Sunday, 6 June 2010
1b: Communication's Lost Addendum
I should mention that I alwasy find conversation a sruggle because there's more often than not at least one word I don't understand, but I never have writing materials on me when this happens [and no,using my phone hadn't occured to me!!] and I have such a bad short-term memory that by the time I try to file this one word/conversation away in my mind, it's lost in a black hole *spooky echoing voice* forever.
Saturday, 5 June 2010
2: 敬語の悪夢とほかの健吾の礼節
ついて、このポストは敬語ではなします。
イギリスに敬語がありませんよかっただよ！！そして、礼節の意味合がありわけではないんです。真正直のような言うにしろ、礼節の争点で思いましたことはないんです。
私の知っ ている限り, 英語は特定の礼節のような単語がありませんの同じように日本語があります。
フランス語の礼節の謙語にもだけ本当に二つの「あなた」があります： "vous" [ブー] は "君たち、あなた" に等しいで言葉と"tu" [テュ] は "君" に等しいで言葉です。このテーブルで見てうださい： http://www2s.biglobe.ne.jp/~cama/france/lecon/lecon3/tu_vous.html
礼節の質問はずいぶん複雑です。 ほかの謙語の礼節はだろうか。
イギリスに敬語がありませんよかっただよ！！そして、礼節の意味合がありわけではないんです。真正直のような言うにしろ、礼節の争点で思いましたことはないんです。
私の知っ ている限り, 英語は特定の礼節のような単語がありませんの同じように日本語があります。
フランス語の礼節の謙語にもだけ本当に二つの「あなた」があります： "vous" [ブー] は "君たち、あなた" に等しいで言葉と"tu" [テュ] は "君" に等しいで言葉です。このテーブルで見てうださい： http://www2s.biglobe.ne.jp/~cama/france/lecon/lecon3/tu_vous.html
礼節の質問はずいぶん複雑です。 ほかの謙語の礼節はだろうか。
Thursday, 3 June 2010
1: Communication's Lost
Continuing with the communicatino theme in class, I'm going to mention a few more experiences of communication problems I've had.
_:_:_
Firstly, an incident that happened last Sunday. I was at a festival with my choir club and all the other choirs of Kumamoto [the 60th one, apaprently]!
After rehearsals - which were from 9-6 and before which I'd had no time ot clean my teeth or wash or really do anything to make myself look vaguely presentable - , some people took bikes into town while myself and about 3/4 others took a bus in.
On the way to the bus, I remember a conversation taking place between myself, the senpai and another member, both of whom were asking me whether I had a busy schedule. I remember saying that I'd planned on going home at half 7, but the senpai said something like "Heeee-eeee? But it starts at half 7".
Apparently everyone was going for drinks, and I'd thought it would be a relatively peaceful (?!?!) 1 or 2 before heading home, which I would have had enough money for along with the bus there and back.
I just remember being in an utter panic and responding with the first thing that came into my mind because I thought not responding at all would be very rude. So I ended up saying I was going to go along for drinks.
HOWEVER.... when we got into town, it turned out that EVERY SINGLE PERSON who'd been at rehearsals that day was there and we were going for tabenomihoudai; but [in my mind at least] nobody had told me this.^
In the end, the only thing I felt able to do was fake a stomachache. The senpai from choir accompanied me on the bus all the way back to university and gave me a hug before I went upstairs to bed.
I felt a little bad that I was missing out on all the fun of tabenomihoudai, but frankly I'd been stressed enough at rehearsals without having to sit and talk and drink with a load of people who I'd never met before and would perhaps never meet again.
^ One thing I should add is that as part of being Aspie [I may or may not have mentioned that I have Asperger's Syndrome in a previous post], change and routine disturbances are not always appreciated.
I can ususally handle change to routines and if something ends up cancelled at the last minute, I might get annoyed for a few minutes but then calm down and understand why.
