Kelly Azuma

The last 3 days I have pretty much stuck around home because of what was going on in my body, and that suits me fine. But while I am stuck here I have been reviewing Japanese with the textbook from university. The first one in the series is pretty basic stuff, nothing too hard, but really good for revision.

I’ve been following Yasu around with my textbook asking him random questions in Japanese. He knows I’m studying so he replies in Japanese – something he wouldn’t do if I just randomly decided to talk to him in Japanese.

Anyway, every night when Yasu goes to bed, he has said “come to bed, bring your textbook”. So we get into bed and I am still studying and will be practicing saying different sentences.

But it only lasts for a few minutes because Yasu falls asleep. Every night he says he’ll stay awake but I’ll start talking and he’ll nod off.

Like last night, I was practicing ことがある sentences.

Me: メキシコ料理を食べたことがありますか？

Yasu: はい. おいしかったです.

Me: 中国に行ったことありますか？

Yasu: …… *sluuurp* *smack* wha?

Me: Were you sleeping? I just asked you the question.

Yasu: No!? I was waiting for you to ask it.

Me: Yeah, right. Ok, but don’t fall asleep ok?

Yasu: I’m not..

Me:  Okay, where was I? Oh. ロシア語を勉強したことありますか？

Yasu: ….. *snore*….

Me: Yasu!! I told you not to fall asleep.

Yasu: *smacks lips…slurps…groans* wha? *mumble mumble*

Me: Are you listening to me?

Yasu: ….. *snore*

Me: !! You are a ばかやろう you know that??！*continues to read Japanese out really LOUD*

It’s the same every night, no matter what the topic of Japanese. My Japanese reading isn’t that bad. Ok, I’m terrible at reading katakana, but hiragana and kanji is ok.

I guess it’s like reading a book to a kid at bedtime. しかたがないね。。。

Yesterday, when I gave Tarot readings to our friends, Yasu did the simultaneous translating and he was really really good! It made me realise that he could do it for a job if he wanted to. And I was really wishing I was at his level… :)

I’m really proud of him, and I told him that. At the moment he said he’s happy with his current career but I guess if work ever dried up there is another avenue he could be successful at. :)

Recently another supervisor at his work asked him to translate some Japanese papers for him – he was trying to buy a car from Japan by himself. Anyway, Yasu brought the papers home and I had a go at translating them to English. I was proud to say I didn’t do too badly. There was a few kanji’s I didn’t know, but in the end, together, we got it completed. It really sparked an interest in me. It was something I had always wanted to do, I went to university so I could become an interpreter, but actually the translating is more my thing.

I’ve kept up my reading/writing/listening in Japanese pretty much since I went to university. It’s not something that is hard for me as I’ve always had a very big interest in the language and culture. My only sore point is that I don’t get nearly enough speaking practice as Yasu feels weird speaking Japanese to people who are not Japanese, so we always speak in English.

I’ve decided to start studying Japanese again, and maybe get accredited for translating. I also want to study Japanese again because I want to incorporate Kanji into various art and craft projects that I am working on. I see Japanese as a gateway to creativity, kanji really inspires me, the way it is written the amount of kanji that makes up one whole kanji, and the meanings when different kanji come together is similar to that of a card reading.

Anyway… yesterday ignited my previous thoughts of getting back to Japanese. Funny how things seem to happen to kind of remind you or push you into action. So I’ve just dug out my university textbooks for some review.