Rocking in Hakata

The Asahi Shimbun (major newspaper) published this editorial cartoon about the upcoming American presidential election today. Interesting.

Editorial cartoon from the Asahi Shimbun Wednesday, May 14th, 2008 on page 26.
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The caption reads: 「ちょいと本選試投をしてみるか」. In English that says something like “Let’s see about throwing a ball for the real election once in a while.” It implies that Hillary’s days are numbered, since it implies that the election in November will be between Obama and McCain. The bottom part says 「クリントンさん　頭越に失礼」or “An overhead slight for Mrs. Clinton.” I’m not really familiar with these kanji, but I think I’ve interpreted correctly.

Another interesting note about the caricatures: Obama has a big, honkin’ Tengu nose. Is it because he’s the foreigner in the foreground? Why not focus on his ears, like many American editorial cartoonists do? He’s sensitive about them and everything… Stylized convention, perhaps? Hmm. I seem to remember some awkward Obama impersonations before…

Also – Alex has some interesting numbers up about media coverage that the candidates are receiving in Japan. Check it out if you have a minute.

EDIT: Alex caught something good here. From the first comment below, “There’s no need for the caricaturist to identify Obama or Clinton, but she had to scrawl マケイン氏 next to McCain’s image, or people would have just been baffled by the old guy standing in the background.”

Deas Customary Drivel, Media, Photos, Politics, Unsolicited Commentary, 日本語

Whooo… If you want a really fun exercise, try explaining an abstract concept (usually a difference in the meanings of similar English words) to a Japanese teacher of English. Sometimes, especially at my academic school, they come to me looking forlorn with some awkward question that their students have handed them. They’re looking for help with an albatross – and man, I love nothing more than attempting to reconcile these problems. (Probably because it means a student out there somewhere is curious enough to go past the necessary exam related English and into speculation. But also because there is nothing more gratifying than watching someone “get something” for the first time. The epiphany is what I live for in this job.)

Yesterday, one of my favorite teachers (who is, through a schedule fluke, not teaching with me this year) came up and asked me this one. What is the difference between a circle and a ring? I started thinking about it. I said that a ring is always a circle, but a circle is not always a ring. He drew two circles on a piece of paper and shaded one in with his pencil. He asked me which was which. I pointed to the un-filled shape and said it was both a ring and a circle, but then to the shaded one and said that it was only a circle, not a ring. I told him that a circle just has the shape of a circle. And then the “duh” moment came – I told him a ring MUST have a hole in its center. I pulled out 2 coins – the 10 yen and 5 yen. A 10 yen coin is a circle. A 5 yen coin is a ring. He started to get it. I pointed out that you can call the hole itself in the 5 yen coin a circle, because that’s the shape it has. It clicked. He got it. Ha ha. I asked him to name a donut that is a ring and a donut that is a circle. He did it.

Then I related the problem to the whole issue of rectangles and squares. A square is always a rectangle, but a rectangle is not necessarily a square. It’s a problem directly concerned with strict interpretations of the words’ definitions. But I’m a stickler. I did, however, point out afterward that in casual speech, it’s ok to misuse words as long as the meaning is conveyed. In any event, he was thrilled to be able to answer his student, and to have grasped the meaning fully for himself too. It was great.

Another weird one that I was asked at that school involves English language conventions when counting, especially when speaking about temperature. I was asked how to say the following temperatures: -1°C, 0°C, 1°C, and 2°C. I replied, “Negative one degree Celcius, zero degrees Celcius, one degree Celcius, and two degrees Celcius.” (Of course you may substitute Centigrade for Celcius. It’s the same thing. Or Fahrenheit, actually, since the question isn’t changed by it.) The teacher was flabbergasted. Why do you put an S on “degree” when zero is not plural?!? Hmmm… I reasoned that it was just a speech convention. (I have no formal English training, after all. I rely only on my natural speech – which is rarely, but occasionally incorrect.) I gave the example that I could say “I have two pencils” and “I have one pencil.” However, zero is neither singular nor plural. It simply isn’t. Therefore, I could say “I have no pencils” or “I haven’t any pencils.” I concluded that it’s sort of the same thing. I think that’s a fair equivalency. I told her that really -1° and +1° are the odd cases, since they are the only singular numbers. Man, you’d have thought she was loaded for bear the way she marched off all confidently to hunt down her question-asking student. Ha ha.

