Keeping Busy
Tuesday: Talked about "foreigner talk" in sociolinguistics class. Among other features, English speakers are a lot more casual and use a lot less grammar when talking to English learners, whereas Japanese speakers do the opposite (more grammar, more polite wording). Japanese learners also tend to use more grammar than necessary (trying to include all the particles, for example), as we need to practice our grammar and don't know what to leave out. This explains the common, somewhat backhanded compliment 「あー、きれい日本語ですね」 (ah, kirei nihongo desu-ne; "ah, that's beautiful Japanese, isn't it?").
Wednesday: Had lunch with Vito at 日本のデニーズ, which is a bout a billion times better than American Denny's. (Actually, Japanese Denny's is owned by an entirely different company which bought the rights to the Denny's branding. That company in turn is owned by 7&i Holdings, which owns 7/11.) In the afternoon, I went to the national museum of Japanese History in Sakura (fairly close to my host family's home). The museum was quite interesting and definately worth the time, even though one of the museum's five galleries is currently closed for renovations.
Thursday: In the afternoon, there was a guest lecture at the IES center on Japanese popular culture, given by a neo-Marxist, anti-technology reactionary, otaku woman who's working as a professor (teaching English?) at some other university in Tokyo.
Friday was uneventful, so that's about it. This weekend, I have a ton of Japanese studying to do, and I need to make more progress on my project for marketing class (on McDonald's Japan).
Wednesday: Had lunch with Vito at 日本のデニーズ, which is a bout a billion times better than American Denny's. (Actually, Japanese Denny's is owned by an entirely different company which bought the rights to the Denny's branding. That company in turn is owned by 7&i Holdings, which owns 7/11.) In the afternoon, I went to the national museum of Japanese History in Sakura (fairly close to my host family's home). The museum was quite interesting and definately worth the time, even though one of the museum's five galleries is currently closed for renovations.
Thursday: In the afternoon, there was a guest lecture at the IES center on Japanese popular culture, given by a neo-Marxist, anti-technology reactionary, otaku woman who's working as a professor (teaching English?) at some other university in Tokyo.
Friday was uneventful, so that's about it. This weekend, I have a ton of Japanese studying to do, and I need to make more progress on my project for marketing class (on McDonald's Japan).