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Post by popchyk~ on Oct 30, 2015 9:14:48 GMT 9
I started the textbook at my Japanese class yesterday (I say class but basically you meet up with your teaching partner once a week and do whatever study you feel like, and in my case we normally end up chatting hue). I could only do the translation parts cos we didn't have a CD player but I see what you all mean about some of the English being a little strange or being a bit strict about there being only one correct answer.
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oiwai
Straight outta Narita
みかんの皮むき器
Posts: 16
CIR Experience: 3rd year
Location: Miyagi
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Post by oiwai on Nov 1, 2015 10:28:25 GMT 9
Also I'm not a fan of some of the English translations. They often seem stiff and very much as if a non-native speaker translated them. (Although sometimes I will admit that they're much better than mine.) Like one I did today (Week 2 Day 5 I think) used the word システムキッチン. I've never heard "system kitchen" before, so I looked it up and sure enough it's wasei eigo. And yet in their translation they used "system kitchen." I feel like that's just sloppy. Agreed, later on there are some typos/grammatical errors that just made me sigh and move on.
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Post by miscreative on Nov 2, 2015 10:16:10 GMT 9
let's all mark down our complaints and tell them at the end when they ask for our critiques?
anyone else still not past week one? or is it just me...
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Post by popchyk~ on Nov 2, 2015 10:37:30 GMT 9
let's all 和和和和 down our complaints and tell them at the end when they ask for our critiques? anyone else still not past week one? or is it just me... *raises hand*
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Post by no yark shark on Nov 2, 2015 11:03:14 GMT 9
Just got books 5 and 6 and it makes me feel so behind. I'm on week 3 so I guess I'm not as behind as others, but still @-@
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brian
Straight outta Narita
Posts: 36
CIR Experience: 2nd year
Location: Okinawa
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Post by brian on Nov 5, 2015 22:05:12 GMT 9
A question on the interpretation exercises.
It's about the more informal conversation exercise (the first exercise). There are no stops between people speaking on the track. Are we supposed to listen to the whole conversation, then attempt to interpret the whole conversation from memory? Or are we expected to pause the track after each character has spoken their line?
What are y'all doing?
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Post by CaptainSeery on Nov 6, 2015 8:38:05 GMT 9
If I remember correctly, in the audio file on the very first day they explained what we're supposed to do in a little more depth. First, listen to the whole thing. Then go back to the beginning of the conversation, pause after each person, and interpret.
Personally I don't bother listening to the whole thing first (we're not going to get two chances to listen to something in normal interpreting) and just pause after each person has spoken.
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Post by miscreative on Nov 6, 2015 10:04:57 GMT 9
why dont they just write these instructions doooooown (in an easy to find/comprehend place)??
am i the only one that reads the 'how to use this book' section at the front of a textbook?
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Post by CaptainSeery on Nov 6, 2015 10:20:40 GMT 9
I read them too! Or at least skim them.
Also I know I was joking about it earlier, but I'm reeeeally getting sick of this whole "this is how society is changing and this is why it's bad thing." Progress for progress sake's isn't necessarily a good thing, and obviously progress causes new problems that have to be adressed. But the whole book is so unfailingly negative about it that it gets my hackles up. I hope it's just the theme for this first book and the next ones have different sort of passages, but I'm not holding my breath.
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Post by miscreative on Nov 6, 2015 10:30:18 GMT 9
yea... i was working on it last night and was reading the passage for week 2 day 2? (about the decrease in rice consumption and cafes) and i was like... how is 2 days off a /bad/ thing? doesnt that give people more time to come and enjoy your cafe? and since not everyone would have the same 2 days that evens out the amount of customers each day? I asked my S.O. and he was like... it's supposed to be negative... but yea, bad writing...
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Post by popchyk~ on Nov 6, 2015 11:18:55 GMT 9
Ugh, miscreative and CaptainSeery sound like the sort of losers who would order food over the phone just by saying ~numbers~ They're not like me - I keep it real. ( )
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Post by popchyk~ on Nov 6, 2015 11:30:07 GMT 9
Although maybe that book does have some points cos I am A. a Westerner and B. a fan of dim lighting.
