Back To Your 3x5 Apartments, Men.

[amarissia]

superkalifragi recently posted a link to an interesting documentary from the BBC about the state of love and romance in Japan. I highly recommend checking it out, it haz mentions of yaoi and very realistic blow-up dolls.

One of the few blogs I read has been weighing in on this topic lately too, and he always has interesting stuff to say. Originally Gaijin Smash, you can now find him at Gaijin Chronicles. This guy is hilarious and gives some good insight into what living in Japan is like for a foreigner.

Comments

[ayuka86.livejournal.com]

I had a really hard time explaining it too. When it's your native tongue, it's so hard to break it down without going off into a tangent about other aspects of it.

I think the example sentence was supposed to be rewritten to form, "I went to the post office to mail a letter." or something like that, but the phrases were all mixed up and the student had to put them in proper order.

Me: "Ok, we understand that there is a letter ("letter" wo motte-te) but -who- has the letter? -Where- are you going with that letter? Now, -what- will you do with that letter when you get there?"

Somehow the sentence still became, "The letter went I the post to."

And as for low level Japanese, I think you could teach the class too! It's really easy since you already know your kana, so it's just helping for simple sentences. Dekiru yo!

[amarissia.livejournal.com]

Dekimasu! Yeah, I do okay with kana. :)

Yike, that sounds tough to explain. Even though, from what I've learned, word order is a little more flexible in Japanese than in English. Did you have to teach them about the evil particles? Ah, the jigoku I went through with "ni" and "e" and "o"...

[ayuka86.livejournal.com]

Nah, I didn't have to teach them those, thankfully. I don't know how I would have either. As for ni, e, and o, here's an easy way to remember them.

-o: whatever you attach this to is the one being "verb'd"
Ex: kono BIDEO wo modoru (This video is being returned)
-ni: replaces most English particles like in and to. Can replace 'e.'
Ex: Amarichan ni kono BIDEO wo modoru (I return this video to Amarissia)
Ex: Sephiroth ga Midgar ni kaeru (Sephiroth goes home to Midgar)
-e: I don't really hear this one much in conversation anymore since it's almost always replaced by -ni. It's used in writing or very formal situations. Or songs. Also give a feeling of "location."
Ex: Junon e yuku (Journeying to Junon -- yuku give a strong feeling of going)
Exception: Angeal made dewatte iru (I'm placing a call to Angeal)

[amarissia.livejournal.com]

Ooh, thank you, I didn't know that last "made" exception!