Monday, November 10, 2008

The whole of Japan is pure invention - Oscar Wilde.

I found this quote sometime last year when I was researching Japan, but I can't find any sources for it, other than an article in Time Magazine. I'm going to go ahead and assume (guess) that Time magazine didn't just make it up and attribute it to him.

Anyway, before I came to Japan I really liked this quote because it seemed to me to be true. Before you actually experience another country you can only rely on your own imagination and second hand evidence.

I think what Oscar Wilde actually meant was something similar to what I said. That people who have never been to a country will invent and propagate (spread) rumours about it.

Although, Oscar Wilde was probably incoherent (drunk) with opium or absinthe when he said this quote, so i'm sure he had no idea what he meant by it. I think Michael Hutchence had the same thing with the quote "I am the lizard king. I can do anything.".

Edit: A lot of the vocabulary i've used is very hard, so in the interest of anyone Japanese/Studying English who reads it, i'll add easier vocab.
このブログの言葉本当に難しいと思う。だから日本人/英語を勉強の人のためにもっとかんたんの言葉も書きます。

Also, here's an awesome quote by oscar wilde:
"I have made an important discovery... Alcohol, taken in sufficient quantities (large amounts), produces all the effects of intoxication (being drunk)".

Friday, October 17, 2008

Sorry Sensei,

I didn't post on my blog last week like I was supposed to, so i'll do it now. Plus this is a convenient way to avoid doing homework. I can sort of pretend this is homework and avoid studying Grammar.

I have been reading through a bunch of other people's blog's in Japanese but it's very difficult still, even after installing Rikai-chan and having studied Japanese in Japan for six months. There's such a big gap between speaking ability and reading ability in Japanese, it's pretty frustrating sometimes being pretty much functionally illiterate. I have been studying Kanji pretty hard lately but I don't like the way we learn the Kanji in class. We learn them totally divorced from the compounds, so even if i recognise every Kanji in a new compound, chances are I won't be able to read it. Although I might get the meaning just from the Kanji meanings.


That's about it for blogging for now.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Blog-time.

My life in Kumamoto...

I've been here for six months already so life has become kind of normal to me. I'm not longer surprised by getting Anko instead of Chocolate and getting stared at is kind of normal. Being foreign in Japan is kind of funny in that it affects pretty much everyone's reactions to you. Also being more than 6'2 doesn't really help.

I'll try and translate this entry later on today.

Sunday, September 21, 2008

First Post

This is a test post...

It better work.