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OK cool, that’s good news, I gotta have my music when I’m out and about. XD
Indeed, it will be Kasukabe if I can score a place there. As it’s a research trip, I want to be at or near to the city I plan to live in. I picked Kasukabe after being made aware of it by (of all things) my favourite anime, which takes place in it. I researched it and found a lot to my liking. It’s a decent sized city (big but not too big) for my lifestyle, close to Tokyo for more work/play options, and as it’s not part of Tokyo proper, housing prices are not bad at all.
And yes, I’ll admit it, my dork half is tickled by the thought of living in the same city as Konata and the gang. XD
I was afraid of that. Indeed, I use an iPhone under AT&T. Looks like I’ll be renting a phone then.
Not too big a deal I guess, but it’s one more cost to drain from my already dangerously small travel funds.
Will I still be able to bring my iPhone along (say if I should want to use its non-phone functions) without worrying about some hidden “surprises” on my bill?
Question! I still don’t understand quite how phones are supposed to work. That is, if I’m staying for a month, what do I have to do to ensure I’ll have a functioning phone abroad?
In other news, I REALLY have to get back into studying… My meagre Japanese is not going to be enough to survive in its current state, which has me a little worried…
Still, can’t wait for November.
Different people will put different amounts of stress on the “ss” sound in different situations. I’ve heard a mixed bag (yes, from native speakers IRL). I’ve heard people say it with a long “sssss” and then the same person will use a shorter “dess”. Likewise I’ve heard both males and females pronounce the “u” at the end.
And for what it’s worth, I’ve done them all (long s, short s, and a slight u) and not received any weird looks or corrections. It just depends on how you “want” to sound, if that makes sense. Just listen to a lot of native speakers and eventually your “desu” will just kinda flow on its own without you really thinking about it. At least, that’s how it was for me.
Try this one for size: 朝鮮民主主義人民共和国 (ちょうせんみんしゅしゅぎじんみんきょうわこく)
The formal name of North Korea (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea). I can’t help but like just how complicated and impressive it looks/sounds. XD
But yes, like Kyle said, it’s not technically a “word” in the same way as the English name would not be a word, but rather a collection of several words (and/or prefixes and suffixes where applicable).
Chinese and Korean are two of those languages that I’d really like to know, but can’t bring myself to go through the workload for two languages I’ll likely never get to really use.
They’re both really cool languages, but I can’t see myself having any real use for knowing them, so I really couldn’t justify the large effort they’d take.
@isocracy, the plan is to stay for a whole month. I’d have preferred longer but that’s all my paid holiday hours at work will cover. It’ll be more of a hardcore research journey of sorts rather than a holiday, so I’m cutting costs wherever possible. Planning to bring only a small carry-on with clothes and other necessities. Probably won’t even bother with souvenirs or anything (unless I have enough left over).
Apart from experiencing Japanese life, I intend to get hardcore language practise in, and hopefully make some contacts for my future life in Japan. This trip will no doubt be the turning point in my life (much like it was for Danny Choo) so I am hugely excited. Who knows, if all goes well enough, I may not even come back! ;)
So I discovered a few days ago that it turns out I have no valid passport. :P
Obviously this poses a problem for my trip. I’m working to get this sorted and obtain a US passport before time runs out.
In other news, I’m looking at places to stay. A friend linked me to a website called “airbnb” which is somewhat similar to Couchsurfing, but IMO looks a little better for my needs. Ridiculously cheap lodging in prime locations with real Japanese style homes.
Still saving up. Taking into account the savings from Airbnb, $4000 should do. So as long as I can sort out my passport and get the money, my November deadline is still on.
@wiseguy, nah they just spoke Slovenian. >:(
But yes I agree, in fact you hit it on the head. Lang-8 is a great resource for just that, getting/giving corrections, but not so good at making friends, because everyone’s (understandably) out for their own objective.
Case in point, I swapped several messages once with someone on Lang-8. We spoke about our hobbies and this & that, noted that we both liked video games and whatnot. She was learning English and Spanish. Not a single word of Japanese was exchanged. I’m sure it was great practise for her, but not so much for me. The benefits end up being one-sided for one of the two parties.
