Japanese Lessons, compression, and maybe anime-ic angels are closer to reality than the fat little babies with wings
I've been discovering that one of the best ways to develop an ear for a language is to watch subtitled TV programs. Anime isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I enjoy it (when it isn't about fluffy school girls with demonically @$$-kicking magic powers. Which, unfortunately is only about 25% of the time, but I digress). It's really great because I'm learning Japanese without hardly working. Of course the vocab I'm learning is stuff like:
"Masaka!" (It can't be!)
"Nigete!" (Run for it!)
"Baka!" (Idiot)
"Uruse!" (Shaddap)
"Odoroita" (Surprised)
"Sumane" (Sorry)
And, I can't actually use these in conversations, well not often at any rate. But it gives you a sense of the language, to listen to it a lot. It also exposes where Japanese textbooks fall flat on their face - introducing colloquial speech to students.
Which is an interesting topic in and of itself. Japanese is a very low compression language, and by that I mean "it is not Chinese", or rather, it is inefficient with syllables. There are tons and tons of unnecessary syllables in Japanese. Take the word for "hot":
"Hot"
Chinese: Re4
Japanese: Atatakai. ("i" is it's own syllable, btw).
score: (lower is better) English = 1, Chinese = 1, Japanese = 5
"It was hot"
Chinese: Re4
Japanese: Atatakakatta.
score: English = 3, Chinese = 1, Japanese = 6
"It was not hot"
Chinese: mei2Re4 (where mei, instead of bu, indicates past, if I'm doing it right).
Japanese: Atatakakunakatta
score: English = 4, Chinese = 2, Japanese = 8
- Final scores -
Chinese = 4
English = 8
Japanese = 19
This is skewed a bit, because in Chinese everything (as far as I can tell) regarding tense seems to be indicated by context, and the mysterious placement of particles, which no western mind can fully comprehend or ever get right. Making something past tense might mean the addition of another syllable or two. However, it is still a long ways ahead of English and Japanese.
Japanese, on the other hand, has syllables to burn. Unlike Chinese, where each syllable contributes to the meaning of the sentence and has its own character, Japanese has meaningless syllables to burn. In the script, one kanji may have 4 syllables (whereas in Chinese it always only has one), and no one knows how many ways to pronounce. Take for example the simple character 紅. Depending on the word it is in, it could be pronounced:
"Kurenai"
"Beni"
"Kou"
"Aka"
"Momi"
"Gu"
And possibly more. But in Chinese, it is just "hong2." The point of all this? Not that Japanese is most certainly, positively the hardest language for an English speaker to learn ever. That would actually be Korean, because it is basically Japanese combined with impossible pronunciation. Rather, the point is that when people speak, we naturally want to cut corners and throw out unnecessary syllables. Because their language is so inefficient with syllables, they throw out stuff by the truckload in colloquial speech thus rendering the already impossible textbook and classroom Japanese useless on the street. While the textbook and dictionary may say that "Urusai" (4 syllables) means "noisy" (The Japanese version of "shut up"), on the sidewalk it's "Uze," spoken so fast that you aren't even sure what exactly it is you heard.
Listening to Anime helps unravel all this, but it would actually be much more helpful to have a book of colloquial Japanese speech.
Anyway, the Japanese show I am watching is called "Bleach." It's really cool. The idea is this:
When someone dies with incredible regret, their soul turns into something called a "Hollow." (The Japanese artists are very creative with their illustrations here). A Hollow is a starving soul with a giant hole where its stomach is, that tries to fill its cravings by eating other people's souls. They are invisible, but can harm/kill living people. Through some circumstances, the hero, a highschool boy named Ichigo becomes a "Shinigami" (death god) and can see the Hollows. He is commissioned by a group of spirits that are in charge of protecting people from Hollows, to take care of his city. It's a lot more complicated than that, but if you watch the first few episodes, you'll get the basics. Like most Anime it's a little formulaic (i.e. The exhausted hero delivers an attack (the name of which he always shouts before launching (i.e. "Death art 35: Portal to spirit chaos realm of doom!")) and you think the bad guy is dead, but then he cracks a smile, and starts chuckling, which crescendos into maniacal laughter, and then says "foolish human, I shall now show you my true form!" To which the hero responds 100% of the time "Masaka!" (See above for definition))
If you followed that last part, good job. At any rate, he's a highschool kid, but he is barely ever in school, he is always involved in this conflict: Hollows vs. Shinigamis. That makes sense, because if he was mostly in school the anime wouldn't be popular. Well... maybe I shouldn't say that, there is a ridiculous number of anime's that are based in highschools it seems. But these anime are mostly preoccupied more with miniskirts, and the before mentioned super powered fluffy girls.
