Why - Feed Post by sodacantastic
Comments 17
O.O
O.o
This is totally arbitrary!- Look at his other post o.e
幸せ doesn't really have anything to do with "glad" but is still a nasty question. Your other question is rather harsh too! o.O
Because 幸せ is more "happiness" than just "happy". 嬉しい - is "glad, happy"- and looks like JCs have wrong definition. WWWJDIC have this "happiness; good fortune; luck; blessing"
Unfortunately you should blame english language in this case... In japanese ureshii and shiawase are really different.- @DS25 how are they different? Could you please explain it? I find their similarities puzzling though, if I were to do a fill-in-the-gaps type of exercise, I would probably get them right from context.
Still, I am not sure whether the real problem lies with English and the confusion between "happy" and "glad" or what.
I have looked up both 嬉しい and 幸せ on my denshi-jisho using my Japanese-Italian dictionary and judging from the examples given the only conclusion I can get to is that "ureshii" as in:
涙がこぼれるほど嬉しい。
whereas 幸せ seems to indicate a more long-lasting feeling...I don`t know if this makes any sense. Like:
私はいい友人に恵まれて幸せです。
Or maybe I am totally off track here.
Clarifications on this are most welcome. - Sorry, I hit "send" too fast.
What I mean is this: I get the feeling 嬉しい indicates a temporary feeling or state of mind whereas 幸せ seems to be more appropriate for longer lasting feelings such as when one is wishing well to others. - I really like kanji. I think they are the best way to notice the difference.
I thought 嬉 meant "rejoice", but I only now just noticed that it isn't the same kanji. It isn't even a jouyou list kanji!
The right hand part 喜 means "rejoice" or "joy" and it is made up of 壴 "drum" + 口 "mouth". The left part 女 shouldn't need explaining, although apparently the shape of the character focuses in particularly on a woman's breasts! (although I've always thought that was the womb)...
嬉 = means "enjoy", and from this comes meanings like: glad, pleased, rejoice, ...
幸 means "fortune", and from this comes meanings like: blessing, luck, happiness, harvest, yield, ...
The following page is interesting for the etymology of 幸:
http://www.chineseetymology.org/CharacterEtymology.aspx?characterInput=%E5%B9%B8 
It's best when learning Japanese to internalize a sense of inherent unfairness.- The thing about inherent unfairness can be applied pretty much to any language you might set out to learn, I believe.
Anyway, kanji always give fascinating insight into words and their origins and meaning(s).
Your observations @mog86uk are very useful, as well as the link you suggested.
I studied Chinese some years ago, long before embarking on the Japanese journey, and one of the hanzi that stuck with me was their ubiquitous 囍, double happiness, which always adorns wedding halls, wedding invitations etc.
So, considering its meaning and its intention, the喜 part in 嬉 made things more confusing. Or maybe it shouldn`t since 嬉 has only one 喜 and not two. Therefore that should indicate a sort of lesser long-lasting happiness.
And that would take me back to my earlier observation. Or perhaps I am just going in circles. :D - Yeah, probably. I think you can waste a lot of time tho, nitpicking what is wrong with a learning course when none of them are perfect. But Japanese is especially hard if you can't infer from context because a direct definition word-by-word translation of a sentence isn't going to work a lot of the time. It's best to learn from as many sources possible to avoid biased interpretations of the language.
- @Omusubi I can see how that could make things slightly confusing. I like that use of 囍 for wedding invitations. Two 喜 gives the imagery of two parties rejoicing and being happy - i.e. the two families (bride's and groom's) coming together, or the bride and groom themselves.
It doesn't seem that 囍 is used at all in Japanese. However, 喜々 (きき) is used (although not common) and means "joyful, gleeful, merry". :) - @Omusubi: what you write is exact. 幸せ can be translated as "felicità" (happyness) a long lasting feeling which "permeates" you (per esempio la felicità di un bel matrimonio) it also means "luck" - 嬉しい instead means something more fleeting ("contentezza", "gaiezza"... sono contento di aver mangiato sushi)
- @Omusubi: what you write is exact. 幸せ can be translated as "felicità" (happyness) a long lasting feeling which "permeates" you (per esempio la felicità di un bel matrimonio) it also means "luck" - 嬉しい instead means something more fleeting ("contentezza", "gaiezza"... sono contento di aver mangiato sushi)
DS25 Hai ragione ma forse questo sito non dovrebbe complicare le cose ahahaha visto che già il giapponese non è proprio la più facile delle lingue. Mettiamo un'altra alternativa no??Buono studio! ;-)
