Here such a passion is
I just came from an International Education Week seminar on manga and anime called "Cute Girls, Beautiful Boys, and Friendly Monsters." It was awesome. The lecturer, Elise Edwards, taught me over a half dozen new words for different themes and motifs in anime, in the process reminding me just why I love anime so much: it loves the same things I love. Miyazaki is the epitome of mono no aware, or nostalgia and the appreciation for the ephemeral. To make the hour even better, A.S.I.A. attended so about half the audience was international students from Asian countries. This meant that after the presentation was over, we all sat around and exchanged favorite titles for about ten or fifteen minutes regardless of whether they were subtitled in English or not. I have so many series I need to look up now. Eee!
And yet, my greatest elation from the whole event comes from hearing Elise, a professor who studied in Japan, pronounce yaoi "yah-oy." After a few sudden weeks of anxiety over hearing the mindless rabble shout "yow-ee", I feel so vindicated to have been right all along. Take that, no formal Japanese learning!
Ooo! Speaking of which, my anatomy professor showed us these awesome videos in class yesterday. Some days, I swear, he just decides we need a breather. Such an amazingly cool guy. I, however, nearly went mad trying to figure out what the heck the people were saying. I could read the pitagora suicchi and I've listened to Japanese enough that my mind synthesized "switch" for suicchi. I could not for the life of me, however, figure out what pitagora could be. I ended up looking up the videos during my work break at the library (after I sprinted across campus turning in my two time roll sheets. I really need to get better at getting those signed.) Apparently, pitagora is how Japanese romanizes Pythagoras, making pitagora suicchi, "Pythagoras switch." I've no idea what a "Pythagoras switch" could be and offhand, I'd guess the creators have no idea either, but it certainly made searching much easier and I found more interesting videos. For whatever reason, I love the ninja dance best. Only in Japan . . .
Man, between this and listening to all my anime music on my iPod this morning, I think I might pass out from sheer over-geekery at Star Trek tonight. Lydia, bless your heart. I can't wait!
And yet, my greatest elation from the whole event comes from hearing Elise, a professor who studied in Japan, pronounce yaoi "yah-oy." After a few sudden weeks of anxiety over hearing the mindless rabble shout "yow-ee", I feel so vindicated to have been right all along. Take that, no formal Japanese learning!
Ooo! Speaking of which, my anatomy professor showed us these awesome videos in class yesterday. Some days, I swear, he just decides we need a breather. Such an amazingly cool guy. I, however, nearly went mad trying to figure out what the heck the people were saying. I could read the pitagora suicchi and I've listened to Japanese enough that my mind synthesized "switch" for suicchi. I could not for the life of me, however, figure out what pitagora could be. I ended up looking up the videos during my work break at the library (after I sprinted across campus turning in my two time roll sheets. I really need to get better at getting those signed.) Apparently, pitagora is how Japanese romanizes Pythagoras, making pitagora suicchi, "Pythagoras switch." I've no idea what a "Pythagoras switch" could be and offhand, I'd guess the creators have no idea either, but it certainly made searching much easier and I found more interesting videos. For whatever reason, I love the ninja dance best. Only in Japan . . .
Man, between this and listening to all my anime music on my iPod this morning, I think I might pass out from sheer over-geekery at Star Trek tonight. Lydia, bless your heart. I can't wait!