Cultural Note: Japanese Language

This week I started Language lessons with a Japanese Tutor. There was a lot to take in, a lot of new stuff but also a lot of very interesting stuff.


If you're thinking of learning a language (Japanese or otherwise) I wouldn't recommend a tutor. My lesson was really fun, really interesting and I will carry it on, but to be honest all the information they teach (and more) is on the internet for free.
However I spent time on the internet, I learnt to read the Hirigana and Katakana Syllabary myself, I then went to a tutor to practice pronunciation and I find I learn best when there is someone in front of me to answer any of my usually ridiculous questions.
There is of course Pro's and Con's to having a tutor and to learning on the internet. I would recommend Tofugu as a great starting place online (Also I must add, if you have an Iphone/Ipad then the "Human Japanese" app is amazing, one of the best purchases I've ever made. It seems expensive, £6 on iphone and £10 on ipad but believe me it's more than worth it)

Of course the decision is yours.

Anyway, that links in nicely with today's cultural note. As I had my first tutor lesson this week, I thought I'd talk about the Japanese Language.

Something very interesting about Japanese language is that, to this day, it's still unclear of where it actually originated from. 3rd Century Chinese Documents contain some Japanese words, but large amounts were not recorded until much much later.

As far as I am aware the first authenticated form of Japanese writing came around the 8th Century, conveniently tilted "Old Japanese". This "Old Japanese" came in the form of a document named the Kojiki which consisted of a selection of myths regarding the main islands of Japan (apparently).

Old Japanese soon found it's way to "Late Middle Japanese" (all very easy to remember). Late middle Japanese must of been terribly confusing for the people of Japan, especially those older generations. Why I hear you ask? (If you didn't ask why, then I shall give you space to do so now..)




Why I hear you ask? well because late middle Japanese saw the introduction of European words (Tobako - tobacco etc). A lot more happened in Late middle Japanese, if you are interested do some research on Google, if not you are more than welcome to ask me.

More importantly I wanted to talk about Modern Japanese. Again there is a lot of information that I could talk about, but it will probably bore most people so I won't (and again if you want the information just ask me or ask Google).

So, present day Japanese consist of 4 "alphabets" known as Syllabary. The 1st one is Romanji, which is Roman letters. If you don't know Roman letters, then you're wasting your time reading this as everything I've written has been in Roman letters. In Japanese they're pretty useless though, so don't panic.



The second and quite possibly most important Japanese Syllabary is Hirigana. Hirigana is used to write Native Japanese words (when there isn't a Kanji - which will be discussed). This seems to be the first syllabary learned by both Japanese students and those learning Japanese.
 If you have a good understand of Hirigana then you can start to really open up your Japanese learning.
I am more than happy to teach anyone Hirigana, as I have a relatively good comprehension of it now.



I will write a new post tomorrow which contains much more information on Hirigana and Katakana, and will also be a good start for you to learn.

Okay so next is Katakana.
 Katakana is used to write "borrowed" words.
More appropriately called Foreign or European words (like Tobako, Pan, Glass etc etc).








And last but by NO means least is Kanji.
 Kanji is probably the hardest to learn (hence why I haven't yet).
There is way over 1000 Kanji to memorize, some Kanji have more than one meaning as well, which makes it very very hard.

Essentially it is the borrowed Chinese writing system, used for Japanese words.

As I said a million times over, there is a lot more information, I don't want to bore anyone but you are more than welcome to ask me for any information you want. I have just provided brief notes for you to read.

I will write about Hirigana and Katakana tomorrow, which I hope to provide a learning tool with.
Apologise if this post feels rushed or slightly boring, it's a little later than I usually write and I am slightly tired, which means I tend to waffle.

I hope you have enjoyed my brief lesson on the Japanese Language system, you probably havent learned anything, but there is always another day. Hopefully that day is tomorrow when you come back and read my Hirigana and Katakana Lesson.

Be sure to follow us on twitter - @TurnChapanese
I appreciate any help in promoting this post. There is links to share this page on facebook and twitter, so I hope people use them.

I also hope this post makes some form of sense.

Thanks again

Dan

This is news?:

As you know, I have been adding new sections to the blog. So far it has only been Cultural Notes. 

Today we see the introduction of "This is news?"

 I personally love the idea of this;

In it's basic form, it's just news from across Asia that made me think 'this is news?' 

or just made me laugh, but in it's more complex form it's news from across Asia that... 

Na' it just made me laugh.

So here goes the first post for This is news..

A Japanese company named Seiren has released a pair of pants. .

You can imagine my surprise when I realised this made the news, then I read further into it. 

These pants are genius!

Have you ever been in a situation where you  need to "let off some gas" but really can't. You know; on a date or in a really important meeting.

 Well Seiren have you covered!!  these pants are Odour Eliminators.

They work via "Odour absorbing ceramic particles in the material fibre"

I know, none of us actually understand that, but they stop your farts from smelling, so hey, what more do you need to know?

Originally they were designed for nursing care and hospitals but apparently your average Japanese businessmen decided they were a good idea (which they are) and started buying them.

Now available for men (in grey) and woman (in pink) these pants could save you from a lot of embarrassing moments. 

Brilliant.

Now, if you thought that was good, wait until you see this;

This is number 2 for today's blog post (pun intended) 

The image you see above you is South Korea's newest theme park, dedicated to the humble toilet.

