Literacy with Japanese 3

         

૮ ・ﻌ・ა

                        The book I chose to read was いっぽい。This one was challenging for me, though I did actually understand some of the words used. The story is about a dog named Roku (shiba inu) falling in love with Nana-Chan (A little white dog) while at the dog park. He notices a lot of girl dogs at the park and then freaks out realizing there’s a bunch of boy dogs as well. He kinda gives up on Nana-chan and goes to focus on food, but then starts thinking about her after eating. He then starts thinking about gifts to get Nana-chan. Though he’s afraid that she’ll hate them, so he jumps around with ideas. They have dates in various places, marry, and have a lot of kids together. 

                        The book was definitely the cutest one I’ve seen and probably the best middle ground for my reading knowledge. 

Days Off

 

(⁀ᗢ⁀)

                         I enjoyed watching this video as it opened my eyes to how diverse holidays can be in each country. I think January 13th holiday of celebrating those who are 20 is super interesting. Is it for everyone who turned 20 last year? Does it mean even if you're a day off, like January 14th you have to wait till next year? I've also always found Boys and Girls Day super interesting, as I haven't heard about something like that holiday. Has Boys and Girls Day always happened or is it a holiday for celebration and a motive to increase the birthrate in the country? I like the commentary he jokes about how he doesn't enjoy there not being any holidays in June. 

                        I have heard of Golden Week, though the things I've heard about it is mainly retail shopping ways. I've seen people get excited about Golden Week because it means that stores start putting out Lucky Bags/Golden Bags. A lot of the channels I watch on YouTube celebrate Golden Week by going around Japan finding and rating Lucky Bags. I think almost everyone has heard about the Cherry Blossom viewings as they are only around for the spring. I find them beautiful and love that a lot of people end up going to picnic around the blossoms. 

My Hobbies

                     

Artist: Causal Polar Bear

( ͒꒪̛ཅ꒪̛ ͒)

                        アニメが　すきです。ジョギングが　できます。マンガが　すきです。ぬいぐるみが　だいすき　です。スポーツは　しません。うちで　ゆっくりします　あまりしません。

Daily Life

 

                    When watching the video I did understand some parts and bits based on the words I know. Though I did struggle heavily with understanding a good chunk of it. The imagery did help with at least gaining the area in which the action or activity was happening. I feel like the cultural differences aren’t that far apart. I feel there’s not much different especially from the fact that we are both college students. There is possibility though that I didn’t understand or pick up on something that may be cultural different. 

                     The videos I’ve seen of people traveling to Japan or studying aboard in Japan have been shown as super different. I think the imagery used in the video is clearly showing more of a western look at things, though I could be wrong. Videos I see normally have groups of students living together or have the person renting a super small apartment. I also see a lot more nature around school buildings and their way traveling there. It interests me as I do have questions on how schools in Japan work. Do students go to college usually? I’ve heard that many of them leave Highschool and go into the workforce and many don’t attend college, but I have never had it confirmed. I’ve also heard about entrance exams into Highschools and how many families will move so their kid can attend a good school. I feel that is featured a lot in slice of life and school animes. 

                    Drinking is commonly shown in Japanese media, that I see. Is it very common to drink alcohol in Japan? I usually see drinking alcohol used for work outings or for “when characters go to mixers.” Though if they’re not true I’d be interested in knowing why it’s done that way in other forms of media. 

My Day

                       

Unknown Artist

(´〜｀*) zzz

                          7じ15ふんに　おきます。7じはん　はをみがきます。8じに KCAIに　いきます　。8じはんから　クラスが　あります。12じに　やすみます。12じはんに　ひるごはんを　たべます。 7じかりに　します　を　アルバイト。12じはん　ごろ　ねます。

Literacy with Japanese 2

 

                    わすれもの was the second book I read with my group. I’d definitely would say that this one was a lot more of a challenge than that of the Mantis book we read before. My group struggled a lot with wondering what some of the words met. Having help from our Sensei helped a lot to gain an understanding of what was going on. わすれもの was about a boy attending school the whole week, and each day he realizes he has forgotten something. 

                    I couldn’t grab a lot of vocabulary to learn from this as my group’s main focus was to understand the conversation that the student was having with his teacher. 

                    I noticed a lot of cultural differences in this story. A lot of American vs Japanese differences. The main one being the first thing that the boy forgets, his school shoes. I knew about the idea of changing shoes from outdoor shoes to school shoes. Though it makes me wonder what would he do if he did forget his indoor shoes. Do they have others he can use or does he have to use his outdoor shoes for school shoes? I wonder if that’d be seen as a disrespect to the school if he did. Though other things like him forgetting his lunch and his textbooks I think fit more into an American mindset of what a kid could lose. 

                    The photos in the books definitely helped a bit to know what he was referring to as being lost. They showed a photo of him realizing he had lost the item and then another photo of him telling the teacher. I feel we struggled with the school shoe ones as we don’t have the issue of loosing school shoes, since we don’t change them here.