New identity

My nice Japanese-language-tutorate teacher offered me an inkan - a Japanese seal that you use at the bank or in any situation when you have to proove your identity. Japan is not a country where the hand-written signature is supposed to proove anything. Instead, you have to take care of this little piece of wood, metal or plastic the imprint is your identifier. Of course, you have to make the imprint register at the city yard for it to be officially yours.

As a foreigner, I don't really need an inkan in my daily life, but I was fascinated by the gift - first, this one looks like a piece of jewelry :

Then, my name is written on it. Not my katakana name, the one I am used to write normally; but my name in kanji. And that means something.
According to the phonetic composition of my name, no-e-mi, there are many ways to write it with Chinese characters. But my teacher chose this one :

乃絵美

乃　(no) is a stylish way to write the hiragana の　(no), but it has no real meaning, except to express the link between two things.
絵　(e) means "picture", "art work". It's made of the "thread" and the "meeting".
美　(mi) means "beauty".

As a result, we could say that I am the one the beautiful pictures are from.
I love my new identity.

Comments

[Noemi]

Pour maman :
"wakarimasu" veut dire "je comprends".
C'est la forme conversationnelle, et affirmative du verbe "wakaru", "comprendre".
A la forme négative, cela donne "wakarimasen", et tu risques fort de t'en servir lors de ton séjour pour dire "je ne comprends pas le japonais : "nihongo ga wakarimasen !"

"domo" est un mot qui veut dire "merci", quand on t'a rendu un petit service ou qu'on t'a donné une explication. On l'utilise par exemple quand le serveur vous apporte quelque chose que vous lui avez réclamé. Le mot "arigatô" qui est le plus connu pour dire merci est plus fort, plus profond et ne convient pas par exemple pour remercier le serveur... c'est son boulot, après tout ;)

A ton service :D

[kawai mummy]

hum..."mean" (sorry!)

[kawai mummy]

je suis TREEES curieuse, aussi... What does "wakarimasu...domo domo" means?!

[colin]

wakarimasu... domo domo :-)
(though now I have that song from the Sound of music stuck in my head)

[Noemi]

Yes, dear Colin-sempaï:
Usually it's "bi", like in 美人(bijin), "beautiful woman"...
But at the end of Japanese female names like Megumi　恵美 (beautiful blessing), Yukimi　幸美 (beautiful happiness), and so on, you pronounce it "mi"...
...
Another question ? ;D