日本語のクラスはおわります。たいへんですね。

A final post on this last day of Japanese class.

What a semester! My first months of real academic work in nearly a decade have proven quite fruitful. Much to my great relief, I actually really enjoy school this time around, and I find myself as the semester draws to a close, eagerly awaiting the end of winter break so I can begin studying all over again! Next semester, Calc, Gen. Chem, Art Hum. (eastern of course!), Opera as Literature, and of COURSE Japanese 2!

This Japanese class certainly turned out to be the most time consuming. While perhaps not "difficult", there were plenty of moments throughout the semester while studying a 30 word vocabulary list, or perhaps while struggling to keep up with those damnable language lab listening assignments where I asked myself... "Why am I doing this???"

And then I remember this:

My god I love the Japanese. A little hard work and frustration does NOTHING to change that. And now, when I watch my beloved Naruto, I can actually read some of the signs and understand the odd word or two.

So onward to Nihongo glory! See you all next semester.

Composition 3

ニューヨークの医者の中で、わたしはいちばんいいです。わたしは医者ですから、びょういんではたらきます。わたしはとてもきれいなつまがいます。そしておもしろいこどもがふたりいます。わたしのアパートはおおきいですが、とてもたかいです。いつもわたしははたらきますから、おかねがたくさんあります。わたしは日本ごがよくわかいます。でも、日本ごをぜんぜんよみません、とてもむずかしですから。

じゃあまた！

Katakana Analysis

The Katakana characters first appeared in China in the 9th century. Originally, Katakana was used by Buddhist monks  to indicate the pronunciation of Chinese Kanji. It was not until 500 years later that the correspondence between Katakana characters and syllables in speech was one to one.  In other words, Katakana is a 1100-year old alphabet which took 500 years to finish.

"Since the 20th century, katakana have been used mainly to write non-Chinese loan words, onomatopoeic words, foreign names, in telegrams and for emphasis."(Omniglot.com)

Clearly, the uses for Katakana today are far more numerous than they were 1000 years ago. The first example below, however, is perhaps as close to the original concept of Katakana as pronunciation aid as is still used. 

The image above is taken from an issue of the manga, Naruto. Seen in several examples on the above page are Katakana characters used for onomatopoeia. This is similar to the origin of Katakana in that the artist of the manga uses Katakana to represent sounds that one might not otherwise know how to pronounce. Also in this example are Katakana as mimetic words. This differs from onomatopoeia slightly, in that mimetic words tend to emphasize motion as opposed to sound. An example of onomatopoeia above would be ワン　in the final frame, whereas in the second system, ズオオオオis an example of a mimetic word.


The second example below is by far the most common usage of Katakana today. Katakana is most often used to transcribe words from other languages. These "loan words" do not derive from Japanese, and often contain sounds that  would not otherwise exist in the Japanese language.

The menu comes from a Japanese pizza restaurant. Pizza, obviously not being Japanese in origin is written in Katakana, but so too are many of the other words on the menu. While some of these are obvious, for example ミックスーａ, or mix-a, others represent a more interesting trend in Japanese language. Often a word will be translated into a loan word even when the word exists in Japanese. In this case for instance, the Japanese word for egg: たまご　is replaced in the ham and egg pizza (yuck!) with the English loan word Eggusu: ハム＆エッグス.


The final example is far less clear cut than these other examples, and represents Katakana's flexibility. 

This image has many examples of Katakana. Some of them are more familiar, but the interesting example is the word ニッポン　seen towards the bottom of the image. Nippon is a Japanese word, not a foreign loan word, and it is clearly not an example of onomatopoeia or any of the other common Katakana usages. It can therefore be assumed that Katakana in this case is used for emphasis. Perhaps the advertisement wishes to emphasize this word in order to appeal to a sense of nationhood, or perhaps it is simply to draw the eye to some more important key words in that part of the advertisement. 


The point is that Katakana usage varies tremendously. Besides many prescribed usages, the flexibility to use it for emphasis means that Katakana may appear at any given moment in Japanese, and is an important part of Japanese writing and culture.


Sources:
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/japanese_katakana.htm
http://www.merriam-webster.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katakana
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manga

ターキデー！

こんしゅうはサンクスギービーングです。わたしはりょうしんのうへいきます。りょうしんはりょうりがあまりじょうずじゃありませんから、わたしたちはレストランでばんごはんをたべます。

 サンクスギービーングはやすみじゃありません、しごとがたくさんありますから。えいごのクラスのレポートが二まいあります。そしてげつようびににほんごのクラスのしけんがあります。

でも、だいじょうぶです。わたしは先生にたくさんならいます。たいへんじゃありません。

こんしゅうわたしはナルトをたくさんみます。アニメのなかで、ナルトがいちばんいいです。

じゃまた。

ハイク

もくようび
なんようびです
ターキデー！

わたしのせんりゅ

このイヌは
ちょっとおおきい
あ、クマです！

Dear Yamada San.

