I remember Mo' Better Blues from 2006/2007 when I was living in Seoul, and I liked how dark and cozy it was then. It looks too bright and brittle now. But I would still love to spend all day there sipping tea or coffee, reading, and listening to good jazz. I hope they kept all the old letters and notes and drawings that people pinned to the walls.
One of my dreams. ^.P
Yes Kevin, it is one of my dreams. And you did mention it to me. I sure will pay you a visit by then. ^^ I'm a bit jealous though that your dream comes true so soon. haha.
Is your dream really to open a cafe? :) I don't recall if I mentioned it to you, but that is also my dream. I'll be opening an "English Conversation Cafe" in Nara next January or February.
Thanks Kevin! Thanks for the nice comments Kevin, I have to point out that I accept my linguistic strength and weakness matter-of-factly. As for the first time you spoke Japanese to me, it actually fed into my multilingual pride as I understood what you said. ^^ No worries.
Very elegantly stated... I really enjoyed reading this. ^o^; I'm quite impressed with your linguistic skills, as I'm struggling with just my second language now. The insights you presented, both of others, and of your own were very interesting. In reading this, the thing that I found most surprising was the statement that you feel you lack intimacy in any one language. Given the rhythm and flow of this single journal entry certainly gives me the impression that you have a high level of intimacy with the English language. You write much better than most who have spoken the language all their life. o.o;;; and sorry for trying to talk with you in Japanese. ^_- I hope that didn't feed into your linguistic inferiority complex... o.o; though I have to admit, reading about your linguistic prowess here made me feel a bit inferior!
Lao jie~ I hear you lao jie...As for the family matter, perhaps it is more of the culture than the language itself. The relationship of mother-daughter-in-law has been a challenge anywhere in Asia, the long tradition of daughter-in-law giving in to bring harmony to the family is too deep in Asian country.
Vietnamese also uses honorific and humble form for addressing others and themselves. Though that's a minor compare to the Korean banmal. I have to admit most of the time I enjoy talking to Vietnamese seniors, the language helps me to express my respect for them and they always talk to young people with a gentle and caring tone of voice.
The "face" problem...~.~ I can't agree with you more!!
I am In! I think I have a lot to say. But I wanna mention only one thing this time(otherwise I wouldn't be able to leave for library later :P ).
What Korean troubles me the most is the use of jondaenmal (존댓말) and banmal (반말) coz it relates to the classification of people. Though I am educated in a somehow Wesern way, I respect their culture and dun give a damn if elderly use banmal to me. However, after getting into KC' family life more, I realized the use of banmal has another bearing to my very existance in this still-conservative Korean society--- yes, I am a woman, namely, someone to be looked down on in family matters, and this can be seemed from the way people in the family use banml to me. I must say, I hate it. I have never realized being discriminated as a woman is such an unbearable thing in my life.
Not to mention I hate classifying people. In my opinion everybody should be treated equally regardless of age, gender, educaional background, social status... in Korea's context, it's not only a matter of culture, but also a matter of language. And the use of Korean language deeply hinders the road for cultivating equality in the society. But so what? I don't think Koreans love this notion, they enjoy looking down on people and showing off themselvs.
Funny thing is, I don't trust what Korean people say anymore, most of the time. Seems that they are double faced. Those who criticized others are because they are looked down on by others. But whe they gain something with which they can look down on others they do exactly the same things they used to criticize.
As to the hanja dispute. My idea is that, in general it doesn't matter that much. And of course learing only those alphabets is handy, for beginner's level.
But if someone really have to understand this language more, hanja is a must.
It's the same with other languages. Very few lanuages are developed solely on its own. So when it comes to building up new words or whatever it has to refer to/rely on other languages which had influenced itself.
Korean is very handicapped in this way nowadays since they stopped using hanja. And the funny thing hey now realized and begin to teach hanja in school again.
But if you talk about this with other Korean people (including KC), due to the "face" problem, they would denied the fact that Korean is handicapped. To some extent they are right, because it doesn't require ordinary people to be so intellectual in their language.
Last but not least, hope there's no typo :P
wow you're photos are really pretty .... did you seriously take them yourself?
it really brings out the pretty side of Japan ...
i shall save money and fly there some time....
how's everything going though?
Thanks! Thanks Jo! You've got some amazing photos there too, especially the Hanshin game. I'm jealous of the whole panorama function of your camera. ^.P
Hey Sandra,
I see you've already posted it up; was great to relive those moments by reading your writing. Thank you once again for coming and be sure to be back at some point in the not-so-distant-future.
Best,
- IkEr
hope you get better soon! Hey sandra!
You forget you have the best guide here in Kobe.
Next time you come to Kobe, just let me know. I will show you around.
Hope you can get your voice back quickly!
Take care and keep in touch.
Wow, Sandra, those are some awesome pictures to show what you have been doing/ where you were (= I especially liked the fire pictures~very interesting. I also loved the cube watermelon. Is it just found in Japanese or it's just a rearity?
beautiful yukata Those yukatas are gorgeous! I want to get one too...
Your suite is quite small...is there any cooking facility? Or is it buried by your stuff in the picture? =p
Oh yes, beard papa! Does it taste better in Osaka? :)
Looking forward to reading more blog entries from you!
Fang in JapanLand
Sandra Fang
a bug
Haha Yaron! Yes it's called a bug!! ^^