I have been studying Japanese for 2 years now, but, my spoken Japanese is still, not humble enough. Since I am planning to use it mostly for business conversation with customers, I wanted to polish it. With this idea I visited the Kinokuniya superstore, and somehow walked around to the Japanese section, and to my surprise there were hundreds of book on business Japanese, and I spent roughly 3 hours and could not arrive at a book that matches my level (because it is just above beginner's level) .. But after sometime I bought this book "Japanese power for living" 「生きる為の日本語力」 . I read a few pages on the way back.
The book is all about "Humble expressions in Japanese". Speaking of these humble expressions, there are two of them,
- Sonkeigo 「尊敬語」
- kenjouｇo 「謙譲語」
Sonkeigo is used to praise seniors (add extra ++)
Kenjogo is used to humble oneself (reduce your own level --)
It seems that many Japanese are starting to make mistakes here. It seems that they are starting to face the same problem as "Japanese learning foreigners", and the Japanese (elders) are trying hard to re-introduce it.
Let us take an example, If you want to inform someone over telephone to, "wait for a few minutes" The word few can be expressed as chotto→shosho→sukoshi→shibaraku (respect increases in the ascending order).
Friday, January 09, 2009
Thursday, January 08, 2009
USB 3.0 highlight
It all started in 1999, when I started working on the USB mass storage class drivers for Windows 98 SE, the next version of windows, "the Windows 2000" had inbuilt USB mass storage class support. I worked extensively on USB and Mass storage class, eventually I fell in love. And had been following the developments in USB world till USB2.0 was frozen. When USB2.0 was released and adopted, I thought it is the end of the world for 1394 (firewire) and any further USB developments. Because USB 2.0 was 40 times faster than USB 1.1. When the wireless USB came into picture, I did not care much, because I thought there really isn`t any market for it, just because bluetooth and WLAN is so well established. I recently came across USB3.0, Tektronix has already released analyzers for it.
The first thing that caught my attention was its speed, believe it or not, it is 5.0 Gbps (Giga Bits Per Second), same as a PCI Express 2.0 (which is an internal bus interconnect protocol). I have not seen any USB2.0 application that is using its full speed. There are some arguments that network over USB2.0 might use its 60 MBPS bandwidth. Practically, nobody would like to connect their Network protocol stack over USB protocol in normal conditions.
What will be the typical application. If this protocol succeeds, then, we can live away with all the PCI bus inside the PC, and all your extensions cards, and even your RAM can be well, connected over USB 3.0. The designers will have a challenging time designing for this highspeed signal.
The first thing that caught my attention was its speed, believe it or not, it is 5.0 Gbps (Giga Bits Per Second), same as a PCI Express 2.0 (which is an internal bus interconnect protocol). I have not seen any USB2.0 application that is using its full speed. There are some arguments that network over USB2.0 might use its 60 MBPS bandwidth. Practically, nobody would like to connect their Network protocol stack over USB protocol in normal conditions.
What will be the typical application. If this protocol succeeds, then, we can live away with all the PCI bus inside the PC, and all your extensions cards, and even your RAM can be well, connected over USB 3.0. The designers will have a challenging time designing for this highspeed signal.
Kudos USB3.0 but ...
Hey USB3.0 developers, "Why do we want to run, so very fast?"
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
Satyam's revelation
Indians for a long time equated non-governmental organization to instability. Inline with this, the top graduates from Engineering schools would always strive for a government job. It was and is highly competitive, except for the salary part. It was really surprising for me to see people just wanting to get a government job, due to the paybacks they can receive. The best part for these so called "government employees" is that they good girls (thanks to the arranged marriage system in India). Girls parents think that government jobs are the safest, bla bla ...
The confidence in private companies, like TATA, Infosys, Reliance, grew recently. To the point that banks started giving loans easily to employees of these private companies. But now ... with companies just going down ... now what?
People's confidence on wallstreet took a series of blows, we only wish Madoff's problem is the last. Recently I watched a speech by Vinodh Khosla and he mentioned the worst is not yet over, he thinks the "credit card debt" will also strike. No matter what, I do not understand the intricacies of this problem, but only know that the effect is not trivial.
I wonder how come countries go bankrupt, take iceland for example. In Japan, they showed a graphical representation of the global financial crisis created by the US. My feeling (though might not be correct) is that, the US people had a ball of a time with others money. Now check the image below, you can clearly see that the American government gets back all the money they pay to us for our services. Now isn't this great ...
