I've just received word that I've been offered another contract here for one year with two further one year options. And a pay rise. Yay! It looks like the head-hunter gamble thing is working for me. For instance: I got in to work this morning after 10am, and that's OKAY. OMFG. Love this job.
In other news: I've been watching lots of anime with Meagan, and she is very cool to watch anime with because she gets involved in the stories, and we usually pause the show to chit-chat about all manner of things.
One of the problems with watching subtitled anime is that it's harder to actually follow what's going on, so subtleties of plot and characterisation can be missed. Watching with someone who's watching carefully, and willing and able to make guesses at motives and mysteries makes it a lot of fun.
Like me, she's fan of sub(titles) in the eternal sub vs dub(bed audio) war. Reading subtitles takes more work, but dubs are usually wincingly awful. This is because American voice actors are, as a rule, worse actors than Japanese voice actors. Meagan's emerging interest in the language means that she listens to emotional tone carefully which is very important in getting the most out of subtitles. Without vocal cues, "Oh?" can be everything from a polite request for further explanation to an outburst of bitter regret. (Do these examples reflect that we've been watching romantic anime? I think they might...)
I've been talking about speaking Japanese quite a lot lately, and this led to a strange dream last night. In the dream I attended a (very formal) exam during which I was expected to speak Japanese. In the strange way that dreams have, I didn't speak any English at all and that wasn't a problem. The problem was that my years of watching shounen anime (giant robots and pirates) led me to use... inappropriate pronouns! That's right, I spoke like a boy, or possibly a pirate, and though I was very embarrassed I couldn't stop blurting out something very impolite ("Suwatte, yo!" Siddown!) then having to revise it ("Sumimasen. Suwatte kudasaimasenka, sensei?" My apologies. Won't you sit down, sir?). Inappropriately harsh language has been a worry ever since I started speaking Japanese to people who know it better than me, but I spoke a little Japanese with Jo at the Eurovision party and had no trouble at all staying polite. Chotto hen da na, yume wa. (It was a kinda weird dream.)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Ahh, but you don't have to worry about speaking too casual Japanese eveyday to Japanese people.
I speak with Mari everyday in Japanese that is, to say the least, of a very casual manner. In fact reading the post with your dream Japanese I only dimly remember seeing that polite form, and I have never used it. To say the least I could definitely use training in polite Japanese.
Anyway, this is not good training for dealing with the public at large. And she often lets my mistakes slide. After all, constantly correcting your lover's speech is not condusive to a good relationship. God knows how bosses / secretaries or coaches / athletes who are emotionally involved get along smoothly.
We use the extremely casual 'iranai' around the house (I don't need it / want it / etc.) I commited a great faux pas on our holiday to Kumamoto. I was about to take a photo of Mari standing in front of the castle when a nice young man foolishly offered (in the politest way possible) to take a picture with the both of us in it.
'iranai' I reflexively answered.
I may as well have said, "What the fuck would I want you to do that for?" to a helpful stranger. He apologized and left quickly, but not before Mari did some deep bows and then spent the next 1/2 hour berrating me with "How rude" and "I didn't bring you up to speak like that." :-)
Heh. You rude foreigner you.
Man, you don't use the 'masu' form? That's so strange. How do you get away with that?
I was originally going to call my dream's polite coverups "keigo" but when I looked it up, keigo is the even more polite form (with de gozaimasu for desu and irrasshaimasu for iru). The masu forms are "normal". 8) What you use every day is abrupt.
Mind you, my knowledge of Japanese is based almost entirely on anime and manga. You can probably get away with it because you're a guy. Maybe I could too -- hell, I don't actually speak to any Japanese people our age (sob!), so I have no clue how women my age are s'posed to speak amongst themselves.
But, anyway. When I was in class (so long ago!) I worked out two ways of weaselling out of having spoken abruptly: add either "to omoimasu" or "desshou" to the end of the sentence. It's forced, but at least I tried. 8) These might not work so well for you (desshou in particular is a bit too girly, I think) but could be worth a try in a pinch.
Gambare!
Post a Comment