Small Victory
Kanji and vocabulary are the twin banes of my existence as a student of Japanese, but I had a nice moment this morning. I was reading through the papers that accumulated in my school letter box. Usually I get things like a list of library books that the kids haven’t returned on time, schedules, bulletins, and official forms. Once in a while you get a handout that someone prepared. Today I got one about sexual harassment. I tried to read it, and probably understood about 80%-85% of it. I discovered that the problems I had were reading the large compound kanji words or phrases that described the outcome of each news item at the end of the respective blurb. For people who sexually harass others, the outcome is pretty obvious – forced retirement or guilty resignation.
Anyway, the reason I was happy is because I caught a bit of a kanji choice error. Here’s the original blurb: 「新幹線運転士が社内販売員を乗務室に入れ運転席に座らせて身体をさわる。懲戒免職。」I won’t translate it because it will give away the problem, I think. I’ll give you 2 hints – it’s not that さわる wasn’t written in kanji (触る), and the problem is with a legitimate word. (It’s not a nonsense compound.)
While you think on that, before I hand you the answer, I might as well tell you the words I choked on. In the example above, you can see 懲戒免職 (chyoukai menshyoku), which means “forced resignation” or “disciplinary dismissal.” I knew men and shyoku from the second half; men is in the word “license” (免許 menkyo), and shyoku is in the word “faculty / staff” (職員 shyokuin). Another term was 免職処分 (menshyoku shyobun), or “discharge / firing / termination.” Lastly, I learned 辞職 (jishyoku), or “resignation.” I was able to guess this one, since I knew a different term for resignation – 辞任 (jinin) thanks to iKnow. For anyone curious, that also happens to be the nin from Nintendo (任天堂). I guess the difference between these things was the volition or lack thereof and the party that was making the decision in each case. Willful resignation is different from forced resignation, and forced resignation is different from sacking someone in my book.
Ok, so the answer is that 社内 (shyanai) means “in-house” in an office or business sense. You know, like in-house printing or PR. But we’re talking about the bullet train, and a person who sells snacks on the train itself, so it should be 車内 (shyanai), which means “on a train / in a car.” I love little breakthroughs like that. Felt I should celebrate with a semi-self-congratulatory post about it. 
I confirmed the problem and my solution with a coworker, so I know I’m right. What kinds of victories encourage you to keep studying? And did you find the kanji problem too?
By the way, 「新幹線運転士が車内販売員を乗務室に入れ運転席に座らせて身体を触る。懲戒免職。」roughly translates as “A shinkansen driver forced a snack salesperson into the train’s crew compartment and into the driver’s chair, whereupon (he) touched (her) body. He was summarily dismissed.” I’ve obviously inferred the gender of each person involved, as it’s not specified. Here’s the same blurb in hiragana and romanized. しんかんせんうんてんしがしゃないはんばいいんをじょうむしつにいれうんてんせきにすわらせてしんたいをさわる。ちょうかいめんしょく。Shinkansen untenshi ga shyanai hanbaiin wo jyoumushitsu ni ire untenseki ni suwarasete shintai wo sawaru. Chyoukai menshyoku.
