日本語会話: The Japanese Conversation Thread

[GoktimusPrime]

I'll show you rambly!!

Food-wise I really miss affordable cheese, and Vegemite on toast for breakfast is pretty much a staple. I'm not a morning person and am a slow eater to boot so having something I can make easily and quickly and eat while doing the morning prep routine is pretty important.

Yeah, I'm not a massive fan of Japanese bread. Much prefer the taste of Aussie bread. Mind you, Aussie bread probably has WAY more kilojoules in it.

I'll still happily sit on the floor with guests and when the girlfriend is around we usually do, but I also have the option of a couch.

To this day I still prefer sitting on the floor. (as anyone here who's been in my Transformer room will know )

Also, please understand by saying "immerse" oneself into a culture, it doesn't mean you have to like everything. I think it's impossible to find any one culture where you can like everything. There are things about Japan that I like and dislike and things about Australia that I like and dislike too... and I'm sure you have your own likes and dislikes when it comes to JP and AU.

Similarly while I like a lot of Japanese foods I also like pizza and hamburgers.

Yeah... not a fan of Japanese pizza (blecch). I do like Japanese burgers though... especially Mos Burger! But one thing I cannot deny is the health benefits of living a Japanese lifestyle. I may be a podgy fatso now, but when I was in Japan I was thin and tanked. I was at the peak of my physical health... and damn I wish I could get back to that!

Pics for comparison...

L: me living in Japan, R: me living in Australia

Language-wise I try to use Japanese where I can, but at my very very basic level I still have to resort to English more often than not.

I personally avoided using English, and this included not seeking out Japanese people who can speak English... because as you know, the vast majority of people in Japan don't speak English! (so it's really easy!) But I know a lot of Gaijin who do seek out or allow themselves to be drawn toward English speaking Japanese people -- and they are attracted to Gaijin like moths to a flame as they're keen to practise their English.

Most of the TV (well, computer files) I watch is Japanese anime and movies with subtitles and the occasional English movie, while most of my news comes from the ABC and international sites like the BBC and Al Jazeera.

I didn't have home internet when I was in Japan.

Besides the fact that my job as a JET ALT is as much about exposing the students to gaijin and our gaijin-y ways as it is about teaching English (ergo 'going native' would be a bit counterproductive),

I was there as a university student, so I wasn't required to speak English to anyone really -- but all English speaking students make extra pocket money by coaching/tutoring English at jukus or kateikyou (home tutoring) etc... and that's what I did. So when I was "on the job," okay, I would use some English -- even then, Japanese was the language of instruction. There's no way my students would have understood the subtleties of dental fricatives or egalitarianism if I explained them in English!

But anyway, the only time I used English would be:
+ With other English speaking foreigners - even then, it was sometimes. As our Japanese improved, we actually started speaking Japanese amongst ourselves. So we'd only use English (which increasingly became a hybrid Japanese-English, e.g. "Nee, ashita you wanna meet at the eki?" ) with more recently arrived foreigners - but for any Gaijin who'd been in Japan for 3 months or more, we often just exclusively spoke Japanese to each other.
+ During tutoring/coaching.

So basically, the only time I used English with Japanese people was if they were paying me! Once the lesson was over - that's it, I'd be switching back to Japanese. Wanna speak more English? It'll cost you.

Admittedly as a full time student (on a student visa - which restricts working hours), I only had limited amounts of tutoring/coaching time... as a full time ALT I guess you're pretty much on-call to use English for hours a day. But if I were a JET, I wouldn't use English outside of when I had to in my job. e.g. during explicit classroom tasks/activities. We have German ALTs at our school and they only speak German to our kids when they need to. Outside of class they speak English (e.g. socialising in the staffroom or outside of school etc. ). With the younger kids they speak more English and with the senior HSC students they'll speak more German.

I don't know about you, but when I used to coach/tutor English in Japan, I would actively correct all their text books from American English to Standard English! And I'd also correct their pronunciation too, e.g. insist on the use of Received Pronunciation etc. If anyone questioned it I'd tell them that I speak/teach 英語 (えいご), not　米語 (べいご)!

