmetic company, Shiseido.
    The catch phrase is “枯れない人 (karenai hito)” (a woman who doesn’t wither.).
    That phrase was impressive and interesting idea I think. ^_^

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  2. Hrmmm....that does make for a good slogan, considering that a woman's beauty is often compared to a flower. And I suppose those products really work, considering I always have trouble telling how old Japanese women are.

    For example, on my trip over there, I stayed with my friend's friend's family. Her friend was a senior in high school, only two years younger than me at the time. I originally thought she was only 13 when I met her! Her mom, who I thought was in her mid 30's was actually 48 years old! And I'm usually pretty good on guessing ages, so I guess most women in Japan are 枯れない人. (I had no trouble guessing men's ages while I was there, maybe because they don't use the products right?)

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  3. >Jair

    > I guess most women in Japan are 枯れない人.

    Wow!
    It was nice to hear that!!
    Thank you very much for your comment! ;)

    Actually, lots of my students say same thing.
    What do you think about Chinese or Korean women?
    If they are same, maybe that's because we are Asian?

    I can imagine your experience at your friend's house. (^ ^;)
    It must be difficult to guess women's age and also you cannot ask them it directly, right?
    But they must have been very glad about your misunderstanding. (^o^)v

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  4. >Wow!
    It was nice to hear that!!
    Thank you very much for your comment! ;)

    You're welcome ^_^

    >Actually, lots of my students say same thing.
    What do you think about Chinese or Korean women?
    If they are same, maybe that's because we are Asian?

    Well, I can usually guess Chinese women's age pretty well, I'm only off by a year or two if I'm wrong. Koreans are a little different, they usually have something about them that gives away their age so I can guess pretty well. For me, its only Japanese women that throw me off with their age, at least among asian women.

    >I can imagine your experience at your friend's house. (^ ^;)
    It must be difficult to guess women's age and also you cannot ask them it directly, right?
    But they must have been very glad about your misunderstanding. (^o^)v

    For the most part, they were glad to know that I misjudged their age in their favor, except Kasumi ( the girl who's 2 years younger than me) she was kinda mad, but I don't think it was at me. I think it was because she looked too young.

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