Ever greater levels of multiculturalism
Who'd ever guess that Mel Brooks could be such a great window to international exchange, nay, even world peace!?
The kyoto-sensei (vice-principal) at Miyoshi JHS is an awesome guy. He works really hard, but he plays... well, not harder, and perhaps not even as hard (as that would simply be un-Japanese), but he sure gets close to it.
Aside from the fact that I think he might have hit on me, yesterday morning, as I was changing my shoes in the foyer... "You looks good," he said. I glanced confusedly at him. "Looks... good. Eh... hansomu bo-i," he said. I -probably blushing- did my usual response to something uncomfortable like that -usually when someone compliments me- and did my muttering, awkward retreat. I'm not looking for a sugar daddy (especially not a Japanese one).
Anyway, he's a funny guy and, like other comedy greats, myself and Eddie Izzard included (it's an exclusive group), he likes to mess around with and between languages. He's fluent in Chinese, not bad at English, and recently he's taken to studying Russian.
Of course he was well pleased to know that I have a bit of Russian up my sleeve. Yesterday morning I finally finished downloading Pimsleur's Russian I, II & III (BOOM BAM!!). I told him of this, told him about Pimsleur's method, and how I'd managed to learn most of what I know of Russian by it, while walking around Pittsburgh. I then made a joke about how everyone looked at me funny while I power-walked past them, proudly declaring, "Excuse! Please tell! Where is Red Square?!" (Only, you know, in Russian... "Yzvenyt'! Skazhet' pazhal'ste! Gdye Kraznay Ploshit?!
But then I added that, in my opinion, it actually wasnt so unusual, as -as I've blogged previously- there is a high population of so-called (by me) Self-Talkers, in that crazy town. "atama ga hen na hito ga ippai iru," I said ("strange-headed people are many," more or less, literally). To which he replied (now here's the pertinent part):
"Abby... Abby Normal," in perfect Young Frankenstein timbre! I was shocked! Shocked, and, yes, a little amazed! And very excited. And... a bit hungry.
Not only has he seen the movie many times, but he's watched it in English, so we could fully engage in a quote battle the likes of which the Miyoshi JHS staff office had never seen before! YES!
And now here's where multiculturality comes into it, again. I'm pretty sure, long ago, in a blog far, far away (most likely my Live Journal), I posted about this. That when I was at Ca' D'Alfieri, in Italy, I had almost the same experience, except that time Maurizio, my host, had only seen it in Italian, but the timbre and gestures were the same, so we could still manage a lengthy laugh-fest about it. It was great! I thought I'd ever find its equal.
The last step, to be a bit anti-climactic, was that kyoto-sensei came over to me with his Japanese-Chinese learning CD, for me to copy. Which I have. It's great! Japanese to English to Russian to Chinese to Mel Brooks (Yiddish?). What a wild ride!
The kyoto-sensei (vice-principal) at Miyoshi JHS is an awesome guy. He works really hard, but he plays... well, not harder, and perhaps not even as hard (as that would simply be un-Japanese), but he sure gets close to it.
Aside from the fact that I think he might have hit on me, yesterday morning, as I was changing my shoes in the foyer... "You looks good," he said. I glanced confusedly at him. "Looks... good. Eh... hansomu bo-i," he said. I -probably blushing- did my usual response to something uncomfortable like that -usually when someone compliments me- and did my muttering, awkward retreat. I'm not looking for a sugar daddy (especially not a Japanese one).
Anyway, he's a funny guy and, like other comedy greats, myself and Eddie Izzard included (it's an exclusive group), he likes to mess around with and between languages. He's fluent in Chinese, not bad at English, and recently he's taken to studying Russian.
Of course he was well pleased to know that I have a bit of Russian up my sleeve. Yesterday morning I finally finished downloading Pimsleur's Russian I, II & III (BOOM BAM!!). I told him of this, told him about Pimsleur's method, and how I'd managed to learn most of what I know of Russian by it, while walking around Pittsburgh. I then made a joke about how everyone looked at me funny while I power-walked past them, proudly declaring, "Excuse! Please tell! Where is Red Square?!" (Only, you know, in Russian... "Yzvenyt'! Skazhet' pazhal'ste! Gdye Kraznay Ploshit?!
But then I added that, in my opinion, it actually wasnt so unusual, as -as I've blogged previously- there is a high population of so-called (by me) Self-Talkers, in that crazy town. "atama ga hen na hito ga ippai iru," I said ("strange-headed people are many," more or less, literally). To which he replied (now here's the pertinent part):
"Abby... Abby Normal," in perfect Young Frankenstein timbre! I was shocked! Shocked, and, yes, a little amazed! And very excited. And... a bit hungry.
Not only has he seen the movie many times, but he's watched it in English, so we could fully engage in a quote battle the likes of which the Miyoshi JHS staff office had never seen before! YES!
And now here's where multiculturality comes into it, again. I'm pretty sure, long ago, in a blog far, far away (most likely my Live Journal), I posted about this. That when I was at Ca' D'Alfieri, in Italy, I had almost the same experience, except that time Maurizio, my host, had only seen it in Italian, but the timbre and gestures were the same, so we could still manage a lengthy laugh-fest about it. It was great! I thought I'd ever find its equal.
The last step, to be a bit anti-climactic, was that kyoto-sensei came over to me with his Japanese-Chinese learning CD, for me to copy. Which I have. It's great! Japanese to English to Russian to Chinese to Mel Brooks (Yiddish?). What a wild ride!