Chapter 7 - July 2000

OK, sorry the last chapter was more for those with an interest in things linguistic but as language was a prime motivator in coming to Japan it bore some mention.

Anyway I did in fact go to Korea for a couple of nights.

Yet again another ride in a large plane that got me all excited, this time crossing Japan mostly in the dark as we departed around 6pm.

Gorgeous views regardless. The plane rose through patchy cloud cover and as such climbed into the last sunlight before darkness fell.

It was like being in another world. A place of softness and clean light. But one could see through to the world below which was a dark and forbidding landscape. The [mostly orange] city lights looking like the smoldering embers of a recent forest fire's dying remnants.

A very interdimensional view riding across one world and looking into another from the safety of my flying unicorn.

Korea: I wandered around the airport trying to figure out why I hadn't studied any Korean when a fella came up and asked me, in quite reasonable English, where I was going.

A brief interchange with him [read haggle] and I scored a ride to the area I had been told would be most interesting to stay, I'teawon, the backpacker red light area.

He took me straight to a hotel that was *very* well located and very cheap so I was sorted immediately, all that was left was find some dinner and then try to sleep in the tropical warmth.

The next day I had a mosey around the nearby area for a while and fobbed off as many shopkeepers as I could, only buying a new pair of shoes and a bumbag to carry my [way heavy] camera in.

Then I asked some passing gaijin about finding an Internet cafe and was soon sitting in a darkened lair with lovable air conditioning paying US$1 and hour to do my Internet thing.

I ended up staying there quite some time as they had some of the latest games and at that price it was cheaper than eating! The price was obviously right because I was surrounded by teenagers doing the same thing.

I took a few photos which I will endeavor to get online in the near future but I didn't get too into Korea. The traffic was insane [left-hand drive also] and dirty. The roads made Sydney look like a motorist's, and for that matter cyclist's, heaven as they were tearing up nearly everything in sight which just made the traffic even more aggressive and unpredictable.

So two nights there and I was looking for a taxi to take me back to the airport and then Nihon.

This all went according to plan and I have gotten a few more classes as well since a friend went back to Texas and gave me a few hours of his work to cover during his, one month, absence.

Hope you're well.

nomaD

Chapter 6 - July 2000

So I've been here over three months and I find I am not making as much progress with the language as I would hope. There are a few contributing factors here such as my own laziness in studying and the fact that my job teaching English means that is what I spend most of my time speaking.

The grasp I have of Nihongo does come in handy whenever there is confusion in class as to what is being said but generally it is Eigo Eigo Eigo.

That combined with the tight network of Gaijins that I tend to see on a regular basis has me using my Japanese less than when I was struggling at the airport to get a bus ticket to Katsuta.

Still I do learn a few more words every day.

The language is not so difficult except for the backward grammar and the convoluted writing system.

I do have to stop and think still when creating grammatical structures but I am getting quicker and I can read hiragana now. The 109 phonetic characters with which the Japanese could write their language if it weren't for the multiple meanings which some words have, which is resolved by using Kanji.

Just as English has duel meanings for the same sounds e.g.. right[correct|turn]/write. The Kanji themselves sometimes having various interpretations.

So they combine them. Because sometimes a kanji can be interpreted to mean something else they will add the phonetic symbols so you are sure of the intended meaning of the duplicitous Kanji because you have part of the words sound written.

Then there's Katakana which is the set of symbols which totally duplicate the Hiragana but they use them for words of a foreign origin.

So another 109 characters to learn so that I can say foreign words with the limitations of the Japanese phonetic system.

I.E. the word 'royal', when written in Katakana produces 'roiru'. There being no L in Japanese. Alongside a missing V and TH.

So I teach a student the word VERB and the hiragana/katakana they write next to it so that they can practice saying it will result in BEBE or BERUBE. The Japanese ending all syllables with a vowel except for some with an N.

I was talking to a friend, Neil, who has been here for some time [5 years] and he informed me or we concurred on some pointers on Japanese language:

It is mostly the use of verbs that you need to learn in Japanese to be able to communicate effectively as they tend to use the same adjectives repeatedly.

Whether it's a little cold or iced over they say 'samui'[cold]. When it's interesting to downright fashionably cool they say 'kakkoi'[cool].

Their language does have more expressive or shades of gray words but their mentality is to not use them. Standing out in a crowd is not the done thing in Japan and one does this if ones language is too descriptive.

Or to quote some of Neil's thoughts in response to this letter:

"
I don't know why people limit their own use of language this way.

It's partly because "That's how everybody else talks, I don't want to seem weird" I suppose I don't think anybody ever thinks about it. Maybe its laziness ... nah

With other aspects of this place - the way businesses are run, children are taught, some children are raised, etc. etc. The emphasis seems to be on compartmentalizing, systematizing and basically running like a machine.
Life is like math - a system of rules.

It rains - you use an umbrella
You travel - you buy souvenirs

You go in the house - you take your shoes off

Fuck, people I know in Canada do these things too, but its a result of common sense and free will, it isn't a custom

Basically the idea is to make everything so rule-oriented and systematic that common sense becomes obsolete.

That's why English teaching in schools has always been so fucked - they tried to turn it into some kind of mathematical system of rules.
"

This restrictiveness or constraint from using the language is a facet of Japanese society that runs deep in their collective conscience.

They follow societies rules fairly nicely and this has got to be a contributor to Japan being one of the safest countries in the world in which to live. Although things are changing, as ever.

The verbs of this language though have a great many messages. The multitude of ways one can change the verb by using different suffixes on the verb stem is where the message one conveys is totally centered.

From showing the tense [past present (future tense is usually the same but a time frame is mentioned if there's ambiguity)] to requesting or desiring, the verb has it all.

Needless to say my book 'The Complete Japanese Verb Guide', with over 600 verbs in it, has moved to the forefront of my reference material.

The verb is also modified to signify the level of politeness. Talking up to someone, down or to a peer are all different, one can also speak humbly so that makes four variants on the above.

When I open my Verb book at random I am given

Plain Form : Present / Past

Masu Form: Present Past [this is polite speech]

Imperative Form:

Te Form:

Conditional: Plain / Formal

Presumptive: Plain / Formal

Volitional: Plain / Formal

12 forms of the verb then all of the above in the negative.


OK, back to the books.