(no subject)
Hmm... let's see... today was...
Interesting, mainly. We had a great talk in GDF about << La muerte... >>. I never got the chance when I read that story in Spanish last year to fully appreciate just how quinessentially it embodies the ideals of the Generacion de '98. All the imagery of walking around a labyrinthine house, coming always upon the same dreary vistas, surrounded by decaying images of a grandeur that has passed into disrepair, the idea that it was Lonnrot's own arrogance and refusal to see any but his own view that led to his downfall, the foreshadowing that if he had only listened to those around him, he might have lived... Yay for Jorge Luis Borges! I enjoyed the story in Spanish, but reading the translation... wow. Now I wish I'd brought my anthologies from last year -- I wanna read it in Spanish again!!
In Japanese, we had a fun conversation. We were practicing ordering things at the restaurant, and the dialogue between myself and Kosari-Amin-san went something like this :
K-A-san: Welcome! Please take this menu. *hands me a workbook*
Me: Thank you. *flipping randomly, then pointing to a spot on a page* What is this? Is it udon?
K-A-san: *looking at the random picture I pointed to* Um, that's a bicycle.
Me: A bicycle? In a *menu*?
K-A-san: It's delicious.
Me: But I don't like bicycles! I'll have some ice cream.
Donahue-sensei (the Japanese teacher on Mondays, when Koyama-sensei has the day off) heard us doing this and had us do the dialogue for the class. I think she enjoyed it. She's nicer than Koyama-sensei, but a little less 'together'
Umm... Nemec was funny in Hinduism again. See some of his silliness!
On the Eightfold Path:
"You have the right clothes, you have the right job -- don't kill cows! -- you can escape suffering."
On how you see the world after you've attained enlightenment:
"You don't look at that jacket and think "John looks like a dumbass in it."
On how the Buddhists don't think that things have a soul:
"Where is the chariotness of a chariot? ... It's not that it's drawn by a horse, because a bullock-cart is drawn by a ... uh, okay, a bullock-cart is drawn by a bullock, but a horse-cart is drawn by a horse!"
On yoga:
"Yoga, that stuff where you bend your body around." *does a silly pose*
On the class:
"It must be the rain. You look like a stone wall."
Let's see, what else happened? I dunno. Not much. That was my day.
I'll post more later if more happens, or if I get bored.
Interesting, mainly. We had a great talk in GDF about << La muerte... >>. I never got the chance when I read that story in Spanish last year to fully appreciate just how quinessentially it embodies the ideals of the Generacion de '98. All the imagery of walking around a labyrinthine house, coming always upon the same dreary vistas, surrounded by decaying images of a grandeur that has passed into disrepair, the idea that it was Lonnrot's own arrogance and refusal to see any but his own view that led to his downfall, the foreshadowing that if he had only listened to those around him, he might have lived... Yay for Jorge Luis Borges! I enjoyed the story in Spanish, but reading the translation... wow. Now I wish I'd brought my anthologies from last year -- I wanna read it in Spanish again!!
In Japanese, we had a fun conversation. We were practicing ordering things at the restaurant, and the dialogue between myself and Kosari-Amin-san went something like this :
K-A-san: Welcome! Please take this menu. *hands me a workbook*
Me: Thank you. *flipping randomly, then pointing to a spot on a page* What is this? Is it udon?
K-A-san: *looking at the random picture I pointed to* Um, that's a bicycle.
Me: A bicycle? In a *menu*?
K-A-san: It's delicious.
Me: But I don't like bicycles! I'll have some ice cream.
Donahue-sensei (the Japanese teacher on Mondays, when Koyama-sensei has the day off) heard us doing this and had us do the dialogue for the class. I think she enjoyed it. She's nicer than Koyama-sensei, but a little less 'together'
Umm... Nemec was funny in Hinduism again. See some of his silliness!
On the Eightfold Path:
"You have the right clothes, you have the right job -- don't kill cows! -- you can escape suffering."
On how you see the world after you've attained enlightenment:
"You don't look at that jacket and think "John looks like a dumbass in it."
On how the Buddhists don't think that things have a soul:
"Where is the chariotness of a chariot? ... It's not that it's drawn by a horse, because a bullock-cart is drawn by a ... uh, okay, a bullock-cart is drawn by a bullock, but a horse-cart is drawn by a horse!"
On yoga:
"Yoga, that stuff where you bend your body around." *does a silly pose*
On the class:
"It must be the rain. You look like a stone wall."
Let's see, what else happened? I dunno. Not much. That was my day.
I'll post more later if more happens, or if I get bored.