But the point is, the hero knows that school, etc. is all secondary stuff. He does his homework, etc, but the real fights that take place are in the spiritual realm. That was one thing I really really enjoyed about being in Japan: I was around some missionaries who actually lived like this is the case. When I was around them, I had this incredible sense that the most real battle, the thing of most importance, were the souls of the people around them. Like, it was way more important than any work I was doing in the lab. Which was so true, and there was so much joy in their meetings. I did my work, etc, but it seemed... different. They spent a huge amount of time praying, and their prayers were like battles. And, they met and ate together, and reinforced each other like people in the trenches. They all had individually given up a lot to be where they were, too.
Another cool thing about this anime is that it's kind of... Old Testament style. There's all sorts of things going on around us that we can't see... like Elisha, his servant, and the burning chariots. And Daniel's messenger angel being detained by the prince of Persia, until he tag teams with Michael. And... the freaky things Ezekiel sees that are just too weird for a person to actually think up himself. The fat babies with wings, potpourri smell, and various shades of purple we think of when we hear the word "angel" are waaaay wide of the mark. I can't help but imagine and hope that Angels are things that are not just powerful, but unique and... cool. You wonder what an Angel fight is like. Well maybe I shouldn't wander off to far here, because of what Paul says and all that. But, is it too bad to hope that what's going on in the spiritual realm is actually... interesting?
"Masaka!" (It can't be!)
"Nigete!" (Run for it!)
"Baka!" (Idiot)
"Uruse!" (Shaddap)
"Odoroita" (Surprised)
"Sumane" (Sorry)
And, I can't actually use these in conversations, well not often at any rate. But it gives you a sense of the language, to listen to it a lot. It also exposes where Japanese textbooks fall flat on their face - introducing colloquial speech to students.
Which is an interesting topic in and of itself. Japanese is a very low compression language, and by that I mean "it is not Chinese", or rather, it is inefficient with syllables. There are tons and tons of unnecessary syllables in Japanese. Take the word for "hot":
"Hot"
Chinese: Re4
Japanese: Atatakai. ("i" is it's own syllable, btw).
score: (lower is better) English = 1, Chinese = 1, Japanese = 5
"It was hot"
Chinese: Re4
Japanese: Atatakakatta.
score: English = 3, Chinese = 1, Japanese = 6
"It was not hot"
Chinese: mei2Re4 (where mei, instead of bu, indicates past, if I'm doing it right).
Japanese: Atatakakunakatta
score: English = 4, Chinese = 2, Japanese = 8
- Final scores -
Chinese = 4
English = 8
Japanese = 19
This is skewed a bit, because in Chinese everything (as far as I can tell) regarding tense seems to be indicated by context, and the mysterious placement of particles, which no western mind can fully comprehend or ever get right. Making something past tense might mean the addition of another syllable or two. However, it is still a long ways ahead of English and Japanese.
Japanese, on the other hand, has syllables to burn. Unlike Chinese, where each syllable contributes to the meaning of the sentence and has its own character, Japanese has meaningless syllables to burn. In the script, one kanji may have 4 syllables (whereas in Chinese it always only has one), and no one knows how many ways to pronounce. Take for example the simple character 紅. Depending on the word it is in, it could be pronounced:
"Kurenai"
"Beni"
"Kou"
"Aka"
"Momi"
"Gu"
And possibly more. But in Chinese, it is just "hong2." The point of all this? Not that Japanese is most certainly, positively the hardest language for an English speaker to learn ever. That would actually be Korean, because it is basically Japanese combined with impossible pronunciation. Rather, the point is that when people speak, we naturally want to cut corners and throw out unnecessary syllables. Because their language is so inefficient with syllables, they throw out stuff by the truckload in colloquial speech thus rendering the already impossible textbook and classroom Japanese useless on the street. While the textbook and dictionary may say that "Urusai" (4 syllables) means "noisy" (The Japanese version of "shut up"), on the sidewalk it's "Uze," spoken so fast that you aren't even sure what exactly it is you heard.
Listening to Anime helps unravel all this, but it would actually be much more helpful to have a book of colloquial Japanese speech.
