(en) Attaching Meaning by Context
It’s my third–or second? fourth?–week of staying at home due to the corona virus pandemic. I’ve lost track of time. I don’t even remember what day it is today. I just waste my time doing unproductive shit. Today, I spent that unproductive time watching a Japanese VTuber play Dark Souls III.
I’ve spent a lot of time playing Dark Souls III myself, so I know a few things about the game. Location names, for instance. She (the VTuber) was playing in an area called “Farron Keep”, but since she’s a Japanese person playing a Japanese game, it says “ファランの城塞”. Well, duh!? What’s wrong with that?
I knew it means “Farron Keep”, but I don’t know how to read “城塞”, so I googled it. “Jousai”. Oh, all right. “Faran no Jousai” means “Faran Keep”, nice, nice. I get to know what “keep” is in Japanese. Good.
BUT THEN!! I came to a shocking realization. Do I even know what the hell is a “keep”? Even though I act like I do??? Turns out… no, I don’t.
I’ve seen the word “keep” (the noun relating to a place, not the verb) numerous times. Every time pertaining to a castle or something similar. Without looking up the meaning, I just made it up in my mind that “keep” must mean “castle storage” because it’s related to castles and the verb “to keep”. That was a long time ago. When I subsequently reencountered the word “keep” such as in Dark Souls III, I just applied that meaning to it instinctively. Big no-no! “Keep” actually means “the strongest or central tower of a castle, acting as a final refuge.” It’s closer to the word “stronghold” rather than “storage”.
I’ve probably done this a dozen times already. Guessing the meaning of a word by context and then thinking it’s right for a long time. But the funny thing is, I don’t do that with Japanese. When a new word comes up, even if I knew the meaning of the kanjis that makes the word, or if I can tell what the word means from context, I’d never really believe myself until I confirm it by looking it up on my dictionary.
But why? The only reason I can think up right now is because I’m not fluent in Japanese yet. It’s probably because I have so much confidence in my English that I believe I can guess the meanings of words I don’t know by intuition; and yeah, it worked multiple times before anyway. As for Japanese, I guess my mind just won’t allow it. That language is still a bizarre maze of mysteries to me, and I dare not tread unknown lands without my trusty dictionary in hand.
Yeah… I’ve never looked up the meaning of “bizarre” and “tread” either.