8 Umbrellas...
Oh, and apparently there is a tsunami on the way, expected at 1200 on Sunday here (0300 UK time). Given there's a large island between Kobe and most of the Pacific, and more importantly the fact that I live half-way up a mountain, unless it's of "2012" magnitude I'm not too worried.
Saturday, 27 February 2010
Friday, 26 February 2010
Soaring, flying (to the Philippines)
It seems the Japanese were not in fact lying about their 4 seasons, the just over-simplified. From what I've seen so far:
Autumn = Hot/Pleasantly warm
Winter = Warm/Moderately cold
Spring = Pleasantly warm/ RAIN RAIN RAIN RAIN RAIN RAIN RAIN
Summer (From what I've heard) = DEATH BY HUMIDITY
This country has now consumed, kidnapped, damaged beyond repair or otherwise dis-incentivised 7 of my umbrellas since I arrived here. Interesting questions this has raised:
1) What is it about Japan that has such a severe effect on umbrellas?
and 2) What is it about Japan that has convinced me that an umbrella is such an absolutely indispensable object that I have felt compelled to buy 7 replacements since arriving here?
Question 2 is particularly odd given that before today it's barely rained at all here...
It rained today. A lot. And according to the weather forecast it's set to continue. I still find it a bit odd to watch the weather report on TV and see China and Korea next door...
I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but I'm off to the Philippines in just under 2 weeks, to go see my Canadian cousins living just outside Manila (Los Banos for any Filipino readers (I.E Kirstie). Apparently we're going to go to see the Banaue rice paddie, which are a UNESCO World Heritage site... I'm looking forward to seeing some grass :-) (Not that kind before you make some comment.). My allegedly "Multiple-Entry" Japanese student visa is now nicely complimented with my ￥6000 superfluous bit of paper and two tiny passport stamps which make up my "Re-entry Permit" after a visit to the Osaka Immigration Office, which is A) actually in Kobe, and B) NOT where google maps said it was, though thank you very much for the lovely sight-seeing tour of a nearby building-site.
Question: Why did my Student Visa, which allows me to live in Japan, study at a university, get health insurance, mobile phones, work part-time and receive a very generous Japanese government scholarship (JASSO様、愛してる）, cost a 1/10 of the price of my "Re-entry Permit" which basically says "Please let me back in"?
Answer: Because this is Japan.
Oh, and I am now an English tutor :-) Foreigner-in-Japan stereotype No.17 completed. My pupils are 2 little kids (7 and 10) They like Avatar a lot... Their mum is mixed-race American and Japanese ("Half" as they say in Japanese. Not to be confused with "New-half" which means trans-sexual...sorry about that little confusion Yume...), though entirely Japanese by upbringing so doesn't really speak an enormous amount of English. She also asked me to do my best in teaching them American English... Shin and Carlos are sceptical of my chances of success...
Oh, and we went for some karaoke as well the other day with Mark's friend from the UK. I'd love to share mine and Mark's (Mark and I's?) "unique" rendition of the Neon Genesis Evangelion theme song with you all (complete with improvised "Da da dada da da da da da dadada") (Un)Fortunately such a marvel has been lost in time, so I can only point you in the direction of the original and let you use your imagination:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvFJvYkka_o
Had it not been brutally cut off/censored by Yume, our later duet of "Breaking Free" from High School Musical could well have rivaled such a performance. (To be fair, Mark wasn't bad as Zac Efron. My Vanessa Hudgens impression was perhaps spectacular in a different respect...).
Btw, now do you see what I did with the title eh? yeah?
Right, that's all for now, though I'm sure something else as silly will happen to me before I go off to the Philippines so speak to you then :-).
Autumn = Hot/Pleasantly warm
Winter = Warm/Moderately cold
Spring = Pleasantly warm/ RAIN RAIN RAIN RAIN RAIN RAIN RAIN
Summer (From what I've heard) = DEATH BY HUMIDITY
This country has now consumed, kidnapped, damaged beyond repair or otherwise dis-incentivised 7 of my umbrellas since I arrived here. Interesting questions this has raised:
1) What is it about Japan that has such a severe effect on umbrellas?
and 2) What is it about Japan that has convinced me that an umbrella is such an absolutely indispensable object that I have felt compelled to buy 7 replacements since arriving here?
Question 2 is particularly odd given that before today it's barely rained at all here...
It rained today. A lot. And according to the weather forecast it's set to continue. I still find it a bit odd to watch the weather report on TV and see China and Korea next door...
I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but I'm off to the Philippines in just under 2 weeks, to go see my Canadian cousins living just outside Manila (Los Banos for any Filipino readers (I.E Kirstie). Apparently we're going to go to see the Banaue rice paddie, which are a UNESCO World Heritage site... I'm looking forward to seeing some grass :-) (Not that kind before you make some comment.). My allegedly "Multiple-Entry" Japanese student visa is now nicely complimented with my ￥6000 superfluous bit of paper and two tiny passport stamps which make up my "Re-entry Permit" after a visit to the Osaka Immigration Office, which is A) actually in Kobe, and B) NOT where google maps said it was, though thank you very much for the lovely sight-seeing tour of a nearby building-site.
Question: Why did my Student Visa, which allows me to live in Japan, study at a university, get health insurance, mobile phones, work part-time and receive a very generous Japanese government scholarship (JASSO様、愛してる）, cost a 1/10 of the price of my "Re-entry Permit" which basically says "Please let me back in"?
Answer: Because this is Japan.
