今日の日本語の言葉: hanasu (話す) - to talk
Today's word was brought to you by today's blog subject: difficulties one experiences when speaking Japanese
Before I go any further, I have to let everybody know that I have a new boy-band obsession. EXO. Oh my god, they are so good. And they can actually dance! Although I love Arashi's music and that of a slew of other Japanese bands, I've yet to encounter a Japanese boy band that can actually dance. But all South Korean bands I know and love (TVXQ, Super Junior, Big Bang, EXO, Shinee, etc.) are such good dancers! Of course, all of them belong to S. M. Entertainment, so maybe it's S. M. Entertainment that is actually my obsession. xD
But I just found EXO recently, while I was searching through some fanfiction, and they're so good! They're decent when it comes to catchy tunes, but their voices are better than what I've heard from other groups, and their music videos are super badass. Oh my god. Below I have the music video to one of their songs called "MAMA." To understand why I like them, you really do have to watch the music video and see the choreography and video effects. GAH! (There's a long intro at the beginning, and if you want to skip the bunch of English narration, feel free to skip to 1:37 for the beginning of the actual song).
Anyways, I had a wonderful day today, which was welcomingly uneventful, considering how much I've actually been doing this week. I had a nice long talk with Anna this morning, helped her with her psychology homework, wrote stuff with her, and talked with her about the upcoming trip and what we should do. Whatever it is we do, it's bound to be awesome! :D
I left to school today with my laptop in tow. I knew we had a test, and they usually don't take me more than ten minutes, so what was I going to do with the rest of the time? Write, of course! And that's exactly what I did. Although we also got a chance to do some future classwork after we finished the test, and that's what I did too. Something that made my day though, was that my name ended up in the classwork! The middle one in the picture below has my name beside it, and the text reads: last week, I went to see a movie with my boyfriend. That's right. Aaron has made his way into my homework too. I talk about many of you guys almost every day, and my classmates definitely know pictures of everyone that I have pictures of (Anna's whole family, dad, mom, Corbin and Co., Aaron's family, etc.). I might talk about you guys to much.
After school, I went straight home. The only thing I did was stop on the way in a store to grab some lunch for tomorrow, since I'm going hiking on Mount Takao! Well, that is if it doesn't rain. If it does, then I think our plan is to go bowling (which I suck at, so... uh... am I ready to make a fool of myself in front of a bunch of college students, including a fellow Harvard student? Hmm...). I hope we can go hiking though. Takao-san ("san" in this instance means "mountain") is supposed to be at its most beautiful at this time of year, and I don't want to pay out of my own pocket to go alone, you know?
At the store, I found two interesting things which I wish to share with you. The first is a Mojito Ginger drink which I found right next to children's yogurt. Well, that doesn't happen in America. xD
I was tempted to get it, just to see how it was, since it sounded interesting, but drinking ginger has never been my thing. Zannen.
The second thing I found were these two boxes of cookie like things (with meat in them, I think, if I'm reading the kanji right), one of Rilakkuma (which is that bear thing) and the other of someone in this position, which seems to be quite famous in Japan. I've seen figurines of this, soap molded like this, the works. Why? I thought this was pretty funny (and cute), though.
There's also a cool two tiered bike rack near my house. I don't know how you get your bike down from the top, but I suspect that with Japanese technology, there's no way you'd just have to lift it up and down yourself. They're always so space efficient, though! They can fit so many more bikes here than an American bike stand area of this size can. *sigh*
I got home quickly and ate a nice dinner of corn soup, chicken, and garlic bread. Afterward, I washed dishes and cleaned up the house a bit, and took care of the children, since Yoshiko-san seemed sick. Poor her, she also had accounting homework to do (she's taking accounting classes... in English. Really difficult).
So my way of entertaining the children basically involved them putting themselves into what I did. Whenever I work downstairs, Ayuka likes to sit on my lap and look at what I'm doing. Sometimes she'll make her cute little helpful comments like "You type things in here?" or "That's a picture of a building!" and then I would tell her what the picture was of, or what I was writing. It's a win-win situation. I can educate her about the parts of Tokyo to which she has not been, and in exchange, I get a fluffy, adorable good smelling space heater.
As I sort of mentioned yesterday, I've also started reading to them every night, which they seem to enjoy, and I definitely enjoy very much. They're very attentive children, and they ask many questions which only children would ask (or notice), like where's that one mouse from the last page that isn't on this one? It's really cute. Today, we read another version of Cinderella (I love this house more because it has so many different versions of Cinderella; she is my favorite Disney princess, after all).
Using Japanese is a lot harder than hearing it, much like with any other language, I think. You understand how people phrase things, but when it comes time for you to phrase it yourself, all the grammar you know makes it pretty tough to conjugate, then put together, then remember well enough to actually say it out loud. That's already tough as it is.
Now imagine that you're taking Japanese, and you're doing it in Japan. Japanese teachers in America are too nice to their students, and thus, when they go to Japan, I'm sure there's a culture shock between what Japanese they know, and what they actually hear. And when they open their mouths to speak, what they say sounds really weird to locals, because they're using complete sentences. Japanese people don't use complete sentences. They often leave the subject and object out of sentences, which is like this happening in English:
A: What did do? (implied "today" and implied "you")
B: Miso cooking.
A: Fun? The making and the learning. Was it hard?
B: Yes. (B is answering one of those questions, but we're not sure which one)
A: Why?
B: Lots of people. (implied "were there," which then implies some sort of business that makes it hard to get a teacher's attention, or something)
The conversation goes on like that, and the longer it goes, the more confusing it gets. Just what was the subject again? Who was there? Was it fun, or was it hard? Both?
This leaving out the subject and the object phenomenon (also called lack of "shugo") confuses every day Japanese speakers too, not just foreigners. So can you imagine how a foreigner who thinks that he's pretty good at the language might feel when he comes here and everyone's clipping things off left and right? And he's expected to do the same, too, otherwise he sounds so foreign and people can't take him seriously. You have to go from speaking whole sentences, using "I" every time, for example, to not using it at all. Especially to someone who is used to English grammar, that's tough to do.
Thus, that's what I've been trying to get used to while I'm here. Somehow, Yoshiko-san has never used the word "watashi" ("I"), and I've always understood what she's said. How does that happen? Often, we talk so quickly that my mind has to focus on the subject and the meaning of her words, rather than how she puts them together.
And there you have it. That's the main struggle I find most difficult to deal with when speaking Japanese. To sound like a local, you have to just sort of abandon certain parts of grammar and go with it. Verbs and some nouns only. Time markers are sometimes optional too, which makes timing confusing as well. *sigh*
Well, thinking about all that has made me tired! I have to wake up early for hiking tomorrow, so I'm going to go to bed now! Hope today's post has been informative and interesting for you, despite the lack of events.
Mata ashita! また明日、
マギー
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