Berkeley Diary
Masaki YAMAOKA
May/1/2005 My Finds to Word Lag (3) Microwave Oven
VS. Denshi Renji
My doctor in Japan warned
me about my diabetes before I left. He advised me that I should lose
weight. And he told me most of American foods are high-calorie, so
ordinary people in USA would be tend to consume too many calorie. Then I made a
resolve to lose weight and to recover my health during this one year.
In fact here, I enjoy cooking by myself every day, and seldom eat
out alone. I check my weight every morning. And I count my steps by the
pedometer. My target is 10,000 steps per day. I will keep this regular life
like clockwork in this sabbatical year.
By the way, my friend here recommended
that I buy a microwave oven. She said it is a necessity for a business bachelor
like me. But I think the foods for microwave are high-calorie, so I will not buy
it for the present. And every house, including apartments, has a
conventional oven. My apartment also has a big one in the kitchen. In Japan I
have never used it. But now, it gives me pleasure to cook.
We call a microwave oven by the name of
"denshi renji" in
Japanese. It means electronic range. But in English we distinguish between oven
and range. The "oven" is the equipment for cooking inside a
compartment with a door, and the "range" is for cooking on the
surface. This distinction is rational. I guess that Japanese people are not as
familiar with oven as are American people.
And I think some Japanese faddists liked to name
anything new with the word "denshi". For
example, when e-mail appeared in Japan, we called it "denshi
meiru" (=electronic mail). But now, e-mail is
not new. Neither is microwave oven. I feel the word "denshi"
is out-of-date.
Japanese 5月 1日 言葉の’時差’みつけた(3) マイクロウェイブ・オーブン VS.
電子レンジ
To: Soka University HP (English)
To: Department of the
Japanese Language and Literature HP
To: Masaki
YAMAOKA's HP: Index