HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: huttar@hp750.itg.ti.com (Lars Huttar)
Newsgroups: sci.lang.japan
Subject: X font summary
Date: 9 Oct 92 11:51:20 GMT
Distribution: sci
Organization: IEF Development, Texas Instruments Inc., Plano Texas
X-Disclaimer: This message was written by a user at Texas Instruments Inc.
              The opinions expressed within are those of the user and not
              necessarily those of Texas Instruments.

I'm posting this article to summarize responses I got about X fonts
and to thank the people who contacted me.

A good ftp site for Japanese X fonts is pylos.NSMU.edu, alias crl.nsmu.edu,
ip address 128.123.1.18.  In the pub/japanese/fonts directory
there are 16x16, 18x18, 24x24, 48x48 and maybe some other sizes of kanji
fonts, with matching size roman fonts (8x16, 9x18, ...).
One of the kanji fonts is a roly-poly "maru" style.
A README file gives details.

Thanks to Peter Yamamoto <pjyamamo@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca>
and Steve Madsen <smadsen@decwrl.dec.com!vlsisj!obakesan>, whom
I tried to thank by email but couldn't get through.

| |    Lars Huttar                          3
 \|/|  huttar@hp750.itg.ti.com      ||   _______           ____      ||
  |    (Opinions herein are not     ||:  |  |  |   |   |   |  |   | :||  Mars
       necessarily those of TI.)    ||  _| _| _|  _|  _|  _| _|  _|  ||
Xref: sparky sci.lang.japan:4360 soc.culture.japan:8623
From: yoichi@milton.u.washington.edu (Yoichi Ii)
Newsgroups: sci.lang.japan,soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: Education in Japan
Keywords: Education, Japan, Primary Education, Secondary Education
Date: 7 Oct 92 15:25:02 GMT
Article-I.D.: u.1992Oct7.152502.19076
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle

gwe3409@bcsaic.boeing.com (Gerald Edgar) writes:
>There is an interesting post on the newsgroup comp.research.japan
>on primary and secondary education in Japan.

Yeah, a rather lengthy article ... quite flattering about Japanese
math education.

>I would be interested in hearing from people about education in Japan 
>and how it compares with education here. One item that poped up in the 
>news item was that their text books are more serious than the books here. 
>No color for example.

I don't know enough about Japanese (or American) education in general
to make any intelligent comment here, but I'll add my personal observation
about text books (since you mention it).

It's true that Japanese texts tend to be smaller and less fancy.  It 
depends on the subject, but the books are usually softcover, and smaller 
(25x18cm, or so) and thinner than the ones used in the US. They are printed 
on a good quality, but non-glossy paper.  As I recall, texts *did* have 
colors, but again, they weren't as fancy as some US texts I've seen.

Another difference regarding text book is its ownership.  In US schools
the school district usually owns the books. In Japan, each student must
purchase their own copy at the beginning of the year.  One advantage of
having your own is that you can write a note or do whatever you please with 
it without fear of penalty fee at the end of the year :-).  The article
mentions that revisions of text are easier in Japan because the books
are less fancy.  This maybe part of the reason, but I think having a captive
consumer (new students) might be a bigger reason.

As for the most important, *content* of the text books ... it's been too
many years for me to recall clearly :-(.  I guess things tended to be more
terse, containing only the basic backbone materials.  I say this because
in addition to the text, we had a lot of supplementary materials.  Most
of these came in two forms.  One was the handouts prepared by the teacher.
A good teachers would spice up the dry text material with these;
others just tended to repeat what was already in the text. Another was 
the numerous "doriru" (drill books).  I remember going through lots and
lots of dorirus for math and kanji study in elementary school.

>Another bit was that the differences between the 
>capability of boys and girls doing math was LESS overseas than here. 

