Saturday, March 31

A pleasant surprise

While shopping for yet another glass (yes, I admit, I am a glass smasher... it was the third since I came to Japan) in my favourite hyaku-yen shop, Daiso, I noticed some thin glasses that looked extremely familiar, exactly the shape that my granny used to serve me tea in. Intrigued, I came closer to discover that they were indeed made in Poland. Who would have thought! (and how did THEY manage not to smash it during such a long journey, I wonder!)

The Japanese version of the golden box says 'Made in Europe' instead of  'Made in Poland', mentioning Poland in the further description.
This one says 'Made in Poland - heat-resistent glass mug'. I need to get some, by the way.

Friday, March 30

Socializing in Kyoto - Clubs/ Circles of interest

As the title of the blog suggest, I am quite boring a person. So boring and old-fashioned, in fact, that you would rather find me in my room reading the Japanese translation of Jane Austen's 'Pride and Prejudice' (for the curious: オースティンの自負と偏見 (じふとへんけん), O-sutin no jifu to henken) than hanging out with a bunch of uninteresting people with nothing to say, just for the sake of the so-called 'language practice'. Which is not much help, even if practice, when they a/ keep on mumbling in their local slangs, whether Osaka, Kyoto or Tokyo-ben, b/ seem to know less kanji than you and are fairly useless when it comes to seriously problematic issues like keigo, academic writing or even analyzing the text that isn't from a manga or a magazine, c/ expect you not knowing anything about Japan or Japanese and speaking English all the time, teaching them. Maybe I'm harsh on this one, but I'm too old for an unrequited language exchange - if you don't want to share the language fairly, then sorry mate, 3000 yen per 1.5 hour of quality class, please. Well, that's my opinion, and I'll stand my ground here. I guess that if I had a chance to come to Japan while still young and unbiased, I would have been more charitable with my time. Now it just seems like such a waste of quality time I've spent studying, reading and learning about the world, to talk to people half generation my junior about things like dramas they saw, how drunk they were at the party and which bands have かっこい, kakkoi (handsome, cute) members.

Socializing has never been my main purpose of coming to Kyoto. But if you are a fortunate owner of a sociable, easy-going and aimiable personality, there is a number of activites/places that might be just right for you. Take, for instance:
  
image source

Club/circles of interest

If you're a student, do take your time and browse through a list of clubs/circular activities (部活(ぶかつ), bukatsu, サークル活動(かつどう),saakuru katsudou) the university has to offer. Chances are that whatever your favourite sport, hobby or even a language you speak - there is a club for it. Some of them are free, but most of them requires at least the joining fee, if not further monthly contribution. Fees depend on whether or not the club needs to provide materials for the activity (like 生け花, flower arrangement, 2000 yen/month), equipment (sport clubs), the amount of activities it organizes, etc. Based on 京都外大 booklet for 2011-2012, it could be anything from as little as 300 yen joining fee with no monthly fees, to even 650 yen joining fee and 2300 yen monthly.

They seem to be worth the money though, plus they would allow you to make some Japanese friends while enjoying your favourite activity. Be prepared to sacrifice sufficient amount of time for your clubs/circles, though, as they take attendance and participation really seriously (they're Japanese after all, right?), and some sport clubs can require few hours long daily trainings. As a general rule, clubs are more strict than circles.

Now, whether the foreigner is a desireable addition to the club - that's a different issue. I don't want to spoil the fun, I just wish someone had told me all that before. In the language clubs you'll be treated like a king because your skills are very sought-after. In most sport clubs you shouldn't have much trouble participating because of the 'easily transferrable skills' in the field. But even in that language-barrier transcending oasis of activity certain limitations apply (my Canadian friend was kindly asked to leave the American Football club, as he was too tall and strong for the petit Japanese). Some clubs are more verbal than others and require you to be able to communicate on a certain level of Japanese, otherwise you won't be able to enjoy them fully and will possibly feel left out a bit. And then you'll find clubs that, although giving friendly and welcoming impression at first, for many reasons (intimidation? fear of the foreigner? not speaking any language other than Japanese? inferiority complex? superiority complex?) will make you feel very awkward and not wanted in their club. The last one applies especially to the clubs based on the initiation system, where you don't really enjoy any privileges unless spending a year in there first. Always remember - if anything similar happens, it is most likely NOT your fault. A club is just as much as a bunch of people, after all.