However, in this case as I was stressed about finances, my inability to speak Japanese, being so scruffy and being on a big stage in front of a load of people, I found that something was bugging my eye in the lifts on the way up to the tabenomihoudai place.
Then there was the fact that I spent most of the time while I was there hiding in the toilets and calling a friend in tears.
_:_:_
I did tell a couple of people that I didn't have enough money to do much but I don't think they listened. Or maybe my attempts at vaguely hinting I wanted an early night missed.
But I'll tell you something I learned that day:
_:_:_
Firstly, an incident that happened last Sunday. I was at a festival with my choir club and all the other choirs of Kumamoto [the 60th one, apaprently]!
After rehearsals - which were from 9-6 and before which I'd had no time ot clean my teeth or wash or really do anything to make myself look vaguely presentable - , some people took bikes into town while myself and about 3/4 others took a bus in.
On the way to the bus, I remember a conversation taking place between myself, the senpai and another member, both of whom were asking me whether I had a busy schedule. I remember saying that I'd planned on going home at half 7, but the senpai said something like "Heeee-eeee? But it starts at half 7".
Apparently everyone was going for drinks, and I'd thought it would be a relatively peaceful (?!?!) 1 or 2 before heading home, which I would have had enough money for along with the bus there and back.
I just remember being in an utter panic and responding with the first thing that came into my mind because I thought not responding at all would be very rude. So I ended up saying I was going to go along for drinks.
HOWEVER.... when we got into town, it turned out that EVERY SINGLE PERSON who'd been at rehearsals that day was there and we were going for tabenomihoudai; but [in my mind at least] nobody had told me this.^
In the end, the only thing I felt able to do was fake a stomachache. The senpai from choir accompanied me on the bus all the way back to university and gave me a hug before I went upstairs to bed.
I felt a little bad that I was missing out on all the fun of tabenomihoudai, but frankly I'd been stressed enough at rehearsals without having to sit and talk and drink with a load of people who I'd never met before and would perhaps never meet again.
^ One thing I should add is that as part of being Aspie [I may or may not have mentioned that I have Asperger's Syndrome in a previous post], change and routine disturbances are not always appreciated.
I can ususally handle change to routines and if something ends up cancelled at the last minute, I might get annoyed for a few minutes but then calm down and understand why.
However, in this case as I was stressed about finances, my inability to speak Japanese, being so scruffy and being on a big stage in front of a load of people, I found that something was bugging my eye in the lifts on the way up to the tabenomihoudai place.
Then there was the fact that I spent most of the time while I was there hiding in the toilets and calling a friend in tears.
_:_:_
I did tell a couple of people that I didn't have enough money to do much but I don't think they listened. Or maybe my attempts at vaguely hinting I wanted an early night missed.
But I'll tell you something I learned that day:
- Slow DOWN. Don't respond straight away with the first thing that you believe makes sense to you and the other party in a vain attempt to be polite - stop and think, even if it maybe means having to pull out a densji jisho in the middle of the road or something.
- Bulid up self-confidence in speaking Japanese. On reflection, I think this is by far the biggest hurdle I have facing me.
- If you say you're ill, then you will be looked after as best as possible!
First one in a VERY VERY long time... sorry!
I'm sorry I wasn't in last week's class. I don't feel comfortable divulging the reasons in such a public space, if that's OK.
Seeing as I've not written one for almost two weeks, there's a lot for me to witter on about. So much, in fact, I may have to do several 'short' (haha!!) entries, seeing as everything I want to talk about wouldn't really fit together cohesively in one that took up the whole of your average computer monitor.
じゃ、よっし。。。。
Seeing as I've not written one for almost two weeks, there's a lot for me to witter on about. So much, in fact, I may have to do several 'short' (haha!!) entries, seeing as everything I want to talk about wouldn't really fit together cohesively in one that took up the whole of your average computer monitor.