Now when the world was sensing something fishy in Satyam computer, its chairman, Ramalinga Raju revealed the financial irregularities. Many of my good friends work for that company, it was and is a great company. It was one of the first Indian IT companies to extensively explore the Japanese market and has a huge Japan operations. Now, I thought of asking myself this question.
"Why would such (not so bad people) a person like Ramalinga Raju, Madoff and all. inflate things?"
These people are highly educated, they probably can visualize the consequences. I cannot imagine that they did this fraud (irregularities as it is called) to benefit themselves. Is it the investors, who create this quarterly results pressure. I guess something is not correct with the way the investors confidence has an effect on the company's stock and eventually the company.
This seems to be a time of reconciliation where the foundation of many companies seems to be weak or in the worst case non-existent. The world is now shaken, and it is time for those fundamentally strong companies to withstand this shakeup.
I always like the following lines from , King Arthur's Farewell
"Future seems dark and dreary ..."
But then he adds a bit of optimism by saying
"More things are wrought by prayer than what this world thinks of ..."
In these days let us be optimistic.
The confidence in private companies, like TATA, Infosys, Reliance, grew recently. To the point that banks started giving loans easily to employees of these private companies. But now ... with companies just going down ... now what?
People's confidence on wallstreet took a series of blows, we only wish Madoff's problem is the last. Recently I watched a speech by Vinodh Khosla and he mentioned the worst is not yet over, he thinks the "credit card debt" will also strike. No matter what, I do not understand the intricacies of this problem, but only know that the effect is not trivial.
I wonder how come countries go bankrupt, take iceland for example. In Japan, they showed a graphical representation of the global financial crisis created by the US. My feeling (though might not be correct) is that, the US people had a ball of a time with others money. Now check the image below, you can clearly see that the American government gets back all the money they pay to us for our services. Now isn't this great ...Now when the world was sensing something fishy in Satyam computer, its chairman, Ramalinga Raju revealed the financial irregularities. Many of my good friends work for that company, it was and is a great company. It was one of the first Indian IT companies to extensively explore the Japanese market and has a huge Japan operations. Now, I thought of asking myself this question.
"Why would such (not so bad people) a person like Ramalinga Raju, Madoff and all. inflate things?"
These people are highly educated, they probably can visualize the consequences. I cannot imagine that they did this fraud (irregularities as it is called) to benefit themselves. Is it the investors, who create this quarterly results pressure. I guess something is not correct with the way the investors confidence has an effect on the company's stock and eventually the company.
This seems to be a time of reconciliation where the foundation of many companies seems to be weak or in the worst case non-existent. The world is now shaken, and it is time for those fundamentally strong companies to withstand this shakeup.
I always like the following lines from , King Arthur's Farewell
"Future seems dark and dreary ..."
But then he adds a bit of optimism by saying
"More things are wrought by prayer than what this world thinks of ..."
In these days let us be optimistic.
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
New Year Resolutions
Nearly a week after New Year, I have decided to do the following,
- Continue to write blogs (till I complete writing the book that I always wanted to write)
- Divide the blog into two
- A blog for personal posts
- Another one for technical posts
- Manage both on a regular basis (regular = daily)
Everyday I spend more than a couple of hours travelling to work,
I plan to use the travel hours effectively to write down my thoughts ...
- Continue to write blogs (till I complete writing the book that I always wanted to write)
- Divide the blog into two
- A blog for personal posts
- Another one for technical posts
- Manage both on a regular basis (regular = daily)
Everyday I spend more than a couple of hours travelling to work,
I plan to use the travel hours effectively to write down my thoughts ...
Monday, January 05, 2009
Anto's cleaning ... Part II
The earlier post on Anto cleaning our living with the tennis racket was funny ... I shot a couple of videos, but posted only one. Now I am posting the second one.
During these crisis times, people working in places like US and Japan are to gain a lot,
Due to the fact the JPY has risen like a bull against the INR. I think it is the same case with USD against INR.
(Image was flicked from Yahoo)
The graph shows the inverse, INR used be around 2.8 JPY, but now it is 1.9 JPY.
So the Rupee equivalent salary has risen by 32% (which is really huuuuuuge)
During these crisis times, people working in places like US and Japan are to gain a lot,
Due to the fact the JPY has risen like a bull against the INR. I think it is the same case with USD against INR.
