So I have been studying another language, and this does something to you, it makes you closer to understanding language. What do we use language for? We use it to share our needs, to share our feelings, and many other things. There is however one thing which absolutely drives me crazy, when someone decides to debate. Recently, well I guess not recently the internet has created a place where many people can give any kind of opinion they want, maybe even for nothing besides causing a reaction with little or no real interest in the thing debated about. This does something to the things which are important, it marginalizes them. People can do and say things which causes change, but not in the desire to improve, but in the desire to see things move and change for their own pleasure; disregarding the toils and pains of others who simply try to make this thing better in their work.
So when I am interested in something, and then find stupid opinions of people putting something down for little reason but for what I shared above, it drives me crazy. It makes me aggressive and I want to rebuttal, ridiculing them for their insensitive behavior and attempting to enlighten them as to why they are wrong. I go into debate mode, and I always feel like I am the shining Knight there to put right the indecencies of the dark world of the internet. Then I realize, this is only going on deaf ears. The quick witted assailants only wait for this bait to get taken by someone as me, and they use low-balled tactics to assail their victims not in debate but in vindictiveness toward the rebuttal.
So what does one do? Ignore it and walk away and let people assail free of any retaliation. To simply allow them to wait for the chance to flood their minds in the sickening pleasure of someone's else displeasure? I am really at a loss. It is why I hate debate, it does nothing but set one up for this merciless attack which those of that malevolent disposition revel in.
So I digress, should I keep up the fight, or avoid these battles?
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Friday, January 14, 2011
What a strange day
Wow, that a crazy day, from the moment I got up to the time I got into my door, it's been one of those astounding days where everything surprises you around every corner. Today I went to the US Consulate in Osaka, it was a field trip sponsored by my university. Along with my classmates, some friends, and other students in Gaidai. I was supposed to be at the JR train station center gate by 8:45 but I missed my train by 5 seconds. Which made me approximately 5 minutes late. This is not good as we had to change trains to get to Osaka, but I don't know the way to get there. However I made it just in time to hop onto the 8:55 train to Osaka, which happened to be the same train as everyone else had got on. Lucky! Though it took some huffing on foot.
Well we got there and it was quite an enjoyable experience. I took a picture accidentally of the outside of the consulate, though I wasn't supposed to... Shh..! Don't tell anyone, as it could become a matter of national security! But really it was just the picture of a sign and my friend jumped into the frame, so it's kind of fuzzy. Anyway! We got in, sure enough I also set off the metal detector because I forgot to take my keys out of my pocket, so they had to run the metal detector, it was difficult as he was giving commands in Japanese, and I'm thinking to myself, "oh, turn around, ok I get it," but really I think I irritated the guy because of my slow response to his Japanese. So after that. So after that we went in and they gave a presentation about the consulate, what their jobs were, how they got there, what we can do, and generally answered any questions about consulate things we could think of. It was quite fun, they did some mock interviews for the Japanese students for getting their Visas to America. I gave it a try too, though I don't think I need a US visa, however I did get accepted! Ha ha. Tasaka-san said the interviewer sounded more like a comedian with me than an actual interview, and was a little worried that my interview took a little longer than it was supposed to, just 1 minute. Not that I took too long, but that maybe I failed the interview. However, if it were real, I would have a 2 year study visa for America! Woo hoo!
So, after I went to the consulate with my university this morning, which was pretty normal thing for my university. I headed for home (Kobe), and got to the city center, which is called Sannomiya, and as I was crossing the street to go find some food for lunch, this old man walks up to me; notices that I was a big tall American, and says in Japanese, "Koko wa Kobe toiu!" or in english; "This place is called Kobe!" waving his arms to indicate the area around us.
I then said, in Japanese, rather sarcastically to my ears I admit, though I have little more otherwise to say, "sou desu ka?" which means, "oh is that right?"
I said it a little bit too quietly though, as my Japanese I am not so confident with, so he didn't hear me.
Thinking I didn't understand he tried ending the conversation by saying "ganbatte ne" which means "do your best!"
and I said "hai! arigatou gozaimashita, ganbarimasu!" which means "thank you very much, I will do my best!" and he was said surprised, "WAKATTA?!!?" which you can guess means, "you understand me?"
and I responded, "sou desu ne!"
Flabbergasted, he turned all shades of red, and then wanted to talk some more, and then began making strange motions, jumping up and down indicating toward the ground and bending over touching the ground and then jumping up and down again. I then realized it was an earthquake in my confusion to this, and he then said "jishin" which means "earthquake" and then gave me a quick story of the earthquake in Japanese because he thought I didn't really understand what he was doing. He then asked me, "jishin, wakaru?" which means, "do you understand jishin?"
