People should look up more often.

So I went to the big used shop yesterday to look at...stuff. I was browsing the Nintendo DS games. Sometimes they have American games, too -- I don't know where they get them. I hadn't bothered to get any of them until yesterday, when I saw that they had an American copy of Pokemon Diamond for really really cheap. (I have the Japanese version, but still...)

(Yeah, yeah I know, Pokemon?!? It's something to do in my copious amounts of free-time -- and it impresses the elementary schoolers.)

Anyway, I took it up to the front and handed it to the cashier. “これ、お願いします。”*

The clerk, not looking up at me, noticed the stickers on the box proclaiming, “外国版ですから、英語だけありますよ！”** and felt that he had to check with me. “ああ、すみません、これは英語版です。大丈夫ですか。。。？”***

I boggled for a moment, then said “ぼくはアメリカ人だ。日本語版がとても難しい！”**** It was only at this point that he noticed that I wasn't Japanese.

I didn't laugh. His co-workers might have, though.

What?

Oh, right, hang on.

*"This one, please."
**"FOREIGN VERSION! ENGLISH LANGUAGE ONLY!"
***"Ah, excuse me, this is the English version. Is that all right...?"
****"I'm an American. The Japanese-language version is very difficult for me!"

Happy ME day!

Let me just interrupt your grand celebrations of ME day, commemorating my b--what? You aren't actually celebrating....

...well, ANYWAY...

This year for my birthday I picked up THIS:



It's the 5-disc set of the 10-hour-long Shogun miniseries from back in the '80s. I wanted to buy this when it came out four years ago, because I had just finished reading the original James Clavell novel (thanks, Scott!). However, at the time, the price was ¥14,490, or over $120. Insanity.

The MSRP is still ¥14,490, but one of the local electronics shops is having a months-long "I Love TV Life" sale, with almost all TV box sets from 10% to 40% off, and Shogun was one of the 40% off titles. (It was also the first time I'd seen it in a store in over three years.) As it turns out, I could have gotten it from Amazon.jp for 60% off, but I would have lost a bunch in credit card conversion fees.

When this show was first broadcast over 25 years ago, Mom & Dad wouldn't let me watch it for some odd reason. Most of the rest of America tuned in to it, though... I've only watched the first disc and a half so far, and I'm glad to see that the TV series corrected some of the more egregious goofs in the novel -- like an honorable samurai family named "Bunny", or a vassal spy of Toranaga named "Ugly". However there are still some pretty big screw ups included. The bit where Mariko explains how simple the Japanese language is is particularly cringeworthy. Telling different verb tenses using differences in inflection THAT DON'T ACTUALLY EXIST IN JAPANESE...

Oh by the way

I forgot to mention that I received the results of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test last week.

How did I do? Well....



(By the way, if you ever find yourself searching for one of these "FAIL" image macros, be careful. I found one which used a photo from the "Running of the Bulls" that I'd describe for you were it not for the fact that I don't wanna think about it anymore.

A note or two on the Japanese language

Japanese has an amazing number of abbreviated terms and phrases. When words are taken from other languages and incorporated into Japanese, the words are almost always truncated in some way. I would conjecture that it's because the Japanese syllabry makes a lot of foreign words really long.

Take the term "plastic model". Four syllables, right? In Japanese, it's eight. "purasuchikku moderu". Small wonder that it becomes "puramoderu". Mobile Suit Gundam models have their own abbreviation, "gunpla".

They do this with their own language as well. There was a TV program on tonight, where they had a panel trying to guess what the original terms were. At first, they did a lot of "Gairaigo", foreign words rendered in Japanese, but then they started in on the native stuff, and the panel couldn't figure out about half of them.

One that everybody missed was "Konnichiwa," the standard Japanese greeting. When this one popped up, everyone was shocked that it was an abbreviation. However, if you think about it, こんにちは translates to "As for today," which makes no sense.

As it turns out, こんにちは is short for 今日はご機嫌いかがですか？ (Konnichi ha gokigen ikaga desuka?) which translates to "How are you today, honored sir?" (Lit. "As for this day, how is your health, honored sir?") "Konban wa" (Good evening) is similar.