じゃ、よっし。。。。
Wednesday, 26 May 2010
人々＝くそ！Unless, of course, they're on Lang-8!
http://lang-8.com/13545/journals/496888/%E4%BA%BA%E3%80%85%EF%BC%9D%E3%81%8F%E3%81%9D%EF%BC%81
今ひるのゲミ・コールは、二人の女性の間に立ちました。そして、一番大切の理由はビルは私に「７時前に帰りたい」と言わしました。
そして、ビルの帰りたい時間がわからなかっただか ら、「６時」とまちがわしました。
Sadly, I don't know how to say "I didn't think people could stoop that low" in Japanese yet.. I WAS going to put 'Japanese', but of course that's unfair racial stereotyping. ALL races have a few individiduals that don't play nice.
But yeah, that really got me VERY VERY angry.
今ひるのゲミ・コールは、二人の女性の間に立ちました。そして、一番大切の理由はビルは私に「７時前に帰りたい」と言わしました。
そして、ビルの帰りたい時間がわからなかっただか ら、「６時」とまちがわしました。
Sadly, I don't know how to say "I didn't think people could stoop that low" in Japanese yet.. I WAS going to put 'Japanese', but of course that's unfair racial stereotyping. ALL races have a few individiduals that don't play nice.
But yeah, that really got me VERY VERY angry.
Sunday, 23 May 2010
Just a little thankyou....
Cheers for coming to Rob's 21st meal on Saturday night, Masden-sensei! It was totally unexpected, but sweet of you to do so.
*sings and headbangs* Communication Breakdown, Communication Breakdown
*stands upright again* OK, so that's all I know of that Led Zeppelin song. Whoo, that felt good!
Anyway, Masden-sensei [Ummm.... what SHOULD I call you on here?] seems to have taken note that a fair few of us wanted to move on from the topic of genders, as our new topic is Communication.
I think this is quite a good choice as - although less likely to be controversial than the last topic - it's still a good wide one and has plenty of scope for differences between countries to be shown.
Several of us gave examples of communication problems;
Kie mentioned that both male and female Japanese have stood her up (no, not necessarily like a date!) despite having told her 「だいじょうぶ」 i.e. indicating that they COULD meet her, which surprised and annoyed me. I was surprised because I thought that if they couldn't go, the Japanese would just say that they couldn't go and not feel a need to give a reason/excuse.
This was mentioned by Carly.
*****
One example I gave - which I was grateful to my Mum for having mentioned to me when she came to visit in April - is that sometimes, when you ask a Japanese person a question, the response you get will be completely unrelated.
_:_
One day in mid-late April, when I was a new kid and looking for a classroom, I walked up to the nearest student I could find, showed her my time table and asked *puts on slowly, badly spoken Japanese with excessively strong English accent which will be written phonetically here for the purposes of entertainment* 「この,クラス[extra emphasis]は・どっこ・[/emphasis]です・[emphasis]か。[/emphasis]」
The response I got was "Oh, you have this teacher? [Can't remember who it was I was having now]. She is very kind".... and then she walked away! WOT.
N.B. I know that どっこ isn't how you say "where"!
My group discussed ひつよい i.e. the sort of pervy men who categorically take no for an answer [in the context we used it for]. In Japan, it'd appear to be the case that it tends to be foreigners who are like this.
At the end of Thursday's class, we all got into a circle and had to answer a question with Yes (blue card) or No (red card), although several people also used Sometimes/Maybe (yellow card).
I put forward a question about whether body lanugage in Japan was different to that in the UK and there was a lot of discussion about gestures.
On reflection, perhaps this question was vague, so Masden-sensei came to the rescue again and asked whether people can read body language of those in their own country. I immediately put the red card on because.... well, I struggle with reading people full stop, basically!
I was surprised, but also very relieved, to note that several Japanese people also put no to people of their own country. Misa mentioned that the Japanese do tend to be fairly hard to read as they don't show emotion as much as Westerners do.
_:_:_
Before I finish off, I think I should mention the final statistics we were shown about gender pay gaps arond the world and attitudes towards women working after marriage and housewives.
