Lukas and Martina in Japan//japan.lukas-prokop.at/blog/2017-03-21T00:48:00+09:00On Japanese comedy and Kansai-ben2017-03-21T00:48:00+09:002017-03-21T00:48:00+09:00Lukastag:japan.lukas-prokop.at,2017-03-21:blog/kansai-ben.html<div id="preamble">
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<div class="paragraph"><p>※ This article discusses an experience I made after coming to Tokyo after living in Kansai for 6 months.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Disclaimer:</strong> I am a beginner of the Japanese language and therefore neither watch nor understand Japanese comedy regularly. However, I understand the claim a Kansai student has made from a phonetical point of view. I will elaborate on this now.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>At Kobe University, most students don’t come from Kobe, but from Osaka. But Kobe and Osaka are both part of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansai_region">Kansai</a> and therefore the vast majority of students at Kobe University speak <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansai_dialect">Kansai-ben</a>, the regional Japanese dialect of Kansai. Living 6 months in Kobe, I got totally used to Kansai-ben. The dialect contrasts the Kantō region around Tōkyō. But, there is no such thing as Kantō-ben. The Japanese spoken in Kantō is considered as "Formal Japanese".</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>I don’t listen to word-level differences that much. First, I am not that long in Kantō and generalizing things is therefore difficult. And second, as a beginner in Japanese, I focus more on gestures / body language as well as pitch/stress in pronunciation. And pitch is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansai_dialect#Pitch_accent">the <em>major</em> difference</a> between Kansai-ben and Kantō. Kansai-ben features a wider pitch range.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Because of the changes of the pitch, listening to Kansai people gives you a lot of information about their emotions and level of excitement. Listening to Kantō people is strange to me. It sounds monotonous and the missing pitch range indicates lack of interest to my brain.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Different topic:</strong> I prefer Austrian (esp. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJRRyFULmlY">Alfred Dorfer</a>) and Swiss comedy (esp. <a href="https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ursus_%26_Nadeschkin">Ursus & Nadeschkin</a>) over German comedy. And let’s have a close-up look at these comedians and their phonetics. The comedian use little pitch, stress and the volume is constant. Punch lines are almost entirely based on associations, words and meanings. Imitation is important. But the punch lines don’t need special support by sounds, noise or visual effects.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Let’s talk about Japanese comedy. For example, take a look at <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwnj-psRIRA">comedy by some 吉本新喜劇 </a>. Pitch, stress and volume are extrordinarily important compared to conversational Japanese. For punch lines, the comedians often raise their voice. <a href="https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8E%9A%E5%88%87%E3%82%8A%E3%82%B8%E3%82%A7%E3%82%A4%E3%82%BD%E3%83%B3">Jason Danielson</a> is from the US, but a Japanese comedian. He also employs the same characteristics (for example <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOOYphi7akw">in this video</a>). This is quite contrary to Austrian or Swiss comedy.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>And now comes <strong>the claim</strong>: Because Japanese comedy uses these phonetic changes for punch lines and Kansai people also use it in everyday language, most Japanese comedians actually come from Kansai. It is easier for them to make the audience laugh. Interesting, right?</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Granted, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansai_dialect#History">Wikipedia</a> gives a different explanation (not phonetics, but convention):</p></div>
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<div class="paragraph"><p>Since the Taishō period, the manzai form of Japanese comedy has been developed in Osaka, and a large number of Osaka-based comedians have appeared in Japanese media with Osaka dialect. Because of such associations, Kansai speakers are often viewed as being more funny or talkative than typical speakers of other dialects. Tokyo people even occasionally imitate Kansai dialect to provoke laughter or inject humor.</p></div>
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— https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansai_dialect#History
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Language barriers in action2016-12-08T23:50:00+09:002016-12-08T23:50:00+09:00Lukastag:japan.lukas-prokop.at,2016-12-08:blog/language-barriers-in-action.html<div id="preamble">
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<div class="paragraph"><p>※ This happened on Thursday, 8th of December 2016.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>After Aikido practice, I have two choices:</p></div>
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After 2 hours of offical practice, I leave and excuse myself for leaving so early.