One of the main reasons I had quit studying Japanese was the lack of a clear benefit to all the effort. Recently I decided to pick it back up again, but without anyone to really talk to, I’m honestly just not seeing any benefit (for me) in knowing Japanese. I’m very likely just going to drop it again, maybe for good, unless something changes.
I tried. All I got were raccoons… :C
@Shining Lion, that’s a fine offer mate. I don’t generally use online chat services, but I’d definitely reconsider for the chance to make at least one more friend who’s worth talking to. :)
@Missingno, indeed the ideal would be to work at a place where Japanese is spoken. I would LOVE to work at the restaurant I mentioned. It’d be a dream come true just for the chance to get that kind of immersion every day. Hell, I’d work for free if I had to, the practise would be payment enough. Sadly they never want to hire me. Same goes for the Japanese market I go to.
Obviously they’d prefer to keep me as a paying repeat customer and not as someone they’d have to pay. But I wouldn’t be at all surprised if its also because they really don’t want to put up with some silly fool constantly spouting broken Japanese, and I don’t blame them.
Lang-8 is a weak alternative, IMO. I have talked with some people on there, but they usually just want to stick to English (obviously as it’s the language they want to learn). Online friends aren’t really what I want though, I’d rather have a proper face-to-face friendship.
There’s something to be said about how important that can be. With nobody to share/practise with, studying Japanese honestly becomes a very lonely experience for me, and it severely kills my motivation.
To the OP, I can’t offer any advice, but I can sympathise with you.
I’m at the point now where I sorely need someone to speak with if I’m ever going to get better at this language. And not just to “use” them as a study tool either, I just would really enjoy having a real friend with whom I can speak Japanese and just hang out with.
Of my current friends, only one of them has anything in common with me (and I rarely get to see him). He’s not Japanese, but would also like to learn it, and he loves it as much as I do. The rest of them all think my “obsession” with Japan is some kind of hilarious joke…
Though the fact that there ARE Japanese people around me almost makes it feel worse.
There’s a restaurant I frequent that’s 90% staffed by native Japanese (including the owner/founder). As I’m a frequent customer, they all know me and we’re on a first-name basis (they even hung up one of my drawings in the store). They let me practise with them, but I can’t really fully call them “friends” as we only ever see each other when I go eat there, plus they’re all much older than me.
The son of one of the waitresses there knows me a little. He swings by my store to pick summat up for his mum once in a blue moon and we say hi to each other, but that’s about it. He speaks Japanese but prefers English, so we’ve only ever spoken English to each other.
The restaurant is so far the only place I can get any kind of practise in. And that’s getting a little expensive for me, so it’s no solution. I actually tried to get a job there (twice) but no go. Even tried the above-mentioned okcupid.com, but that was a disappointment and a half.
So the few Japanese people around me are like the apples of Tantalus to me. So close, yet so far away. How does one begin a proper friendship with someone without coming off like some weird awkward weeaboo?
I tell you, there’s times where I feel like a man wandering a vast wasteland.
Are you referring to sources in Japanese or English? If Japanese, the usual standbys are the websites of NHK, and the newspapers (Mainichi, Yomiuri, et al).
If English, I usually go to newsonjapan.com, which has collection of current events in Japan from a variety of sources.
So recently I have taken to watching “実況プレイ” videos on the YouTube (basically the Japanese equivalent to “Let’s Play” videos). Specifically, ones by a Mr “Sonomamario”, who has some of the most hilarious ones.
I got hooked on them ever since the article on “しょぼんのアクション” on Tofugu. I was very pleasantly surprised to see how effective they are (at least, to me) as an “edutainment” study tool.
I have picked up a lot of new vocab (by associating the words to the actions onscreen), and through listening to him talk, my overall “sound” when speaking has become considerably more natural-sounding.
So yay, go me.
アラザン are dragées. Those little silver ball things made of sugar people use to decorate cakes with.
The last bit: (チョコレートが乾く前にアラザンをのせお好みのデコレーションをします。) could translate as something like: “Before the chocolate dries, place dragées and decorate to your liking.”
