Thor`s Day and Nihongolalia

Back home, it will be Thor`s Day soon (updates from Captain Tomorrow! I love the international date line...)- a day I always looked forward to if only for its name. Here I have to settle for "mokuyobi" or "wood day." Ahem. In any event, it`s more middle school today, teaching ichinensei (first graders- in America they would be 7th graders) about breakfast foods and how to ask about them. These classes have had more prior English education in elementary school than my older students here- and their pronunciation tells of it. I hear "rice" instead of "raisu" and "milk" instead of "miruku."

I also introduced the class to the foreign concept of biscuits and gravy- alternately describing it as "truckstop breakfast" or "delicious but unhealthy breakfast." I`m not sure whether they understood or not, but the English teacher with whom I was working seemed intrigued. I`ve been trying to throw little tidbits like that into the lessons to break up some of the monotony of the drills. I also took the liberty of filling in the example spaces on the board as class was ending (I have salt and poison for breakfast. How about you?). Hopefully that will help to pique their interest.

Changing gears: I`ve been submerged in a turbid solution of Japanese speaking and Japanese writing for about a month and half now- and I can feel my fingers starting to prune. As much as the culture/aesthetics/whathaveyou have all been very interesting here, my greatest interest is still in the language. I think that this is because, irrespective of a civilization`s accomplishments, attrocities, artistry, or unimaginitiveness, its language is always cultured on the agar that we inauspiciously call "grey matter," which is an inherently beautiful thing. If you`ll indulge me for a moment, I would like to floradate this blog with some observations about the Japanese language.

Observation ichi: the Japanese system of writing with borrowed Chinese characters, or Kanji, really helps to keep the etymologies/imbedded meanings of words raw for the reader. For instance: 画家 (gaka), or artist, combines the kanji for "brush" and "home." I like to think: I`m an artist- I work outa da home. Also, 竜巻 (tatsumaki), or tornado, literally means "dragon scroll/spiral."

This, and the various readings of Kanji, also lends the language to creating puns very nicely. The East Wind, or 東風 (dashikaze), which comes blasting down from the mountains every so often in Arakawa (anywhere between the ocean and the mountains gets freaky wind patterns with the ebb and flow of heat and air currents), may also be read "tofu." When I told my coworker that the tenki (weather) was tofu today- he looked confused until I showed him the kanji. The Japanese seem to love puns, but Kanji puns are difficult because of the sheer number of Kanji and Japanese`s limited sound inventory.

Observation ni...or should I say futotsu? Having once learned the Japanese numerals, and ignorant gaijin might think that they can actually count or express quantity. Hahahahahahahaha. Silly foreigner. In addition to simple counting numerals (ichi, ni, san...), there are quantitative counting numerals as well (hitotsu, futotsu, mittsu...), which bare little semblance to their counting counterparts. Also- Japanese employs suffixes to designate just what is being counted. For instance- if counting cylindrical objects, one would not say "ro-gi" (four trees)- one must say "rogipon" (four trees which are designated as cylindrical objects). There are different counters for people, flat things, round things, and even poems.

If you managed to wade through all that, I promise you some high-carb, easily digested photographs soon. This may or may not be my last post before the weekend (given my level of activity at Elementary schools, however, I`m going to guess that the next post is on Monday), but hopefully I can rummage up some interesting Japanity for you to look at. Also, please feel free to ask about anything you want me to take pics of over here. So many exotic things have become normal for me, and I forget to record them.