Yup, it's real.

Located in the city of suwon - known for being the home of Samsung - the theme park has replaced what used to be the home of Sim Jae-duck (he happens to be the founder and first president of the world toilet association - bet you didn't know that existed either)

Now I know what you're probably not thinking, "I bet it's only good from a birds eye view". Luckily for you I put that thought in your head, and I can tell you that you;re wrong.

If you ever took a walk into the park you would be greeted by the lovely bronze statues below, of people that seem be "Mid Squeeze".

All laughing aside, deep down this actually has a relatively good meaning behind it. 

Jim Sae-Duck who I believe was dubbed "Mr Toilet" lived in a time of poor living conditions in South Korea. 

He founded the organisation to promote the benefits of hygienic toilets. Since then Korea has had a pretty rapid economic growth and the hygiene of their toilets has greatly increased.

Thank you Mr toilet.

A bit more to laugh at though, the city of Suwon plan on building a "Toilet Culture Centre" next to the park.

Amazing.

So if you plan on taking a trip to South Korea any time soon, then make sure you visit the Toilet theme park.

Thank you for reading, I hope you have enjoyed the blog today. I certainly enjoyed the research for it.

Again, I can't stress enough how much help I need promoting this blog. I really want to be up there with the best. I realise I have a lot to learn, and a long way to go but I'm in it for the long haul. I hope you are too. 

If you liked the blog, there is a share button to post it to facebook, twitter etc. 

I really appreciate anyone doing that.

If you would like to follow us on twitter @TurnChapanese 

Thanks again, Dan

Day One

Okay, so I'm not sure how to "wake up Asian" therefore my morning routine was relatively similar to what it always is. It wasn't the start I was hoping for but I'm not quite sure what I expected. I'm sure Asian people wake up, crawl out of bed half asleep, shower etc etc.
We can all agree - fairly average morning.
However I decided I was not going to laze around. I started on my room. I put a shelf and some blinds up and gave most of the floor a good de clutter. I've also added a small (close to the floor type) table. Again another stereotypical, ignorant view of Asian culture. Still, it's a nice table.
I thought of having breakfast, but what do Asian people eat for breakfast? I asked a Chinese friend of mine that question a few years back. As he was a Chinese native I expected a better answer than "I don't know". Yet still, to this day, I don't know.
Evidently I didn't eat breakfast.

With the room looking slightly better I moved on to phase 2. Food.
I took a trip to an Asian supermarket/wholesalers with the intent of buying lots of good ingredients that I can cook good Chapanese cuisine with.
When I got there however, I realised I had no idea what to look for. It was an eventful shopping trip but on the whole generally more fun than that of average British stores.
I won't list everything I bought as it seems silly but it's a good selection of chapanese stuff and I would definitely advise everyone to find a local Asian supermarket/wholesalers and take a look around. For me personally it's all new, for others it might not be, either way I can guarantee it will be a weird and wonderful experience.

It's late evening by now, so it's time to start on my first chapanese dish. Bare in mind I don't even cook British food, the extent of my cooking is microwave pizza. So yes I was a little nervous.
I had been given a recipe book over Christmas which has a few, what they call, easy to make recipes (they're not easy to make at all). I decided on one called Shrimp Foo Yung - mainly because I had all them ingredients. It's pretty much egg and shrimp with a few extras and spices. I can imagine it would taste really nice when cooked by someone more experienced. Mine tasted sub par but to be honest I'm pleased with that.

Later on in the night I took 10 minutes out of my day to do a guided meditation. Essentially I sat down, focused on my breathing and tried to just be still. I felt nothing from it, but I feel like its worth it. Why shouldn't we all sit down and just give our minds time to think for a few minutes a day?

Yes that was a nice long blog today, but if you've read it I thank you and i hope you can end your night like I ended mine...

What's happening?

Somehow you have stumbled across this page, welcome.
Today I had a thought, an idea to change my life. Whether that change will be major or minimal who knows. Anyway, I've decided to live like an Asian.
Bare with me..

At the moment, I'm an average south London white guy. 21 years old, not a huge lover of my job, don't get paid enough, don't have a happy home life, I'm not well educated, suffer with severe anxiety and generally complain a lot about life. But you've heard all that before.
So I've decided I no longer care. I have an obsession with Asian culture and I want to take that to the next step. So I'm starting today, well tomorrow.
First I will de-clutter my room and organise it a little better. Everything will have space. And I will create enough space for me to sit. Maybe try and add some nature to that shit as well.

I will shop at a local Asian supermarket and eat Asian meals. (I say Asian, actually just the Chinese and Japanese section, I'll rename that to chapanese)
So I'll buy chapanese ingredients and cook chapanese meals. Simple enough.

Meditation will become a daily practice. Maybe it will help eliminate stress, maybe it won't. But in my very ignorant stereotypical view, it seems like an Asian thing to do. Plus I like the idea of it.

Essentially that's it. It all sounded a lot more exciting and adventurous in my head. Written down it just seems a bit pointless. And something probably no-one will care for. But welcome to the Internet. A place everyone does something no one cares about.

This something is called Turning Chapanese!
I hope you'll join me on my journey and hopefully it will all get a bit more interesting along the way.

Dan