10:16pm セミナーハウス
天気：晴れ
Being in the kitchen can be dangerously distracting; I just spent the last 3 hours up there chatting with people!!! Anyway, earlier today… I got up a little later than I should have, and so even my bike couldn’t save me from being late to class; I felt pretty bad about that. After the speech, sensei showed us some examples of 空耳 (soramimi – lit. “empty ear). Soramimi refers to the misinterpretation of the lyrics of, for the most part, English songs, which can have some very comical results. I had read about this before on the internet, but it was great today, because we actually got to listen to the songs, as sensei would show us the soramimi; most of them worked really well. To give an example (courtesy of trusty Wikipedia) -
The Beatles' "I Want to Hold Your Hand":
- I want to hold your hand
- アホな放尿犯
- Aho na hōnyōhan
- (Idiotic public urination ["hōnyōhan" is a legal term for the crime])
It just goes to show how hard it can be for non-native speakers of English to understand song lyrics; even I have trouble sometimes. In truth though, many of these are cleverly devised, and there’s even a comedian in Japan who specialises in them. Anyway if you want to read more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soramimi. So yeah, that was a lot of fun. I got my homework done after class, and then went to Reading and Writing. I had a momentary lapse after Reading and Writing; I thought it was time to go home. I guess I was just being really hopeful, but I almost immediately realised that yes, I did indeed have another class. I went over to the convenience store to buy a snack, and then sat out in the sun with Kim, Jo, and Nathan, until class was about to start; another beautiful day. In Gender and Sexuality, we continued to talk about gender and language, in particular, the politeness and positioning of language in Japanese through the use of honorific speech; or lack thereof. We also got to watch a few video clips that highlighted this. Then, I was finished for the day.
Getting back, I immediately put some washing on, and then put some rice on, and then had a shower, to wash my hair and shave. The timing all worked out well; after shaving, the washing was ready to be put out, and then the rice was done. I had a late lunch (about 4 o’clock) of avocado and rice on toast, and then talked with my family until my computer decided to die from overheating; whoops. So, I went to the computer room, where I knew I’d find Simon, and we talked while listening to the radio (Triple J on the internet), and looking up soramimi; Simon found it hilarious. He also showed off his new red "space boots", which actually look really cool. We went up for dinner at about 7, and I had my leftover yakisoba. Conversation didn’t take very long to get on a roll, and then it just kept on rolling and rolling, until everyone was like, “wow, it really is late, I should be doing my homework”. Everyone that is, except Rachel, who was yet again transfixed by the ice skating on TV. Well it’s time for me to get some of that homework done. I’m thinking tomorrow, since I don’t have class till 12, I’m going to ride to Yamada Lake, and see the plum blossoms; hopefully it’s nice and warm. It really has been a dramatic change though, from cold to warm; and it’s not even spring yet!
No comments:
Post a Comment