July 2008
13 posts
Sorry for the break in updates. I just got back from Chicago a few days ago, and had to prepare to go out to Northern California tomorrow.
I’m taking a break from language today. Today, we’re going to talk about food. I’m a sucker for cultures that love and care about food. As a species, eating is a necessity, and every culture on the planet has created dishes with unique flavor and character....
June 2008
10 posts
My last post dealt with English in Japanese advertising. Today, I’d like to talk a little bit about English in the actual Japanese language.
Japanese contains a tremendous amount of loanwords (外来語, gairaigo in Japanese). The term gairaigo usually accounts for foreign words not borrowed from Chinese (the vast majority of which come from English). Gairaigo are written in a specific syllabary...
Midori Wada, in response to the question posed in my previous post:
“Many, many countries use English to market products. Most Asian countries, Malawi, India, Germany… actually, many third world countries, or countries who receive aid from the United States, too. Most countries that have been a colony will idolize the “mother country,” even years after most of the influence is gone. It’s all...
If I told you that I took this picture in an English-speaking country, you’d probably believe me. The sign is in English, after all. There’s a KFC sticker on the bottom of it and everything. Would anything make you think otherwise?
The picture was taken in Shibuya, and the billboard is plastered across one of the district’s most popular malls, 109 (“ichi maru...
These are some phones we found in Akihabara. They don’t look too special from the outside. What the picture doesn’t show is that they’re all 3G, they all have high-speed, unrestricted web browsing, the vast majority have live videochat, many of them get full TV reception, and the total cost of the phone and service is significantly cheaper than in the US and Europe. Oh, and...
As Promised
Here’s the first of my regularly scheduled updates.
So, when “immigrating” into Japan (which, as mentioned, is effectively illegal), I was made to fill out a form declaring my intentions in Japan and the length of my stay. It was filled with the usual lists of contraban: automatic weapons, livestock, etc…
Then, something caught my eye:
“Immoral Materials?”...
I’m really sorry I haven’t posted lately… besides the fact that there was no internet in Kaga, a few problems have arisen back in LA, and I’m on my way home a bit early.
I’ll be posting everything I had meant to post (with pictures) day by day once I get home, so don’t worry! All will come out in time.
I’m sorry again for the lack of activity and for the...
Sorry about the delay posting… My computer is completely broken, and I’ll have to use Adam’s throughout the trip.
I arrived in Japan two days ago and, after a train ride to dinner and a train ride back, I promptly fell asleep. I did, however, manage to watch a documentary on Hikkomori syndrome.
One case in the documentary stayed in one room in her house for almost a year and,...
On my way.
I’m in Seattle right now, waiting for my flight to Tokyo Narita airport. We’re sitting at the terminal, watching a Ted lecture, which I am very much enjoying. This is a major connection point between LA and Tokyo, and all of the signs are in both Japanese and English here.
So, in order to be prepared for total imersion, I’m going to need a way to look up and translate words on...
Today in Japan
The week before I go to a foreign country, I like to read the country’s newspaper. It gives me a feel for the country, and what atmosphere I’ll be tossed into when I arrive. It doesn’t always help: I don’t think anything would have prepared me for arriving in Italy during election season. The Communist rallies were quite the spectacle. As were the Nationalist rallies. And...