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I stay with them. After the official practice, we can ask our senpai to show us certain exercises. Eventually the sensei/senpai asks everybody to finish and clean up. Afterwards we return all the equipment to the club’s room. We visit the Konbini before going to the train station together. In total, this takes 4 hours.
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<div class="paragraph"><p>I choose either option half of the times. At the Konbini, we are offered a free snack. If your item costs less than 130 Yen, the senpai will pay for it. This has been explained to me the very first time I followed them to the Konbini. However, an Aikido friend wanted to point it out again (probably he didn’t knew, I know, or he wanted to do it explicitly after I bought some 140 Yen item on my own). Because he could not express this offer in English words, he wrote it in Japanese and started Google Translate (hopefully I remember all words right):</p></div>
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<div class="paragraph"><p>If you stay late with the sensei, the night can be delicious.</p></div>
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— Google Translate Japanese to English translation
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<div class="paragraph"><p>I laughed pretty hard and I don’t think they understood why. As far as I am concerned I think the statement refers to something different than what they actually wanted to say. On the other hand, I also don’t know what they originally typed in. Anyways, this is a wonderful example of how words can be interpreted differently and language does not end where syntax and semantics end. You also need to study the associated culture.</p></div>
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I’m Japanese!2016-11-22T23:30:00+09:002016-11-22T23:30:00+09:00Martinatag:japan.lukas-prokop.at,2016-11-22:blog/im-japanese.html<div id="preamble">
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<div class="paragraph"><p>※ This happened on Monday, the 21st of November 2016.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>A few days ago my tutor accompanied Lukas and me to the post office. I had to bring a letter there. Together we went from University to Sannomiya. In Sannomiya we had to find the post office which is located in a shopping mall. The easy part was to find the shopping mall and the corresponding floor. But my tutor was not used to this place and Lukas and me have never been there before either.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>So my tutor asked a passerby where the post office is. The woman thought for a moment and then pointed in a direction while replying "Straight… まっすぐ" (the latter meaning "straight ahead" in Japanese). Then she continued her description in Japanese. Of course, my tutor understood her without problem. After she was gone he said to us "Why? I’m Japanese!". So for every Japanese student out there who is frustrated that Japanese people try to explain things in English to them, this happens to Japanese citizens as well. (At least when they are accompanied by foreigners.) 😉</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>The next time my tutor had to ask for the direction, he asked us to wait in few meters of distance. Obviously, because it was in the middle of the street. But Lukas asked him "… to make sure they speak Japanese to you?" and we shared a good laugh.</p></div>
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First intensive Japanese course session2016-10-07T01:02:00+09:002016-10-07T01:02:00+09:00Lukastag:japan.lukas-prokop.at,2016-10-07:blog/first-intensive.html<div id="preamble">
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<div class="paragraph"><p>※ This article discusses the 6th of October 2016.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Getting up; breakfast; train…</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Nope, I accidently dropped a 5 Yen coin into the machine (apparently, I still cannot distinguish 5 and 50 Yen coins). So an alarm went off and the machine swallowed 200 Yen of mine. Some Japanese guy started talking via loud speaker and when we recognized that he was on the phone with us, we told him that we can only understand English. He answered "Please wait 5 minutes". So the question arised: Assuming he comes in 5 minutes and will be done right away, I might be in time. Otherwise I will be late for class. To put it in her words: Martina does not have class in the first session and therefore was not in a hurry. She gave me her ticket and asked me to go without her. I wasn’t sure, I should, but eventually I left.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Train; up the hill; university.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>The intensive course was slower-paced than the regular class, because beginners also participate in this course. So we started with self-introduction and basic Hiragana. I got bored, but instead I was able to collect a bunch of vocabulary I need to revise. I think when the first few weeks are over, I will be challenged enough again. The intensive course consists of two sessions in the morning, meaning we start at 8:50 and end at 12:10 with 20 minutes of break. In the break I met Martina. She told me she waited for ~10 minutes and nobody showed up. So 200 Yen got lost in the machine. She also met her tutor and he showed her how to withdraw money; get cash money from the card. At this point in time she recognized that also her intensive Japanese class started already today and she should join at least for the second session.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Lunchtime! Apparently I had no cash money left and asked Martina for some. Martina was clever enough to bring enough cash from Austria without necessicity to buy bedding equipment.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>It was a wonderful weather this day, so I walked around at the campus and took photos. I submitted some forms and waited for Martina’s third session to finish. In the meanwhile I studied the vocabulary, which I still don’t know by heart.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Afterwards we went to the bank. Martina showed me how to withdraw money. I sent 50 € from Europe and now 4200 Yen were on my account. We cannot explain the fees at this point in time.
