コロナ禍
Might as well incorporate *gestures vaguely at the universe* into our language practice - How to Japanese - January 2021
This is How to Japanese from Daniel Morales, a monthly newsletter with something about Japan/Japanese, something about booze, and a dash of いろいろ.
日本・日本語： 禍 ≠ 鍋
My end-of-year resolution to listen to more NHK Radio News seems to be holding. Maybe I’m tired of my podcast lineup, maybe I’m more committed to my Japanese study practice. Who knows, but I’ll take it. The episodes come relentlessly, so I never get to all of them, but it feels good to knock out a handful of them while I’m doing the dishes or cleaning the bathroom. They’re sometimes enough to motivate me to take a winter run along Lake Michigan.
The 0時 (reiji, midnight) dispatch always starts 日付が変わって、X月Y日です (Hizuke ga kawatte, X-gatsu Y-nichi desu, The date has changed, it is now X-month Y-day).
So we’ll start that way here, too: 年が変わって、2021年です。
I regret to inform you that things are as 最悪 (saiaku, awful) as they were last year:
We have emergency orders in Japan, a failed coup in the United States, and rapid community spread of COVID-19 around the world. 明けましておめでとうございます！
At this point, it’s probably best to start internalizing the best コロナ禍 work etiquette. A quick Google autofill check reveals that Japanese themselves are also asking many of these questions:
First, how do you even pronounce コロナ禍? NHK has a great article on this, noting that the pronunciation is koronaka and that it means “Coronavirus crisis/disaster.” They explain why this word is getting used:
「コロナ禍」がよく使われるのは、新型コロナウイルスの感染拡大で引き起こされるさまざまな災難や不幸、経済的・社会的影響など複雑な状況を、短く一言で、インパクトのある文字で伝えることができるからでしょう。字数やスペースが限られた新聞の紙面やテレビの画面では、読む人や見る人に視覚的に訴えかけイメージを共有しやすいキーワードが求められます。
“Koronaka” is being used so often because you can express the disaster and misfortune caused by the spread of the novel coronavirus and the complex economic and societal effects it has had in a concise, powerful phrase. Space for characters in newspaper pages and on TV is limited, and we need a keyword that’s easy to share with readers and viewers and has visual appeal.
I recommend reading the whole article. Very interesting, and not too difficult in terms of reading practice. It gets into other instances of the word 禍, visually similar phrases, and why コロナ禍 is written and not spoken.
I haven’t heard it on NHK. I noticed it last summer when I was tracking down email verbiage. I ended up finding some useful sites and phrases, which I wanted to share this month.
Nakagawaji Aki notes that email greetings have become more casual (independent of COVID-19, I believe). Simple weather-related 挨拶 are regular these days, but Corona phrases are also in regular usage now. She has a number of different phrases, so it’s worth checking out the post, but the two COVID-related phrases are:
コロナもまだ収束とは言えないようですので、十分にお気をつけください (Korona mo mada shūsoku to wa ienai yō desu node, jūbun ni o-ki o tsuke kudasai, COVID isn’t really over yet, so make sure to take care of yourself)
時節柄、くれぐれもお体にお気をつけください (Jisetsugara, kuregure mo o-karada ni o-ki o tsuke kudasai, Because things are the way they are, please take care of yourself).
That word 時節柄 (jisetsugara, in times like these/things being what they are) does a lot of work! These feel like useful phrases for the closing part of an email.
If you need more formal language, this post on Goodcross has a ton of different examples. Worth perusing, especially if you are a letter writer. Most of these are very かたい (katai, formal), but there are a couple that might be repurposed for email:
Introductory phrase:
新型コロナウィルスによる影響で大変な状況ではございますが、○○様はじめご一同様はお変わりなくお過ごしでしょうか (Shingata koronauirusu ni yoru eikyō de taihen na jōkyō de wa gozaimasu ga, ○○sama hajime go-ichidō wa okawarinaku o-sugoshi deshō ka, Things are difficult because of the effects of the novel coronavirus, but have you and everyone [at the company where you work] been doing well?)