See here: http://bunkaseminar.blogspot.com/2010/05/some-statistics-about-gender-equality.html
While the amount of Japanese in full-time permanent work - rather than on temporary contracts - is decreasing all around, women are often the first ones to be laid off. *DEEP BREATH* Now, I shall be mature about this.
Also, the thicker lines on the first table show that while fewer men and women want women to be housewives, there are more women who want to be housewives than men wnating women to be housewives. Unfortunately, forgotten what the dotted ones represent now.
Although things on the work front for women are generally better than they used to be; there are still some rather large hurdles ot overcome.
The third table in the above link shows the gender pay gap in Japan to be higher than [in order of lasrgest to smallest pay gap] Germany, the the US, the UK and Sweden. This taken from looking at the left column.
Anyway, Masden-sensei [Ummm.... what SHOULD I call you on here?] seems to have taken note that a fair few of us wanted to move on from the topic of genders, as our new topic is Communication.
I think this is quite a good choice as - although less likely to be controversial than the last topic - it's still a good wide one and has plenty of scope for differences between countries to be shown.
Several of us gave examples of communication problems;
Kie mentioned that both male and female Japanese have stood her up (no, not necessarily like a date!) despite having told her 「だいじょうぶ」 i.e. indicating that they COULD meet her, which surprised and annoyed me. I was surprised because I thought that if they couldn't go, the Japanese would just say that they couldn't go and not feel a need to give a reason/excuse.
This was mentioned by Carly.
*****
One example I gave - which I was grateful to my Mum for having mentioned to me when she came to visit in April - is that sometimes, when you ask a Japanese person a question, the response you get will be completely unrelated.
_:_
One day in mid-late April, when I was a new kid and looking for a classroom, I walked up to the nearest student I could find, showed her my time table and asked *puts on slowly, badly spoken Japanese with excessively strong English accent which will be written phonetically here for the purposes of entertainment* 「この,クラス[extra emphasis]は・どっこ・[/emphasis]です・[emphasis]か。[/emphasis]」
The response I got was "Oh, you have this teacher? [Can't remember who it was I was having now]. She is very kind".... and then she walked away! WOT.
N.B. I know that どっこ isn't how you say "where"!
My group discussed ひつよい i.e. the sort of pervy men who categorically take no for an answer [in the context we used it for]. In Japan, it'd appear to be the case that it tends to be foreigners who are like this.
At the end of Thursday's class, we all got into a circle and had to answer a question with Yes (blue card) or No (red card), although several people also used Sometimes/Maybe (yellow card).
I put forward a question about whether body lanugage in Japan was different to that in the UK and there was a lot of discussion about gestures.
On reflection, perhaps this question was vague, so Masden-sensei came to the rescue again and asked whether people can read body language of those in their own country. I immediately put the red card on because.... well, I struggle with reading people full stop, basically!
I was surprised, but also very relieved, to note that several Japanese people also put no to people of their own country. Misa mentioned that the Japanese do tend to be fairly hard to read as they don't show emotion as much as Westerners do.
_:_:_
Before I finish off, I think I should mention the final statistics we were shown about gender pay gaps arond the world and attitudes towards women working after marriage and housewives.
See here: http://bunkaseminar.blogspot.com/2010/05/some-statistics-about-gender-equality.html
While the amount of Japanese in full-time permanent work - rather than on temporary contracts - is decreasing all around, women are often the first ones to be laid off. *DEEP BREATH* Now, I shall be mature about this.
Also, the thicker lines on the first table show that while fewer men and women want women to be housewives, there are more women who want to be housewives than men wnating women to be housewives. Unfortunately, forgotten what the dotted ones represent now.
Although things on the work front for women are generally better than they used to be; there are still some rather large hurdles ot overcome.
The third table in the above link shows the gender pay gap in Japan to be higher than [in order of lasrgest to smallest pay gap] Germany, the the US, the UK and Sweden. This taken from looking at the left column.
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