#yes i posted it because i started watching dr stone
So let’s talk about a problem with learning numbers in Japanese.
You start out doing great. These ones go the same as in English:
- 一（いち） 1
- 十（じゅう） 10
- 百（ひゃく）100
- 千（せん）1000
And then we get to 10000. At this point, English is like, okay we’re gonna slow down and not have a whole word for every single zero we add. This one is just “ten thousand.” No new words for a while.
But Japanese keeps up the fight for one more zero:
- 万（まん） 10,000 (or maybe you should think of it as 1,0000?)
Andthen it breaks down and starts saying things like “ten 万”…which is a hundred thousand. So anyone going between the two languages is kind of f*cked when it comes to thinking about big numbers, because they don’t line up nicely with each other.
How can you fix this? Honestly, I suggest learning/relearning some Big Number Facts and Statistics in Japanese. Knowing how many 万 people there are in your city, for example, can give you some landmarks so you don’t have to count up the whole way every time you see a number like that.
Hopefully these examples can help you get oriented a bit and get you thinking about some trivia you could use for this:
一万（いちまん） = 10 thousand
- Dogs were domesticated maybe 1万4千 years ago. The Ice Age ended about 1万7千 years ago.
- The median US household income is 6万3000 dollars.
- Many towns, suburbs, and cities have a population in this range. What about the ones near you?
十万（じゅうまん）= 100 thousand
- I grew up in a city of around 50万 people. That’s half a million!
- Our species Homo sapiens appeared about 20万 years ago.
- The average house price in the US is about 20-30万 dollars.
百万（ひゃくまん） = 1 million
- The population of a large city:
- Kyoto: 140万
- London: 890万
- Houston: 230万
- Or a small to medium country:
- Lithuania: 280万
- Finland: 550万
- Laos: 700万
- Lucy, the famous Australopithecusfossil, lived 320万 years ago. Early hominids started using tools around 250万 years ago.
- The median household income in Japan is about 400-500万 yen per year. The average car costs 170万 yen.
- The top prize on the game show Who Wants to be a Millionaire is $100万.
千万（せんまん）= 10 million
- The population of a very very large city:
- Tokyo: 1300万
- Mumbai: 1800万
- Beijing: 2100万
- Or a medium to large country:
- Canada: 3500万
- The Philippines: 9300万
- South Korea: 4800万
- United Kingdom: 6600万
- The dinosaurs died 6500万 years ago.
- The sun is 9300万 miles away.
一億（いちおく） = 100 million
In keeping with the “new word every 10,000″ pattern, there’s no such thing as a 万万. That’s an 億.
- The population of a large country:
- Japan: 1.2億
- United States: 3.1億
- The dinosaurs first appeared 2.4億 years ago.
- The sun is 1.5億 kilometers away.
- One Piece has sold 4.6億 volumes total.
- The speed of light is about 3億 m/s.
十億（じゅうおく） = 1 billion
- The biggest countries:
- China: 13億
- India: 12億
- There were 77億 people in the entire world as of April 2019.
- The earth is 45億 years old. Middle-aged, yeah? If you think of 1億 years as one earth year.
- Bill Gates makes somewhere in the ballpark of 40億 dollars a year.
百億（ひゃくおく）= 10 billion
- There’s debate about whether the Earth’s population will reach 100億, or whether it will reach a ceiling before then.
- The universe is about 138億 years old.
- I’ve only seen two episodes of Dr. Stone but 百億 sure seems to be Senku’s favorite number, doesn’t it.
千億（せんおく）= 100 billion
- About 1070億 humans have ever existed, total.
- There are at least 1000億 stars in the Milky Way, maybe as many as 4000億.
- There are about 1700億 neurons in a human brain.
- Jeff Bezos’s net worth is over 1200億 dollars.
- The solar system is 2870億 km across.
- The second largest number I’ve ever encountered in a manga was 6千億, which was how many freaking paper bombs whats-her-face used in that one battle in Naruto. Christ on a bike, girl, how many trees did you even have to kill? That’s more than half a 兆!
- Speaking of which…
一兆（いっちょう）= 1 trillion
- Japanese and English finally match up again!
- Just in time to talk about…uh…the GDPs of major economic powers? The US national debt?
- The number of cells in a human body? (37兆, also the largest number I’ve ever encountered in a manga, thanks Cells At Work!)
- Well, it’s exactly the same as a trillion, we probably don’t need THAT many examples.
There are number words higher than 兆 but, well…you see 京（けい） probably even less often you see someone say “ten quadrillion” in English. Usually people just go for scientific notation for things that can’t be expressed in 兆.