Closing phrase:
先を見通しづらい状況ではありますが、ご自愛のほど心よりお祈りしております (Saki o mitōshi-zurai jōkyō de wa arimasu ga, go-jiai no hodo kokoro yori o-inori shite orimasu, It’s difficult to see what will happen, but I hope that you’re taking care of yourself)
At the bottom there are more casual phrases. The introductory phrases are specific for summer, but this line could be used anytime:
コロナと共存する生活様式は不便さも多々ありますが、お互い気をつけましょう (Korona to kyōzon suru seikatsu yōshiki wa fubinsa mo tata arimasu ga, otagai ki o tukemashō, Coexisting with coronavirus causes a lot of difficulties, but let’s both be careful)
The Nikkei also had a great article about how COVID has changed business etiquette. Most of the advice is on point for remote work: watch what’s in your background in virtual meetings, try not to have your kids on camera, mute when you’re not talking. The only questionable suggestion is to respond to intra-company emails within two hours as a courtesy. I think this will really vary by each company and how they communicate.
In terms of language, there are some helpful suggestions. It can feel a bit weird to throw around phrases like 良い週末を (Yoi shūmatsu o, Have a great weekend) in these trying times, and they suggest avoiding exclamation points and emoji. They also provide what might be the simplest introductory phrase, which just about anyone should be able to adopt:
安全にお過ごしでしょうか (Anzen ni o-sugoshi deshō ka, Have you been keeping safe?)
The first article from Nakagawaji also notes that お世話になっております is also a perfectly fine introduction to an email if you can’t be bothered making something specific. Don’t sweat it too much.
If you need the basics, you can always check out my two-parter over at the JT from a few years back about writing emails and writing letters. These have both received solid reviews and been put into use by actual business people doing actual business in Japan.
ビール： Crispyboi
The craft beer world is divisive. Change is a constant, yet tradition in both brewing technique and style is a defining quality of craft. When Fritz Maytag brewed Anchor Porter in 1972, the style had been extinct in the UK for over 30 years; in the same moment, you have something extremely novel yet traditional.
Craft drinkers fall into one of two camps: They either embrace change and experimentation, actively seeking out new and innovative flavors, or they prefer the more “subdued” flavors of a West Coast IPA and classic lagers. They like stouts with coffee and breakfast cereal and IPAs with lactose and blended fruit, or they seek out their sweet, syrupy beer in the form of Doppelbocks, Eisbocks, Quadrupels, and Barleywine. They’re Team Hazyboi (alternately, Pastryboi) or Team Crispyboi.
One of my friends recently added me to a private Facebook group for fans of crispyboi beers. It seems to have been founded by a handful of brewers in Chicago for shit posting, mostly. A place where people in the industry and others (mostly homebrewers in Chicago and a handful in Pennsylvania, it seems) can blow off steam, celebrate lagers and barleywine, and talk shit about how the industry is going wrong.
For example: In a recent video shared on the page, a brewery can be seen transferring a barrel-aged IPA (a mistake from first conception, imho) into a brite tank. The video follows the tubing from the barrel, around a few random kegs, through a filter, through more tubing, up into the top of the open brite tank, from which the beer cascades through the air to the bottom. This is criminally negligent brewing. The absolutely fastest way to stale a beer.
So Team Crispyboi do have their heads on straight; there’s a deep respect for brewing practice, despite the memes and chonky cat GIFs (did I mention chonky cats are a critical part of this group?).
Team Crispyboi are also capable of self-reflection. In another recent post, one of the administrators asked the forum: Despite all our shit posting about the brewing industry, what was positive about craft beer in 2020?
I thought the responses provide insight into where we’re at. I’ve paraphrased the responses:
There is a tremendous selection of craft beer.
A neighborhood brewery has gotten a lot of support from the neighborhood during the pandemic.
The breweries that have survived have been good at adapting, and there is good support from craft beer drinkers.
