Re: Let's learn some Japanese...BAKA! I love Dir en grey!

From: Kevin Gowen (kgowenNOSPAM_at_myfastmail.com)
Date: 08/05/04 

Date: Thu, 05 Aug 2004 17:34:56 -0400

necoandjeff wrote:

> "Kevin Gowen" <kgowenNOSPAM@myfastmail.com> wrote in message
> news:2nfmb0FdsinU1@uni-berlin.de...
>
>>This article was on the front page of the world's greatest newspaper
>
> today:
>
>>http://tinyurl.com/5bu5l
>>"When Yuki Sasaki began working in the Japanese-language program at the
>>University of Georgia in 1995, most students were international business
>>majors interested in studying things like polite Japanese expressions
>>and the ins and outs of Japanese business-card exchange.
>>
>>Nine years later, Ms. Sasaki says her students are a different sort.
>>They ask for help in translating Japanese pop-song lyrics and talk
>>excitedly about the Japanese cartoon character Card Captor Sakura. And
>>they blurt out colloquial Japanese expressions, like baka! (stupid),
>>that they have learned from comics."
>>
>>Who the hell is Card Captor Sakura? There was a color picture of him/her
>>accompanying the article. He/she was wielding a staff, so I guess that
>>helps to capture cards.
>
>
> I saw that article. Charles must be having a bad day today...

I must have started studying Japanese at university during a brief
intermission between these two era. There were no otaku in my classes,
nor did I get the sense any where there to get ahead in business. A few
years later when I was studying in Japan, I did encounter one student
who was learning it for business reasons.
"Psst! Bubble!" I whispered to him. The same brain surgeon also told me
that he didn't like Japanese food. Good thing he decided to live in
Hokkaido.

There was also one guy in the Japanese school who was learning Japanese
so he could watch anime. Um, hello? Subtitles? He used to enthrall us by
performing capoeira in the halls between classes. Once he even brought a
jambox so he could play special capoeira music. He also claimed to have
a girlfriend who was an Indian (dots, not feathers) princess. He was one
of my favorite people at that school.

- Kevin

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