I then responded, "hai jishin, wakarimasu! earthquake" He was very encouraged at this and then told me he was there during the 1995 earthquake in Kobe, and saw houses fall down flat. I am not sure about if it was his house that fell down or not, but he did not seem very upset by the experience, so I am guessing he either got over it or his house was not harmed.
Then he invited me to have coffee with him and chat a little while as he seemed to have a lot he wanted to say. I agreed, and still greatly astonished, we quickly crossed the street, and found a nice little coffee shop, he bought me a cup of coffee and lunch to eat. We talked for about a half hour, this old 70 year old man and me in Japanese. It was very gratifying and fun speaking to him as I have been feeling a bit depressed about my level of Japanese and feeling I could have done better, but after this I feel it has been a success. He explained how he thought Buddhism and Christianity were similar and he had studied the bible he also told me about his travels to Israel and Egypt, and he took a train across Asia from Egypt to Japan. A very interesting conversation. He also works on a US aircraft carrier, installing light fixtures as far as I could tell from what I can understand of Japanese, he is a very interesting guy. We talked about the economy, family, ages, jobs, where we're from, and a number of other subjects. I described my family, and how I used to drive ambulance, but he was surprised with how young I am. I think he enjoyed the conversation though. And as we finished we went outside, he shook my hand, patted my shoulder and said "ganbatte ne!", "do your best!" and then we parted ways. Maybe to never see each other again, but I will definitely enjoy that conversation and just how crazy my life in Japan sometimes gets.
After that, I took a walk around sannomiya and the motomachi, thinking about the experience, I explored some areas I've never been, I found this long almost empty cooridor underground, which connects two stations of the Hanshin subway, it was filled with pictures and paintings for some reason, also a fishtank; though I don't know why there would be a fishtank just outside a subway terminal. Japan is quite strange in this way for some reason. I then walked all the way to the end, and up into the motomachi, and then walked all the way down to the JR nishi motomachi station, and then along the underside of the raised railroad tracks, looking at all the shops. which are in a big hallway more than a mile long, so I found where all the second hand stores are in Japan! There was all sorts of cool things, I almost bought some stuff, but I always have this lingering feeling in the back of my head, "you have to carry it all the way to America if you buy it!" So anyway, having walked around sannomiya for maybe 2 and a half miles, I went back to the station and rode to Gakuentoshi and made a stop at the Daie for some bread and cookies. Then I went to Sukiya for some "Gyuudon" (beef on rice). I was going to get it to go because I was a bit tired and wanted to go home, but a two friends of mine from school were in Sukiya and they just got their food. They asked me to join, and then I told them my whole story, in the best Japanese I could, (still needs a lot of work) but they thought I was really lucky for the free lunch, and one of them told me of their experience one day of an old guy who bought them food in Osaka. One of the friends was a faculty member in the school, and older lady, who I have had meals with before, she is very interested in English and always has questions as well for me when we meet up. She said it was really a lucky day for me because she wouldn't let me pay for my dinner this time as well! So there you have it, my strange and lucky day. Oh my orange I had for breakfast this morning was given to me by my friend Hiroki yesterday too. I feel like a bit of a Hobo now.
Well we got there and it was quite an enjoyable experience. I took a picture accidentally of the outside of the consulate, though I wasn't supposed to... Shh..! Don't tell anyone, as it could become a matter of national security! But really it was just the picture of a sign and my friend jumped into the frame, so it's kind of fuzzy. Anyway! We got in, sure enough I also set off the metal detector because I forgot to take my keys out of my pocket, so they had to run the metal detector, it was difficult as he was giving commands in Japanese, and I'm thinking to myself, "oh, turn around, ok I get it," but really I think I irritated the guy because of my slow response to his Japanese. So after that. So after that we went in and they gave a presentation about the consulate, what their jobs were, how they got there, what we can do, and generally answered any questions about consulate things we could think of. It was quite fun, they did some mock interviews for the Japanese students for getting their Visas to America. I gave it a try too, though I don't think I need a US visa, however I did get accepted! Ha ha. Tasaka-san said the interviewer sounded more like a comedian with me than an actual interview, and was a little worried that my interview took a little longer than it was supposed to, just 1 minute. Not that I took too long, but that maybe I failed the interview. However, if it were real, I would have a 2 year study visa for America! Woo hoo!