...but I take it from that book's claim that no one is こだわり about lighting in their homes nowadays that they have never A. watched an episode of Grand Designs or Location, Location, Location or B. been to a dinner party full of middle-aged North Londoners (i.e. my parents).
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Post by miscreative on Nov 6, 2015 11:37:22 GMT 9
Ugh, miscreative and CaptainSeery sound like the sort of losers who would order food over the phone just by saying ~numbers~ They're not like me - I keep it real. ( ) in some instances numbers are usefuuuuul. like at a chinese or vietnamese (or whatever) restaurant where the menu is written using the original names for the things and there would be no way i would say it correctly or intelligibly... but overuse (as the book says) is... dumb? but i mean, why no has both? also, the argument about mishearing... thats why they repeat back your order? W/E 十人十色 right? hue lighting? i aint dat far yet.
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Post by popchyk~ on Nov 6, 2015 11:39:43 GMT 9
I mumble on the phone.
That's when numbers come in handy.
Also a lot of British people (including me - those in glass houses etc) are bad at pronouncing names of some foreign foods so sometimes it might be a blessing for the listener on the other end to not have to sit through a mangled London/Scouse/WestCountry etc attempt at pronouncing the names of certain foods, hue.
Also the tl;dr of the lighting thing: Westerners like dim lighting. Japanese people like bright lighting. Shinkansen are very bright. The moral of this story is something about lighting.
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Post by King Quailbee on Nov 6, 2015 11:53:59 GMT 9
When I worked at a udon shop in Seattle, I wished there were numbers to accompany the menu items.
I got an order of Nike Udon....
No it's not a pair of shoes in udon.
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Post by no yark shark on Nov 6, 2015 11:55:53 GMT 9
I was really surprised when I got to the one about letters, because I was expecting it to be in the usual tone, but it was surprisingly positive and was like "people still like letters! here's why:"
but the one about airplanes pissed me off so much because it was all like "when you travel by an airplane it doesn't feel like you're going anywhere and the true feeling of travelling is lost" because it's just not true? and it was all like "you can be on the other side of the world in half a day" like no? it takes 16 hours to go to America and it's a long and terrible journey and I hate it.
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Post by CaptainSeery on Nov 6, 2015 11:59:53 GMT 9
Yeah, the numbers can be useful.
I got to one yesterday (close to the end so spoiler alert) about how travel has lost it's magic because of planes and shinkansens. They go too fast and you don't feel like you're actually travelling any distance because you can't watch the scenery go by.
I just wanted to shake the author and go HAVE YOU EVER BEEN ON A TRANSPACIFIC FLIGHT?? Those are not fast. And then you get where you're going and you are obviously in a new place so I don't see why that's a problem. I mean, I get the charm of train travel (I like trains! I like going places and watching the scenery!) but when I travel my priority is getting to the place so that I can spend my vacation actually doing stuff and now just sitting on my butt in various forms of transportation. And if it's a long trip I'll probably end up reading and not looking outside anyway.
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Post by CaptainSeery on Nov 6, 2015 12:01:10 GMT 9
Ahahaha no yark shark I see we have the same feelings. I also liked the letter one, it was a nice change after yesterday.
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Post by King Quailbee on Nov 6, 2015 12:42:40 GMT 9
A majority of the essays are deeply entrenched in nostalgia - where the past seems all glittery and perfect when really the reason why progress happens is because in actuality it wasn't that great.
My graduate thesis would be having a hay day out of these passages (since the idea of natsukashii and nostalgia and furusato was a huge part of my thesis).
