Ichi-Ban
by Patrick Kearney

Perhaps you have learned to count to ten in Japanese: Ichi (1), Nt (2), San(3), Shi(4), Go(5), Roku(6), ..., Ku (9), Ju(10), etc?

Actually these numbers were borrowed from the Chinese. Japanese has its own, native numbers as well, but they are seldom used.

Along with the chinese numbers, Japanese also borrowed a Chinese custom that seems strange to us, but is common to several oriental languages; that is, they seldom use numbers by themselves(as we do). Instead, they almost always add a suffix.

There are about 250 of these endings. They are short, (just about 3 letters) , and each one describes the class or general characteristic of the objects being counted, e.g., round, flat, thin, etc.

If you say that you have 3 pencils, you'll add a suffix which means:"round, cylindrical object(s)." And, if you brag that you have 6 sons, you'll add 3 letters which mean: "offspring."

They tend to use these number-and-suffix combinations as either a noun or a pronoun, but in places where we'd us a number as an adjective. For example, we'd say: " I have six sons." However, they'd likely say: "I have sons; there are six," except that they'd have to attach the suffix to the "six" that means: "offspring," and the result would tend to sound (to us) like: "I have sons; six-offspring are they."

"Nisei" is in the English dictionary and is used to mean: "second-generation" Japanese (who were born over here). Obviously, "sei" is simply the suffix which means: "generation." Thus, "sansei" would, of course, be the term for: "third" generation.

"Ban" is the suffix to indicate the number of an object (in an order). For example, player number three (#3) on the team would be: "sanban," and item-number five (#5) on the menu would be: "goban." And, "ichi-ban" means: "number one."

"Number one," in English, can be used to mean: "first choice," figuratively as well as literally. That is, it can mean that something is the "best" (or the very best), "excellent," or even "super," i.e., it is "first class." The same is true in Japanese.

The term: "ichi-ban" was often picked-up by US servicemen stationed in Japan after WW-II, and it is also starting to be seen increasingly more often (in print, etc.) in this country in recent times. It is a term that has become very useful to know.

The Japanese also have some interesting two-number combinations which are often used to make coded (or circumspect) references to things. For example, "ichi-roku" (one-six) refers to a pawnshop, and "ku-ichi" (nine-one) is usually used to refer to a Jewish person, because: nine plus one is ten (9+1=10), and ten (10) is "ju" in Japanese.

Each language has its own ONOMATOPOEIA, i.e., words which are used to represent various types of sounds, such as: Buzz, Bang, Bark, Bow-wow, Meow, Click, Snap, Pop, Knock, Hiss, etc. For example, the onomatopoetic terms (in English) for the sounds that birds make are: Cheep, chirp, peep, tweet, etc. We might write: "cheep, cheep." However, in Spanish they'd say:"pio, pio." And, where we'd say: "knock, knock," they'd write: "tun, tun."

For one of the sounds that a train makes, we learned to say: "clickety-clack, clickety-clack." However, in Japan they would say: "doe-des-ka-den, doe-des-ka-den, etc." i.e., "Where's it going? Where's it going? etc."