Far from: 〜どころか

〜どころか turns an expectation upside down: “far from…, instead of… (quite the opposite)”. A second use, with も: “not X, not even Y, the simplest thing” (漢字どころか、ひらがなも読めない). Either way, reality is a long way from what you might have thought. Neutral register, spoken and written.

• 雨はやむどころか、ますます強くなった。あめはやむどころか、ますますつよくなった。Far from stopping, the rain got heavier and heavier.
• 漢字どころか、ひらがなもまだ読めない。かんじどころか、ひらがなもまだよめない。Kanji? I can't even read hiragana yet.
• 薬を飲んだのに、よくなるどころか、熱が上がった。くすりをのんだのに、よくなるどころか、ねつがあがった。I took the medicine, but instead of getting better, my fever went up.

どころ comes from ところ, “place, point”. 〜どころか says “it's nowhere near that point”: you mention what you expected (to rest, to get better, for the rain to stop), then announce that the opposite happened.

The second use goes down the scale the other way: you mention something difficult, then something much simpler with も. “Kanji? I can't even manage hiragana.” The message is: we're far below what you imagined.

• 新しい機械を入れたら、作業が楽になるどころか、トラブルが増えた。あたらしいきかいをいれたら、さぎょうがらくになるどころか、とらぶるがふえた。We brought in a new machine, but far from making the work easier, it caused more problems.

どころか follows a plain form. With a noun or a な-adjective, drop だ (you also find な before a な-adjective). At the start of a sentence, それどころか means “on the contrary, worse still”.

• あの店は安いどころか、ほかの店より高かった。あのみせはやすいどころか、ほかのみせよりたかかった。Far from being cheap, that shop was more expensive than the others.
• 彼は謝らなかった。それどころか、私を責めた。かれはあやまらなかった。それどころか、わたしをせめた。He didn't apologise. Worse still, he blamed me.

ばかりか (N3) adds in the same direction: “not only X, but also Y”. It doesn't reverse anything. どころか, by contrast, contradicts the expectation or stresses a huge gap. どころではない (next point) ends the sentence: “it's no time for…”.

• 彼は英語ばかりか、中国語も話せる。かれはえいごばかりか、ちゅうごくごもはなせる。He speaks not only English but Chinese too.
• 彼は英語どころか、日本語も怪しい。かれはえいごどころか、にほんごもあやしい。English? Even his Japanese is shaky.