(Image was flicked from Yahoo)The graph shows the inverse, INR used be around 2.8 JPY, but now it is 1.9 JPY.
So the Rupee equivalent salary has risen by 32% (which is really huuuuuuge)
Sunday, January 04, 2009
Anto's o-toshi-dama 「お年玉」...
Otoshidama means, gifts given to kids on New year's day ...
On the 31st of Dec, 2008, Me, Shanthi, and Anto went to Kakogawa 「加古川」. Usually it's a 2 hour journey, which we covered in around 3 hours.
At first, we boarded a "local train" train from Nishioji to Takatsuki, on alighting at the station we realized it was freezing cold, the strong breeze made things difficult. Shanthi wanted something hot for Anto. The next train was 9 minutes away, and so I went to find some vending machine, there was none in the Platform, so I went to the second floor where the ticketing gates and few shops were located. I went to the toilet for pissing and came back and bought a couple of Yuzu tea, and came back to the Platform to find that the train that I was about to board had already left ... sigh ...
Then we waited for the next train (14 minutes to be exact) and boarded the next train and got down at Shin-Osaka and boarded the "Special Rapid Service" bound for "Banshu Aboshi".
Otoshidama-I,
In the train an elderly man, might be in his late 60's sat besides me. As most of the Japanese he started praising Anto, and praised that Anto was cute. I was not surprised till he took out his wallet and gave Anto a JPY 1000 bill... I was SHOCKED, I thought it was not a nice guesture. And told that guy (in a rather rude voice) to take his money back, but he would not. He was probably drunk, or atleast I though so. He repeated the same phrase, "Everyone in the world are friends" 「世界の皆が友達ですね」. I liked the phrase, but did not like the 1000 Yen guesture ... He talked to me about India, his visit to Srilanka, his unmarried daughter who was crossing 30 already, his liking for Indian curry and spicy food, how longing for a long nose, etc.
Atlast he got down at Akashi, I was relieved, but some part of me wanted to talk to him more. Probably would have even liked to invite him home someday, but the 1000 Yen shock overtook all the gestures and I had to just wave him bye ...
Celebration in Kakogawa,
During golden week, A japanese friend of mine, took me to Arima onsen. I met Subahar and Deepika (an active Tamil couple), he lives in Kakokawa. He had invited us to celebrate New Year with all his co-working Indian friends. I was excited to meet people who are living here for long, especially I was curious to meet their kids.
So me and Shanthi embarked on a journey that will be our first stay in a guest's place Japan. Though it is very normal in India, travelling with Anto was was challenging ...
The Subahar's, were a real "Tamil family", and their good humour, and hospitality took our tiredness away. It was one of the most pleasent trip we had ever made.
I shot some snaps of "the New year function" which can be seen here ...
Otoshidama-II,
On the 1st of Jan, 2009, we came back to Nishoji (my present home town ;-)) at around 2 PM. Shin and Rieko were leaving for a tript to Vietnam and Cambodia on the 2nd. Earlier our plan was to meet them for Lunch on the 1st, but since the comfortable stay in Kakokawa only made sure we do not leave after eating those hot idlies with 3 type of chutnies and a lengthy chat.
Now I had to give them their New years gift and my wishes for the trip before they leave for Shin-san's parents home. So I rushed to meet them at the hanapot at around 4PM. I gave each one of them a shirt, and conveyed Shanthi and Anto's wishes too ...
At this, Shin and Rieko gave otoshidama-II for Anto ... 1000 Yen ++
I happily accepted the otoshidama cover, ... though I expected a bigger amount ... ;-)
Otoshidama-III,
At around 7 PM, we went to Hanapot for the formal New Year's dinner, during this time, Oto-san and Oka-san of Hanapot, gave Anto his 3rd and final Otoshidama for this Newyear.
He had 3ooo JPY in the form of Otoshidama's ...
Back in olden days, when I was a kid, we used to go to our relatives house and get some gift money, usually 5 INR (10 JPY). We used to feel very happy when someone gives 10 INR, and very sad when unexpectedy someone hands out 2 INR ...
But now, living far away from all those relatives, I neither have an oppurtunity to give, nor receive ... but am happy to write about this Otoshidama's ..
On the 31st of Dec, 2008, Me, Shanthi, and Anto went to Kakogawa 「加古川」. Usually it's a 2 hour journey, which we covered in around 3 hours.
