きゃりのぱみゅぱみゅ

Q: わかりません！これはなんですか？

A:これはとてもすごいです。

How do you say enlightening, trippy, and Jungian in 日本語？I am not sure how to fully express how this video makes me feel in my native 英語（えいご）。

でも、here are some words I recognize:

-みんな
-わるい
-ぜんぜん
-Happy?
-あなた

このうたは早い（はやい）ですね。

Progress!

When I was in Japan I was perpetually lost. I think I personally met every police box officer over there. 東京 （とうきょう）isn't neatly gridded like ニューヨーク. I swear it is planned out like a spiral. As a result I had countless conversations with けいかん that went something like this:

THEN!

Me: すみ-mey-そん. おだいば／はらじゅく／よこはま／うえのはどこで-SUE-か。

Police Box Officer: %^&*$#$@&*か?

Me: Wh-な...なに？

Police Box Officer: あの@)(&%$@$#$#%*. Do you speak English?

Me:　え。はい？

Police Box Officer: Once you are here, you have to go here, there and then take this line.

Me: Thank you. え。。。と。。。ごめんなさい。ぼくはどこですか？

Yes. I used ぼく -- That is all I ever heard in にほんのえいが。At least it wasn't おれ。やくざじゃありません。


いま (ideally)！
Me:　あの、すみません。ぎんざはどこですか？
けいかん：あ〜あなたのにほんごはいいです。（：。ちゅうおのぎんざは＊＊＊＊＊＊です。
Me: あ〜そうですか。ごめんなさい。わたしはどこですか？
けいかん：だいじょうぶですか？ここはふじ山（やま）です。。。


Now I just need a class on navigation. 

にほんごはむずかしいですね。。。

ごめんなさい！ There is one more thing to be done: kvetch.

This last week of class has been tough – I like writing the angular characters found in カタカナ (is Katakana supposed to be written in Katakana?) more than the complicated (but stylish) twists of ひらがな. I also don't have an ear yet for the varying degrees of formality, nor do I have a grasp of when something is a long vowel. Most of the time I can hear a long "oh" for example (as in どうぞ　or がっこう）but not a long "i" (as in むずかしい）.

How are long vowels treating you?

Why Japanese?

... Because I was a precocious youth?


When I was 15, I essentially ran away to Japan armed only with the phrases "Koh-knee-Chee-Wah" and "Domo Arigatou, Mr. Roboto". I was taken in for a month by an elementary school teacher in Saitama who lived next to the Keihin-Touhoku Line's Yono Station (JR's 与野駅! I'll never forget it!) . I spent the days shuttling around Tokyo and getting completely and utterly lost. It was a terrifying, stupid and wonderful thing. 


I think I wanted to live out a cyberpunk sci-fi fantasy. And truthfully, at night, Tokyo wasn't that far off the mark. Maybe Japan will be all the more Blade Runner-y now that some years have gone by. I am continually saving up and studying up for the time when that second wave of escapist impulses will hit me. While there I actually didn't get much speaking practice -- too many people knew English and I knew too little Japanese! -- but I did pick up Katakana and the occasional Kanji symbol.

 Edited to include some visual reference:

As for other reasons, I might study linguistics on top of my first academic love, philosophy. Picking up another romance language (while interesting) wouldn't equip me with a lot of breadth. I also love Japanese fashion. Interning at Vogue Nippon would be a dream come true.


So what about you, world? What are you working towards?

はじめまして, せかい！

コロンビア大学校 (Columbia University) の３年生（さんねんせい）です。日本語（にほんご）をべきょうします。ニューヨーク（New York) からきました。私（わたし）もFITのがくせいです。

どうぞよろしく！

。。。みんなさんはだれですか？