Alteration or –ize

by Nao

ba-keru, ba-kasu, ka, ke

An action described as “bakeru” causes a kind of change but the change is not scientific. The actor doing it is often trying to fool you. In many Japanese folktales, foxes or raccoon dogs transform themselves as a human being and fool people. This kind of transformation is called “bakeru” or “bakasu.” As you might guess, people are not fooled by foxes or raccoon dogs any more. However, we still use this verb for letters and people putting on cosmetics.

I often see garbled letters on the PC screen. We call the phenomenon “mo jibake,”which consists of moji and bakeru. Moji means a letter.

Cosmetics are keshō, of which the shō means “to dress up.” Some people jokingly describe a person wearing cosmetics as “baketa,” a verb variation of “bakeru.”

Compounds including this character relates to alteration, which is the meaning of this character. For example, kagaku is chemistry. In chemistry, people study alteration of substances.

Yesterday, I misused the word “suffix.” I wrote yesterday’s character was used as a suffix but it was wrong. It is used as prefixes. I corrected it.

Today’s character is sometimes used like the suffix “-ize.” It is a suffix, right?

Adding “–kasuru” after a word makes a word having the suffix “-ization.”

Adding “–ka” after a word makes words having the suffix “-ize.” Incidentally, suru is an almighty verb that can change any words into verbs.

Here are some combinations:

• kika & kikasuru … vaporization & vaporize
• eigaka & eigakasuru … cinematization & cinematize
• kikaika & kikaikasuru … mechanization & mechanize
• saishōka & saishōkasuru … minimization & minimize
• saidaika & saidaikasuru … maximization & maximize

Culture is translated as bunka. I don’t know why these characters were chosen. Probably, it originates from “bun meika,” which means civilization. A notion of culture did not exist in Japan before the 19^th century. Culture existed like other human habitats, though.

1. Draw the sweeping stroke from the top.
2. Draw the vertical stroke.
3. Draw the sweeping stroke from the upper right corner of the character.
4. Draw the curve with an upward turn.