At first, we boarded a "local train" train from Nishioji to Takatsuki, on alighting at the station we realized it was freezing cold, the strong breeze made things difficult. Shanthi wanted something hot for Anto. The next train was 9 minutes away, and so I went to find some vending machine, there was none in the Platform, so I went to the second floor where the ticketing gates and few shops were located. I went to the toilet for pissing and came back and bought a couple of Yuzu tea, and came back to the Platform to find that the train that I was about to board had already left ... sigh ...
Then we waited for the next train (14 minutes to be exact) and boarded the next train and got down at Shin-Osaka and boarded the "Special Rapid Service" bound for "Banshu Aboshi".
Otoshidama-I,
In the train an elderly man, might be in his late 60's sat besides me. As most of the Japanese he started praising Anto, and praised that Anto was cute. I was not surprised till he took out his wallet and gave Anto a JPY 1000 bill... I was SHOCKED, I thought it was not a nice guesture. And told that guy (in a rather rude voice) to take his money back, but he would not. He was probably drunk, or atleast I though so. He repeated the same phrase, "Everyone in the world are friends" 「世界の皆が友達ですね」. I liked the phrase, but did not like the 1000 Yen guesture ... He talked to me about India, his visit to Srilanka, his unmarried daughter who was crossing 30 already, his liking for Indian curry and spicy food, how longing for a long nose, etc.
Atlast he got down at Akashi, I was relieved, but some part of me wanted to talk to him more. Probably would have even liked to invite him home someday, but the 1000 Yen shock overtook all the gestures and I had to just wave him bye ...
Celebration in Kakogawa,
During golden week, A japanese friend of mine, took me to Arima onsen. I met Subahar and Deepika (an active Tamil couple), he lives in Kakokawa. He had invited us to celebrate New Year with all his co-working Indian friends. I was excited to meet people who are living here for long, especially I was curious to meet their kids.
So me and Shanthi embarked on a journey that will be our first stay in a guest's place Japan. Though it is very normal in India, travelling with Anto was was challenging ...
The Subahar's, were a real "Tamil family", and their good humour, and hospitality took our tiredness away. It was one of the most pleasent trip we had ever made.
I shot some snaps of "the New year function" which can be seen here ...
 |
| From NewYear |
Otoshidama-II,
On the 1st of Jan, 2009, we came back to Nishoji (my present home town ;-)) at around 2 PM. Shin and Rieko were leaving for a tript to Vietnam and Cambodia on the 2nd. Earlier our plan was to meet them for Lunch on the 1st, but since the comfortable stay in Kakokawa only made sure we do not leave after eating those hot idlies with 3 type of chutnies and a lengthy chat.
Now I had to give them their New years gift and my wishes for the trip before they leave for Shin-san's parents home. So I rushed to meet them at the hanapot at around 4PM. I gave each one of them a shirt, and conveyed Shanthi and Anto's wishes too ...
At this, Shin and Rieko gave otoshidama-II for Anto ... 1000 Yen ++
I happily accepted the otoshidama cover, ... though I expected a bigger amount ... ;-)
Otoshidama-III,
At around 7 PM, we went to Hanapot for the formal New Year's dinner, during this time, Oto-san and Oka-san of Hanapot, gave Anto his 3rd and final Otoshidama for this Newyear.
He had 3ooo JPY in the form of Otoshidama's ...
Back in olden days, when I was a kid, we used to go to our relatives house and get some gift money, usually 5 INR (10 JPY). We used to feel very happy when someone gives 10 INR, and very sad when unexpectedy someone hands out 2 INR ...
But now, living far away from all those relatives, I neither have an oppurtunity to give, nor receive ... but am happy to write about this Otoshidama's ..
Saturday, January 03, 2009
Anto's cleaning ...
I wanted to write a lot of things over the New Year ... The procrastination inside me is taking over most of the times.
I have a vague feeling that Antony will become a nice Tennis player, just because I always wanted to be one. And I thought and wish that it is probably in his genes already ...
It was humorous, but it made me sad to see him using my Tennis racket for mopping the floor. I guess those Tennis genes are still dormant and somewhere inside him ;-)
I have a vague feeling that Antony will become a nice Tennis player, just because I always wanted to be one. And I thought and wish that it is probably in his genes already ...
It was humorous, but it made me sad to see him using my Tennis racket for mopping the floor. I guess those Tennis genes are still dormant and somewhere inside him ;-)
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