Anyway, the Japanese show I am watching is called "Bleach." It's really cool. The idea is this:
When someone dies with incredible regret, their soul turns into something called a "Hollow." (The Japanese artists are very creative with their illustrations here). A Hollow is a starving soul with a giant hole where its stomach is, that tries to fill its cravings by eating other people's souls. They are invisible, but can harm/kill living people. Through some circumstances, the hero, a highschool boy named Ichigo becomes a "Shinigami" (death god) and can see the Hollows. He is commissioned by a group of spirits that are in charge of protecting people from Hollows, to take care of his city. It's a lot more complicated than that, but if you watch the first few episodes, you'll get the basics. Like most Anime it's a little formulaic (i.e. The exhausted hero delivers an attack (the name of which he always shouts before launching (i.e. "Death art 35: Portal to spirit chaos realm of doom!")) and you think the bad guy is dead, but then he cracks a smile, and starts chuckling, which crescendos into maniacal laughter, and then says "foolish human, I shall now show you my true form!" To which the hero responds 100% of the time "Masaka!" (See above for definition))
If you followed that last part, good job. At any rate, he's a highschool kid, but he is barely ever in school, he is always involved in this conflict: Hollows vs. Shinigamis. That makes sense, because if he was mostly in school the anime wouldn't be popular. Well... maybe I shouldn't say that, there is a ridiculous number of anime's that are based in highschools it seems. But these anime are mostly preoccupied more with miniskirts, and the before mentioned super powered fluffy girls.
But the point is, the hero knows that school, etc. is all secondary stuff. He does his homework, etc, but the real fights that take place are in the spiritual realm. That was one thing I really really enjoyed about being in Japan: I was around some missionaries who actually lived like this is the case. When I was around them, I had this incredible sense that the most real battle, the thing of most importance, were the souls of the people around them. Like, it was way more important than any work I was doing in the lab. Which was so true, and there was so much joy in their meetings. I did my work, etc, but it seemed... different. They spent a huge amount of time praying, and their prayers were like battles. And, they met and ate together, and reinforced each other like people in the trenches. They all had individually given up a lot to be where they were, too.
Another cool thing about this anime is that it's kind of... Old Testament style. There's all sorts of things going on around us that we can't see... like Elisha, his servant, and the burning chariots. And Daniel's messenger angel being detained by the prince of Persia, until he tag teams with Michael. And... the freaky things Ezekiel sees that are just too weird for a person to actually think up himself. The fat babies with wings, potpourri smell, and various shades of purple we think of when we hear the word "angel" are waaaay wide of the mark. I can't help but imagine and hope that Angels are things that are not just powerful, but unique and... cool. You wonder what an Angel fight is like. Well maybe I shouldn't wander off to far here, because of what Paul says and all that. But, is it too bad to hope that what's going on in the spiritual realm is actually... interesting?
At any rate, here's a pic I took at a campfire a couple weeks ago. That's not a dragon, really, it's just a burning marshmallow.
posted by tmm at
7:40 PM
10 Comments:
I like reading your posts on your experiences with languages. It actually provided some insight into a book I read recently called Musashi. The title character changed his name from Takezo to Musashi after a life changing experience, but the characters for the two names are the same. I guess words have a lot more to them then the way you write them down, which is something that isn't obvious in English. At least not to me.
Your dad said you've been pretty busy, but I'm glad you're finding time to watch anime, think about things unrelated to your research and take sweet pictures.
As to Bleach: the Shinigami arc was very good, esp. as you got to the end, and ramped to the final battles. It had some great story line twists.
Some of the other arcs simply do not measure up. I get the impression as it got more popular it got more about cranking out the episodes.
The character that I relate to the most is probably Uryu.
If I wasn't happily married, I would probably have multiple pictures of Yoruichi up around the house. Some how she has the essence of femininity for me: grace, prudence, and strength coupled with a patience. Hmmm. In someways, she is similar to my wife... Other than the kicking *ss part, which my wife wouldn't do.
Well, I for one think Angels will be cool, and I believe we should believe they will be cool--and unique. I think the problem comes if we try to doctrinally determine what sort of uniqueness they have. "This one looks like this, that one like that." That would be like gazing at pictures of women, hoping to thereby imagine what a future wife would look like.
Oh...and theologic,
Anime is really cool in that it very effectively portrays kick *ss chicks, who remain amazingly feminine. (And not just because they have long leggs, they are femininly kick *ss.) Anime does a much better job of capturing "fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army with banners than we do.
John - Musashi... hmmm that sounds familiar... I wonder why. But yeah, your point about the names is well spoken. The same thing can cause problems... you think you pronounce someones name one way, but in reality you pronounce it another way. Yeah, things have been pretty busy here cause I have to give two presentations in 3 weeks infront of a critical audience, and right now my experimental apparatus is not working right. Uh oh. But yeah, heh all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy I guess.
