Let's Learn Japanese!-Week in Review

Originally posted 3/6/2007

This week in review blog kind of helped me get out my ideas for my Asiaphile blog. I was going to write a blog about how otakus think the know Japanese from watching a lot of anime, well let's just say this blog killed 2 birds with one stone. So there will be no entry about language.

Tuesday-

I decided to sign up for Japanese for one of the required type of class to finish my general education, yeah I'm still working on general education very slooowly.

In the morning before class I was making breakfast with meat and I thought up this silly phrase "Real breakfasts contain meat.". That should be used in some kind of advertising campaign.

I didn't want to take my Hello Kitty backpack not because it might be considered an Aisaphile item, it was because it has a dark colored trim and I don't know if it's color fast so I did not want to risk it. I took my beat up Powerpuff Girls backpack instead.  

I really didn't know what I expect when I got there, and I don't mean from the class' content I mean the students. I was bracing my self to see a bunch of otakus/Japanophiles/Asiaphiles wearing their InuYasha shirts, or a ninja headband, or loose socks, munching on some kind of Japanese snack food like Pocky. When I finally find the room. I usually get lost on the first day of  class anyway. My dad put that dumb idea in my head. There is this guy looking for anime fans. And so it begins!

I was smart enough not to say anything and just have a clueless look on my face. That guy starts talking to the guy next to me. He asks him if he likes anime. The other guy says that he likes American cartoons better. Then that guy talks about how much he loves anime , how it's superior to American cartoons and the history of it. Not like I've heard that before. -_- Yeah I know I'm using an anime smiley. Then they got into talking about comics. Now since most otakus like to "show off " their knowledge of anything. He starts showing off his knowledge of Batman. Plus I don't know anything about comics. When I was a kid I use to read the Disney comics. I never read the superhero ones.  Then they start talking about Star Wars. That otaku guy was saying that the cannon contradicted the cannon. @-@ x-x He admitted he was a nerd. Yeah, like I didn't see that coming. Then this girl walks by and he asks he if she's an anime fan. She says yeah. They all start debating about Batman movies and which actors portrayed the villains best. I really didn't care, I haven't seen all the Batman movies anyway. That otaku guy who said he knew a lot about Batman didn't know who Harley Quinn was. How could he not know her!? She's a pretty famous character. Even I know who she is. Those two otakus couldn't wait to get into class. They were eager to "show off their skills" as I would call it, to the teacher. I was reluctant. I just don't want to go around saying trite Japanese words and have no idea what I'm saying. I hardly know any Japanese anyway. All the Japanese I've "learned" and I'm using the term loosely here I've learned from watching untranslated and subbed anime and watching the instructional program Let's Learn Japanese which I use to watch during the summer between 1994 and 1995. But since I haven't seen that show in years I don't remember much. I feel what I learned is not comprehensive. The one thing is the desks are too really tiny. I hate tiny desks. The desks have such a small tabletop, and it's cut at a weird angle. Those 2 otakus wouldn't stop talking about anime and they were talking so much the teacher told them to stop. When she did a few guys in the class were snickering. I knew I didn't want to be one of those people who talks about how much they love Japan and anime in class and gets snickered at behind their back. I had enough of that in high school. I can't be a full blown otaku anyway my knowledge of anime and manga is pretty limited. I'm not an otaku more like "otaku lite", I'm less annoying. (I hope). Who wants to talk to people like that besides other otakus? The teacher wanted to know all the "words and phrases" we as the class knew collectively. I pretended I didn't know anything and said nothing. Why should I? Those otakus were showing off their skills. Those otakus were showing off their skills, and that is an important thing for an otaku to do. The teacher is from the northern part of Japan. Which is famous for beer, but you know I sort of knew what she was talking about. I know about the native people of Japan who look different and have their own language. I learned that from Shaman King and the Shaman King uncensored website strangely enough. Those 2 otakus kept talking about anime and the teacher told them to be quiet. Which I thought was hilarious because if they have such a respect for the language. They would pay attention to the teacher, and listen to what she has to say instead of talking about anime. If you want to talk about anime join a club or do it online. A lot of people were still snickering at them. The teacher wanted to know what aspect of Japanese culture we (the class) were interested in. I didn't answer, but if I did I would've said "food, anime and fashion". That otaku guy wanted to know what kind of Japanese accent we were learning. He was also asking all these questions about Japanese history, and she really didn't know. I don't blame her. I mean if I was teaching English as a foreign language in another country and somebody was asking me all the questions about American history I probably wouldn't know. She recommended him to take a history of Japan class. I wondered if they even offered a class like that at this school. The bad thing about my teacher is that she is new to the school like me, so she doesn't know where anything is either. We are learning in Romaji. Well that just means to use the roman alphabet to write Japanese words instead of using Hiragana or Katakana.
Because I didn't want to seem too "otaku-ish" I told myself I would not take or do anything like that including having manga, pictures of anime/manga characters, wear odangos, or draw anime/manga characters, or eat Japanese snack food not all the time just during class.