In a nutshell (or for those who couldn't have been bothered to read all the above): it is all worth the effort - it will definitely enrich your stay in Japan! 

Here's the webpage of the extra-curricular activities you might try at KUFS, 京都外国語大学. Each university should have similar one.

Still interested in socializing in Kyoto? Check this and this post out.

Wednesday, March 28

北野天満宮 - Kitano Tenmangu shrine in full bloom, 14/03/2012

Can you see these hands with cameras? Of course you can. Welcome to flower-viewing in Japan...
Every time I'm taking a picture against the sun and achieve wonderful effects by complete accident and sheer luck, I hear my father's voice: never directly in the sun, you'll overexpose the film...



The white flowers smell the most delightfully, in my opinion!
This 狛犬, komainu, shrine guardian dog, looks very content indeed!
The dusk, as usual falling far too quickly here, compared to Europe...

Tuesday, March 27

Interesting Japanese Resouces - Folk Tales

Ah, Momotaro! image source

I fell in love with this site the moment I saw it: http://hukumusume.com/douwa/pc/jap/index.html

It's the anthology of Japanese folk and popular tales in Japanese, some of them come from really remote prefectures and are otherwise difficult to obtain by a common foreigner like you and me. For every day of the year there is one tale with the text, and most of them contain audio files as well, so you can practice both listening and reading comprehension.

Bedtime story, anyone?

Monday, March 26

北野天満宮の梅苑 - The Plum Garden of Kitano Tenmangu shrine, 28/02/2012

It was the most disgusting 'tea' ever... it was salty! It tasted and smelled like a swamp water. My friend agreed. They should have put a warning somewhere!

Sunday, March 25

Vocabulary lists - aid or nightmare?

When I started studying Japanese, the entire language seemed one big, never-ending list. List of vocabulary for each chapter, list of vocabulary under each reading, lists of vocabulary on the internet, and then - lists of kanji and kanji-related vocabulary. Then dictionaries, by definition - lists of vocabulary. And then the lists of grammar... At some point I didn't see the reading or listening - I saw a potential list of vocabulary. I developed a strong anxiety towards the language and potential readings, as their sole purpose were, in my eyes, to humiliate me and prove my inability to study the language, because 'I should know all that vocabulary by now!'.
I wish all the lists were that much fun! image source
The problem with lists is that they are not for everyone. Some people benefit from having vocabulary on one piece of paper, and study best when they see the thematic connection. For me, they were always the source of massive anxiety. They weren't informative and helpful - they were obnoxious accusations of what I don't yet know and haven't mastered. I was copying items from them, memorizing entries completely useless for the beginner, things like fairy, bailiff and platypus, but on the other hand not knowing the words for simple, daily items around me. The worse yet, I had no idea where to even look for them, as I didn't have either a fancy iPhone with dictionary applications nor the science-fiction electronic dictionary everybody seemed to be getting from Japan before starting a university. (Now I do have a very useful  (and most importantly, free) Aedict on my Android phone, combined with a little piece of software called Kanji Recognizer, fairly useless, to be honest, as it doesn't show any example words for the kanji, but I use it so as to input the kanji in the system, then after recognition I'm copying and pasting it in Aedict for proper help - my phone doesn't have Asian language support, that's why I need to use some homespun methods fit for the blonde state of mind...)

The further I went with my Japanese, the more I started to notice that the vocabulary started to pile up somewhere in my head (thank God), and that it gets easier and easier to remember new stuff when you've got some 'hook' to attach it to. That's when I re-discovered vocabulary lists as great sources of extra vocab I would have difficulty obtaining anywhere else. I was just wiser in certain aspect - I knew what to ignore. When you're a beginner, hungry for knowledge and restless in your enthusiasm, everything seems equally important. The more proficient you get, the more you realize what you need and don't need from the language you study. I do not need to know economic and political vocabulary by heart - I have dictionaries to check it there. What I need to know is where it's located in general vocabulary area, so I can decide what's worth my attention, and what's not.