What weird things or snags have you tried to explain? Do you have any that you want to kick around? (Grammatical issues aside, hopefully…cause those are decidedly not fun.)

*Side note – spell check needs to get revamped. It didn’t like the words “Celcius” or “equivalency,” but both are in the dictionary. Curious.

Deas Customary Drivel

Thought I’d do a quick comparison of the English and Japanese versions of the song “Beauty & the Beast” in preparation for watching the musical of the same name this coming weekend. We’ll start with a refresher on the English version, then we’ll look at the Japanese version. Enjoy! Read more…

Deas Customary Drivel, Media, Music, 日本語

Hey – check it out – I actually delivered! The video clip opens up in the Samudra Restaurant of the Gem Island Resort. We’re finishing a weird “American breakfast” which includes cold baked beans, fruit, and an egg or two. With bread. The scenery is beautiful. Then you see a crab hiding in the rocks during a slightly overcast post breakfast drizzle.

You’ll see an aircraft fly by between the islands – some rich people were playing tag in them or something. They just followed each other in circles joyriding. I filmed it because the last pass by was made really really low to the water, and it looked sweet. Anyhoo. You’ll see a swimming baby sea turtle next. He was hatched in safety in the conservation center’s hatchery, and is being kept and fed until his future release into the wild.

What you’ll see next is beach shot after beach shot after beach shot. That is, if you don’t press stop. And I suggest you don’t, because I forgot one clip from yesterday and included it at the end today. Forgive my beach-happy video. It’s a shot of every beach on the island. Then you’ll see some tropical fish swarming over some hunks of bread we threw in the water. Gorgeous.

After that you’ll a rooster tail off the back of a motorboat taking us back to shore. Booo. Bye bye, paradise. Then, the inside of our flight as people get on board. The temperature differential is so high, you can actually see the air conditioning – like when you open your freezer and you see the mist tumble out. Wild. And lastly, you can see the forgotten clip – me swinging on an actual jungle vine, like Tarzan. Am I cool or what? (After you see it, you’ll know the answer is NO.)

Deas Customary Drivel, Media, Trips, Video

Ok. So this video opens up at the Petronas Towers, obviously. You get two views of the towers at night. Then you see me riding the bus from Kuala Lumpur to Kuala Tembeling. At Kuala Tembeling, we hopped off of the bus we’d ridden for 2 hours and got on a boat for 3 hours. It headed upstream into the heart of the rainforest to Taman Negara. You see Kathy and me on the boat with the boatman.

Suddenly we’re in a Jeep-like SUV riding on a dirt road. That’s part of the 8 minute journey from Kuala Tahan to the lodge we stayed in. Just before eating dinner, our newly made friend Sonja spotted a Hornbill in the tree just outside. We watched it making its unique call a few times before being summoned down to dinner.

The next morning sees another boat ride, far heavier this time, across the river to the national park. We did the canopy walk first and then trekked up into the jungle for 2 views. We spotted a few different columns of ants marching frantically through the underbrush. You can see a view of Kuala Tahan from the rainforest side of things at this point in the video. That night, we went on a night safari through some palm plantations and spotted wild pigs, a leopard cat, a flying squirrel, and probably 3 or 4 run of the mill house cats.

Again, we start the day by riding on a boat, past the floating restaurants on the bank of the village. We’re headed to Gua Telinga – “Ear Cave” – for some casual spelunking. We know there are bats. We didn’t realize how much guano there’d be. Afterwards we pulled back up and docked with the same restaurant and headed back inland. We did so just in time, because it started to rain for the first time during our visit to the rainforest. We spent that afternoon planning our departure for Pulau Gemia and the beach…which will be posted tomorrow, if everything goes according to plan.

Deas Customary Drivel, Media, Trips, Video