Useless Info Dept. What do Konica, Yachica, and Leica Have in Common?

[NickTrop]

-"CA"

Under the "Konica" entry in Wikipedia:

Similarly to "Leica", "Yashica" and many others, the name "Konica" was constructed by abbreviating the name of the manufacturer and suffixing "ca" (for "camera"). It would only later become the name of the company too.

http://www.camerapedia.org/wiki/Konica_(I),_II_and_III_series
|
Useless info I never knew - apologies if it's old news :)
|

[NickTrop]

Hmmmmmmm - what other "ca" camera companies were there? Drawing a blank here, the entry says "many others". Bronica? That's all I can think of...
|

[bmattock]

Well, I didn't know that. I knew that 'ka' in Japanese often indicates a person is asking a question, such as 'how are you'; "O Ganki Deska?"

Fujica also, I guess, although it is now FujiFilm.

[NickTrop]

Why hello, Mr. Mattock. Long time no speak, hope you've been well. Duh - Fujica! LOL - the Compact Deluxe is my favorite RF. Talk about overlooking the obvious. No wonder I can't find matching socks in the morning, when my wife magically finds them in two seconds...

Yes, "ka" in Japanese is a question marker.
Genki des, o cogi suma de
|

[digitalintrigue]

Nicca, the forerunner to Yashica

[Roger Hicks]

Samoca? Bolca? Casca? Duca? Foca? Iloca? Nicca? Praktica? Toyoca?

Hard to prove that camera wasn't in their manufacturers' minds...

Cheers,

R.

[bmattock]

Why hello, Mr. Mattock. Long time no speak, hope you've been well. Duh - Fujica! LOL - the Compact Deluxe is my favorite RF. Talk about overlooking the obvious. No wonder I can't find matching socks in the morning, when my wife magically finds them in two seconds...

Yes, "ka" in Japanese is a question marker.
Genki des, o cogi suma de
|

I am having to relearn my Japanese. After twenty-some odd years, some is still there, strangely; while other bits have completely fled. Still, it is fun.

[Spider67]

Zenza Bronica
The Zenza stands for Zenzaburo. Bronica...hmmm? Bronislav's Camera?

[NickTrop]

LOL - I suck at the "ca" camera game. Yes, there were many others.

Mr. Mattock -

As far as Japanese, not sticking with guitar lessons and not learning a second language are two laments in life. So, I had access to Pimsleur Japanese and have been listening to it in the car for the last year and 1/2. I bought a used copy of Rosetta Stone (which I don't really like, personally). I also bought Declan software to learn Kana (easy) and Kanji along with Japanese for Busy People.

It's a rough language to learn. Their writing system, while visually artful, is friggin' tough. But it's a fun diversion and at least I'm learning something on my way in to work and checking something off that "life list". Every so often I pick up a subtitled Japanese flick from Netflix and that's a humbling experience. I figure it will take at least 5 years to be just "somewhat" fluent.
|
|

[Roger Hicks]

Zenza Bronica
The Zenza stands for Zenzaburo. Bronica...hmmm? Bronislav's Camera?

Allegedly, "Brownie-Camera" because that's the film size it takes.

Cheers,

Roger

[bmattock]

LOL - I suck at the "ca" camera game. Yes, there were many others.

Mr. Mattock -

As far as Japanese, not sticking with guitar lessons and not learning a second language are two laments in life. So, I had access to Pimsleur Japanese and have been listening to it in the car for the last year and 1/2. I bought a used copy of Rosetta Stone (which I don't really like, personally). I also bought Declan software to learn Kana (easy) and Kanji along with Japanese for Busy People.

It's a rough language to learn. Their writing system, while visually artful, is friggin' tough. But it's a fun diversion and at least I'm learning something on my way in to work and checking something off that "life list". Every so often I pick up a subtitled Japanese flick from Netflix and that's a humbling experience. I figure it will take at least 5 years to be just "somewhat" fluent.
|
|

I have never attempted to master hiragana or katajana. I muddle along with romanji. Would you recommend the Pimsleur, then? My re-exposure has been a bit more in-person, which both helps and hurts. I also had the chance to learn to play guiter and did not, wish I had. However, it's never too late. One thing at a time, though.

[NickTrop]

I have never attempted to master hiragana or katajana. I muddle along with romanji. Would you recommend the Pimsleur, then? My re-exposure has been a bit more in-person, which both helps and hurts. I also had the chance to learn to play guiter and did not, wish I had. However, it's never too late. One thing at a time, though.

If you're on a budget, the best bet is the classic text, Japanese for Busy People with the CD (so you get the pronunciations...) That's only $25 or something... If you have access to Pimsleur, that's really good imo but not worth the $350 or so per each unit (1,2,3...) You won't have a huge vocab but will have a good handle on the grammar and would be a "master" at "survival Japanese" and a very good basis to build from. but certainly not conversationally fluent.

The reason I'm not a huge fan of Rosetta is their immersion method makes learning grammar to hard. See that "ka" example you mentioned? Imagine having to figure that out from looking at a bunch of pictures, 100% Japanese audio without instruction in English? Good for vocab and basic verbs... Bad, bad for grammar and sentence construction. If I didn't go through a good bit of Pimsleur before trying Rosetta I would have been lost.
|
If you want to learn Kana here's a great interactive free site. Declan is good too (software, inexpensive) but this is just as good and free:
http://www.realkana.com/
|

[bmattock]

Thanks very much! Yes, budget is quite important.

[NickTrop]

Thanks very much! Yes, budget is quite important.

Japanese for Busy People, then. Do get the CD though. There are, I think, 3 books. I only have the first and it covers about 1/2 of what all three Pimsleurs covers. Here's a free Kanji learning app:
http://web.uvic.ca/kanji-gold/

Also, I've heard from others that there's a lot of good podcasts for learning Japanese on the web - never tried these though. Also, believe it or not, there's some decent stuff on Youtube.
|