Though they might look different from what you’re used to, Japanese kitchens aren’t too complicated to figure out. While most Japanese homes are equipped with a ガスコンロ (gas stove), small 1K apartments usually only supply one tiny 電気ヒーターコンロ (electric stove) which will drive your electricity bill through the roof if you’re cooking daily. Lately, IHクッキングヒーター or more simply put IHヒーター (induction cooking stoves) are slowly getting popular in Japan as a safer and cheaper alternative.
But whatever you cook Japanese meals with, you should know that you’ll need to buy compatible cookware. That’s when knowing the word 対応 (“compatible” or “matching with”) comes in handy when shopping for kitchen appliances!
Know your 対応
- ガズ火対応 = compatible with a gas stove and an electric stove
- IHヒーター対応 = compatible with an IH stove
The trouble is cookware compatibility isn’t limited to a frying pan and a stove, as Twitter user @kotoRichan_P recently found out.
https://twitter.com/kotoRichan_P/status/1189730439633625090?s=20
こちらの作品をご覧下さい。
題名は“オーブンに入れられた、レンジ対応容器の末路。”です。
作者である私の夫はこの作品について、「え?オーブンとレンジって違うの?」とコメントされています。
= Please have a look at this work of art. The title is “Fate of a microwave-compatible container that was used in an oven.” The artist is my husband, who made the following statement about the piece: “What?! Ovens and microwaves are different?”
How to use the Japanese literary phrase: である
The nice thing about speaking and understanding casual Japanese is that a couple of months studying intensively will get you at a good enough level to be able to chat with friends. Moving on to polite Japanese can be challenging at times, but a few more months in school and you’ll wrap your head around most of the grammar you need to get by.
However, things start to get really tricky when you enter the minefield that is Keigo (honorific and humble speech) and then the even worse “Japanese literary style.”
The good news is literary phrases are *mostly* found in formal writings such as university or business reports, essays, and novels, meaning you don’t need to learn how to speak them unless you want to sound totally pompous.
である is a typical 硬い表現 aka, “super formal phrase” useful to know if you’re set on passing the JLPT N1 or if you’ll study at a Japanese university.
である is used to replace the copula だ and です after a noun or adjective, and even the ます form of verbs, to state facts with an official-sounding tone. While です and ます are certainly polite, they will sound childish in your Ph.D. thesis!
Truth be told, である is so formal that there’s little chance you stumble upon this phrase outside of an academic field. Even newspapers will prefer to write です or だ to convey information in a more reader-friendly way.
Vocabulary
ガスコンロ | gasu konro | gas stove |
電気ヒーターコンロ | denki hiitaa konro | electric stove |
IHクッキングヒーター | IH kukkingu hiitaa | IH stove |
対応 | taiou | compatible with |
ガズ火対応 | gasu hi taiou | compatible with gas stove |
IHヒーター対応 | IH hiitaa taiou | compatible with IH stove |
こちら | kochira | this |
作品 | sakuhin | artwork, creation |
ご覧下さい | go ran kudasai | please have a look (formal) |
題名 | daimei | title |
オーブン | oobun | oven |
入れられる | irerareru | be placed in, put in |
レンジ対応容器 | renji taiou youki | container compatible with microwave |
末路 | matsuro | fate |
作者 | sakusha | author |
である | de aru | be, is (act like copula です) |
私 | watashi | I, me |
夫 | otto | husband |
について | ni tsuite | about |
違う | chigau | vary, differ |
コメントする | komento suru | comment |
For more on learning Japanese
- Learn Japanese with our original study materials on GaijinPot Study
- Questions about studying Japanese in Japan? Take a look at the Japan 101 section on Higher Education and Studying Japanese
- Join our GaijinPot Study Facebook group to connect with fellow learners
- Learn more about the GaijinPot Study Placement Program