JapanNewbie

Getting Emotional with the Kanji

Posted on 03. Apr, 2009 @ 11:35 pm by harvey in Culture, Language

喜怒哀楽 (kidoairaku)

This Japanese four-character phrase (四字熟語) roughly means, “the range of human emotions.” Individually the characters mean…

喜 – happiness
怒 – anger
哀 – sorrow/pity (Love this kanji, it’s used in 哀れ. Very Japanese.)
楽 – pleasure

Together, these characters express the entire range of feelings that a person might have.

I can’t remember where I came across this phrase, it must have been in some Japanese literature though. This phrase is common enough that most native Japanese speakers will recognize it immediately.

One example sentence using this expression is, 顔に喜怒哀楽を表さない (kao ni kidoairaku wo arawasanai), which means, “to not show emotion (on one’s face).

Demonstrating your knowledge of these expressions is one way to convince Japanese people that you really do know some Japanese. Memorize them!

- Harvey

Tags: idioms, japanese, Language, phrases