But I've discovered something else. If you're not careful and resourceful, and not really know enough Japanese prior to jumping into lists, you might end up not only with lists full of irrelevant entries, but also full of mistakes. 

What's the solution then? 

1/ I guess the best is being a bit critical, and checking upon the author. If the list is made by a beginner copying a book after barely mastering hiragana, chances are it will have some mistakes. The real horror is that there is a growing trend of romanization and some people can't even be bothered studying the syllabaries first, producing/copying the romanized versions of others they copy online... Well, you can guess the results. 

2/ Then before you copy something and in doubt - always check the spelling it in the dictionary, or word processing program at least. Better safe than sorry - thanks to an idiot that 'taught' me some basic Japanese before entering university, I still, after so many years, mix 自転車, jitensha, bicycle with 自動車, jidousha, a car, whenever I hear it. You don't want to have the same problem.

And 3/ Be selective. Choose vocabulary slightly above your level, but keep it real. Do you really need the word (and kanji) for gall bladder before you know the word (and kanji) for yellow? And word for viscera before a kanji for eating?

I do have some lists of vocabulary accumulated over the years. I never really studied items from them, I just kept them as a kind of limited-entry thesaurus when I need to write a composition in Japanese on something I know completely nothing or little about (current political situation in Japan? energy crisis solutions? rare tongue diseases in South-East Asia? there!). I do want to de-clutter my computer and get rid of some of them, but maybe somebody would find them of use in here? I'll need to think about how to prepare them for an on-line debut. Maybe it would be nice to have an on-line reference for the lists from every computer and any place.

What do you think? Would you be interested in some on-line studying materials?

Saturday, March 24

What is it? これは何?

Long time no see! Who'll guess what this is?




a/ a good-luck decoration
b/ a gift for a sick person you visit in a hospital
c/ a good luck blessing from the shrine
d/ an envelope to give money as a gift
f/ a book mark


Good luck with guessing!
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I'm back!

First of all, I'm sorry that I went silent so unexpectedly. The reason for that is as banal as, let me say it, the Japanese - at some point my dear 4 year old Toshiba called Antonia (my computer) refused to cooperate. It was about time she had some problems, really, as apart from some minor memory card surgery & downgrade of an operation system, performed by my dear 恋人 and a battery change, it never really needed any serious professional assistance. Thankfully, it didn't go bust in flames and the cacophony of cracking noises, so maybe nothing that serious happened. After a week of showing some signs of tiredness, one day it just failed to start the operating system at all, keeping it on the opening page and not loading anything. I was forced to retreat to using my small one (thank goodness I'm so interactive to have 2 computers!), the beautiful red Vivienne Tam edition of HP Mini, which was never designed to be the main computer, and the processing speed of which leaves a lot to be desired. But anyway, we'll see how that goes. I might be forced to use fewer images, I'm afraid, as uploading even one image seems to drag forever. And it doesn't really help that most of my previous photos are imprisoned in my old computer anyway.

So how has your Kyoto Ryuugakusei been lately? Not very well. The school holidays seem to drag FOREVER (almost two and a half months, from February 1st till April 11th), the weather was mostly grey, unexpectedly cold and plain boring, and it didn't really help that most foreign students could afford to go home for riddiculously long time when I had to stay here, in my room, after the sudden realisation came that despite saving for so long I were not in a finacial position to use the holidays to travel around Japan. Getting to know the Japanese people and their 'personalities' better simply added to the general disappointment, resulting in a massive seasonal depression. But it's getting better gradually. I'm expecting my dear Polish friend M to come and visit me very soon, and the classes are just about to begin (this time I'm going to fight to be in the highest possible level, as the last time I was placed in one much below my abilities that just wasted my time, really). The weather seems to get gradually warmer too, and that reduces the stress of exaggerated heating bills. And the Italians came back, finally! I'm so happy to have them around, especially F, my lovely Energetic one. The future looks much brighter now.

Not to mention that I have so many new ideas for the blog, and possible posts, some series, even, and plan to continue it even after finishing my year abroad! I hope that my grumpy experiences with Japan, the Japanese, kanji etc. will be of some use! :)

Till we meet again! (and I promise we will, this time regularly)

Kitano Tenmangu shrine, Plum Garden,  28/02/2012