Funny.

[sechan19]

In afternoon class today, I made a great joke in Japanese. And everyone laughed, too. (Even the teacher, although it was Kushida-sensei, and she's a great one for laughter.)

It went like this...

We were discussing the issue of mukokuseki: statelessness. (That is to say, people who have no official nationality for one reason or another.) The problem of human trafficking (jinshin baibai) came to the fore. One of the guys laughed, because the baibai in human trafficking sounds an awful lot like bye-bye. (Also used in Japanese, although, admittedly with a rather childish [kodomo'poi] nuance.) He then apologized for interrupting.

And then I said:

"Well, after you were trafficked (baibai shita ato de), it probably would be 'bye-bye' (bye-bye ni naru kamoshirenai)."

And everyone cracked up.

Man, I feel such a sense of accomplishment!

---

In other news, I've decided my course list for next term (provided that I get into the classes I want). I'll be taking art history and academic speaking for my electives, as well as the modern history reading course. I don't really have much of an interest in modern history (I know, I know), but I figure it's something I should have a cursory knowledge of, and it'll increase my exposure to historical terminology. And of course there's also the optional calligraphy, classical calligraphy, and classical Japanese grammar courses - which I am also taking. In the last term, I plan to switch to the writing course to round out my "academic" Japanese skills. There's also a rumor going around that they might add classical Chinese (kanbun) in the last term as well.

Busy, busy.

I'm really looking forward to it, actually, and it's been fun to watch people's particular interests/academic requirements vie with attempts to avoid the teacher who is universally considered by students to be awful. But that's because I'm evil.

Comments

[lordameth.livejournal.com]

And which teacher is that, just out of curiosity?

[reteva.livejournal.com]

Kono-sensei. The general consensus is that she is a lovely woman who just doesn't hold the classroom well. I've never had courses with her myself, but just about everyone I know will roll their eyes and sigh exasperatedly if her name is mentioned.

[lordameth.livejournal.com]

Ah. Yes, I do remember the same thing going on when I was there too. She doesn't have the greatest class management skills - though she certainly kept me in line, throwing things at me when I made a dumb mistake like だと思う when it should be just と思う。 Not really throwing things, you understand, but...

Anyway, she was my advisor and I had her nearly every term. She's not the coolest of the sensei, and I wouldn't really criticize anyone for being critical of her - we all have our respective preferences in class style and such. But she's also a hardcore kabuki fan... I certainly liked her teaching style though I regretted not having many of the other teachers.

[reteva.livejournal.com]

Well, like I said, I haven't had her as a teacher yet, so I have no valid opinion to offer. I suspect, though, that I'd get along with her fine. I make a point of getting along with folks in class.

I'm actually surprised by how much people here allow personal proclivities impact their happiness in the classroom. We're all warned at the beginning not to let our emotional opinion of anyone else interfere with our class participation, language development, etc. Lots of people just can't seem to do that.

On an unrelated note, I noticed all of the class pictures up in the computer room there other day and went to have a look at 2007-2008. Spotted you right off the bat. Would you believe we haven't even taken our class picture yet? The school director had an emergency during the first term and had to go back to America for a while, and then it just seemed to be forgotten. Heh.

[lordameth.livejournal.com]

Weird. I hope they don't forget entirely. And that no one leaves (god forbid, some kind of emergency) before you take your picture.

On the other hand, it's probably better to not do it during orientation like we did. There's one guy in that picture who came just for orientation and then decided not to attend the program and left... and he's still in our photo. Bright red hair. Hard to miss.