Oh, and I am now an English tutor :-) Foreigner-in-Japan stereotype No.17 completed. My pupils are 2 little kids (7 and 10) They like Avatar a lot... Their mum is mixed-race American and Japanese ("Half" as they say in Japanese. Not to be confused with "New-half" which means trans-sexual...sorry about that little confusion Yume...), though entirely Japanese by upbringing so doesn't really speak an enormous amount of English. She also asked me to do my best in teaching them American English... Shin and Carlos are sceptical of my chances of success...
Oh, and we went for some karaoke as well the other day with Mark's friend from the UK. I'd love to share mine and Mark's (Mark and I's?) "unique" rendition of the Neon Genesis Evangelion theme song with you all (complete with improvised "Da da dada da da da da da dadada") (Un)Fortunately such a marvel has been lost in time, so I can only point you in the direction of the original and let you use your imagination:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvFJvYkka_o
Had it not been brutally cut off/censored by Yume, our later duet of "Breaking Free" from High School Musical could well have rivaled such a performance. (To be fair, Mark wasn't bad as Zac Efron. My Vanessa Hudgens impression was perhaps spectacular in a different respect...).
Btw, now do you see what I did with the title eh? yeah?
Right, that's all for now, though I'm sure something else as silly will happen to me before I go off to the Philippines so speak to you then :-).
Saturday, 20 February 2010
Anouncements
I hereby proclaim that there will be less moaning on this here blog. I have been through a very difficult period of language-class emo-ness over the past few months, but I now believe I have gotten over it. I would like to thank my family, friends and readers for sticking with me through this traumatic time, and in particular Marina for writing irreverent "sux to be you" comments at the bottom of the last never-ending post, and Agata for her long and detailed comment also on the previous article. I hope you will all continue to stand by me and support me through-out my recovery.
I would also like to admit a gross failing on my part, for which I do not feel I have been punished enough for and would like to humbly request the involved parties continue their completely justified persecution of me for the foreseeable future at the very least. The full nature of this most wicked of faslehoods is detailed in all it's gory detail below:
In my last article, I did in fact maliciously and with intent to harm, suggest that Yoo's (陽, for those of you who have been wondering) house was the first "traditional Japanese house" I had most kindly been admitted entry to. I now fully and with the utmost remorse admit that this was a grevious slander against both Stevie and Marina, who had in truth most kindly invited me to their most splendid and traditional Japanese house on a previous occasion prior to the aforementioned visit to Yoo's abode.
I wish to most humble beg the forgiveness of any persons who were distressed or otherwise affected by this wicked act on my part, which I will not pretend for one second was merely a slip of my most pathetic memory, instead of the dastardly act which it truly was.
By the way, Japanese music is not actually all bad, it's just that I'm to embarrassed to admit listening to most of it...
Here's another random song that gets played all the time (and took me literally 2 months to find the name of- thanks Yuuko):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PFBXs4yM6E
I would also like to admit a gross failing on my part, for which I do not feel I have been punished enough for and would like to humbly request the involved parties continue their completely justified persecution of me for the foreseeable future at the very least. The full nature of this most wicked of faslehoods is detailed in all it's gory detail below:
In my last article, I did in fact maliciously and with intent to harm, suggest that Yoo's (陽, for those of you who have been wondering) house was the first "traditional Japanese house" I had most kindly been admitted entry to. I now fully and with the utmost remorse admit that this was a grevious slander against both Stevie and Marina, who had in truth most kindly invited me to their most splendid and traditional Japanese house on a previous occasion prior to the aforementioned visit to Yoo's abode.
I wish to most humble beg the forgiveness of any persons who were distressed or otherwise affected by this wicked act on my part, which I will not pretend for one second was merely a slip of my most pathetic memory, instead of the dastardly act which it truly was.
By the way, Japanese music is not actually all bad, it's just that I'm to embarrassed to admit listening to most of it...
Here's another random song that gets played all the time (and took me literally 2 months to find the name of- thanks Yuuko):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PFBXs4yM6E
Tuesday, 16 February 2010
Planes, Trains and Automobiles (sorry, couldn't resist...)
Evening all.
Had a bit of an adventure the other day...
Yoo (half German, half Japanese friend of mine who I met last September on his gap year in Italy) got back from Germany on Monday morning, so I went to nearby Osaka Kansai Airport to say hi. While waiting for his plane to get in I was having some breakfast in one of the restaurants (THEY HAVE A SUBWAY THERE!!!!), when a bunch of American pilots and cabin crew wander in, looking a little nervous, which is understandable given they spoke no Japanese, and sat down. Amusingly, whenever the waiter said "Gohan" (rice/food), they would instantly reply with "Good Morning"... After the third time this happened I gave them a hand. According to them I'm now a Delta Airlines Translator :-)
Anyway, Yoo arrives and (after literally running to the first vending machine he sees. German/Italian ones obviously didn't cut it...) decides that RIGHT NOW is a great time for me to go to Kyoto and meet his dad and friends (After a flight from Dortmund via Paris... crazy guy...). So, off we go to the not-half-as-fast-as-its-cracked-up-to-be-bullet-train station under the airport, where there's another "You are a foreigner therefore you must speak English"-moment. For Yoo. Yep, Yoo, the Japanese guy who doesn't speak English...
Station attendant (to Yoo, in English): Are you this train wanting to ride?
Yoo (to me, in Japanese): Eh? Thomas, what does this guy want?
Station attendant (to Yoo, in Japanese):Ah, you speak Japanese?
Yoo (to him, in Japanese): I AM Japanese...
Apparently the two old Japanese ladies he was sitting next to on the plane for 10 hours also mentioned his Japanese was really good...
He also said my Japanese is a lot better now :-) (I did apologise for the rather crap standard of it last time around...)
