Funny Japanese · 12:00pm Feb 3rd, 2015
There are a number of reasons why I like the Japanese language. If you take the kanji 苦 [く, pronounced 'ku'] it can have the meaning of 'pain' and 'suffering' but also 'bitter' when written als following 苦い [にがい, nigai]. The funny thing is that the kanji 苦 consists of two parts the the line with the two stripes meaning grass, and the cross on the box meaning old, making 'bitter' meaning 'the taste of old grass'.
Another funny example is the adjective 安い [やすい, yasui] meaning cheap, has 女 [おんな, onna] in it. おんな meaning woman. You'll probably understand what I'm trying to say. (To be fair though 安い also means peacefull. With the upper part meaning something like a house. So woman+house=peacefull*)
*To be fair again, it is very well possible that this was created during the Edo Jidai from 1600-1886 in which a woman had no right to do anything (like seriously, she had to even listen to her own sons, was not allowed to divorce even if her husband cheated or abused her. All what the husband had to do to divorce was just give her a piece of paper that stated that he wanted to divorce.)
But ok, that is all I'm going to say for now.
Have a wonderful day,
Angel