So, after I went to the consulate with my university this morning, which was pretty normal thing for my university. I headed for home (Kobe), and got to the city center, which is called Sannomiya, and as I was crossing the street to go find some food for lunch, this old man walks up to me; notices that I was a big tall American, and says in Japanese, "Koko wa Kobe toiu!" or in english; "This place is called Kobe!" waving his arms to indicate the area around us.
I then said, in Japanese, rather sarcastically to my ears I admit, though I have little more otherwise to say, "sou desu ka?" which means, "oh is that right?"
I said it a little bit too quietly though, as my Japanese I am not so confident with, so he didn't hear me.
Thinking I didn't understand he tried ending the conversation by saying "ganbatte ne" which means "do your best!"
and I said "hai! arigatou gozaimashita, ganbarimasu!" which means "thank you very much, I will do my best!" and he was said surprised, "WAKATTA?!!?" which you can guess means, "you understand me?"
and I responded, "sou desu ne!"
Flabbergasted, he turned all shades of red, and then wanted to talk some more, and then began making strange motions, jumping up and down indicating toward the ground and bending over touching the ground and then jumping up and down again. I then realized it was an earthquake in my confusion to this, and he then said "jishin" which means "earthquake" and then gave me a quick story of the earthquake in Japanese because he thought I didn't really understand what he was doing. He then asked me, "jishin, wakaru?" which means, "do you understand jishin?"
I then responded, "hai jishin, wakarimasu! earthquake" He was very encouraged at this and then told me he was there during the 1995 earthquake in Kobe, and saw houses fall down flat. I am not sure about if it was his house that fell down or not, but he did not seem very upset by the experience, so I am guessing he either got over it or his house was not harmed.
Then he invited me to have coffee with him and chat a little while as he seemed to have a lot he wanted to say. I agreed, and still greatly astonished, we quickly crossed the street, and found a nice little coffee shop, he bought me a cup of coffee and lunch to eat. We talked for about a half hour, this old 70 year old man and me in Japanese. It was very gratifying and fun speaking to him as I have been feeling a bit depressed about my level of Japanese and feeling I could have done better, but after this I feel it has been a success. He explained how he thought Buddhism and Christianity were similar and he had studied the bible he also told me about his travels to Israel and Egypt, and he took a train across Asia from Egypt to Japan. A very interesting conversation. He also works on a US aircraft carrier, installing light fixtures as far as I could tell from what I can understand of Japanese, he is a very interesting guy. We talked about the economy, family, ages, jobs, where we're from, and a number of other subjects. I described my family, and how I used to drive ambulance, but he was surprised with how young I am. I think he enjoyed the conversation though. And as we finished we went outside, he shook my hand, patted my shoulder and said "ganbatte ne!", "do your best!" and then we parted ways. Maybe to never see each other again, but I will definitely enjoy that conversation and just how crazy my life in Japan sometimes gets.
After that, I took a walk around sannomiya and the motomachi, thinking about the experience, I explored some areas I've never been, I found this long almost empty cooridor underground, which connects two stations of the Hanshin subway, it was filled with pictures and paintings for some reason, also a fishtank; though I don't know why there would be a fishtank just outside a subway terminal. Japan is quite strange in this way for some reason. I then walked all the way to the end, and up into the motomachi, and then walked all the way down to the JR nishi motomachi station, and then along the underside of the raised railroad tracks, looking at all the shops. which are in a big hallway more than a mile long, so I found where all the second hand stores are in Japan! There was all sorts of cool things, I almost bought some stuff, but I always have this lingering feeling in the back of my head, "you have to carry it all the way to America if you buy it!" So anyway, having walked around sannomiya for maybe 2 and a half miles, I went back to the station and rode to Gakuentoshi and made a stop at the Daie for some bread and cookies. Then I went to Sukiya for some "Gyuudon" (beef on rice). I was going to get it to go because I was a bit tired and wanted to go home, but a two friends of mine from school were in Sukiya and they just got their food. They asked me to join, and then I told them my whole story, in the best Japanese I could, (still needs a lot of work) but they thought I was really lucky for the free lunch, and one of them told me of their experience one day of an old guy who bought them food in Osaka. One of the friends was a faculty member in the school, and older lady, who I have had meals with before, she is very interested in English and always has questions as well for me when we meet up. She said it was really a lucky day for me because she wouldn't let me pay for my dinner this time as well! So there you have it, my strange and lucky day. Oh my orange I had for breakfast this morning was given to me by my friend Hiroki yesterday too. I feel like a bit of a Hobo now.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)