So, off to Kyoto, where we meet his Dad, who is very funny and told me to either shut up and talk normally or speak German when I started speaking in Keigo to him (Keigo is special Japanese polite language. Unlike English, Japanese has a whole, sorry, 2 whole alternate vocabularies to show respect or humility) (And he speaks pretty perfect English as well...) and some other people.
After hanging around Kyoto for an hour or so, where incidentally, I got asked that ever so slightly stereotypical "I see you are a foreigner, would you like to be a model?" question, they insist I come visit their house (I'd never actually been in a proper Japanese house before).
Turn's out what Yoo defines as "In Kyoto" covers most of Central Japan. 3 hours in the car later, we arrive in what I can only say for sure was "somewhere in Japan". Seriously, I have no idea where we were. But it was great! There was snow! and mountains! and trees! And rivers! And fields! And countryside! Yoo's house is a really traditional-style house, complete with paper walls and tatami! And his mother was very kind, and fussed to make sure I wasn't cold, insisted I give the family hot-tub (Not really a hot-tub, but that's the closest thing we have to a traditional Japanese bath) a try and literally piled futon after futon on top of me... She also spoke in really really REALLY strong Kansai-ben (Osaka/Kyoto/Kobe slang, which is a) more relaxed and expressive than standard Japanese, and b) has the handy side effect of preventing the Tokyo foreign students from understanding us :-)), though largely thanks to Ryota and Mayuko I didn't really have a problem with it. Their neighbours, on the other had... I did not understand a word of...
Old lady:何々何々何々何々何はるんやわな。（?????????????)
Me: Emmmm, yea, exactly...
Unfortunately I had to run back to Kobe in the morning, so I didn't get to do much today, but I really really wanna go back! It's so refreshing to get out of the city-sprawl here in Kobe, even if we do have mountains, it's not the same...
From the sublime to the ridiculous, of all things to drag me back to Kobe was my Japanese language speaking test (the 2nd half of last week's conversation-free conversation and listening exam)... Not to have ANOTHER moan about the Uni's language courses, but spending the previous day and morning with Yoo and co, where I spoke only Japanese for pretty much 24 hours (brief bits of German aside), I was entirely not in the mood for linguistic hoop-jumping.
Aside from being a great time, the whole experience really brought to my attention how artificial and vacuous the whole classroom time is. All the conversation drills are so rigid and constructed, not to mention by and large extremely over-polite, that it really doesn't resemble real Japanese. Because of this, I tend not to put much effort into playing along with the game. I know I can speak Japanese, my subject teachers know I can, my friends know I can, so I frankly have little interest in proving to the conversation teacher that I can compare Japanese and British traffic regulations (a genuine lesson topic, I kid you not...)
Our first part was a listening exercise where we had to extract information from a conversation, with the topics and conversation speed getting increasingly harder. Paradoxically, my scores got better as the sections went on. The honest reason why? The early examples took so long to a) actually pronounce the words, and b) get to the point, that I actually couldn't be bothered to pay attention.
Example Question: When will Tanaka-san's friend arrive?
Yamada: Ah, Tanaka-san, I'll be coming round tomorrow, yea?
Tanaka: Oh, yea, Tomorrow isn't in? When about tomorrow? Evening?
Yamada: No, not Tomorrow evening, I'll arrive tomorrow morning.
Tanaka: Oh, I see, I'll see you Tomorrow morning then.
I think it's interesting to compare my current experience with how Yoo and I learned German. I've had now 8 years of German classes, which no doubt have helped, though in realistic terms I think that I've honestly developed much more by having been lucky enough to have a much greater amount and range of exposure to German in a real-life context than most of my classmates did. Yoo on the other hand, had little if any formal German classes, and spent 12 months in a solely German language environment. From what I noticed, while his spoken and written German is still rather shaky, he probably actually understands more than I do.
From this, I've come to see formal language tuition as more perhaps a learning guide, or a source of learning aims, rather than an actually route to progression. For that, you really REALLY need to speak to native speakers A LOT (this is admittedly easier said than done in Japan, given it can be hard to find people willing to have meaningful conversations with foreign learners.). If you don't, I think you run the risk of becoming the kind of German speaker I was before I went to University, basically a proficient reader but shaky at speaking and largely unable to understand anything at native-speed.
On a side note, what really annoys me about today's exam, is that I know it will show that I have distinctly improved over when I took it in October last year, but frankly, that is in now way, shape or form thanks to their classes, and it niggles at me that I'll appear to be a "success story" of their deeply flawed programme.
In spite of this, unlike some other students, I think I will choose take more of the classes (higher level ones) next semester, if only because at the very least it gives me a reason to go to uni everyday and bump into Japanese people...
Hmm, another negatively-toned article... this time I think I am in a bad mood, though only because I was having such an amazing time in the middle of nowhere before I got dragged back to "Now, please tell me something about this picture of Tokyo."...
Had a bit of an adventure the other day...
Yoo (half German, half Japanese friend of mine who I met last September on his gap year in Italy) got back from Germany on Monday morning, so I went to nearby Osaka Kansai Airport to say hi. While waiting for his plane to get in I was having some breakfast in one of the restaurants (THEY HAVE A SUBWAY THERE!!!!), when a bunch of American pilots and cabin crew wander in, looking a little nervous, which is understandable given they spoke no Japanese, and sat down. Amusingly, whenever the waiter said "Gohan" (rice/food), they would instantly reply with "Good Morning"... After the third time this happened I gave them a hand. According to them I'm now a Delta Airlines Translator :-)
Anyway, Yoo arrives and (after literally running to the first vending machine he sees. German/Italian ones obviously didn't cut it...) decides that RIGHT NOW is a great time for me to go to Kyoto and meet his dad and friends (After a flight from Dortmund via Paris... crazy guy...). So, off we go to the not-half-as-fast-as-its-cracked-up-to-be-bullet-train station under the airport, where there's another "You are a foreigner therefore you must speak English"-moment. For Yoo. Yep, Yoo, the Japanese guy who doesn't speak English...
