I went to see Wreck It Ralph this weekend.
If you haven't seen it, go see it because it's a really cute movie and it's not too 'kidsey' even if you don't understand the hundreds of old school game references. I actually missed Sonic's appearance because NY has me conditioned to ignore PSAs and I was too fascinated with identifying the game elements in the foreground to notice it. That's probably a bad thing...
At the end there was a song by AKB48 in Japanese for the theme song to Sugar Rush. I could understand some of the lyrics:
つらいこと時にあるよね 僕たちはそれでも走るよ
Sometimes it gets tough, but just keep running
甘いものでも いかが？
How about something sweet?
But when my boyfriend asked what it was saying, I honestly couldn't tell him. I had gotten used to the Japanese syntax and word order that it made sense in my head, but in order to make it comprehensible to others, I'd have to change the word order, drop a few particles and read the sentence again in my head to make sure it was grammatically correct English. Meanwhile, my brain is already trying to work on the next sentence even though I don't understand some of it but I can pick out words like ゆめ=dream なか=inside etc.
have the same issue when I need to do the reverse, English to Japanese. Translating is really tough work.
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Commuting is not fun...
まいにち はちじに おきます。それから、あさごはん お たべます。
くじはんからじゅういちはん まで だいかく へ いきます。バス と しかてつ と あるいて で いきます。
あまりべんりじゃありません そしてとてもたかい です。
くじはんからじゅういちはん まで だいかく へ いきます。バス と しかてつ と あるいて で いきます。
あまりべんりじゃありません そしてとてもたかい です。
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
What's the difference between a chicken and a horse?
One of my fondest memories of Japan was when my boyfriend and I took a
tour of Japan. During my last year in Japan, he came to visit me in the spring and the cherry blossoms
had just came out that morning. We were to stay a few days in my house
in Sasebo before going on our journey. From Sasebo to
Nagasaki, then to Hiroshima, then up to Kyoto, over to the base of Mt
Fuji then going to Tokyo staying in each spot for just a few days each.
The whole trip would take two weeks and we would be following the
blooming flowers. I will probably write more about it later.
As I've mentioned earlier, the bad thing about dreaming of learning Japanese and living in Japan is the ability to become lazy. Working with English speakers did me no credit and even the Japanese there spoke English to me because I looked American and was assumed to speak no Japanese.
This laziness and stuck in the mundane of everyday life got me into some fun adventures when I actually needed my Japanese and failed. A prime example would be when we went to a restaurant in the small resort town of Kawaguchiko near Mt. Fuji.
The menu unfortunately was all in elaborate calligraphy. Not having studied Kanji for well over three years, I was a little rusty. I pointed to a kanji I was sure I knew and told him it was chicken. It surely looked like chicken to me. 鳥
What we received however was not chicken. It was some sort of sauteed red meat that was actually quite tasty. (It was much better than my earlier attempt at ordering salmon and getting "salted salmon livers" let me tell you!) I had brought a dictionary with me but was back at the hotel. I wrote the kanji down on a napkin and would look it up later.
Turns out what I ate and the kanji that was on the menu was horse. 馬
So be careful studying Japanese or you will not know the difference between a horse and a chicken!
As I've mentioned earlier, the bad thing about dreaming of learning Japanese and living in Japan is the ability to become lazy. Working with English speakers did me no credit and even the Japanese there spoke English to me because I looked American and was assumed to speak no Japanese.
This laziness and stuck in the mundane of everyday life got me into some fun adventures when I actually needed my Japanese and failed. A prime example would be when we went to a restaurant in the small resort town of Kawaguchiko near Mt. Fuji.
The menu unfortunately was all in elaborate calligraphy. Not having studied Kanji for well over three years, I was a little rusty. I pointed to a kanji I was sure I knew and told him it was chicken. It surely looked like chicken to me. 鳥
What we received however was not chicken. It was some sort of sauteed red meat that was actually quite tasty. (It was much better than my earlier attempt at ordering salmon and getting "salted salmon livers" let me tell you!) I had brought a dictionary with me but was back at the hotel. I wrote the kanji down on a napkin and would look it up later.
Turns out what I ate and the kanji that was on the menu was horse. 馬
So be careful studying Japanese or you will not know the difference between a horse and a chicken!
Saturday, October 6, 2012
いっしょにみつわまマアケトプライスへいきませんか
Why I want to study Japanese
I visited Japan for a school project for a week when I was in High School. I found the culture so amazing that I would do anything to go back.
Of course this meant doing what any reasonable person would do.
I signed up to be in the NAVY so I could be in Japan. I was stationed on a ship and while my homeport was technically in Japan, we spent more time away from it vising other countries than we did being at home. I then went to Sicily for shore duty for my remaining 2 years. As expected, my contractor called me and asked if I would re-enlist for another three or four years. I told him if I could get shore duty (usually you are not allowed shore duty back to back) back in Sasebo that I would re-enlist for three more years. I told him this because I was expecting to be turned down.
My orders were in my inbox the next day. Yay! Back to Sasebo I went.
It took 5 years to actually get what I wanted, but it was well worth it.
While I thought living in Japan would help me learn Japanese, being on a military base and in a military friendly town made me very lazy. I learned no more Japanese than I had in High School because I could easily get away with English and being able to read hirigana and katakana just fine. I realize I need to stop being lazy and just learn the language, so here I am. :)
Of course this meant doing what any reasonable person would do.
I signed up to be in the NAVY so I could be in Japan. I was stationed on a ship and while my homeport was technically in Japan, we spent more time away from it vising other countries than we did being at home. I then went to Sicily for shore duty for my remaining 2 years. As expected, my contractor called me and asked if I would re-enlist for another three or four years. I told him if I could get shore duty (usually you are not allowed shore duty back to back) back in Sasebo that I would re-enlist for three more years. I told him this because I was expecting to be turned down.
My orders were in my inbox the next day. Yay! Back to Sasebo I went.
It took 5 years to actually get what I wanted, but it was well worth it.
While I thought living in Japan would help me learn Japanese, being on a military base and in a military friendly town made me very lazy. I learned no more Japanese than I had in High School because I could easily get away with English and being able to read hirigana and katakana just fine. I realize I need to stop being lazy and just learn the language, so here I am. :)
セルフ イントロドクション
はじめまして, ジェイミ- パイク です. きゅうしゅう から きました. コロンビア だいがく の がくせいです.
にねんせい です. にじゅうきゆさい です. どうぞよるしく.
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