I guess the social expectation that "girls can't to math" doesn't start
til later in Japan.  It's usually in high school that girls start to move 
away from math and science (that's when you have to decide what type of
field you want to go into in college).  It's changing, but traditionally,
"good" girls (o-jousan) went into bunka-kei (humanities ?).
From: colric@tartarus.uwa.edu.au (Colin Richards)
Newsgroups: sci.lang.japan
Subject: Re: Answer to Nihongo dictionary: suggestions .
Date: 13 Oct 1992 08:54:35 GMT
Organization: The University of Westrn Australia
NNTP-Posting-Host: tartarus.uwa.edu.au

djohnson@cs.ucsd.edu (Darin Johnson) writes:

>>Takahashi's Pocket Romanized Japanese-English Dictionary

>Any that aren't romanized?

Sure there are plenty with the Japanese entries in hiragana/katakana.
It is a lot easier to find words in these dictionaries (once you have
got used to the ordering system) because you don't have to convert
everything to romaji before looking it up.

Colin

Newsgroups: sci.lang.japan
From: dji@atson.asahi-np.co.jp (David J. Iannucci)
Newsgroups: sci.lang.japan
Subject: Kenkyusha Furigana E-J sucks - any suggestions?
Date: 13 Oct 92 07:31:46 GMT
Organization: ATSON, Inc. (a subsidiary of the Asahi Shimbun)


Hi.... I've come to complain and ask for suggestions.  First, I'd like to
complain about Kenkyusha's Furigana Ei-Wa Jiten (E-J Dictionary).

When I bought it, I was really excited, for what is perhaps an obvious
reason.  Unfortunately, at that time, I was not very saavy about
dictionaries, so I didn't notice its faults.  Now I realize, IT SUCKS!
My main complaint is that there are no examples given to help distinguish
the meanings of the different Japanese translations of a given English
word.  For words that have several different translations, this makes the
dictionary practically useless!  I can read some kanji, so I can often
get a feel for which choice is the right one, but still, I often cannot.
And people who cannot recognize the meanings of kanji will be at a complete
loss.

My second complaint is that very often the translations just suck.  And
here I have very little intuition to help me.  But I have seen examples
of words and phrases that are translated in the most literal and simple-
minded way, rather than translating the true meaning.  I can give two
examples.  Under the word "kid", they give a translation of the phrase
"No kidding!" as: "Jou-dan iu na."  My understanding of this is that it
is a fairly rude way of saying "Don't tell jokes."  Maybe this is just
my American English bias :^), but I rarely or never use "No kidding" in
this way.  My understanding of "No kidding" is "Really? Is that so?"

Another, perhaps more blatant, example is the translation of "newcomer".
They offer "shin-rai-sha".  Those who can read kanji will recognize this
as a simple, direct translation of the idea of "new-come-er" into kanji.
However, some Japanese friends assure me, this is not a real Japanese word.
Where the hell do they get off making up their own definitions instead of
using real Japanese??

*sigh* :^)

Anyway, I am looking for a good Ei-Wa Jiten with furigana or roomaji.
I have found no other dictionaries with kana.  I have found a few with
roomaji, but they don't look very good to my newly-critical eye.  Mind
you, I've looked at Kinokuniya in Shinjuku, among other places.  Can
anyone recommend a dictionary??  A long time ago on this board, someone
recommended Vaccari's, but I haven't been able to find it.  Vaccari's
J-E dictionary is common, but the E-J is nowhere to be found.  Is it out
of print, or something?   Thanks for your help.
--
Dave Iannucci                                        dji@atson.asahi-np.co.jp
Gaijin-in-residence                     ATSON/Trans Cosmos Inc., Tokyo, Japan
[They move fast]*[They tell me]*[There's someone]*[Rainbows]*[Alternate Tune]
Newsgroups: sci.lang.japan,soc.culture.japan
From: olling@jnoc.go.jp (Cliff Olling)
Subject: Jack and Betty Story (Was: Re: kanji of the day ?52)
Reply-To: olling@jnoc.go.jp (Cliff Olling)
Organization: Japan National Oil Corporation, Chiba City, Japan
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1992 07:17:07 GMT

In article <9210061545.AA24025@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU>,
	asano@UCSU.COLORADO.EDU (ASANO Yoshiteru) writes:
>Your comment reminds me of those sentences appeared in our first textbook of
>English.  They are:
>   This is a pen.  I am a boy.  You are a girl.  I have a pen.
>Perhaps, those sentences are most famous English sentences in Japan, in terms
>of their 'recognizability' (=everyone can understand the meaning).