Station attendant (to Yoo, in English): Are you this train wanting to ride?
Yoo (to me, in Japanese): Eh? Thomas, what does this guy want?
Station attendant (to Yoo, in Japanese):Ah, you speak Japanese?
Yoo (to him, in Japanese): I AM Japanese...
Apparently the two old Japanese ladies he was sitting next to on the plane for 10 hours also mentioned his Japanese was really good...
He also said my Japanese is a lot better now :-) (I did apologise for the rather crap standard of it last time around...)
So, off to Kyoto, where we meet his Dad, who is very funny and told me to either shut up and talk normally or speak German when I started speaking in Keigo to him (Keigo is special Japanese polite language. Unlike English, Japanese has a whole, sorry, 2 whole alternate vocabularies to show respect or humility) (And he speaks pretty perfect English as well...) and some other people.
After hanging around Kyoto for an hour or so, where incidentally, I got asked that ever so slightly stereotypical "I see you are a foreigner, would you like to be a model?" question, they insist I come visit their house (I'd never actually been in a proper Japanese house before).
Turn's out what Yoo defines as "In Kyoto" covers most of Central Japan. 3 hours in the car later, we arrive in what I can only say for sure was "somewhere in Japan". Seriously, I have no idea where we were. But it was great! There was snow! and mountains! and trees! And rivers! And fields! And countryside! Yoo's house is a really traditional-style house, complete with paper walls and tatami! And his mother was very kind, and fussed to make sure I wasn't cold, insisted I give the family hot-tub (Not really a hot-tub, but that's the closest thing we have to a traditional Japanese bath) a try and literally piled futon after futon on top of me... She also spoke in really really REALLY strong Kansai-ben (Osaka/Kyoto/Kobe slang, which is a) more relaxed and expressive than standard Japanese, and b) has the handy side effect of preventing the Tokyo foreign students from understanding us :-)), though largely thanks to Ryota and Mayuko I didn't really have a problem with it. Their neighbours, on the other had... I did not understand a word of...
Old lady:何々何々何々何々何はるんやわな。（?????????????)
Me: Emmmm, yea, exactly...
Unfortunately I had to run back to Kobe in the morning, so I didn't get to do much today, but I really really wanna go back! It's so refreshing to get out of the city-sprawl here in Kobe, even if we do have mountains, it's not the same...
From the sublime to the ridiculous, of all things to drag me back to Kobe was my Japanese language speaking test (the 2nd half of last week's conversation-free conversation and listening exam)... Not to have ANOTHER moan about the Uni's language courses, but spending the previous day and morning with Yoo and co, where I spoke only Japanese for pretty much 24 hours (brief bits of German aside), I was entirely not in the mood for linguistic hoop-jumping.
Aside from being a great time, the whole experience really brought to my attention how artificial and vacuous the whole classroom time is. All the conversation drills are so rigid and constructed, not to mention by and large extremely over-polite, that it really doesn't resemble real Japanese. Because of this, I tend not to put much effort into playing along with the game. I know I can speak Japanese, my subject teachers know I can, my friends know I can, so I frankly have little interest in proving to the conversation teacher that I can compare Japanese and British traffic regulations (a genuine lesson topic, I kid you not...)
Our first part was a listening exercise where we had to extract information from a conversation, with the topics and conversation speed getting increasingly harder. Paradoxically, my scores got better as the sections went on. The honest reason why? The early examples took so long to a) actually pronounce the words, and b) get to the point, that I actually couldn't be bothered to pay attention.
Example Question: When will Tanaka-san's friend arrive?
Yamada: Ah, Tanaka-san, I'll be coming round tomorrow, yea?
Tanaka: Oh, yea, Tomorrow isn't in? When about tomorrow? Evening?
Yamada: No, not Tomorrow evening, I'll arrive tomorrow morning.
Tanaka: Oh, I see, I'll see you Tomorrow morning then.
I think it's interesting to compare my current experience with how Yoo and I learned German. I've had now 8 years of German classes, which no doubt have helped, though in realistic terms I think that I've honestly developed much more by having been lucky enough to have a much greater amount and range of exposure to German in a real-life context than most of my classmates did. Yoo on the other hand, had little if any formal German classes, and spent 12 months in a solely German language environment. From what I noticed, while his spoken and written German is still rather shaky, he probably actually understands more than I do.
From this, I've come to see formal language tuition as more perhaps a learning guide, or a source of learning aims, rather than an actually route to progression. For that, you really REALLY need to speak to native speakers A LOT (this is admittedly easier said than done in Japan, given it can be hard to find people willing to have meaningful conversations with foreign learners.). If you don't, I think you run the risk of becoming the kind of German speaker I was before I went to University, basically a proficient reader but shaky at speaking and largely unable to understand anything at native-speed.
On a side note, what really annoys me about today's exam, is that I know it will show that I have distinctly improved over when I took it in October last year, but frankly, that is in now way, shape or form thanks to their classes, and it niggles at me that I'll appear to be a "success story" of their deeply flawed programme.
In spite of this, unlike some other students, I think I will choose take more of the classes (higher level ones) next semester, if only because at the very least it gives me a reason to go to uni everyday and bump into Japanese people...
Hmm, another negatively-toned article... this time I think I am in a bad mood, though only because I was having such an amazing time in the middle of nowhere before I got dragged back to "Now, please tell me something about this picture of Tokyo."...
Monday, 1 February 2010
If music be the fruit of love, Japan is in trouble.