Wednesday-

I wanted to eat a big breakfast because I knew my class was long, and I thought I might not get a break. I left for school pretty early to secure my place in class. When I got to school I realized I was there too early. I got there an hour early when I was suppose to be 30-45 minutes early. I was wasting time and listening to music I think I listened to "The Sweet Escape" song at least 3 times. It's growing on me a little, and it was really stick in my head. I was trying not to get my new Hello Kitty backpack dirty especially the part that has white faux fur on it. The fur part got a little dirty and I'm sad. I was almost late to class. I could've kicked myself for that. The class was pretty crowded when I got there. The teacher was a little late and she came in all cheerful and perky. Her heels were really noisy. She had a syllabus with a lot of rules in it about 18 to be exact. I'm not counting #19 because it was smile and had a smiley icon next to it. The teacher said we would a break and that was good. She said we should eat. That was good because I like to eat the break if I can. She says she eats during the break too, and gives out healthy food which could be good or a bad thing. Luckily there is a fast food stall like right across from the room. A little up the way there is a food store and a pretzel cart. I bought a jerky slab and a pretzel. I was hungry and the jerky was good and fatty. I couldn't wait for class to be over and we got out early and I was happy.

When I was on the bus I saw this goth looking guy with a puffy shirt. It was so funny looking. It looked like the one Jerry wore in that Seinfeld episode.

Thursday-

I got to sleep in late because I was going to class at the right time and not like a half hour early to secure my place. I was still working on keeping my backpack clean. When I got to school I went to go buy another slab of beef jerky, but the store was crowded when I got there and it took me a long time. Plus it takes me a long time to get to the building from where the store is. Luckily when I got to the building I found a door that was near my class and that my class is on the 2nd floor. When I run up the stairs I see my teacher is pushing a tv cart. So I helped her with the door. I have to make a good impression on her. I didn't want to sit in the same seat I sat in last time because I would have to sit in front of that otaku girl, so I sat next to the seat I sat in. Some people were making fun of the old tv and said it looked like it was 30 years old, but I'd say 20. I'm having hard time with Japanese. I have a bad time with "Shi". I can't make the sound, and my accent is horrible. I use to have a accent problem in French too. When I took French I was told I have a very American accent. The video we watched about the language lab was so lame and looked old, but it was made in 2003. There was a talking ID card and a talking cup. They were computer animated and looked totally lame. The computer animated things were interacting with real people. I was wondering it I looked too "otaku-ish" with my Hello Kitty backpack. I didn't want to be confronted by those 2 otakus. Then I thought it really didn't. I thought "a lot of people like Hello Kitty and that doesn't make you a otaku by default." I got lost on the way to the language lab which was sort of a good thing because I found the library that I was looking for a few days ago. I had to go all the way around and I just snuck in and sat near my class. The only part I was interested in was about the movies they had.

One good thing about The OC ending is that now I can just watch NBC from 9-10 and not worry about The OC is taping. I was watching part of Are you Smarter Than a 5th Grader? You know I thought it was a test or something like Test The Nation, but it's a game show. It's sort of like The Weakest Link and Who wants to be a Millionaire?. Scrubs was a bad episode because it was a clip show! I really don't need to see a clip show since I also watch it in syndication.