The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-11-23
Pecu1iarities of the Language.
For instance would say:

EOr instance would say:
81 go for a physician because / am
sick" The Japanese always says: BE
cause sick am physician to CO." And
that is only one illustration of the
thought of the japanese people. So it
is when the japanese inquirer comes to
you, to me, or to any of our missionaries.
and inquiries with reference to Chris
tianity, and the truth which we have to
bear to the Japanese people,-and we
always try to hold our intercourse with
them in the simplest way; to tell them
the story which we bring in the simplest
and most comprehensive way, but it is
often the case that when we have fiat
tered ourselves that we have presented
our thought in a very clear, easy, and
simple way. to find after all that the
Japanese inquirer upon whom we have
been trying to make an impression has
failed to grasp the essential thought
simply because we have presented it
after the method of thought of our
western nations. So that that seems to
be the very first difficulty with which
we have to contend, to learn to think
backwards. And then, of course, follow
ing close upon this is the great Difficult
ty with the language. There is no diff
ticulty, perhaps 80 great as that. There
is no language perhaps in the world so
fn or no lot,
guage. The vocabulary to those who
have been trained in our western lam
guages, and even in the dead languages,
is extremely difficult. Our western lam
guages, and even the dead languages al @
comparatively easy compared to IL Q
japanese.
The vocabulary of the Japanese is ex-
ceedipgly difficult to acquire. There
are no associations by which thoughts
and words which we have are held in
mind, and all words of the Japanese Ian
guage are totally different from any of
the words in any other language which
we know, and that makes the vocabu-
larry very difficult thing to acquire.
But we can learn the Japanese Ian
guage. 1t is not impossible for man in
the course of two years or so, to learn,
comparatively, considerable of the Ian
guage. But when you have learned the
grammatical construction of the Ian
guage, and when one has the vocabula-
ry. which is easy, as is commonly the
case, still he has by no means learned
the Japanese language. There is in
Japanese, as many of you know, innu.
merable idioms and forms which it is
necessary for the missionary to acquire
if he would speak to the native Japan
ese, and that is great task. I have
one or two instancesi.in mind which 1
think would be interesting to you with
reference to the idiomatic forms of Jap
anese. Suppose l want to say to my
Japanese friend: 81 have caught cold''
1t would be simple matter for me, or
for man to learn the words Il have
caught cold,' and to learn the grammat-
ital construction by which that sentence
should be properly expressed, but if I
gave that, if | spoke that to a Japanese
he would look at me bewildered; not
understanding anything that l said. l
have not used the correct idiom. If |
wished to say to Japanese 81 have
caught cold" it is necessary to use their
idiom which, being literally translated
means: Il have drawn in wind" Or,
suppose 1 want to ask my Japanese
friend, Are you hungry" The words
are simple enough, but it is the idiom.
would say THE speaker uses the Jap
anese language.) which. being interpre-
ted is. Are your honorable insides
empty?" Suppose l want to say to my
friend, please be seated" The words
are easy enough, and what would say
would be, uses Japanese) which, being
interpreted is, please honorably hang
your hips on that chair" And these
are not uncommon idioms in the Japan
ese language. 1t isfull of them. So be-
fore the missionary can speak face to
face, and heart to heart with the Japa-
nese people he must know not only the
words and grammatical construction of
their language but he must know the
idioms of the Japanese language.
Hell" and Post-Ofiee."
heard of a good so-called orthodox
missionary the other day who was very
eager to speak face to face with the
Japanese and give them the message
which he had, so after he had spent
some time, perhaps years, in the study
of the language he thought he would be
glad to try and see how he could talk
with them. He wanted to tell them Of
the necessity of their accepting Chris
tianity, and of believing in the Lord
Jesus Christ in order that they might be
saved He wanted to tell them that un-
less they believed; unless they accepted
Jesus Christ; unless they repented of
their sins they would surely go to hell.
but unfortunately for him, the word
Hell" and the word post Office" in
Japanese are nearly the same. The
word for Hell" being Speaker uses
Japanese) and the word for post