Hi again.
Great news, my presentations are all done and my report on the Second language acquisition or something is finished, so it`s back to the usual exchange student lifestyle of doing very little, just now with the added bonus of not having to get up for any classes before 13:20 :-)
Anyway, Sean, my little brother, has decided to come join me for 10 days in April, and he wants me to tell everyone that I`me very much looking forward to sharing the weirdness of the Land of the Rising Sun with him.
We've been having our Japanese language exams this week, with the Conversation exam earlier today. It was a pretty odd exam. For a start, there was no speaking in it... It was half listening/dictation exercises and half "Fill in the gaps of this page of the textbook we looked at 3 weeks ago" exercises. Very bizarre... Furthermore, next week we have to take the same "placement test" we took at the beginning of the term to "examine our progress". Only thing is, I can count on one hand the number of things we've covered in class this term that I didn't already know, and none of those are in the placement test... To further deepen the mystery, I found the textbook our course is allegedly based off (みんなの日本語 ＩＩＩ) in Junkudo the other day (Japanese equivalent of Waterstones). Not only does our coursed a) not resemble anything in the textbook, but b) the textbook actually has a lot of useful grammar and vocabulary in it, though by now I've picked up pretty much everything in it... Need to go find a new text-book...
On a side note, though it is next to impossible to buy Minna No Nihongo 3 (みんなの日本語中級 Ｉ) in the UK, if any of the 1st or 2nd year Bham Japanese course students are reading this I STRONGLY STRONGLY STRONGLY advise you to do anything you can to get hold of this before you get to Japan. Pretty much every grammar point in it comes up in daily conversation and everyday writing all the time, and knowing that stuff will make things so much easier for you than if you've only done the first 2 textbooks.
Japanese textbook commercial over.
Spring has arrived in Japan! After our pretty chilly 2/3rds of December and January, it's back to muggy, humid t-shirt weather here! Yay! Not looking forward to the summer though if this is considered winter...
I think I'll take a slightly international twist with this post. Japanese music, in case you are unfamiliar with it (lucky you) is by and large terrible. If anybody is currently of the mind set of "Oh, it's not so bad" a) try listening to if for 4 months straight, and b)Understand the lyrics...
Here's some examples for you (these two are played by pretty much every store all the time at the moment)
#1: Exile (Complete with Matrix-rip-off music video and the rather odd Japanese title of "Two Lips", though sadly missing the massive-coordinated-MC-Hammer-style-dance-routines-put-to-ballads they usually do)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDwL0BYL4Fw&feature=fvw
#2: Abe Mao, who's actually a stand-in for the one I wanted to show you (Gloria by Yui) but due to Sony Music's lawyers I can't find any of the videos :-( Sort of sounds similar to this but more whinny and screechy...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YebGrGzCneA
Amusingly however, Korean music, despite sounding pretty much identical (language aside) is much more entertaining in light of it's ridiculously over-the-top sluttiness and implicit lesbianism (Which the puritanical-about-anything-except-legs-and-cartoons-Japanese would never stand for)
Examples:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uR0R_4cFxEc (watch until the end)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8O5ZcZv8BWg (Not so much slutty as actually pretending to be prostitutes...)
Oh, and before I go I think I'll share the "Battle Royale/ How many teenage-schoolgirls can we get on screen at once?" AKB48 with you. As some random Youtube comment put with unintentional irony :"In the class of girl groups with over 100 members, they are without peer. "... (See what I mean about the legs by the way? Actually, these are pretty long skirts by Japanese standards...):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxhlnTCb-8g
P.S Does anyone know what Hong Kong or Seoul are like in summer?
Great news, my presentations are all done and my report on the Second language acquisition or something is finished, so it`s back to the usual exchange student lifestyle of doing very little, just now with the added bonus of not having to get up for any classes before 13:20 :-)
Anyway, Sean, my little brother, has decided to come join me for 10 days in April, and he wants me to tell everyone that I`me very much looking forward to sharing the weirdness of the Land of the Rising Sun with him.
We've been having our Japanese language exams this week, with the Conversation exam earlier today. It was a pretty odd exam. For a start, there was no speaking in it... It was half listening/dictation exercises and half "Fill in the gaps of this page of the textbook we looked at 3 weeks ago" exercises. Very bizarre... Furthermore, next week we have to take the same "placement test" we took at the beginning of the term to "examine our progress". Only thing is, I can count on one hand the number of things we've covered in class this term that I didn't already know, and none of those are in the placement test... To further deepen the mystery, I found the textbook our course is allegedly based off (みんなの日本語 ＩＩＩ) in Junkudo the other day (Japanese equivalent of Waterstones). Not only does our coursed a) not resemble anything in the textbook, but b) the textbook actually has a lot of useful grammar and vocabulary in it, though by now I've picked up pretty much everything in it... Need to go find a new text-book...
On a side note, though it is next to impossible to buy Minna No Nihongo 3 (みんなの日本語中級 Ｉ) in the UK, if any of the 1st or 2nd year Bham Japanese course students are reading this I STRONGLY STRONGLY STRONGLY advise you to do anything you can to get hold of this before you get to Japan. Pretty much every grammar point in it comes up in daily conversation and everyday writing all the time, and knowing that stuff will make things so much easier for you than if you've only done the first 2 textbooks.
Japanese textbook commercial over.
Spring has arrived in Japan! After our pretty chilly 2/3rds of December and January, it's back to muggy, humid t-shirt weather here! Yay! Not looking forward to the summer though if this is considered winter...
I think I'll take a slightly international twist with this post. Japanese music, in case you are unfamiliar with it (lucky you) is by and large terrible. If anybody is currently of the mind set of "Oh, it's not so bad" a) try listening to if for 4 months straight, and b)Understand the lyrics...