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Post by popchyk~ on Nov 6, 2015 13:13:30 GMT 9
but the one about airplanes pissed me off so much because it was all like "when you travel by an airplane it doesn't feel like you're going anywhere and the true feeling of travelling is lost" because it's just not true? and it was all like "you can be on the other side of the world in half a day" like no? it takes 16 hours to go to America and it's a long and terrible journey and I hate it. Hahaha literally this morning I read a weird thinkpiece where the writer was saying that he doesn't want new technology to reduce the London-Sydney journey time to four hours cos you need that long 24 hours in the air to feel you have ~traveled~ to a ~far~ place. (The first comment was like: "...you wouldn't say this if you had to take this journey four times a year")
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Post by popchyk~ on Nov 6, 2015 13:24:18 GMT 9
Also I'm not a big fan of flying and I much prefer taking the train, coach, or a bus... BUT what are they even on about? Plane travel feels like it takes so much longer just cos you have to:
- Make your way to the airport (I've never lived near an airport). - Check-in (if you haven't done it online the night before) and check-in your luggage. Often there is a queue. - Go through security. Often there is a queue. - Hang around waiting for your plane for ages. Often the plane is delayed or you got there so early because you were worried about missing your plane that you have lots of time. - Queue to board the plane. - Wait as the plane sits in the plane carpark (...or whatever it's called) and the flight attendants explain safety procedures. - Then you have the flight itself (length varies depending on where you're going). - The plane lands. You have to wait until you're allowed to leave. - If you're going to a foreign country you need to go through immigration. Often there are queues. - You have to wait to pick up your check-in luggage. - Hand in customs forms etc. - Work out how to get to where you want to go from airport. This often takes a while.
By the time you have arrived you feel like you've been traveling for 100000 years, hue. The only times I've felt that way with train travel was when my train is delayed like that time on my way to Fukuoka a couple of weeks ago where the police had to remove a man who was standing on the tracks or that time my train was delayed 5+ hours due to a typhoon when I was going back to Tokyo from Nagasaki.
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oiwai
Straight outta Narita
みかんの皮むき器
Posts: 16
CIR Experience: 3rd year
Location: Miyagi
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Post by oiwai on Nov 8, 2015 15:15:27 GMT 9
Doing the last lesson of book 1 and it pulled a sneak attack. Giving ポケベル for beeper and then using ポケットベル in their version. What do you want from me? I hope the graders of the test aren't so picky...
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Post by songbanana on Nov 9, 2015 10:36:53 GMT 9
Also aren't there windows on planes you can watch the scenery from? Most of the time it's just ocean, as it would be from a boat. But you can still feel the travel that way--I don't get why going to a place has to feel far but contacting the place takes a second?
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Post by popchyk~ on Nov 9, 2015 10:40:19 GMT 9
Err... so what happens if someone fails one of the monthly tests?
...I'm asking for a hulemdo.
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Post by songbanana on Nov 9, 2015 10:50:26 GMT 9
If I remember correctly you can fail like 2 of them without it affecting your final passing grade? Or maybe it was that you can be late on 2 of them. I'm pretty sure they're pretty lenient on grading though, my interpretation was at like turtle speed and they gave me an A for effort (lower for actual execution though so it evened out!)
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Post by popchyk~ on Nov 9, 2015 10:53:14 GMT 9
hue that's a relief. I can never get the translations they want and I've been busy lately so I haven't been going through the text-book properly (just reading through and then listening to the CD while I do the dishes, haha).
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Post by Caic on Nov 9, 2015 11:02:40 GMT 9
Is the test this week? by when? I am like a week or two behind.. And so busy at work.. And have a some evenings i have to work this week too. I don't really mind what gradeI get as long as i pass really. Does it actually matter at all?
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Post by popchyk~ on Nov 9, 2015 11:03:31 GMT 9
Test is due on the 11th, I think.
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Post by Caic on Nov 9, 2015 11:05:04 GMT 9
Test is due on the 11th, I think. blarghhh really? I working the tomorrow and 11th evenings... I guess I maybe should do tonight.. ew
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Post by CaptainSeery on Nov 9, 2015 11:38:34 GMT 9
How close are you trying to get to the translations? I'm aiming for more natural-sounding translations (but still trying to be close to the original). I almost never get even half a sentence that's the same as theirs. My なんとかなる personality means that I don't care if it's the same as long as the meaning is there (and honestly at least half the time I think mine is better). But with the test coming up I feel like I should maybe put some effort into making it sound like the book...
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