More Efficient Thinking and LearningLanguage education, and many other kinds, fill the mind with all manner of trivia, from which the word trivial is derived. This information is like specs of information on a hard drive, fragmented and difficult to use. The mind must be freed from this disorganization to progress in a more relaxed and efficient manner.
There’s More Than One “Learning” One of the largest annoyances in trying to teach Japanese is that many words have differences that dictionaries will not tell you about. Some differences ought to only matter to ex-translators, like me; but not all.
I was reading this story about an American teacher placed on administrative leave for having an unwritten rule requiring students to clean the classroom toilet with paper towels and bleach. Well, there’s definitely a serious culture gap here.
A Recurring Cultural ThemeOne issue continually revisited by Japanese video games, and the writing and storytelling culture that infuses it, is the idea that the world is corrupt in many ways, and it must be changed – but breaking it entirely is cruel and indeed, quite genocidal. So we half-break it.
In reading up on Shinto at Wikipedia (link here), I read it stated that Shinto scholars think translating “kami” as “god” or “deity” can cause a misunderstanding of the term. I mulled this over. If there is a problem, it is with cultural assumptions – not the translation.
Just My OpinionThe biggest dilemma for a blog like this is trying to say something useful without trying to come off as an absolute authority, which seems to be the cause of most flame wars. I know a few things about a few things, but some people are like, if you don’t know everything, just shut up. I can’t live like that.
“Hyper Oriental Fantasy” RPGTenra Bansho Zero is a tabletop RPG – what Japan uses to differentiate from you know, Final Fantasy and stuff. After what has apparently been a long struggle, it is soon to be published in full English language format. English site here; Japanese site here.
You’ll want to click on the video above and see this amazing robot in action. It’s meant to emulate how a snake moves on ground – and in water, the latter being quite remarkable as a visual display.
はっきりSo you want to spell things out in simple terms? To say it straight? To make things crystal clear? In Japanese, this is being hakkiri (はっきり) about it. There is no kanji for “hakkiri”; it is a native Japanese-ism that implies the literal truth.
Hatsune Miku is a “vocaloid,” which means, rather than synthetic music, she is a synthetic singer with an unnaturally high pitched voice through the use of a computer program. Being a product from the ground up, she – and the software to “make” her “songs” – has been promoted with great fanfare. Now she is serving as a poster girl for the Toyota Corolla.
