Never mind, I'll just type it in English.
First, the good news: The lady and I have decided to go to Japan for our Honeymoon.
Right now we are in the planning stages, trying to figure out what to do. Tours? Not really interested, but that puts a lot of work on us to make sure we don't just get there and sit in our super expensive hotel room watching English films on TV, translated into Japanese, with English subtitles.
Now, the bad news: I'm taking a Japanese language class, and I can't seem to open the book.
I take the book with me everywhere, but I rarely open it. The flash cards have rough corners (as if from heavy use) but that's just from being shuffled around, as I remove them from my bag at night and replace them in the morning. My book and flash cards are within arms reach, as I type.
There are 4 different ways to greet people in Japanese, depending on the time of day and, on occasion, what you are doing after you part ways. During the first class, my instructor drew these different times of day on the chalk board, using the placement of the sun, to differentiate the subtle differences. She would adorably jump from drawing to drawing and point anxiously into the class, waiting for the proper response. Kind of like a torturous, one sided version of spin the bottle.
In the class there are two Lao girls, who can rattle off those crazy sounds with no problem ("I" sounds like "E" and "E" sounds like "Eh",) a guy married to a Japanese woman (traveling back and forth frequently,) a girl who has already taken two years of Japanese, and one other guy: My fellow stooge.
He, at least, is composed enough to reference his notes when questioned. I instantly forget everything. Right after being asked a question, I get the urge to stand up and say "I have to use the restroom."
Then I would quietly put on my coat, shoulder my bag, and never return to class.
I narrowly escaped failing German in high school. I can only rattle off a few simple phrases like "What time is it?" and "I don't speak German." Plus I can call your mother ugly and lazy.
A few years after high school, I ran into my German teacher. He admitted to me, that I received the (barely) passing grade, because my parents had showered him in chocolates.
Knowing that my fate had been decided by parental coco products, I still accepted the challenge of learning Japanese. But who is going to get my teacher chocolates this time?
Oyasuminasai.
3 comments:
i have similar issues w/ the writing i want to do.
however, i don't take the classes to try to make it happen.
i've done that before.. "this time i'll sit in the front row so i will be too afraid to fall asleep."
"Mr. Gill?"
**blinks** "yes?"
"Am I disturbing you?"
"yes."
It's ok. I never learned Italian before going to Italy or French before hitting France. So, ok, I ended up sobbing into a mailbox in Paris after a man yelled at me in French, but whatevs. I consoled myself with a really good croisant and life went on.
Don't feel bad- Japanese is one of the hardest languages to learn. And if you look at the whole situation from a linguistic perspective, you won't feel so bad. There are certain sounds that we all learn to make as small children in relation to our mother language. Infants have the ability to make a wide range of sounds, but as we develop, we lose the ability to make certain sounds. No matter how hard you try, you will never be able to make the "click" needed to speak many African languages. And Japapnese can prove to be just as challenging with its varying pitches- not to mention that Japanese has a very "unique" grammatical structure when compared to English.
So I commend your efforts, don't give up:) Even if you don't learn a lot of the language, you will undoubtedly learn a little more about Japanese culture in your classes. I mean you can't base your entire knowledge of Japan on Sailor Moon Manga, Gwen Stefani Harajuku Girl refrences, and Hello Kitty (like I do).
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