Here's some examples for you (these two are played by pretty much every store all the time at the moment)
#1: Exile (Complete with Matrix-rip-off music video and the rather odd Japanese title of "Two Lips", though sadly missing the massive-coordinated-MC-Hammer-style-dance-routines-put-to-ballads they usually do)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDwL0BYL4Fw&feature=fvw
#2: Abe Mao, who's actually a stand-in for the one I wanted to show you (Gloria by Yui) but due to Sony Music's lawyers I can't find any of the videos :-( Sort of sounds similar to this but more whinny and screechy...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YebGrGzCneA
Amusingly however, Korean music, despite sounding pretty much identical (language aside) is much more entertaining in light of it's ridiculously over-the-top sluttiness and implicit lesbianism (Which the puritanical-about-anything-except-legs-and-cartoons-Japanese would never stand for)
Examples:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uR0R_4cFxEc (watch until the end)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8O5ZcZv8BWg (Not so much slutty as actually pretending to be prostitutes...)
Oh, and before I go I think I'll share the "Battle Royale/ How many teenage-schoolgirls can we get on screen at once?" AKB48 with you. As some random Youtube comment put with unintentional irony :"In the class of girl groups with over 100 members, they are without peer. "... (See what I mean about the legs by the way? Actually, these are pretty long skirts by Japanese standards...):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxhlnTCb-8g
P.S Does anyone know what Hong Kong or Seoul are like in summer?
Sunday, 24 January 2010
It's all About the Presentation(s)
Another fairly long break from updating, sorry about that. I've been preparing 3 presentations over the past few weeks, so the other-wise largely work-free exchange student lifestyle has been a bit busier than normal. I've still got one left to do, though it really should have been done last week were it not for technical issues (ie, Powerpoint).
Out of the three (Translation Studies, Second Language Acquisition and International Communication), International Communication provided the most laughs. Given it's not really a proper class per-say, you're allowed a little more leeway when it comes to taking the piss with things, hence one group's referencing of the Tellytubbies ("He's happy because there is no death penalty in his world"), and out citations of the movies "Independance Day" and "Armageddon". Our topic was nuclear weapons (and nuclear power as my group DIDN'T TELL ME until it came up on the projector screen), and I figured that having been given the task of coming up with the case for, (in a conversation that went something along the following lines:
3 Japanese Students (to another foreign student): What country are you from?
Foreign Student: Malaysia
3 Japanese Students (to me): What about you?
Me: The UK
3 Japanese Students: Right, well since your country is the only one here that has nuclear weapons, you must be in favour of them, so you do the "pro" section.
There's logic in there somewhere....)
Anyway, back to the point, I figured that this being Japan, I had the choice of the "It wasnae me" route, or the "I love the bomb so much" route. Of which I picked the latter, leading to lines such as "Thanks to nuclear weapons, my country was protected and I was born in a free Europe" and "As you can see from these movies, Nuclear bombs are will be very useful when the asteroid/aliens come"...
Other notable taste/sensitivity/reasonableness-fails courtesy of International Comm. class presentations included "Japan's justified acquisition of Korea" (I believe the word she was searching for was "rather brutal invasion and occupation of") from the Textbook controversy/historical revisionism group, and "Abortion. First, lets look at reasons why parents kill their children" from the interestingly titled "Abortion and Infanticide" group who effectively tried to argue that the term "Abortion" applied to children up to the age of 8 or 9...
A number of groups covered capitol punishment as well, and on repeated occasions brought up the argument that some criminals commit crimes in order to be sentenced to death... given that no cases were cited I'm not quite sure where they got that point from, much less where they were going with it (If we abolish capital punishment the crime rate will drop?).
Without meaning to have a massive go at the Japanese students, I do feel that their presentation skills and delivery techniques are far below what would be considered acceptable for undergraduate students in Europe or America. Having never had to do a university level presentation outside of physics perhaps my judgment is not the most well-informed, but does anybody consider standing at the lecturn, staring down at a pre-written sheet of paper and reading it out aloud (no-powerpoint) to be acceptable?
This criticism is more aimed at the other two classes where the Japanese students deliver their presentations in Japanese. Given that in Int. Comm. we have to present in the target language, reading off pre-prepared notes is more forgivable given most of us are not at the level of being able to make up presentations on the spot or from small flashcards in our target language.
I'll just mention now that the Japanese education system is frequently criticised by foreigners who have had contact with it as being too focused on cram-learning "facts" rather than developing any sort of analysis skills... I emphasis that this criticism is made by foreigners because rather frustrating Japanese cultural taboos forbid people from actually criticising most things, regardless of how they feel.
Hmm, this has turned into a rather negative article... I'll just make it clear I'm still having a great time here and I'm not in a bad mood, just seeing/ doing all these presentations lately has made me think about some stuff...
Oh, Yoo comes back from his gap year in Germany/Italy in a few weeks, so I'm going to go meet him a the airport since it's not that far from here. It'll be interesting to see how his German has improved since I saw him in Italy in September... He's probably better than me now...
Oh, and I just wanted to mention this. Without meaning to a)politicise this blog, or much more importantly b) trivialise the terrible tragedy in Haiti, I would like to point out that that the official casualty figure from the earthquake now stands at 100,000 people, which is approximately 1/6th of the 2006 death toll of Iraqi civilians directly or indirectly as a result of our invasion, as calculated by the peer-reviewed Lancet survey. Granted I only pick up information from BBC news website and Facebook, but in light of the above does the whole "Save Haiti" media blitz not strike a certain note of moral indulgence with anyone?