I took the money with me and we went home. Beautiful photos at this day, but nothing special.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>At night I sat down to write articles, tidy up my photos, chat with my parents, finish my MOOC assignment (Probabilistic Graphical Models) and take the <a href="http://www.j-cat.org/en/">J-CAT</a> test. I got an email by my advisor this morning. In my application for the Intensive course (deadline today evening), I stated that "I didn’t take the J-CAT test because I am sure my skills don’t fit higher classes". His response was information regarding the J-CAT test. Specifically how I can take the test despite the last official opportunity last Monday. My reaction was "Oh shit, I need to take the test in any case". In all previous situations I stated the same and their oral response was "It is fine, if you are sure about elementary level". In this case, it didn’t seem to be fine. I scheduled to take the J-CAT test this evening. Martina told me it takes roughly 1 hour to take.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>At night I had time to do the test. At first, the MOOC seemed more important to me (not all lectures watched so far and last hard deadline). Suddenly I got a Japanese email stating "We are missing information regarding your application and have to tell you, you did not get accepted for the Japanese intensive course". The intensive course is selective and only 10 people are allowed. I kind of panicked and I got very mad. I came to Japan with a list of courses, I want to attend. This plan had to be thrown away, because at least half of the courses changed. On Tuesday I spent the night selecting new courses and had a new plan. With this email, my plans got thrown away again.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Considering two semesters in Japan, I thought a good plan consists of one semester focusing on Japanese and one semester on extracurricular courses (Linguistics, English, etc). Because the first semester certainly comes with understanding the organization at university (which is IMHO necessary if you want to attend extracurricular courses). So I should focus on Japanese. My assumption is that taking random classes is easy in Austria, but not necessarily in Japan. Not being able to attend the intensive course means that I will learn only half of the content (comparing regular with intensive class). But especially the second half is important to me. It covers grammar I never put into practice. It covers vocabulary I don’t need here in daily life. With the intensive course, I should be able to attend upper elementary class in the next semester (Martina is taking the course this semester, because she lacks some Japanese for Intermediate level). This would boost my Japanese skills until returning to Austria.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>I was very mad at this result and was just in the progress to take the J-CAT test. I continued anyways and first I was very lenient. For example I ticked "I can follow discussions about hobbies and weekend plans with difficulties", which I believe is not true just because I am lacking vocabulary. Because of this selection, I also got difficult questions. Listening, Reading and Grammar are categories of the J-CAT test and besides for the really easy questions, I wasn’t able to answer any. From 4 multiple choice answers, I always ticked a random one. I am not aware of any possibility to tick "I cannot answer it". In the end I got a score of 105; 5 points above "elementary". With this result, I thought "Shit, I accidently ticked some correct answers". I took the test again. This time I didn’t tick the discussions-about-hobbies section and therefore only got less and easier questions. Again, I couldn’t answer some of them and therefore I just waited for the time to pass by. Typically you have 3 minutes to answer e.g. Reading questions. Apparently the next question appears and I recognized that you will just get new questions until you have answered a certain number of questions. This way taking the test would take me roughly 3 hours and now it is 2am in the morning. So I fell back to ticking answers randomly. My final score was 36. I think this was close. The Austrian friend (which shares the same Japanese level, I guess) had a score of 50.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>I answered with an email that I am sorry, it went this way, but I didn’t have the opportunity to take the J-CAT test earlier. Also I pointed out that in my application I was sure about taking the elementary course anyways. I spent one hour with answering a quiz for the MOOC, but I hadn’t begun the programming assignment for the MOOC. I concluded that 3 hours of sleep are necessary and I dropped the MOOC as well.</p></div>
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