Just as I was afraid they would, Japanese and American students in Akita completely segregated themselves and do not talk at all, with one notable excetion of American boys who chase Japanese girls. Those are persistent enough to knock down the cultural barriers and get some language practice. Administration tries …
read moreStudying abroad, vicarious report 1
Ana-sempai failed her placement test in Japanese language comprehension and is given remedial classes. Perhaps JPLT 2 is not all it's made out to be.
On the other hand, back in the day when I enrolled her into elementary school in America, she failed her English placement test as well …
read moreLearning Japanese by watching anime
Back when Owen blasted so-called "poseurs", I expressed significant doubts that many people were dumb enough to try learning Japanese from anime. I certainly never had enough success with it; it was fun, but the rate of adoption was such that my natural death were certain to interrupt the curve …
read moreI'm an おたく
Kotoba for iPhone/iPod Touch
Kakitori-kun
Left: Kanken DS (2.50 mil ppl), right: Kakitori-kun.
Sadly, the game is monopolized by Ana-sempai.
read moreKohnami
I went to a restaurant in Santa Fe, called "Kohnami". Here's what the title of their menu looks like:
The first character is listed in The New Nelson as an alternative to well-known "kami"/神. Its Nelson index is 4088, Morohashi number 24673. However, according to New Nelson, it does …
read moreAzuma-sensei on Yotsuba anime
Gia translates for us the post Kiyohiko Azuma made on the topic.
First of all, he denies a displeasure with Azumanga the animation. Not that I ever believed the rumors, since it was extremely faithful to the manga and translated the spirit well.
But as for Yotsuba, it seems that …
read moreSlang for "groupies"
At about 2:58 into ep.10 of first Nodame, Mine yells what sounds like "mihadomo(ga)". It is translated as "groupies".
Sadly, I was unable to find it in any dictionary. It's either mispronounced/misheard, a compound word, or a slang that hasn't filtered down into dictionaries yet.
UPDATE …
read moreやはり、日本語はむりだ