Posting-ness....

So I wanted to start reading about classical Japanese language and literature from a Japanese perspective, and picked up this book これで古典がよくわかる (With this you'll understand the classic language and literature) I wanted something simple, unlike the academic texts we have in the library which more often than not is filled with kanji I have never seen and flies quite over my head. But this one is almost TOO simple. I'm reading through it rather fast, and I was hoping for a bit more of a challenge to my reading skills... But it has some interesting points in it nonetheless.

In the beginning he makes a point that foreigners don't understand Japanese culture, because JAPANESE don't understand Japanese culture. They don't bother to learn about it, so they can't explain it to others.

I think this is an interesting idea. I think one has to be close to a culture to be able to say anything about it correctly, but then I also think that if you are TOO close to a culture, it might be even harder to say anything about it. It's like... you just aren't thinking about it, you just feel it. Like with language. The Japanese and English parts of my brain are basically seperate. I don't have to turn my English into Japanese bit by bit when speaking it or reading it. I just feel the meaning of the words, rather than thinking about the meaning of them. (This is why when asked to translate something from Japanese to English it takes me awhile to think about it. Because then I have to manually transfer one feeling of words to another, and it's rather difficult.)

He also mentions that Japanese isn't taught in school properly. He says that they don't see a point teaching it when everyone just speaks it anyway. And that the textbooks on it are using simpler and simpler sentences because the students don't want to have to read anything difficult. I wouldn't have thought this was the case, but that is what he says is happening. My English teachers in highschool were particularly excellent, so I really can't say, but I would guess the same problem is happening in America... Oh, oh, but! In highschool I remember we really didn't go over sentence structure and punctuation, and all of those important things. So I have often felt I am lacking in that respect.... perhaps I should study it more on my own...


I also got the first book of Onmyouji! I felt I wanted to translate the first book first (always a good idea...) so I'm going to do that when I have time... when will I have time?? I don't know! I'm busy with school and I am absolutely DETERMINED to get this comic done within the next month or so. Perhaps I will post the first section tomorrow. I should have it inked by then. My comic is going to be a short story, but I'm not sure how "short" short is... my pages have a tendency to have two panels each.... and the eight pages I have inked don't exactly cover a whole lot of ground... (sigh)

To bed with my bad self!