Listening 11/24/19

Another short video about Japanese cooking, this time with a Japanese Steamed Egg Custard. I again was able to recognize several words and short phrases, such as 卵いれて, and it was helpful that the video showed the actions being performed while the translation was on screen, so I could piece together what was happening even without looking at the translation.

This Egg Custard looked like it did not have any sweet ingredients, so I did some side research and discovered that this dish is actually considered part of a regular meal, and not supposed to be sweet, but rather savory. This is one of the few egg custards that is actually not sweet. Honestly, I have never had anything remotely like this before, but it looked delicious.There were also several ingredients I did not recognize, such as Mirin, Bonito, etc. but it encourages me to look for these ingredients when I am in Japan next semester, so I can learn more about the culture of Japanese cooking. :)

Listening 11/17/19

This video followed a young 日本人 who was cooking Sukiyaki from scratch. It was quite fun to see all the ingredients come together and her explanation of the purpose and usage of each ingredient, and it looked absolutely delicious at the end. Additionally, the cook also explained the origin of the name and the differences from foreign cooking of similar dishes.
Unfortunately, while the captions were nice to have ( and were structured similarly to a direct translation from Japanese rather than all in perfect english grammar) the darn music was up so high I could not make out some words.

From what I could hear, I recognized many of the grammar forms we have used in class, and it was cool to be able to tell what she was literally saying when the captions were different. It made me quite hungry for Japanese food and I definitely want to go try it next semester in Nagoya. Food isn't ever the entire culture, but it sure is easy to find and try :)

Listening 11/10/2019

Thanks to people like Bryce Leggett and Rachel Wang, this song has now been stuck in my head all week. This was the tune they danced to during Asian Allure this year (which I will add a link to in a future blog), and they absolutely killed it.

I still don't really know what the song is referencing (whether it be an Anime or standalone), but the tune is catchy and apparently also seems to be the subject of an unknown number of Tiktoks (what a shame).

It is interesting how there are many different Japanese songs or tracks from anime that involve English words. English really has sunk its way into about every culture, and while that can add to the music, I do wonder if it takes away from the culture as a whole. Keeping everything in context, however, it's interesting to see other languages (besides English) in Japanese culture. Seeing Spanish words, French, or even German is especially interesting, as the words are sometimes in katakana but I have no idea how to interpret them without knowing the meaning.　アルバイト comes to mind.

Listening 11/3/19

My Neighbor Totoro - Sanpo

While the first time I'd hear the melody it was the English dubbed version, when I was about 7 years old, I still remember most of the English lyrics. Now, while the Japanese lyrics were in Romaji, it was nice to see the changes that were made depending on the translation. Each video I watched seemed to have different definitions for the grammatical structures shown, including volitional, requests, etc. as well as different definitions for the words themselves. 元気 seems to be different depending on who you ask, ranging from happy to energetic to just "fine". 歩くの大好き is translated to "I like to walk", while I would have seen that as "I love to walk".

Every time I watch a video or listen to a song and see the translations from different sources, I am fascinated by and reminded how context is everything with Japanese. While I'm sure sometimes the translations are made for the benefit and understanding of English viewers, I hope some day I can make the translations with the context in mind to better fit the intention of the original author. It is no good if I am forcing my own meaning onto a text, that's just appropriating.


[My Neighbor Totoro OP] Sanpo - Live in Budokan (Lyrics & Eng Sub):