Pride is an obstacle. I so want to be able to speak properly that I get frustrated when I make mistakes sometimes. Other times I'm ok, I let it roll...
Unsolicited Advice. Unless someone is hurting themselves or others, I don't do it.
Remember fuckedcompany.com? If you were in IT before 2001, it was the quintessential sarcasm-infused, pre-bubble site to visit. My co-workers used to check it literally every 30 minutes. No wonder the bubble burst.
Japanese has adopted many words from English, but the meaning are a little different. "Saabisu" (サービス) was taken from "service", and has that meaning ("...this new service begins Friday"), but it is also used to mean something is provided as complimentary, like chips at a Mexican restaurant. (Bad example, but it's the last time I heard it in Tokyo). Often, at school, if a teacher gives me credit for a somewhat incorrect answer, there will be an arrow and "サービス!!" written next to it.
Last year, after spending nearly 13 seconds thinking about a name for this blog, I chose "Late Night Musings..." after remembering a book I read by Lewis Thomas called Late Night Thoughts on Listening to Mahler's 9th Symphony. It's small book of essays and I highly recommend it, as he represented to me what is a dying breed of modern philosophers.
I was on the train, and there was an American talking to his Japanese friend in English about 5 feet from me. We briefly made eye contact and he suddenly switched to Japanese.
I smiled, because I do that too. It's a totally pride-fueled maneuver. But, I feel better knowing that there are people out there as petty as I am.
Actually, it's totally cheesy.
But as a feeble attempt at a disclaimer, I always try and speak Japanese in public. But for some reason, when I am with Japanese people, I become conscious of other Westerners.
When I came to Japan in 2005, I listened to this over and over. This video is a slightly different version then the version on my iPod, but the feeling is still the same. When I listened to it back then, I had no idea what she was singing. I wanted to do a translation, but I don't think I'll have time for a few days. This song reminds me of Kyoto, Ochanomizu, Hanami, and Shinjuku.
I haven't really talked about Japanese in a while, so here's a short one. This week is all tests. Ganbarimasu.
Memorizing words is hard, but also what verbs and direct objects go together is tricky. In English, you tell a lie, in Japanese, you can use 言う (iu-to say), but also used is 吐く (tsuku) which is the same verb for "breathe" or "vomit". By the way, tsuku is one of those verbs that has like 8 different Kanji, and different subtle meanings associated with them, so most people just use hiragana.
