Japanese | Word of the Day

Wassup people!

Its Wednesday, so it’s time for another random Japanese word for you to learn.

I was reading the news this morning and came across a an interesting article. It was about a restaurant in the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare that hosted a 2-day event in which 7 elderly people were hired to be servers. Now, when I say elderly, think between the ages 65-91. That part shouldn’t be particularly important, but as it turns out, they all live with dementia. I believe the point of the event was to acknowledge that those living with dementia can still be happily functioning members of society that deserve our patience, understanding, and sympathy. I thought that was neat, so I selected (認知症/にんちしょう/ninchishou) as the word of the day.

認知症/にんちしょう
First, let’s break this word into its 3 separate components. You might be surprised how intuitive kanji works.

1. 認/にん/nin* - acknowledge, discern, recognize
2. 知/ち/chi* - know, wisdom
3. 症/しょう/shou - illness, symptom

I’ll be honest, I’ve known this word for at least a year but I don’t recall opening a dictionary to find the meaning. I’d known all the individual characters prior. So when I came across it the first time, I thought “confirm(確認), knowledge(知識), illness(症)” and concluded “dementia “. Cool right? Now you just gotta learn hundreds of other words just to know one more. Lol

*Beware: There are multiple readings for any given combination of characters. If you were to encounter these in a different context, the pronunciation may change.

Should you be interested in translating the article via google you can find it here. Or you may ask me more specific details as well. There is a video too! They look super happy so check it out.