In Japan, it is customary for co-workers to go out drinking together. It's a lot of fun. Here are some phrases used on me, last night, to encourage the drinking of sake:
1. ~8:30 : "You must learn the power of Japanese sake."
2. ~9:00 : "Memories banish!"
3. ~10:00 : "Let's make a legend."
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Maybe I'm making this up
But the songs of Belle & Sebastian seem to speak to the concerns of rural Japanese teenagers, as I imagine them.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
4 Things
1. How do I remove the lines around the title of my blog at the top of the page?
2. I have posted a few pictures of Japan on Facebook.
3. I got my first paycheck today. Mostly it will go to food and debt, but as a small indulgence I have bought myself a nice new pair of headphones (they go all the way over my ears) and am listening to the Fleet Foxes Sun Giant EP. I cannot express how nice it is not to have to live off of convenience store food anymore (because they are the only ones who will accept a credit card).
4. A question has been rattling around in my head: for a Japanese person, what are the emotional connotations of American accented Japanese? I think, for most Americans, there are certain associations that the sound of a foreign accent seems to activate -- which of these associations we can reliably ascribe to cultural stereotypes, and which to phonological properties I will not pretend to be able to say -- (though I would bet everything I own that both are important factors, and the chains of causation leading from them to any eventual effect are heavily intertwined -- but this is common sense) -- but, to me at least, English speech with a French or Russian accent conjures up a certain intellectual and emotional response that is difficult to describe (in language) in the same way that flavors and smells are difficult to describe (in language). My hope, however, is that to a Japanese person who (god bless them) suffers the hearing of my mangling their language (that was kind of a Japanese grammar joke, but its doubly sad because: 1. probably no one reading this will get it, and 2. I'm not even sure if I fully understand the grammar about which I am joking) has the same sort of quasi-emotional-intellectual reaction as I do when I hear someone with a Russian accent. Though perhaps the fact that they won a war against Russia, and have been chuffed up about it ever since, means that that's not such a good idea after all.
2. I have posted a few pictures of Japan on Facebook.
3. I got my first paycheck today. Mostly it will go to food and debt, but as a small indulgence I have bought myself a nice new pair of headphones (they go all the way over my ears) and am listening to the Fleet Foxes Sun Giant EP. I cannot express how nice it is not to have to live off of convenience store food anymore (because they are the only ones who will accept a credit card).
4. A question has been rattling around in my head: for a Japanese person, what are the emotional connotations of American accented Japanese? I think, for most Americans, there are certain associations that the sound of a foreign accent seems to activate -- which of these associations we can reliably ascribe to cultural stereotypes, and which to phonological properties I will not pretend to be able to say -- (though I would bet everything I own that both are important factors, and the chains of causation leading from them to any eventual effect are heavily intertwined -- but this is common sense) -- but, to me at least, English speech with a French or Russian accent conjures up a certain intellectual and emotional response that is difficult to describe (in language) in the same way that flavors and smells are difficult to describe (in language). My hope, however, is that to a Japanese person who (god bless them) suffers the hearing of my mangling their language (that was kind of a Japanese grammar joke, but its doubly sad because: 1. probably no one reading this will get it, and 2. I'm not even sure if I fully understand the grammar about which I am joking) has the same sort of quasi-emotional-intellectual reaction as I do when I hear someone with a Russian accent. Though perhaps the fact that they won a war against Russia, and have been chuffed up about it ever since, means that that's not such a good idea after all.
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