I have a long break between classes on Tuesdays, so I thought I'd hang out at the computer lab until my next class. The writing professor I need to give me an SKN so I can get into my fourth class still hasn't returned any of my messages and he hasn't been in his office. Granted, his class doesn't start until, like, four, but I was hoping he'd be in so I could beg him (politely) to let me into this required course. I'm trying not to panic, as there's little I can do at this point. Focus on the positive, right?
Had my first Japanese class today. I was pursuaded to take Japanese instead of Chinese (Mandarin) by my friend, C--, who is from Taiwan and is a native speaker and essay and caligraphy contest winner back in Taiwan (Mandarin). He said I'd learn to read faster in Japanese. "You'll get frustrated," he said. "It would take you too long to learn to read Mandarin." Except that there's still memorization, right? I have to memorize the hiragama and kanji (the Chinese characters). Twenty-four this semester. That's all. Just twenty-four. Still, I'm hoping I'll learn to read Japanese and not have to rely on translators for my novels. I still want to learn Mandarin, as the translations appear to be even worse (very stilted, make the most exciting stories boring with crappy English), but I got scared. I'm not a spring chicken. Still, Japanese is going to be one hell of a challenge for a rapidly aging round-eye like myself. We shall see.
It was fun to sit in class. Most of the students appear to be Chinese, with a couple Korean and then the typical white suburban-with-urban-pretentions geeks. They have the uniform. The hair, the trenchcoat, the bags, the shoes/boots. They're kind of cute, these young 'uns. Kawaii-cute, not drool!-cute. Definitely not drool!-cute.
Today was mostly warning us how hard it will be to learn Japanese if you have a European background. We learned, in romanji, Nihongo ("Japanese language"), and she taught us to call her Kaya-sensei (though she wrote it "sensee" on the board, which would be pronounced very differently) and called us [family name]-san, and told us to respond "hai!" when called on during rollcall, the latter three of which I naturally knew already being the anime geek that I am. We were assigned Japanese family names which she'll use all semester. Little cards with the kanji in thick black marker, the romaji above in ballpoint and the hiragama (pronounciation guide) below the kanji in blue ballpoint, with translation into English in same. My new Japanese name is Mochizuki, which translates as hope moon (mochi being "hope" and zuki being "moon," apparently).
You can call me Mochizuki-san from now on.
She told us we could trade for another name if we didn't like ours. I was tempted to ask for a simpler name, but then I thought, "Hope is a good thing with which to start a new language and moon is the planet for Cancer, which is my sign. It should be okay."
I just hope my handwriting improves soon when writing the kanji and hiragama. Ugggggly. Seriously ugly. I'm so ashamed!
Anyway, when class was over and we were packing up our things, it took me a while to get my stuff together as I wanted to take a picture of the giant sliding ruler above the chalkboard, which was just too cool to ignore, and rearrange my backpack. I realized I wanted to ask the professor if she had ordered the textbook from the cheaper retailer downtown and actually called her Kaya-sensei to get her attention, which made her smile at me. I was so happy!
I love learning a new language. It's so cool. When I was a kid, one of my life goals was to learn as many languages as humanly possible. My goals have lessened a great deal since then, but I'd still like to learn a lot of languages, in spite of the difficulties. I'm lucky that my brother-in-law is French and my newphew is learning French so I can pick it up again from them, and I want to return to German eventually. It so comparatively easy to learn European languages, I'm ashamed I don't know the ones I learned better and haven't learned more. I'd like to get at least one Middle Eastern language under my belt and at least two Far Eastern, and all of the Celtic languages, dead and living, and Ancient Greek (I still don't like Latin, but I think I'll have to return to it to consider myself literate). We'll see. That's a lot of money and time, and I'm neither wealthy nor very young. At least I'm getting started on Japanese, though. It's taken me long enough to get up the gumption. We'll see how I do at the advanced age of thirty. (Old fart.)
Had my first Japanese class today. I was pursuaded to take Japanese instead of Chinese (Mandarin) by my friend, C--, who is from Taiwan and is a native speaker and essay and caligraphy contest winner back in Taiwan (Mandarin). He said I'd learn to read faster in Japanese. "You'll get frustrated," he said. "It would take you too long to learn to read Mandarin." Except that there's still memorization, right? I have to memorize the hiragama and kanji (the Chinese characters). Twenty-four this semester. That's all. Just twenty-four. Still, I'm hoping I'll learn to read Japanese and not have to rely on translators for my novels. I still want to learn Mandarin, as the translations appear to be even worse (very stilted, make the most exciting stories boring with crappy English), but I got scared. I'm not a spring chicken. Still, Japanese is going to be one hell of a challenge for a rapidly aging round-eye like myself. We shall see.
It was fun to sit in class. Most of the students appear to be Chinese, with a couple Korean and then the typical white suburban-with-urban-pretentions geeks. They have the uniform. The hair, the trenchcoat, the bags, the shoes/boots. They're kind of cute, these young 'uns. Kawaii-cute, not drool!-cute. Definitely not drool!-cute.
Today was mostly warning us how hard it will be to learn Japanese if you have a European background. We learned, in romanji, Nihongo ("Japanese language"), and she taught us to call her Kaya-sensei (though she wrote it "sensee" on the board, which would be pronounced very differently) and called us [family name]-san, and told us to respond "hai!" when called on during rollcall, the latter three of which I naturally knew already being the anime geek that I am. We were assigned Japanese family names which she'll use all semester. Little cards with the kanji in thick black marker, the romaji above in ballpoint and the hiragama (pronounciation guide) below the kanji in blue ballpoint, with translation into English in same. My new Japanese name is Mochizuki, which translates as hope moon (mochi being "hope" and zuki being "moon," apparently).
You can call me Mochizuki-san from now on.
She told us we could trade for another name if we didn't like ours. I was tempted to ask for a simpler name, but then I thought, "Hope is a good thing with which to start a new language and moon is the planet for Cancer, which is my sign. It should be okay."
I just hope my handwriting improves soon when writing the kanji and hiragama. Ugggggly. Seriously ugly. I'm so ashamed!
Anyway, when class was over and we were packing up our things, it took me a while to get my stuff together as I wanted to take a picture of the giant sliding ruler above the chalkboard, which was just too cool to ignore, and rearrange my backpack. I realized I wanted to ask the professor if she had ordered the textbook from the cheaper retailer downtown and actually called her Kaya-sensei to get her attention, which made her smile at me. I was so happy!
I love learning a new language. It's so cool. When I was a kid, one of my life goals was to learn as many languages as humanly possible. My goals have lessened a great deal since then, but I'd still like to learn a lot of languages, in spite of the difficulties. I'm lucky that my brother-in-law is French and my newphew is learning French so I can pick it up again from them, and I want to return to German eventually. It so comparatively easy to learn European languages, I'm ashamed I don't know the ones I learned better and haven't learned more. I'd like to get at least one Middle Eastern language under my belt and at least two Far Eastern, and all of the Celtic languages, dead and living, and Ancient Greek (I still don't like Latin, but I think I'll have to return to it to consider myself literate). We'll see. That's a lot of money and time, and I'm neither wealthy nor very young. At least I'm getting started on Japanese, though. It's taken me long enough to get up the gumption. We'll see how I do at the advanced age of thirty. (Old fart.)
