Well, now I feel like an idiot
Today was the usual Wednesday children's English class, as it has been for week upon week upon week, but because softlykarou's friend is here, it threw off our equilibrium, and we didn't remember until Ueda-san rode up on his bike to make sure that we were okay. We were originally supposed to have matcha and Japanese sweets, but Ueda-san's wife[1] was unable to come and since she was the one who was going to make the food, we didn't have any. Still, we taught them how to ask "how do you like?" and how to answer it, so they could at least ask us a bunch of questions. We've given them a solid English foundation (or at least I like to think so) for when they get to studying English in school. We still speak Japanese better than their English, but that's because we live here, which is a point I'll probably make on the last class we do.
One other thing I've noticed since coming here is that people rarely speak formally outside of work. I mean, sure, in a work situation people still use formal language, but even when meeting new people I haven't heard that much of it. When we met the 大川s, the husband (who I had never met) used casual Japanese when speaking to me, so I just copied him and used it back. I have a bit more practice at it than softlykarou, who defaults to speaking more formally, but that's not really wrong (women tend to speak more formal Japanese than men in daily life). It makes me glad that I put in some extra effort to studying casual Japanese.
I've been working on an ORE conversion for Unhallowed Metropolis lately. I've always thought that UnMet was a great setting saddled with a somewhat odd and humdrum system--it's a bit confusing, and basically lacks anything special. ORE seems to be my go-to system for doing anything lately, so I've been using it to make a few conversions (plus some original stuff for extant ORE settings, but tinkering is something I'm fond of). Just need to finish up the social combat rules (it is neo-Victorian Britain, after all) and add the psychic and medium stuff and it'll be done.
And I really, really, really need to work on an outline for my NaNo so I'll be sure to finish it.
How did it get so late? Anyway, I'd better go to bed...
[1]: One thing I'm still unsure about is forms of address. Since honorifics aren't tied to gender, both Ueda-san and his wife are "Ueda-san." When addressing them specifically, I can use the formal words for husband and wife, but when talking about them to other people I'm not sure of the proper way to distinguish between them.
One other thing I've noticed since coming here is that people rarely speak formally outside of work. I mean, sure, in a work situation people still use formal language, but even when meeting new people I haven't heard that much of it. When we met the 大川s, the husband (who I had never met) used casual Japanese when speaking to me, so I just copied him and used it back. I have a bit more practice at it than softlykarou, who defaults to speaking more formally, but that's not really wrong (women tend to speak more formal Japanese than men in daily life). It makes me glad that I put in some extra effort to studying casual Japanese.
I've been working on an ORE conversion for Unhallowed Metropolis lately. I've always thought that UnMet was a great setting saddled with a somewhat odd and humdrum system--it's a bit confusing, and basically lacks anything special. ORE seems to be my go-to system for doing anything lately, so I've been using it to make a few conversions (plus some original stuff for extant ORE settings, but tinkering is something I'm fond of). Just need to finish up the social combat rules (it is neo-Victorian Britain, after all) and add the psychic and medium stuff and it'll be done.
And I really, really, really need to work on an outline for my NaNo so I'll be sure to finish it.
How did it get so late? Anyway, I'd better go to bed...
[1]: One thing I'm still unsure about is forms of address. Since honorifics aren't tied to gender, both Ueda-san and his wife are "Ueda-san." When addressing them specifically, I can use the formal words for husband and wife, but when talking about them to other people I'm not sure of the proper way to distinguish between them.