28th August 2021
From around June until around the end of September you may see people using handheld fans to help keep them cool in the hot, humid months of summer and early autumn. You can also call ‘handheld fans’ ‘hand’ fans.
うちわ (uchiwa) is the original type that was introduced from China hundreds of years ago. In English you could call it a ‘non-folding handheld fan’ or ‘round hand fan’ for example but there’s no real word for it. It has a handle.
From the uchiwa the Japanese developed the 扇子 (sensu) – a folding fan. Similar to uchiwa there’s no one word for it in English apart from ‘fan’. Sensu doesn’t have a handle.
Both uchiwa and sensu you wave back and forth1 in front of your face to try to create a cool breeeze. Both uchiwa and sensu were originally made of paper or cloth with a bamboo frame. These days higher quality sensu are still made from washi paper, with a bamboo frame. Cheaper sensu and most uchiwa have a plastic frame and may have a plastic coating2 over the paper or card.
Uchiwa mostly seem to be given out by companies as advertising. If you’re sitting down at a train station for example, you may see free ones for you to take, with the name of the train company written on them.
Handy fans that you hold mostly still, in front of your face, became more popular in summer 20213 (two thousand and twenty one). They are battery operated handheld fans. Since COVID 19 appeared, more people wear masks in the summer, feeling even hotter than in previous years, so that’s probably a big reason you see more handy fans now.
- ‘Back and forth‘
<Example sentences>
■ The waiters were running back and forth between the kitchen and the tables.
■ That ferry goes back and forth between Yokohama and Tokyo every day.
■ If you stand here for a few minutes you’ll probably see the adult swallows going back and forth to their nest.
2. ‘Coating‘
<Example sentences>
■ You only need to give the wall one coating of paint.
■ The table is coated with a chemical to protect it from the rain.
■ They said this is an environmentally friendly waterproof coating for the raincoat.
■ We coat the bread with honey to make it shiny.
■ Do you ever use hand fans?
■ What is a handy fan?
■ This was a freebie4 . ~.
■ I don’t use hand fans. I can’t be bothered5 waving them all the time.
4. ‘Freebie’
<Example sentences>
■ We bought ￡20 (twenty pounds) of stuff in the stationery shop, so they gave us a freebie pen and pencil.
■ This was a freebie from the post office.
■ The restaurant offers you some freebie plastic cups and things but you don’t have to take them.
5. ‘Can’t be bothered’
<Example sentences>
■ When I can’t be bothered cycling to work I take the train.
■ He didn’t start his homework until after 10 pm. He said he couldn’t be bothered doing it when he got home from school.
■ I can’t be bothered cooking tonight.
- ‘Back and forth‘ means moving again and again between two places.
- ‘Coating‘ is a light covering over something, which is often painted on to the thing. ‘To coat‘ is the action.
- In American English people say twenty, twenty-one.
- ‘Freebie’ is a free gift you get from somewhere, usually when you have spent money or used the service.
- ‘Can’t be bothered’ means you don’t want to do something that you have to do or that you think you have to do. Maybe you do it or maybe you don’t.