RJT 1０米・白

The rice is ready to be harvested. The long stalks are cut and tied together in the middle. This is rice (uncooked rice -- Cooked rice has another kanji), and is pronounced こめ、べい、or まい

Match the following

• raw wheat

• 生

• raw

• 生米
  （なまごめ）

• You can do it!

• 生むぎ

• egg

• たまご

• raw rice

• Now say the tongue twister on the next slide!

A funny story: When Commadore Perry came sailing in with his frightening black ships and said he was 'MERICAN, Japan didn't know how to spell that. So they just chose kanji that sounded kinda like めい・り・けん。Later, it was abbreviated to just 米国 (べいこく）

• Ah! So that's why sometimes America is "Rice country"!

• Ah! Weird! the 「めい」turned into a「べい」

• Ask me about "Bite the Wax Tadpole" from a city in China. This sort of thing happens everywhere!

It's hard to chisel esoteric concepts into a rock. You need to make up a story with a concrete image. What color is a single grain of rice?

• しろい！

  White!

• みどり！

  Moldy green!

Here's our single grain of white rice, meaning "white."

Match the following

• 白夜（びゃくや）”White night”(midnight sun)

• 
• おもしろい "white face" - written in hiragana

• 
• 饒速水小白主　（こうはくぬし）”Haku”

• 
• こう白がっせん
  The New Year's Show

• 

Show me why this is an い-adjective