5 Japanese Idioms That Helped Me Fall in Love With Life
By: Project Hbe
Tags: Life, Japan, Love, Culture, Life Lessons

5 Japanese Idioms That Helped Me Fall in Love With Life

Charlemagne, a medieval emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, once said: “To have a second language is to have a second soul.”

Language and culture train our mind to think a certain way; for example, we pay attention to specific details depending on the structure of our language. Language is capable of both limiting and expanding our cognitive realm.

I was blessed to grow up learning Japanese from my parents and English through formal education. In Japanese, the sentence structure and vocabulary differ depending on whether you’re speaking to someone older or younger than you. Whereas in English, you speak the same grammatically, regardless of whether you’re speaking to a classmate or your boss.

Even when I’m speaking in English, I noticed I tend to speak more politely when conversing with older people. The languages we know tend to shape our mindset and attitude subconsciously.

In this article, I’m going to share five of my favorite Japanese idioms. They encapsulate beautiful ideologies reflective of the Japanese attitude towards life.

1. 一期一会 (Ichi-go Ichi-e)

This idiom spells out “one meeting, one opportunity.”

A few months ago, I had a great conversation while networking with a former consultant at BCG Japan. When I asked him what drove his decisions to change careers, he said, “one meeting, one opportunity.”

This idiom is about the power of conversations. The former consultant told me he believes every meeting happens for a reason.

He joined BCG after bumping into one of their employees at a bar and having a positive interaction. He subsequently left the company after an inspiring conversation with an entrepreneur who wanted him to join in his vision.

He’s currently working on a six-person startup with unbounded dreams and creativity. As much as he appreciated the visibility and prestige of the corporate world, he also realized he enjoyed the startup culture a lot more. He understood his career trajectory was rather unconventional, but he believed his impulsive decisions were justified by the quality of conversations he had with the people who empowered him.

Each meeting happens only once, even with the same group of people. No meeting is ever going to be repeated in exactly the same way. This phrase reminds me to treasure each gathering, event, and conversation with others. Every conversation opens up a gateway to a new opportunity each time; the value is in the moment.

2. 無我夢中 (mu-ga mu-chu)

This idiom literally means: “to indulge your dreams so much that your sense of self is gone.”

How beautifully serene.

In Japanese culture, chasing your dream is the act of losing yourself. It’s an activity in which you forget about your ego and instead pour your soul into something other than yourself.

I find there are very few moments when you can transcend your self-consciousness and become indulged in the task or goal in sight. It’s almost a child-like curiosity driving you to forget about everything, including yourself.

For me, it’s usually something like drawing, writing, taking pictures, and spending time with friends. Those are the simple moments when I’m able to forget about time and feel truly present in the moment.

I try to treasure those instances and find the kinds of tasks I genuinely enjoy doing. Finding bits and pieces of these things has made decision-making a lot easier for me, such as how to spend my weekends and the kind of relationships I want to form with others.

3. 十人十色 (ju-nin toi-ro)

This idiom literally means, “ten people, ten colors.”

Everyone has different perspectives, backgrounds, thoughts, and interests they can add to a blank canvas. No two people are the same.

More often than not, in conversations, we talk about differences as a negative variable; almost like a pollutant in a room full of dull similarity. Surely, differences between people commonly cause conflicts and problems. But I like this idiom because it goes against the traditional vernacular that differences are bad, and rather highlights the beauty in these differences.

Can you objectively argue one color is better than another?

We may be different than someone else, but that doesn’t make the other person any less than who we are. The older I become, the more I realize how much of a blessing it truly is to be surrounded by differences and to be able to learn something new from the people around us.

4. 七転八起 (shichi-ten ha-ki)

This idiom reads, “Fall seven times, get up eight times.”

You may fail many times in life, but you only have to bounce back once to not end in failure.

This idiom says the act of failing and becoming a failure are completely different things. The distinguishing factor between people who fail versus people who are failures is that the latter has given up.

Although slightly cliché, it is a constant reminder for us to not be afraid of failing. We are often caught up in this fear, but you are never a failure until you decide to quit.

5. 不昧不落 (fu-mai fu-raku)

I saved my favorite one for last. “If you are unattached to materialism, you won’t fall.”

This phrase refers to the compulsive desires that drive many people.

Nowadays, we live in a world full of pleasure and instant gratification. From cell phones to sugar addiction, we sometimes get lost in the sauce of pursuing pleasure-seeking activities.

We’re under the illusion that our ability to do whatever we want without any obligations or commitments is the equivalent of freedom. In reality, we are simply enslaved to compulsive desires.

If you can free yourself from your compulsions, you are on the right track. I interpreted this phrase to mean you must find a healthy balance between the pleasurable vices and the activities that generate long-term satisfaction.

This idiom beautifully encapsulates this idea: success is not about material wealth, but rather about the meaningful relationships we form with others. Japanese people tend to hold this value particularly close to their hearts. This idiom is a reminder wealth does not come from your net worth, but instead what your heart perceives.