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Sep. 3rd, 2008 05:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
korafoxFirst of all, *snark*. Not that I watch BSG, or know anything about it, but I'm sure someone out there will appreciate it.
Second, omgwtfbbq! First day of actual teaching! Actually it went really well, I think...got on the right bus at the right time, and my sensei came to pick me up from the bus stop so I wouldn't have to find my way up the giant hill (and I do mean giant; I'm climbing up a mountain practically to get to this school) by myself. The kids were pretty cool and I didn't make an idiot of myself in front of them so woohoo! Tomorrow it's off to the giant chuugakkou though, where I shall have twice as many classes as today.
Random observations!
#1: Linguistic geekery! Our good friend the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis strikes again. I've heard, several times since moving here, people say that some of the underlying xenophobia in Japanese society comes from this idea that Japanese are their own race, and how could somebody who is not born Japanese take part in their culture? And it struck me today, that the way to say "Japanese" in Japanese--or to describe any other nationality, for that matter--is much more literally translated as "person". "Japan-person". "Japan-human". And that feels like a much more intrinsic thing than nationality is usually conceived to be. You can't change your flesh and blood--and that's what is indicated by "Nihonjin".
But I think this also smacks of the chicken-and-egg conundrum; anyway there's a couple hundred years of cultural isolation thrown into the mix here. So who's to say that that isolation isn't the cause of some of these viewpoints, and the language only reflects that? 'Round and 'round, I guess.
#2: So when I was introducing famous people from Illinois, I held up a picture of Barack Obama and asked if anyone knew him. And every single kid in the class yelled, "Obama!!!". After class I was talking with my sensei, and she said that Obama is maybe the most well-known foreigner in Japan right now. She says there are a lot of people hoping that he's going to be the next president. Furthermore, even she had heard that people in America are worried that something will happen to him because of race issues. (She had gone to a seminar in Hawaii this summer--and by the way, did know that he's from Hawaii originally. But we get claim on him because he's our Senator. :p)
#3: How weird is it to see middle-school girls running around in socks with the playboy bunny logo on them?
That is all. Peace out.
Second, omgwtfbbq! First day of actual teaching! Actually it went really well, I think...got on the right bus at the right time, and my sensei came to pick me up from the bus stop so I wouldn't have to find my way up the giant hill (and I do mean giant; I'm climbing up a mountain practically to get to this school) by myself. The kids were pretty cool and I didn't make an idiot of myself in front of them so woohoo! Tomorrow it's off to the giant chuugakkou though, where I shall have twice as many classes as today.
Random observations!
#1: Linguistic geekery! Our good friend the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis strikes again. I've heard, several times since moving here, people say that some of the underlying xenophobia in Japanese society comes from this idea that Japanese are their own race, and how could somebody who is not born Japanese take part in their culture? And it struck me today, that the way to say "Japanese" in Japanese--or to describe any other nationality, for that matter--is much more literally translated as "person". "Japan-person". "Japan-human". And that feels like a much more intrinsic thing than nationality is usually conceived to be. You can't change your flesh and blood--and that's what is indicated by "Nihonjin".
But I think this also smacks of the chicken-and-egg conundrum; anyway there's a couple hundred years of cultural isolation thrown into the mix here. So who's to say that that isolation isn't the cause of some of these viewpoints, and the language only reflects that? 'Round and 'round, I guess.
#2: So when I was introducing famous people from Illinois, I held up a picture of Barack Obama and asked if anyone knew him. And every single kid in the class yelled, "Obama!!!". After class I was talking with my sensei, and she said that Obama is maybe the most well-known foreigner in Japan right now. She says there are a lot of people hoping that he's going to be the next president. Furthermore, even she had heard that people in America are worried that something will happen to him because of race issues. (She had gone to a seminar in Hawaii this summer--and by the way, did know that he's from Hawaii originally. But we get claim on him because he's our Senator. :p)
#3: How weird is it to see middle-school girls running around in socks with the playboy bunny logo on them?
That is all. Peace out.