This reminds me of a mini-series on NHK here in Japan a month or so ago.
It's called "Jack & Betty Monogatari" (Jack and Betty Story).  It's about
the life of a successful real estate tycoon who succeeds in buying some of
the USA's "gems" (a'la Pebble Beach Country Club).  The story starts with
him deciding to visit Evanston, Ill., because that was the setting of the
English reader he used as a young boy back in Japan in the early 1950's.  
He takes a taxi from O'Hare out to Evanston, and has the driver drop him off
so he can walk around a typical well-kept suburban neighborhood so he soak
up the "ambiance" :-).  As he's walking down the sidewalk he sees a little
girl skipping rope, and recalls some words from his reader "I am a boy.  You
are a girl.  My name is Jack.  My name is Betty."  

The next thing he knows, two black guys drive by in an old beat-up T-bird
and decide to steal his briefcase.  He resists, and inevitably, gets shot.
The rest of the story is his flashbacks of his boyhood in the early '50's in
Japan (while he's dying in the ambulance on the way to the hospital).
-- 
Clifford Olling  Japan National Oil Corporation    $@@PL}8xCD(J
Technology Research Center  $@@PL}3+H/5;=Q(J  Chiba City, Japan
olling@jnoc.go.jp    $@KkD%K\6?1X(J   24hrs/day=>81+43-273-5831
Newsgroups: sci.lang.japan
From: jwb@capek.rdt.monash.edu.au (Jim Breen)
Subject: Re: KANJI OF THE DAY #51 (Repost)
Organization: Monash University, Melb., Australia.
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1992 01:58:57 GMT

>KANJI OF THE DAY # 51

>JIS      = 1995 (serial number)

hex: 3635

>Compounds:

>KYOUou, KYOUkou -  pope

New one for edict.

And from edict itself: (a selection, as edict has 51 entries with
this kanji)

KYOUka		subject, curriculum
KYOUkasho	text book
KYOUkun		lesson, precept, moral instruction
KYOUsa		instigation
KYOUzai		teaching materials
KYOUju		teaching, instruction, professor
		(had to get my job title in 8-)} )
KYOUdan		religious organization
KYOUben		a teacher's whip, teaching school
KYOUren		(mil.) drill
iKYOU		paganism
kaiKYOU		 Islam
jaKYOU		heresy, heathenism, paganism
seiKYOU		orthodoxy, (Greek) orthodox church
bu'KYOU		Buddhism
senKYOUshi	missionary

etc.


-- 
Jim Breen                           JIS:$B%8%`!!%V%j!<%s(J
Department of Robotics & Digital Technology. Monash University. 
PO Box 197 Caulfield East VIC 3145 Australia (ph) +61 3 573 2552 
(fax) +61 3 573 2345  AARNet/Internet:jwb@capek.rdt.monash.edu.au  
Newsgroups: sci.lang.japan
From: 0004807775@MCIMAIL.COM (Tim Whitmore)
Subject: Hello
Reply-To: NIHONGO@mitvma.mit.edu
Organization: The Internet
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1992 03:06:00 GMT

Hello,

I am interested in joining your conference.  I am new to this conference and I
would like to establish a dialog so that I can get my bearings and find out
what current topics are being discussed.  If you would like to help me and are
willing to send a list of current bulletins or articles to my mailbox, please
write to me.  My name is Tim Whitmore and I am on MCIMAIL at
480-7775@mcimail.com

-tw
From: santos@mickey.ai.kyutech.ac.jp (Rafael &)
Newsgroups: sci.lang.japan
Subject: Re: fonts for kterm.
Date: 14 Oct 92 04:31:51 GMT
Organization: KIT Iizuka, AI Dept, JAPAN.

In article <1992Oct13.124742.1@ualr.edu> kxharada@ualr.edu writes:

>Hi there.
>
>Maybe I am asking a stupid question.....please forgive meeeee.... 