[Ode to a Grasshopper]

Fosters is crap, and I say this as a trained bartender. Most export beer from most countries is pretty bad.

As far as immersion goes, it's less about how much you like a place than about how much you get into it. For me I fond if I go out on nights before work then I don't do so well at my job the next day, so I try to focus on work first and play/immersion second.
I've got five years here, I'll be plenty immersed and more so as my Japanese improves. Right now I'm one of those recently arrived foreigners, and one whose job is largely pandering to those English speaking Japanese.
On which topic I have to go now and see one in particular...gomen.

[GoktimusPrime]

For me I fond if I go out on nights before work then I don't do so well at my job the next day, so I try to focus on work first and play/immersion second.

Yeah, that's fair enough. I was there as a uni student and... I don't know if you're aware of this yet, but Japanese undergraduate university is a complete bludge. Nobody studies - they just party a LOT. It's like in compensation for their senior high school years where they have no social lives and study their butts off to get into university, but once they're in, they need to learn how to socially interact (i.e. get drunk ). So JP university is less about べんきょう and more about のみかい! Which was great for me, because basically partying was the main way that I learnt Japanese! It was far more efficient and fun than learning out of books.

Having said that, I've heard that post-grad study in Japan is really hard though (I did my post-grad in AU; only ever did undergrad in JP so I can't comment first hand about JP post grad study - but JP post grad students all tell me it's heaps hard).

I've got five years here, I'll be plenty immersed and more so as my Japanese improves. Right now I'm one of those recently arrived foreigners, and one whose job is largely pandering to those English speaking Japanese.

Five years! That's freakin' awesome! I'm sure you'll be more fluent than me before you can say りゅうぐうのおとひめのもとゆいのきりはずし! (that's a real word btw ;p)

[1AZRAEL1]

Fosters is crap, and I say this as a trained bartender. Most export beer from most countries is pretty bad.

I have to say that Fosters sucks as well. I love alot of the aussie beer myself, that one not lol. Tooheys Old or any other dark beers are my fav. I would say I'm a bit of a coniseur of beers. I tend to go to Dan Murphys and go in the international beer isle and buy whatever looks good, or the name appeals to me lol.

As for vegimite, yes that does rule, and does kinda suck that you can't get it cheaply over there. Why not ask some aussies over here to send you some? gotta be cheaper that way than buying it there.

[GoktimusPrime]

Do they sell Vegemite in Japan? (I've never seen it sold there)

When I was studying in Japan, there was this another Australian student whose parents sent him a jar of Vegemite. He brought it to uni one day and to let some of the other international students (and our Japanese teachers) have a taste. Most people (other than Aussies and Kiwis) thought it was either weird or just yuck... I think one Chinese or Korean guy thought it tasted okay... but this one American dude had the best reaction - he took a huge scoop and shoved in his mouth, then he wanted to spit it out but of course couldn't so he forced himself to swallow and said, "MWWOAR! I THOUGHT IT WOULD TASTE LIKE CHOCOLATE!"

[Ode to a Grasshopper]

A friend found an import place that sells the small jars at inflated cost. Think I'll just hassle my mother to send some over instead.

On a more topic-related topic, if it's not too blurry could I get a translation on this please?
I just made what may be the most crazy good value Japan acquisition yet, but it seems a little too good to be true so I'd like to know what the sticker says.

[GoktimusPrime]

Picture's rather blurry... The printed text above the hand written one says "damaged box" (lit. "hurt box"), and the large hand written text says "shaded colours," which I'm guessing might refer to discolouration. The rest is particularly blurry (that second Kanji is illegible) and kinda confusing, but I think it says that they're not sure if all the paperwork's there.

Here's a typed version if anyone else wants to have a go:
Printed sticker says:
箱イタミ（箱痛み：はこいたみ）
Large hand written text says:
色ぬり有（色塗り有：いろぬりゆう）
折本(?)有（せつほん(?)ゆう）

[Ode to a Grasshopper]

Cheers Goki, and sorry for the pic quality - I did the best I could with the camera.
Shaded colours might be the fact that my 1050 Yen 'hurt box' BW Metals x-9 has a black tail...guess I'll have to open him and see.