Brewers are adding lots of lagers to menus, and they’re brewing them well (and you don’t have to line up for them as with many hazyboi and pastryboi).
Delivery beer became a thing during the pandemic.
Drinking locally more often.
12 packs from legacy brands are cheap and solid.
It’s easy to find fresh, local beer in a wide variety of styles (posted from Pittsburgh).
Customers are embracing Mild, Pilsner, and West Coast IPA in cans. Barrel-aged beer program is going well at their brewery.
Sales are up 200% for a sales rep.
Central Illinois has grown into a region with good beer and good beer selection. Chicago has become the best beer city in the U.S. [Editor’s note: I did not make this statement, but I would largely agree with it. We are spoiled in Chicago.]
There has been a shift back to clean, well-made beers.
The craft community is collaborative and supportive of new brewers.
The craft beer industry is becoming more diverse.
At one brewery, none of the production team were laid off.
The Black is Beautiful initiative.
There are more transgender people in the craft beer industry.
Beer is more consistent. Selection has improved. There is a lot of opportunity and more job security in the industry.
Consumers reached out to shut down breweries and restaurants. Consumers were also generous with breweries that remained open.
A brewery celebrated its third anniversary and increased sales in 2020 over 2019.
2020 was a hell of a year for breweries, but the market has been challenging forever. I took a lesson in 2015 from a brewer at a brewery that no longer exists. One location in Chicago is said, jokingly, to be cursed; two breweries have opened there, two have closed, a third never made it off the ground, and a fourth is currently brewing there as of 2018.
It’s a rough industry. Brewers need to be total savants: master brewing scientists, marketing geniuses, real estate experts, and politicians. Even then the market is going to do what it wants, despite their best efforts.
Crispyboi have stood the test of time, but only since 1842 when the Josef Groll tapped the first keg of Pilsner. Nothing is a given. The what-me-worry attitude combined with a slight traditionalist, contrarian streak of this crispyboi Facebook forum seems like an appropriate response, and thanks to the many crispyboi brewers and drinkers alike, the craft beer market is in great condition.
That said, continue to check the dates on the bottom of your cans and to drink local.
いろいろ
I broke down a couple NHK Radio broadcasts and did a mega-thread on the language of the 1/6 insurrection in Japanese. Pretty interesting look at how the news is being digested abroad.
I’m on deck over at The Japan Times for the first time in a while, so keep an eye on my Twitter feed for that link and bonus blog coverage coming soon.
“Which is why, if there was any particular point to Wednesday’s insurrection, other than a naked display of fascist racist violence, it was, for most protesters, simply about creating content to put back on the internet.” Via Garbage Day.
Ryu Spaeth had two pieces in the last month: he debunks the Japanese rent-a-family article from The New Yorker and has a nice ode to nattō.
Interesting thread by @merumeruchan about translation rates.
The Star Wars YouTube channel shared a great behind the scenes video celebrating the 40th anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back and another short video looking at the film’s legacy. The videos only reconfirm for me that ESB is the GOAT, although I’ve always favored using an NBA model: ANH = Michael Jordan, ESB = LeBron James. We all (should) know LeBron is better than Jordan, but Jordan was the originator.
I listen to my Discover Weekly playlist just about every week, and last week it included South African pianist Abdullah Ibrahim. He’s got the groove I’m looking for. Two albums I’ve been going back to repeatedly: Cape Town Flowers and Cape Town Revisited.
I’m keeping my 2021 playlist here.
When I’m not listening to Spotify, I like these radio stations, which can all be accessed online/through apps: WWOZ (New Orleans), KEXP (Seattle), MPR The Current (Twin Cities). In particular, I like “Tiene Sabor” (the Latin show on WWOZ Saturday midday), “Positive Vibrations” (the reggae/dub/rocksteady show on KEXP Saturday morning), and “Swinging Doors” (the country show on KEXP Thursday evening). And I’m just learning that you can stream back episodes online!
Apropos of nothing at all (other than my deep, abiding love of The Office):