Never mind. I guess soon I will be the recordist in sci.lang.japan
of stupid questions :-) 

>I have been trying to install Kterm in our system (ULTRIX V4.2A).
>Then I have come up with questions which about the kterm fonts...
>Does anyone know what kind of fonts is the standard and where I can 
>get it (using ftp or whatever).

If this stuff (Kterm on Ultrix V4.2A) have something to do with 
X11, try the command /usr/local/bin/X11/xlsfonts or something like
that. "xlsfonts" will list the available (sp?) fonts on your X machine,
so you can configure your kterm with the line
  kterm [options...] -fn "romaji font" -fk "kanji font" [options...]
in your .twmrc file or something like that.

Other tips:
  - typing "kterm -help" list some useful informations about parameters,
    if you dont want to read the "man kterm" (like me :)
  - xfd "font name" will display the font characters. Useful to see if
    you can read the size.

>If anyone knows about it, pleae e-mail me......

Since somebody else can correct me or use this info, I posted here.


Rafael.
From: ASH733@ALBNYVM1.BITNET (Akiko Hosler)
Newsgroups: sci.lang.japan
Subject: Japanese speech contest
Date: 7 Oct 92 17:10:44 GMT
Article-I.D.: bloom-be.9210071714.AA01241
Reply-To: NIHONGO@mitvma.mit.edu
Organization: The Internet


            A N N O U N C E M E N T

   The Kawamura Cultural Foundation, the Japan Society of New York, and
  the Japanese Consul General's Office in New York are co-sponsoring
  an annual Japanese speech contest for non-Japanese natives.
    This year's theme is "Beikoku to Nihon: Hikaku no shiten kara
  mita bunka"  (translation - "The U.S. and Japan: Cultures from a
  comparative view point").  According to the organizers, participants
  should prepare a cassett tape containing three minutes of speech
  (I think it should be a condensed version of what you want to say
  about the comperative cultures... a demo tape or some sort)
  and another minute of your self-introduction ("jiko shokai") in
  JAPANESE.  The tape should be sent to the Kawamura Cultural Foundation
  by October 17.   I believe some contestants would be eliminated at
  the tape entry, and those who clear this first round will be invited
  the final round speech contest at the Japan society.  This event is
  scheduled on December 12.   I heard that the first prize is usually
  a free round trip ticket to Japan.

    If you wnat to know more detail, PLEASE DO NOT E-mail ME, but
  contact the Kawamura Cultural Foundation.
    The address and phone number of the foundation are;

      90 Park Avenue, 17th Fl.
      New York, NY 10016

      (212) 808-5335

  Good luck,

  Akiko Hosler
Newsgroups: sci.lang.japan
From: CM11976@SWTEXAS.BITNET
Subject: Nihonjin In American Films
Reply-To: NIHONGO@mitvma.mit.edu
Organization: The Internet
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1992 03:44:00 GMT

Hi,

I'm a cultural anthropologist-in-training and have been studying Japanese in
school for the last few years.  This isn't a language question, but I'm curious
about something.  There's a new film out here in the States called
"Mr. Baseball".  It stars Tom Sellek (Magnum P.I.) as an aging American
baseball star who gets traded to a team in Japan.  Of course, he doesn't
understand anything about Japanse culture, and comedy ensues as he has a
difficult time fitting in with his new teammates.

I'm wondering, how do the people on this list feel about the way Japanese
people are portrayed in American films (or any other creative medium, for that
matter)?  Has anyone ever seen a Japanese film with American characters in it?
How are they portrayed?

This may not be strictly within the bounds of this list, and if you all don't
want to talk about it, I'll shut up, but I'm very interested in hearing what
people think about this.

From what I've seen, and this is a big generalization here, Japanese people are
either portrayed as grim/psychotic yakuza types, or friendly little guys who
become flustered and clumsy when faced with the complexities of big, bad
American culture (Ever see "Gung Ho"?). I always feel a little embarrassed when
I see stuff like this, and have often wondered what Japanse people think when
they see it.  (I haven't seen "Mr. Baseball" and don't how it treats the
Japanese people.  Anyone out there seen it?).

