I didn't know what that meant last night either when I went to go get some Ramen during my lunch break. I went for a little walk around town trying to think of what I wanted to eat. I settled on Ramen as there are about 100 of them open at that time of night and they are pretty tasty. Unlike the nasty dried noodles that you buy for 50 cents. I order Kimchi bean sprout ramen with extra bean sprouts. The place I went to you have to pay first by buying a ticket for the food you want from a vending machine outside and then go in and sit down and give the cook your ticket (most ramen places are like this actually). So I bought one ticket for Kimchi Bean sprout soup and another ticket for extra bean sprout because I love bean sprouts...actually they usually don't give you a lot of bean sprouts. So the cook looked at me weird when I handed him my tickets. He said those words in Japanese up top. I sort of knew what he meant because of the context of the situation so I said "Oomori." which means extra..sort of. So after all is said and done I got my Ramen and my kimchi and a side of よぶん Oomori bean sprouts....! extra extra extra bean sprouts! Yobun (よぶん） means extra and Oomori means extra but in the sense that I already ordered it but "Can I get a little extra?"
So my Japanese still sucks. I am planning on taking the JLPT level 4 in December. I don't think I'll have a problem passing it but I feel like I have been wasting my time considering I have been studying it since high school (which is almost 10 years...yeah I graduate in '99 but I have been taking it since Junior year in high school '97). I feel like I should be much higher than that but then again I haven't put much into the past 5 years or so. I got bored with it and moved on to Spanish and Mandarin Chinese in college. Regardless, I shouldn't feel bad as some of the students I teach have been studying for longer and aren't really improving. When studying a language you really need to envelope yourself in an environment where you are forced to use it. This is one of the reasons why I want to move into my own place. I am taking private Japanese lessons once a week but that's not enough. I need to be talking with more Japanese people. However, whenever I talk to one they start trying to talk to me in English. I work that job 8 hours during the night I don't want to do it when I'm not getting paid.
There's something wrong with me too. I can't stand it when I hear other foreigners trying to speak Japanese. Or tonight when I heard about some other guys wanting to take the JLPT in Dec. I just can't imagine that they are any good. It's my ego I guess. That's why I need to be doing kung-fu more often. It helps surpress my ego. And that's why kung-fu is so great because that mind-state that you get when you are training really hard and staying really focused translates really well to studying a language. No matter how intense the exercise (or frustrating the situation) you just have to move past it and train harder so the next time it jappens it becomes easy and gradually it becomes second nature and its as simple as breathing.
2 comments:
"...train harder so the next time it jappens..."
HarHarHar! You said JAPpens!
Seriously though, you are on the right path with your thinking. You are immersed in the lauguage's culture of origin. You just need to seek out the right context. I would imagine that older people would be more willing to speak japanese exclusively. Maybe seek out some goh tables or something. Take care!
Well I have gotten to know some more guys in the martial arts group I train with and they are more forward about just using Japanese. Maybe that's why they were timid at first because they thought I couldnt communicate with them. So I get an explanation in Japanese as to how they are beating me up. It's how I prefer it anyway. Old people, through most of my experiences so far are not exactly the most responsive to foreigns trying to talk to them straight up unless you are somehow connected to them socially (through an friend or whatever). Perfect example of this was when my roommate got kicked on the train by an old man. I have a feeling there is more to the story but I wasnt there. Although I'll walk by some old dudes sometimes and they'll immediately spit a big disgusting loogie after I walk by. Hasn't happened recently or I just dont pay attention to it like I did. Old men in Japan like 3 things as most old men in most countries do 1 drinking 2 food 3 women. Any banana...more on that later.
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