Just a small though...
Out of the three (Translation Studies, Second Language Acquisition and International Communication), International Communication provided the most laughs. Given it's not really a proper class per-say, you're allowed a little more leeway when it comes to taking the piss with things, hence one group's referencing of the Tellytubbies ("He's happy because there is no death penalty in his world"), and out citations of the movies "Independance Day" and "Armageddon". Our topic was nuclear weapons (and nuclear power as my group DIDN'T TELL ME until it came up on the projector screen), and I figured that having been given the task of coming up with the case for, (in a conversation that went something along the following lines:
3 Japanese Students (to another foreign student): What country are you from?
Foreign Student: Malaysia
3 Japanese Students (to me): What about you?
Me: The UK
3 Japanese Students: Right, well since your country is the only one here that has nuclear weapons, you must be in favour of them, so you do the "pro" section.
There's logic in there somewhere....)
Anyway, back to the point, I figured that this being Japan, I had the choice of the "It wasnae me" route, or the "I love the bomb so much" route. Of which I picked the latter, leading to lines such as "Thanks to nuclear weapons, my country was protected and I was born in a free Europe" and "As you can see from these movies, Nuclear bombs are will be very useful when the asteroid/aliens come"...
Other notable taste/sensitivity/reasonableness-fails courtesy of International Comm. class presentations included "Japan's justified acquisition of Korea" (I believe the word she was searching for was "rather brutal invasion and occupation of") from the Textbook controversy/historical revisionism group, and "Abortion. First, lets look at reasons why parents kill their children" from the interestingly titled "Abortion and Infanticide" group who effectively tried to argue that the term "Abortion" applied to children up to the age of 8 or 9...
A number of groups covered capitol punishment as well, and on repeated occasions brought up the argument that some criminals commit crimes in order to be sentenced to death... given that no cases were cited I'm not quite sure where they got that point from, much less where they were going with it (If we abolish capital punishment the crime rate will drop?).
Without meaning to have a massive go at the Japanese students, I do feel that their presentation skills and delivery techniques are far below what would be considered acceptable for undergraduate students in Europe or America. Having never had to do a university level presentation outside of physics perhaps my judgment is not the most well-informed, but does anybody consider standing at the lecturn, staring down at a pre-written sheet of paper and reading it out aloud (no-powerpoint) to be acceptable?
This criticism is more aimed at the other two classes where the Japanese students deliver their presentations in Japanese. Given that in Int. Comm. we have to present in the target language, reading off pre-prepared notes is more forgivable given most of us are not at the level of being able to make up presentations on the spot or from small flashcards in our target language.
I'll just mention now that the Japanese education system is frequently criticised by foreigners who have had contact with it as being too focused on cram-learning "facts" rather than developing any sort of analysis skills... I emphasis that this criticism is made by foreigners because rather frustrating Japanese cultural taboos forbid people from actually criticising most things, regardless of how they feel.
Hmm, this has turned into a rather negative article... I'll just make it clear I'm still having a great time here and I'm not in a bad mood, just seeing/ doing all these presentations lately has made me think about some stuff...
Oh, Yoo comes back from his gap year in Germany/Italy in a few weeks, so I'm going to go meet him a the airport since it's not that far from here. It'll be interesting to see how his German has improved since I saw him in Italy in September... He's probably better than me now...
Oh, and I just wanted to mention this. Without meaning to a)politicise this blog, or much more importantly b) trivialise the terrible tragedy in Haiti, I would like to point out that that the official casualty figure from the earthquake now stands at 100,000 people, which is approximately 1/6th of the 2006 death toll of Iraqi civilians directly or indirectly as a result of our invasion, as calculated by the peer-reviewed Lancet survey. Granted I only pick up information from BBC news website and Facebook, but in light of the above does the whole "Save Haiti" media blitz not strike a certain note of moral indulgence with anyone?
Just a small though...
Wednesday, 6 January 2010
明けましておめでとう！(Akemashite Omedetou!)
Merry Christmas and a Happy New year everyone, hope you had a good one and sorry I havn't updated this in a while, I hope the withdrawal wasn't too terrible.
Hmm, where to start. Japanese Christmas? After all the build-up and hype in all the shops and stuff it actually turned out to be a bit of a let down, Nothing much happens, it's considered mostly a couple's thing, and oddly for Japan they don't even really take the opportunity to indulge in lots of food (or maybe that's how they make it different from every other day...). A bunch of us exchange students went out for lunch to this restaurant which does pretty decent (by which I mean recognisable) western food, so I had a distinctly festive spicy mushroom pasta for Christmas dinner...
Oh, and this may seem a little bit odd, but what with all the couples down in Harbourland (they put up loads of illuminations there. The Japanese like pretty illuminations) it seemed particularly noticeable that there really are a lot of Japanese people in Japan. And pretty much ONLY Japanese people. I know this is pretty obvious, and I find my self in situations every day where I'm the only non-Japanese person in sight, but what with the massive number of people and me the only foreigner it was just more in-your-face than usual.