Like I said, if no one wants to talk about this I'll drop it, but I'm really
interested in hearing people's opinions.  What do you think?

Chris Maka         cm11976@swtexas.bitnet

Southwest Texas State University
San Marcos, Texas
From: ez000345@othello.ucdavis.edu
Newsgroups: sci.lang.japan
Subject: JIS->graphics
Date: 8 Oct 92 02:42:34 GMT
Organization: Computing Services, UC Davis

Hello:

I am looking for a IBM program to convert JIS code into a graphics
file so it can be sent over a fax modem.  Does anyone happen to know
of such a beast?  Thanks for your time !  Doomo sumimasen !

Val Luck
valuck@ucdavis.edu
-- 
  \  /        |        _ |,      valuck@ucdavis.edu       Today is the 
   \/ /\ |_   |__ |_| |_ |\      valuck@ucdavis         tomorrow that you
     Valentine A. Luck II        ucdavis!valuck       worried about yesterday
Newsgroups: sci.lang.japan
From: y0l8009@tamsun.tamu.edu (Yoshih Lee)
Subject: Reading and understanding kanji/kanzi
Organization: Texas A&M University, College Station
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1992 19:14:11 GMT

Being a native Mandarin Chinese speaker first, American English second, still
learning Japanese, most Chinese speakers I know who also have some knowledge
of Japanese say that when native Japanese use kanji (espcially compounds),
they do not think in Chinese; to me, this looks like alot of rote memorization.
I find it easier to understand Japanese kanji compounds by going back and 
reading the same characters as Chinese hanzi; for example, the "Jooyoo Kanji"
was just a label for me to memorize, until I read it in Chinese (which 
literally translates to "oftenly-used-kanji").  This also applies for the 
majority of Chinese-origin compounds as well.  However, I am curious to know
how the use of kanji "feels" (in terms of grammatical usage), and whether any 
differences are "felt" when using Chinese-origin compounds versus Japanese-
origin compounds.

Just my two yuan,


Eugene Lee
y0l8009@tamsun.tamu.edu
From: mrc@Tomobiki-Cho.CAC.Washington.EDU (Mark Crispin)
Newsgroups: sci.lang.japan
Subject: re: Ryoma Sakamoto
Date: 13 Oct 92 18:36:23 GMT
Article-I.D.: Tomobiki.MS-C.719001383.377401575.mrc
Organization: University of Washington
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
To: Hisaharu Tanabe <htanabe@ponder.csci.unt.edu>
Mime-Version: 1.0

An excellent book is Marius Jansen's `Sakamoto Ryo^ma and the Meiji
Restoration'.  It's an old book (1960) but a remarkable work of scholarship.
Newsgroups: sci.lang.japan
From: jwb@capek.rdt.monash.edu.au (Jim Breen)
Subject: WAR ALERT! (Was: kanji of the day ?48)
Organization: Monash University, Melb., Australia.
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1992 03:52:41 GMT

santos@mickey.ai.kyutech.ac.jp (Rafael &) writes:

>Uh, sorry, Prof. Harkcom, but why you wrote "kanzi" instead of "kanji" ?
>Just curious...

Aaaaaahhhhh! No, Rafael, no! Don't ask that question!

(too late 8-( } )

OK, folks, now lets be calm. Let's take a deep breath, and in as
dispassionate and objective a fashion as possible explain to Senhor
Santos the difference between Kunrei and Hepburn romanization, but
p l e a s e  don't let the dreaded HOLY ROMANIZATION WAR break out 
again.

(are you listening, James?)

