Work in Japanese - Understand the differences and meanings

Everyone knows the Japanese for their great dedication to work. It really seems like the Japanese love to work, doing 10 to 13 hours of work. While on the other side of the world some Brazilians complain about the 8 hours of work. Japanese have different thoughts and culture.

Beyond culture, I stopped and started analyzing the meaning and origin of the word "trabalho" in languages derived from Latin such as Portuguese and Spanish, and I noticed the remarkable difference in relation to the term in Japanese. In this article, we will examine a little about this subject and note that even the words show their great difference.

Work

The word "trabalho" has its origin in the Latin term "TRIPALIU": a designation of a torture instrument made of three (tri) sticks (paliu). Thus, originally, "trabalhar" means to be tortured on the tripaliu.

Who were the tortured? Slaves and the poor who could not pay taxes. Thus, those who “worked”, at that time, were the destitute people. From then on, this idea of working as being tortured began to give understanding not only to the fact of torture itself, but also, by extension, to the productive physical activities carried out by workers in general: peasants, artisans, farmers, bricklayers, etc.

The meaning of the word work contributes to an unpleasant view of this daily activity so important in the life of man. Even today, working is seen as a punishment imposed on citizens. Fortunately the Japanese don't see work that way.

Shigoto - 仕事

The Japanese language has a bit of German, Chinese, and sign language. Why did I say that? The Japanese language uses Chinese ideograms, and its words are formed by combining other words, similar to German. Additionally, reading and learning kanji is akin to sign language. Thus, understanding the meaning of words can be a bit more complex.

The meaning of the word shigoto is quite simple, but it has several undefined meanings. One of the main meanings of shigoto is "to do something" and "to serve something."

Despite the kanji 仕 - Meaning to serve (tsukaeru), its reading is pronounced as "shi" which is derived from the verb "suru - 為る", which means to do.

And "goto - 事" is a phonetic version of "koto" which is a general word to refer to something, or some thing. So the best meaning for the word shigoto would be "To do something".

The meanings of the kanji "koto - 事" are: Cause, fact, thing, issue, case, incident, event, circumstances, fact, accident, problem, reason.

It was clear that Japanese work has no bad meaning. We can notice that in their culture and lifestyle. But take it easy, there are many other words related to work, and we will still examine them.

Words derived from shigoto - 仕事

As I mentioned, the Japanese language looks a lot like German, here is a list of words related to work or some activity that derives from the kanji 仕 and 事.

Words derived using the 2 kanji 仕事:

Kanji	Hiragana	Romaji	Meaning
Work clothes	shigotogi	shigotogi	Work clothes, business suit
Big job	Great job	Ōshigoto	big job, big task
menial work	temashigoto	shigoto theme	tedious work, troublesome work
A good job	business work	Bun no yoi shigoto	profitable work, good job,
worker	work	shigotoshi	worker, entrepreneur
workbench	job title	shigotodai	bench, work table
A job	one job	hitoshigoto	task, a job
farming	hata shigoto	hatashigoto	work in the fields, work on a farm
gardening	garden work	garden work	Gardening

Words related to the kanji 仕:

Kanji	Hiragana	Romaji	Meaning
serve	to recruit	Kyūji suru	Serve
Volunteering	Hōshikatsudō	Hōshi katsudō	Voluntary service
Serve God	to serve the gods	Kaminitsukaeru	serve God
Workmanship	deed	Shiwaza	Ato, action
Shape	shikata	shikata	Method, means
It can't be helped.	It can't be helped.	it can't be helped	There's no way.
To begin	to begin	to start	start
Rework	re-do	redesign	Redo
Finishing	finishing	finish	Termination, completion
Preparation	shikomi	shikomi	training, preparation
Revenge	Revenge	shikaeshi	Revenge, retaliation

Some words using the kanji 事:

Kanji	Hiragana	Romaji	Portuguese
Fact	jijitsu	Jujitsu	fact, reality
de facto	jijitsujou	Jijitsujyou	Practically
Situation	jijou	Jijyou	Situation, circumstances
Important	important	Taiji	Important, valuable
housework	kaji	Kaji	I work at home
Meal	meal	Meal	Meal
fire	kaji	Kaji	Fire
accident	accident	Jiko	Accident
Response	reply	Reply	Response
Construction	koji	Kouji	work, repairs
article	kiji	Kiji	article, report
Errand	childcare	Youji	task, subject
Wonderful	wonderful	Migoto	Magnificent, irable

Other words for work

バイト = Baito - Abbreviation of アルバイト (arubaito), a German word ""work" what does "trabalhar" mean. Used as a slang or to refer to part-time jobs.

働き= Hataraki - activity of a person or machine (is working)
作業＝Sagyou - service, work, an activity or task. (execution)
労働 = Roudou - formal term used for labor laws and conditions (contract)
勤務= Kin mu - used to designate service in relation to hours, period, or location. (shift)
手数＝Tesuu - meaning of service, hours, fee, inconvenience (bank charge)
職＝ Shoku - to refer to employment, placement, position. (position)

There are many other words related to work, unfortunately we can't talk about them all. That's the end of it, I hope you enjoyed the article. xD