When I’m in Japan

I promise:

To make videos about my adventures

To write about new trending fashions and sayings

To make a montage video every year

To tell everyone the right way to get a job in Japan…after I do it myself

To tell everyone how to own a pet in Japan

To write more entries in Japanese

To hopefully gain enough people interested in this blog so I can be inspiried to write more!

According to my most frequently searched for tags, Japanese fashion is the most popular tag that hits my site. While I personally believe there’s much more to Japan than simply fashion, it’s what people are interested in. So, I will try my best to obtain Japanese fashion magazines, for men and women, from various cities (Harajuku, Shibuya, Ginza) and show them to you! Maybe when I have my car again in about a month… I’ll buy them and make a weekly point.

Don’t forget to check my YouTube for other material NOT FEATURED in this blog. Also, if you ever see a word in Japanese that I used and don’t understand the meaning, use the J-E dictionary listed in my links. Simply copy and paste the word into the box and hit “enter”. The word should be the first result.

So this is my promise to you. If you want any more material, don’t be shy to comment! To comment, click the one that looks like コメント. If you have an email address… you can comment without needing a WordPress screen name!

 

How to be funny in Japanese

Hey there.. today I thought I’d share with you something you don’t get to see much when it comes to learning a new language. Sure, you may learn idioms, but will you learn jokes and know how to make your own? I’ll share with you my experience on how to make your friends laugh. Note that you’ll need at least minimal conversational Japanese capabilities.

Making jokes is a great way to remember new vocabulary and entertain your friends.  Fortunately, if you’re sharp, making jokes in Japanese is particularly easy. Plus, your friends will laugh either because it’s funny or they’re being polite and recognize you tried. Either way, you’ll feel good.

ahahaha... she said "思ってサンド"

Method 1: Puns
Homophones are everywhere in the Japanese language, if you haven’t noticed already. Notice three meanings for the one word はし. 橋，箸　and 端. Just as an example. Of course, an opportunity for a pun  will come up given the right context. Take, for example, the word 確かに（たしかに）.You’ll notice they say it a lot… be silly and turn it into たし蟹 making the hand signals for our quotation marks while you say it. They’ll take it as crab. Be creative with your puns. Notice a word that people use frequently and is new to you and create sentences with all the puns possible. In American culture, puns may be corny… but in Japan they love it.

Method 2: Sarcasm
Be careful with this one. It can be offensive if not used in the right context. Make sure you’re with good friends first. In Japanese, sarcasm isn’t so much a tone… they use keigo instead (the super polite form of speech). This is perfect if you need to practice your keigo in a friendly manner without worrying about messing up. Instead of 元気だよ as an answer, you can say, お元気でございます. If you’re a girl, you can do the nasal tone of voice you hear in stores while you say it. Guys can do a silly deeper voice. Do some silly bouts between your friends using keigo. You’ll impress them with your Japanese ability and get a good laugh at the same time.

Method 3: Mockery
Making fun of the things around you is great. Nothing too personal.. again be careful of who you mock. For me, I always loved making fun of the train announcers while riding the train. I’d plug my nose and talk like them and say their sentences. This was great since I learned how to listen to keigo and train language, and I also learned my train stops. I also paid more attention to the marquee and learned to read them faster and I learned the kanji for each train stop I frequented… learning the kanji led me to learn the pronunciation of them when used in other names… for example… 中村橋 and　赤橋… hmmm it’s always ばし!

Method 4: Being Outright Ridiculous
Take a look at Variety television if you’re in Japan. (If not.. maybe you can catch it on youtube or KeyHoleTV). Japanese humor is sort of similar to Monty Python in that it’s just plain silly. Hitting someone on the head if they made a bad pun… shivering if the joke was corny… Notice how light and happy the humor is… always slightly teasing and always ridiculous. Mimicking the actions you see and especially mimicking current, popular comedians (maybe オッパッピー as of 2007) will always spring a laugh and teach you Japanese pop-culture!

Where to not get your humor:
Anime… unless it’s really popular anime like Bleach, One Piece, or classical like Sailor Moon and Pokemon. If it’s something like Cowboy Bebop (not so widely known in Japan) and you try to make a joke relating to it, you won’t be so successful… and if you constantly do it you’ll be otaku. However, you can pretend to be super dramatic like anime does sometimes… turn a regular friend into a 恋人 whom you’re having issues with as a joke.

Overall, making jokes in Japanese has great benefits if you’re careful. Don’t be too insensitive and be careful about who you’re joking with and what the joke is about. Staying away from personal issues and people who aren’t your close friends is usually a good choice. Rule usually goes, the less friendly you are with the person the lighter and more general the joke should be. Otherwise, jokes are a great way to learn Japanese and keep it in your head.

 

Kana or Kanji?

Romaji?

For those are just beginning their reading and writing, and are on your own, you may wonder which you should start with. I’ll give you an overview of which you should use and lose so you can begin your studies.

Romaji is fail. I’m sorry. For learning Japanese just leave it. If you use it, it should only be for someone who isn’t learning Japanese just so they can read what you meant. Romaji is an awful way to learn Japanese because it gives you the wrong pronunciation. Take a Japanese name for example like Hiro. Yes, because of Heroes we know how to say it… but let’s say it’s out of context and it’s read as “high row” instead. See what I mean? No Japanese person will understand what you meant. Then at times when people use romaji, they forget to leave out longer vowel sounds. So instead of “shounen” which means “boys” you get “shonen” which means “first years”. Big difference as the second one pertains to time, not human age. Using romaji for words like sushi, tempura, and Tokyo is good when you’re talking to someone who isn’t learning Japanese. Otherwise, learn them the Japanese way.