I have a few pet theories as to why there are so many abbreviated phrases in Japanese, but as they are pretty much W.A.Gs, I won't bore you with them here.

Just thinking about thinking

The first time I met Jonny Rasmussen was in college. Although Jonny's an American, he spent a very large portion of his life in Japan, from elementary school all the way through high school. Thus, he's fluent in both English and Japanese. (People who spoke to him by phone in Japanese would often assume he was a native speaker, which would lead to some surprised reactions when he told them his name.)

Once, at lunch, one of us (it might have been me) asked him what at the time seemed to be a perfectly reasonable question. "What language do you think in?"

Now, having spent a decent chunk of time living in a foreign country and doing my best to learn the language, I realize how silly a question that is. One does not consciously choose to think in one language or another; it just happens.

I wonder why it took so long for me to figure that out?

Uh-oh

Gov't to consider Japanese language ability as requirement for long-stay foreigners - Mainichi Daily News

Apropos of nothing, first in a series

Apropos of Nothing: Random stories of little import that I find interesting/amusing.

On our travels around Kyushu, we (the JET gang) once visited a shop called Fukusaya, which specializes in "castella", a kind of sponge cake first brought to Japan by the Portugese way back when. (I think we were in Fukuoka at the time. Airport code for Fukuoka airport: FUK)

Fukusaya (福砂屋) was founded in 1624 in Nagasaki, and has been making castella ever since. They're probably the most famous makers of castella in the country. Naturally, we all bought some to bring back to our various offices/school boards/etc.

When I presented the staff at one of the schools I worked at with some castella, they were very impressed. One of the teachers asked the English teacher if I knew that Fukusaya was famous.

She said, "Of course not."

I fired back from across the room, "YES I DID," in passable Japanese.

I'm not sure, but I think that it was at this point that the rest of the staff began to have a higher opinion of me.

It's the little victories in life that make it worthwhile.

Japanese buildings can be "dangerous" places.

Case in point: The NHK Building in Okayama.

So I went to Okayama yesterday...

...to take the Japanese Language Proficiency Test, Level 2.

I was doing okay through the first two parts, but when I started the reading/grammar section, the first example was an entire article from the Yomiuri Shimbun. Complete with new and unusual kanji combinations.

That's when I knew for sure, that


Oh well. (^_^)

YouTube - 花(すべての人の心に花を)-夏川りみ

...and this is what the song sounds like.

(I'm doing a different arrangement; both the original and this version are way too high for my voice.)

Hana (Flower)

Lyrics check!

This is not a professional translation; far from it, actually. Still, I hope I got the gist of it correct. Or something...

川は流れてどこどこ行くの
人も流れてどこどこ行くの
そんな流れがつくころには
花として　花として
咲かせてあげたい

The river flows, where does it go?
People also flow; where do they go?
That kind of flow at a certain time
will bloom as a flower

*refrain:
泣きなさい、笑いなさい
いつの日か、いつの日か
花を咲かそうよ

Go ahead and cry, go ahead and laugh
for someday, the flower will bloom

涙流れてどこどこ行くの
愛も流れてどこどこ行くの
そんな流れをこのうちに
花として　花として
むかえてあげたい

Tears flow, where do they go?
Love also flows, where does it go?
That kind of flow within you,
In that direction will rise

*Refrain

花は花として笑いも出来る
人は人として涙も流す
それが自然のうたなのさ
心の中に，心の中に
花を咲かそうよ

The flower, for the flower's sake we can laugh
People, for people's sake the tears flow
This is the song of nature
within the heart, within the heart
the flower will bloom

泣きなさい，笑いなさい
いついつまでも、
いついつまでも
花をつかもうよ

go ahead and cry, go ahead and laugh
For forever
we will still use the flower

(Not sure about that last bit)
(Or, in fact, most of of it)

The Japanese Language Proficiency Test is coming

I took a look through some of the many books I've collected to help me study for the 日本語能力試験, and boy, am I in trouble....

The test is in December, and I've got a lot of studying to do. So, posts may be a bit short for a while.