-- 
Jim Breen                           JIS:$B%8%`!!%V%j!<%s(J
Department of Robotics & Digital Technology. Monash University. 
PO Box 197 Caulfield East VIC 3145 Australia (ph) +61 3 573 2552 
(fax) +61 3 573 2345  AARNet/Internet:jwb@capek.rdt.monash.edu.au
From: yoichi@carson.u.washington.edu (Yoichi Ii)
Newsgroups: sci.lang.japan
Subject: Re: Hepburn & kunrei romanization
Date: 16 Oct 92 20:24:44 GMT
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle

What system of Romanization is "Godzilla"? :)
Gojira, Gozira, Godira ... Hmm
From: wdw@math2.sma.usna.navy.MIL (Wm. Douglas Withers -- math  FACULTY <wdw@sma.usna.navy.mil>)
Newsgroups: sci.lang.japan
Subject: Re: Reading and understanding kanji/kanzi
Date: 16 Oct 92 13:51:27 GMT
Organization: U.S. Naval Academy

In article <2270@usna.NAVY.MIL> wdw@math2.sma.usna.navy.MIL (Wm. Douglas Withers -- math  FACULTY <wdw@sma.usna.navy.mil>) writes:
>
>  \  |  /                       \ |                      |) __|__
>     |                           \|___                   |\   |
>	/ \                          /|\                     |/  / \
>  /     \                       / J \                    |  /  _|
>  
>Japanese hi, KA              Japanese mizu, SUI       Japanese BOU, fusegu
>Chinese huo3                 Chinese shui3            Chinese fang2
>`fire'                       `water'                  `prevent'
>

These probably got garbled for some people.  Let me try again.

   \  |  /                       \ |                      |) __|__
      |                           \|___                   |\   |
     / \                          /|\                     |/  / \
   /     \                       / J \                    |  /  _|
  
Japanese hi, KA              Japanese mizu, SUI       Japanese BOU, fusegu
Chinese huo3                 Chinese shui3            Chinese fang2
`fire'                       `water'                  `prevent'
-- 
Els Withers                   email: wdw@math2.sma.usna.navy.mil
Department of Mathematics     phone: (410)267-3192 / fax: (410)267-4883
United States Naval Academy
Annapolis, MD  21402-5002     Senri no tabi mo ippo yori...
Newsgroups: sci.lang.japan
From: jamie@f40.inmos.co.uk (Jamie Packer)
Subject: Re: `silliness' of historical radicals
Organization: INMOS Ltd, Documentation Group
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1992 16:00:21 GMT

The reasoning is not that the traditional way is Historically Correct, nor
that we invested a lot of time learning it so it mustn't be thrown away. It
is simply that it is The Standard. And, like so many standards, it is not
the best way of doing it, but it IS the most widely used. So, you can use
Nelson's or Spahn's (sp?) indexing method when you have that dictionary,
but are you going to be stumped when faced with another that uses the
standard/historical/"correct" method? Or if you want to use a Chinese
dictionary? It would be nice if the Best Way were also The Standard Way but,
as anyone who has anything to do with computers or telecoms already knows,
life aint like that.

Jamie

"The nice thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from"
Newsgroups: sci.lang.japan
From: pinhanez@IME.USP.BR (Claudio Pinhanez)
Subject: Re: Nihonjin In American Films
X-Unparsable-Date: Fri, 16 Oct 1992 16: 35:28 TZONE
Reply-To: NIHONGO@mitvma.mit.edu
Organization: The Internet
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 1992 20:35:59 GMT

>  Example C: Then, I screened `Breakfast at Tiffanys', because my wife wanted
 to
>  see a film with Audrey Hepburn (apparently she's a popular symbol in Japan?).


You can't imagine how popular she is. Most of the japanese girls I met
consider Audrey Hepburn as a symbol of beauty to be followed.

Claudio Pinhanez
From: tvp@GIBDO.ENGR.WASHINGTON.EDU
Newsgroups: sci.lang.japan
Subject: Re: Nihonjin In American Films
Date: 8 Oct 92 14:46:30 GMT
Reply-To: NIHONGO@mitvma.mit.edu
Organization: The Internet

Not a flame, just a suggestion:

Try soc.culture.japan; they're talking about this film at this very
moment. The discussion hasn't yet gotten into this issue but has been
primed for it because there are opposing opinions on both sides that
have already begun forming.

-- Tad Perry   Internet:    tvp@gibdo.engr.washington.edu
               CompuServe:  70402,3020
               NIFTY-Serve: GBG01266
Newsgroups: sci.lang.japan