Uncle Ted - about Aunt Lauri: we all know that the reason she doesn't isn't because she couldn't, it's cause she doesn't want to heh heh heh. Yoruichi is pretty cool, Uryuu might also be one of my favorite characters. Anyway, it's boatloads of fun. Do you watch it in Japanese w/subtitles, or English?
And Matt, your comments are always appreciated. Interesting analogy, looking at pictures of women and hoping that's what your wife will look like. Hmmm... and this wasn't directed to me but something that seems different about Anime vs. western USA type cartoons, which might be why they convey some things more powerfully, is that our cartoons seem to be intended to look unusual, or goofy or weird. (i.e. Simpsons). The funny thing about Anime, is that they are not meant to be this way. Exaggerations (i.e. huge eyes, etc), but they are all exaggerations of traits that Japanese people seem to find attractive. In fact, people go overboard in Japan, and make models displaying clothes in shop windows to have anime facial features. It's actually quite repulsive though, to see anime features projected onto a human form. But maybe not to some people.
Matthew:
You need to call me Uncle T. My sister taught you in school (I think), and since she regarded you all as her kids, I am therefore your Uncle. :>)
I love your allusion/direct quote on the Song of Solomon. You tickle my fancy. Anime and Scriptures.
Tim,
I agree that your Aunt is unique, and could be a character. I hope you find somebody of the same character.
I watch a lot of the episodes on animeviewer.net. Although stage6.divx is better quality. Most of the animeviewer content is subtitle.
Trivia:
*What is your favorite character?
*Who do you relate most to?
PS: This comment typed while laying on a bed in Hong Kong.
Uncle Ted,
Thanks for the notice. I typed that up, and then felt weird. "He's not my uncle, and though I'm friends with his nephew and with his nephew-in-law, he's still not my uncle." I'll use Uncle Ted in the future.
Tim,
I think your comment about beautiful anime characters is spot on. American animation is cartoony. Japanese animation is noble and piercing.
American cartoons are closely related to the grotesque, and thus are similar literarialy (if pictures can be called literature) to say Dogberry or Chaucer's knight.
Japanese cartoons are probably related to iconography (not historically, but emotionally, and by sort of thing done), and in literature to Dante's Beatrice, Chaucer's knight, and Beatrice from Mucha Ado.
Anime models would freak me out just as much as Byzantine iconographic models would.
Trivia answers: I really like Miazaki (sp) girls though I can't remember any of their names. (The first time I watched "Valley of the Winds" I really liked the hero, but I found it a little cheasy the second time. I'm not remembering the heroine from Howel much (though I liked her) nor from Laputa. And I can't remember any of the other ones I have seen.) I haven't watched many Anime series, a little Inuyasha (I do like Kagome).
I suppose I watched Dragonball-Z when I was in highschool, but I don't know I find any of those characters compelling.
In an odd way, I relate to the heroines better than the heroes. Inuyasha seems simply too male, but someone like Kagome can be a bit of a Beatrice figure.
Uncle Ted, I don't know if you've ever met Matt, but just FYI he is probably one of the widest read people on the planet his age.
Matt - Don't want to bash it, if you like the show, but I think there are some way higher quality things out there than Inuyasha in all things plot and art related. I'll send you an email about it, with a log-in name and password to a place where you can watch some stuff. You can tell me what you think, if you have time to watch any of it. Be careful to watch the clock though... these things can be damaging.
Uncle Ted -
yeah you seem like Uryuu most. Hmmm, about your questions: I'd have to say... maybe Renji, cause I try hard but still suck. My favorite character is probably Uryuu or Ichigo.
BTW - why are you in Hong Kong? That is the hometown of the missionaries who were my friends in Sendai. Hong Kong CCC sends out a lot of missionaries, they sent a lot of students to Sendai as well. I now feel very connected to the city even though I've never been there.
Tim,
I agree. Like I said, I haven't seen much. I've seen a few episodes on TV. And thanks for the link. I enjoy anime, but haven't watched much.
Matt
Tim,
I'm in Hong Kong to get to Shenzhen. See this: http://theologic.wordpress.com/2007/11/09/welcome-to-shenzhen/
Renji seems to be an absolutely perfect fit. You crack me up. This is very self-aware.
Matthew:
One of the interesting things is that anime links straight back to the Japanese culture. I enjoyed anime much more after dealing with the Japanese directly for a while. (Tim, do you agree?)
Uncle Ted
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