Kana. This means Hiragana and Katakana. I think these are the ones you should begin with. Forget Romaji as fast as you can and start your Japanese with kana only. Do whichever you want first… but I’ve heard starting with Katakana makes it easier ahead of time. I still can’t remember how to write all of my Katakana because I learned hiragana first. Hiragana is easier to learn and katakana looks so similar to itself it can be hard to remember after memorizing all of your hiragana. See which way works for you.

Then it’s time for kanji. There’s two ways to approach it: Number of strokes and in the same order as the kids in Japanese approach it or learning them by topic. Numbers are always a good way to start. Go from 1 to 10,000. It’s an easy system, so don’t get too scared. After you’ve got numbers you can learn them by theme.. like.. transportation, pronouns, bedroom items, feelings… etc.

Here’s some books I recommend to get you started:

Genki series:

Genki Textbook

Genki Workbook

You can’t fail with the Genki series. The explanation of each new grammar set is almost flawless. Very understandable. However, I wouldn’t use it’s Kanji to learn since they seemed too disjointed. They’ll give you 難 and 月 in the same chapter.. or something like it.

For Kanji I suggest you find a book that suits you. Each person is different in how they learn. Don’t waste your money on a book that teaches you hiragana and katakana. All you need is a chart, your own writing practice and homemade flash cards.

 

haiku

みんなさん、こんばんは。ただいま、私の林深雪は俳句を発表します。俳句が草稿だが、読んで楽しんでください。

一：
好きな人
手をつながっていて
「おれと死ね」

題名：

今死にたくないが、明日は空いている。

二：
暖かい
風が吹いている
鳥を見る

題名：

東京タワーから落ちちゃった

三：
寝る時間
だんだん窓に
光です

題名：

駅の近く暮らすことを困る

四：
原宿
表参道で
サンドなし

題名：

JR原宿駅の隣にコンビニは微妙なサンドを売っている

五：
桜下
泡と赤を見て
青い草

題名：

花見じゃない日だが・・・ただお酒が大好き。

それで結論です。ありがとうございます。

 

Will I sound like a kindergartner?

Elementary children wearing their school outfits

To those who have taken some Japanese and are about to embark on their first trip to Japan, you may be wondering how people there will perceive you as you stumble around trying to form a sentence. Perhaps your limit is ねこがいます and even then your accent shows through your efforts. “Are they going to look down on me,” you may wonder. Fear not. Many are very understanding. Why? They believe that Japanese is a difficult language for foreigners to learn.

Even if you entered a room and introduced yourself like, “koNIchuuWAAH, waTAshi WA James deSU!” They’ll smile, recognize that you tried and may even compliment you with a “じょうず！すごいですね！” But in reality, you know that it was awful and the compliments end up being overly endearing rather than ego boosting like they want it to be. So, it all ends with, “Do they think of me as a 5 year old Japanese child?”

Well, no. Many honestly believe that by complimenting every effort you make into learning Japanese will make you feel better about yourself. It’s not a problem of whether they view you as someone speaking at a Japanese child’s level. They see you as a foreigner that is learning Japanese. Simple as that. However, the Japanese only compliment you when they first hear you speak Japanese or notice an improvement. The biggest problem for learners is not having their Japanese corrected.

If you were to say ねこがあります instead of ねこがいます in conversation, for example, they perfectly understand what you meant to say and move on with the conversation. Even though the sentence is grammatically incorrect, they take it as nothing. Why not fix it for you though so you can improve next time? Well, to them, that would be embarrassing to point out a mistake. They definitely don’t want to embarrass their guest. Plus, if you make a mistake in every sentence, they’ll get tired of correcting all the mistakes you make.

The best way to remedy this is tho let them know you want to be corrected when you first introduce yourself. If you haven’t already, any time is a good time to let them know. Just tell them, “ぶんしょうはちがったら、なおしてください” (文章は違ったら、直してください) and they’ll understand.

Because you are a foreigner, not a Japanese child, you are almost excluded from the rules of Japanese society. As long as you don’t bring too much attention to yourself, obey the Japanese laws, and aren’t too overbearing. So this brings in the topic of casual speech and formal speech (丁寧－ていねい). The way it is done usually is when strangers talk to each other or first meet, they use keigo (警護). For those who haven’t learned yet, keigo is the super formal language. When one refers to oneself, it’s humble. When referring to the other person it’s honorific. However, keigo is considered to be difficult even for the Japanese. As a foreigner you’re expected to use formal speech, ていねい.

You’ll notice, though, that they’ll respond to you in casual speech, which is just dictionary form of verbs. Does this mean you should respond the same? This is hard, because, again they won’t correct you when you’re learning Japanese. If you reply casually, they’ll just take it as that. Normally, a casual reply would be considered rude. But they let it slide just for you. If you continue in ていねい, they may never tell you to switch to casual because they’re assuming that’s how you’re learning Japanese and it’s not their business to fix it. What to do?

Again, communication. Ask them what feels most comfortable when talking to you. Or ask them for a general situation. “一般的に、丁寧で話したほうがいいですか？”（いっぱんてきに、ていねいで はなしたほうが いいですか？） I’m guessing that the first friends you make are ones that already know some English. So don’t worry too  much about sentences in Japanese.

Finally, you are a foreigner!!! I can’t stress it enough. No matter how good your Japanese is, you will always be a foreigner. You will never be Japanese. Even if you married a Japanese person, live in a Japanese home, have a job in Japan, have half Japanese children, you’ll forever be a foreigner. (I guess the only exception is if you’re of full Asian descent, that brings you a bit closer. There’s problems within that too though.) However, the main point is that because you’re a foreigner you’re not always expected to live by the rules of Japanese society. That has good points and bad points. But to answer the ultimate question of this article, you won’t be viewed as a Japanese child, because you’re not Japanese! You’re just foreign, and that’s that.