New Year! Bloody hell that was cold. (largely my own fault, should have put on more clothes, had a nice new-year cold for the next few days). All in all, not my favourite New Year, went to a club in Kobe, as we all figured Osaka, which has a much better night life in all honest, would be even more crazy than it is on a normal day. Anyway, place was mostly filled with random (mostly rather fat for some reason) foreigners, and there was much drama with some of the other exchange students which sort of put a downer on things. We went to a shrine at 4am on the promise of hot Sake from the monks, which turned out not to be the case (though there was much food, this being Japan. (Anyone who tells you the main religions of Japan are Budhism and Shintoism has no idea what they're talking about.). We then went up Mount Maya to watch the first sunrise of 2010, where it was even colder. Not to mention cloudy :-(
Oh, I went to see Avatar as well, in 3D! (And fortunately not the Japanese dub. The first time we tried to go I got the times wrong and we turned up in time for that showing, though it was sold out so we went back a few days later and saw the Japanese Subtitled showing.). Without meaning to turn my blog into a film review, I did really enjoy it, even if the story was entirely predictable and rather overly messianic, very much recommended if you havn't already seen it. Oh, and when you do, and you see those tribal-font subtitles they give to the alien language, spare a thought for me trying to speed-read the Japanese versions. I ended up giving up reading the phonetics (ie, the names) and just reading the Kanji (ie, the bits with the meaning in them). So basically what I read was "[Blank] killed [Blank]!You bastard! [Blank] will never forgive you and I will avenge [Blank]", or something like that.
I had a great Gaijin (foreigner) moment the other day. After spending an hour speaking in Japanese to my (Japanese) friend in a coffee shop (incidentally I just found out there are KANJI for coffee-珈琲. It's a frikkin foreign word! There aren't supposed to be kanji for it!). Anyway, as we get up to leave, I notice the people sitting next to me are looking interestedly at my keyboard-scarf, so I show it to them and explain it to them (In Japanese), and then, after a brief chat with me, they turn to my friend and ask "What country is he from?"! Then to cap it off, after we both say "the UK", they start talking about how they've always wanted to go to Switzerland...
Also lately, in response to the much complained about Japanese language classes, I've been working through Chris' grammar textbooks, which have been really helpful, only now I feel a bit over-stuffed on sentence structures, so I think I need some more vocabulary to fill them in with. I feel fine with everyday stuff (and rather oddly some rather technical linguistic vocabulary), but I be able to hold some more advanced discussions...
Oh, and the 一生三宅 store-staff's stalking geared up a notch this month with both a hand-written note and a phone call at 2100 (the store closes at 2000!) to tell me about the new collection on sale from Friday... freaky...
Finally, bizarre Japanese preoccupation of the last month: Alpacas
Hmm, where to start. Japanese Christmas? After all the build-up and hype in all the shops and stuff it actually turned out to be a bit of a let down, Nothing much happens, it's considered mostly a couple's thing, and oddly for Japan they don't even really take the opportunity to indulge in lots of food (or maybe that's how they make it different from every other day...). A bunch of us exchange students went out for lunch to this restaurant which does pretty decent (by which I mean recognisable) western food, so I had a distinctly festive spicy mushroom pasta for Christmas dinner...
Oh, and this may seem a little bit odd, but what with all the couples down in Harbourland (they put up loads of illuminations there. The Japanese like pretty illuminations) it seemed particularly noticeable that there really are a lot of Japanese people in Japan. And pretty much ONLY Japanese people. I know this is pretty obvious, and I find my self in situations every day where I'm the only non-Japanese person in sight, but what with the massive number of people and me the only foreigner it was just more in-your-face than usual.
New Year! Bloody hell that was cold. (largely my own fault, should have put on more clothes, had a nice new-year cold for the next few days). All in all, not my favourite New Year, went to a club in Kobe, as we all figured Osaka, which has a much better night life in all honest, would be even more crazy than it is on a normal day. Anyway, place was mostly filled with random (mostly rather fat for some reason) foreigners, and there was much drama with some of the other exchange students which sort of put a downer on things. We went to a shrine at 4am on the promise of hot Sake from the monks, which turned out not to be the case (though there was much food, this being Japan. (Anyone who tells you the main religions of Japan are Budhism and Shintoism has no idea what they're talking about.). We then went up Mount Maya to watch the first sunrise of 2010, where it was even colder. Not to mention cloudy :-(
Oh, I went to see Avatar as well, in 3D! (And fortunately not the Japanese dub. The first time we tried to go I got the times wrong and we turned up in time for that showing, though it was sold out so we went back a few days later and saw the Japanese Subtitled showing.). Without meaning to turn my blog into a film review, I did really enjoy it, even if the story was entirely predictable and rather overly messianic, very much recommended if you havn't already seen it. Oh, and when you do, and you see those tribal-font subtitles they give to the alien language, spare a thought for me trying to speed-read the Japanese versions. I ended up giving up reading the phonetics (ie, the names) and just reading the Kanji (ie, the bits with the meaning in them). So basically what I read was "[Blank] killed [Blank]!You bastard! [Blank] will never forgive you and I will avenge [Blank]", or something like that.
I had a great Gaijin (foreigner) moment the other day. After spending an hour speaking in Japanese to my (Japanese) friend in a coffee shop (incidentally I just found out there are KANJI for coffee-珈琲. It's a frikkin foreign word! There aren't supposed to be kanji for it!). Anyway, as we get up to leave, I notice the people sitting next to me are looking interestedly at my keyboard-scarf, so I show it to them and explain it to them (In Japanese), and then, after a brief chat with me, they turn to my friend and ask "What country is he from?"! Then to cap it off, after we both say "the UK", they start talking about how they've always wanted to go to Switzerland...
Also lately, in response to the much complained about Japanese language classes, I've been working through Chris' grammar textbooks, which have been really helpful, only now I feel a bit over-stuffed on sentence structures, so I think I need some more vocabulary to fill them in with. I feel fine with everyday stuff (and rather oddly some rather technical linguistic vocabulary), but I be able to hold some more advanced discussions...
Oh, and the 一生三宅 store-staff's stalking geared up a notch this month with both a hand-written note and a phone call at 2100 (the store closes at 2000!) to tell me about the new collection on sale from Friday... freaky...
Finally, bizarre Japanese preoccupation of the last month: Alpacas
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