山田さんこんいちは。
わたしはトールです。らいにんわたしは山田さんのうちへいきます。ありがとうございます。わたしはコロンビアだいがくのがくせいです。だいがくのせいかつはとてもおもしろいです。わたしのクラスはむずかしいですが、たのしいです。いつにほねいきます、わたしはまいにちにほんごをべんきょうします。わたしはしちがつとおかににほねいきます。じゃまたしちがつに。
どうぞよろしくおねがいします。

アレックストールから

ビデオをみてください。

このビデオはとてもおもしろいです。これはにほんのムジクビデオです。ともだちにビデオをもらいます.

Katakana Analysis Draft

The three examples of Katakana that I found (you can find them in my last post) are quite varied. In two of them, the reason for usage is quite simple. One is a menu from a pizza restaurant. The menu has many offerings which originate in foreign languages, so of course Katakana is used. For example the "mixed" pizza, mikkusu, is spelled with the Katakana ミックス, and the Ham & Egg pizza is spelled ハム＆エッグス.  Even though Japanese clearly has words for some of these, eggs for example is "tamago" spelled in the hiragana たまごthe katakana is used in this case. This is probably because while there is a Japanese word for egg, the phrase "ham and eggs" is an English phrase so katakana is used.

The second example is also fairly straightforward. It comes from an issue of the manga: Naruto. There are a few examples on the page that represent two uses of katakana. One use is the sound effects of actions. In the final frame for instance we see "Ba" and "Wan" used, both in the katakana: バ　＆　ワン.  Also on the page katakana is used to represent movement. In one frame we see ゴゴゴゴゴゴ to show the opening of a gate, and in another ズオオオオ　shows the motion of a fireball flying through the air. Katakana is used in both of these cases rather than hiragana or kanji.

The third example is more puzzling. In an advertisement for a taxi company the word "Nippon" appears. Nippon is of course a Japanese word (meaning Japan) and does not fall into any of the usual categories for katakana use. However in the taxi service advertisement it appears in katakana as ニッポン.  Perhaps the katakana in this case is used as a sort of emphasis.  While it seems unlikely that the ad for a taxi service would want to specifically emphasize the word "Nippon", perhaps katakana is used to draw the eye to that part of the advertisement, perhaps to get the reader to notice more closely the kanji that follow.  It may also be a purely stylistic choice, allowing the graphic designer who made the add more opportunity to shape the advertisement into exactly the look he or she desired.

カタカナをします。

These images I found show interesting use of Katakana alphabet. The first pizza menu is almost entirely in Katakana. There are only a few exceptions like the てりやき pizza. The second image I found interesting because it uses Katakana for japanese words. Specifically ニッポン interests me. It seems unusual that they would use Katakana for their own country name. The final image is a frame from an issue of the Manga Naruto. The issue was translated into English, but they still kept all of the Katakana sound effects.e

ビールをのみました。

せんしゅうのにちようびわたしは７９ｔｈＳｔ。のＳｔ．ＪｅａｎＢａｐｔｉｓｔｅへいきました。わたしはあそこはたらきます。せんしゅうのどようびはともだちのたんじょうべです。わたしは８ビールをのみました！
にちようびわたしはごぜん８じにおきました。わたしはねませんでした。
たいへんですね。

My Japanese is more better getting.

みなさんこんばんは。

いまごご１１じです。わたしわ１１じ１５ふんねます。あしたわたしは８じおきます。わたしは９じから１１じまでにほんごべんきょうします。わたしはまいにちにほんごべんきょうします！わたしは１１じ３５ふんちかてつでいきます。

わたしはにちようびにはたらきます。St. Jean Baptiste Church のかいしゃいんです。１０じ３０ぷんから１じまではたらきます。

じゃあまたあしたみなさん！

So, who Japanese?

This has been a long time coming. My passion with all things Japanese began with Neon Genesis Evangelion. Yes, cartoons. I was probably 14 or so and it blew my mind. I think that gave way to other anime, and that into Japanese film. The 7 Samurai is one of my favorite movies of all time.

My first time in Japan I was too young to care, but for my second trip, I was sent to Yokosuka and Tokyo for 5 weeks in 2003. It was stunning and I've been dying to go back ever since.

Since then my taste for Japanese aesthetic has only grown. My favorite food is hands down ramen. The real stuff, not that freeze-dried junk. I love the minimalist architecture. Even a thing like flower arrangement just makes sense to me, the older I get.

Learning the language was the next natural step.




So far so good. The biggest challenge so far is simply fluency. Obviously I'm no where near  fluent, but even the speed at which I say or read the few things I DO know is pretty darn sad at the moment.

I SPEAK JAPANESE! FRICKIN' SWEET.

こんにちはみなさん！
 わたしはあれくさんでるとるです。これはわたしのえいごぶらごです。わたしはあめりかじんです。ぬよくからきました。ころんびあだいがくのいちねんせいがくせいです。
わたしはにじゅうはっさい。わたしはおぺらかしゅです。

にほんごはなします！

どうぞよろしく。