Holiday gooood
The holiday drags on. Have enjoyed the relaxation. I seem to have mainly spent it sleeping, generally relaxing, and watching Internet bootlegs of The Simpsons (take THAT, Rupert Murdoch!). Also been teaching on occasion. As a result of my teaching exploits, and thanks to my ever-generous parents, it's looking likely that I will do a 4th term here (go to the UK for Christmas and then return here until April). After that...who knows? Will probably have to find a proper job of some kind, pish.
Been trying vainly to revise over the last couple of days. It seems that I've forgotten most of last term's vocab. Which kinda sucks. At the end of last term we made our first inroads into the nice 'n' complex world of keigo, or polite/humble language. I find it slightly fascinating that the Japanese have a whole system of politeness built into their very language; in English we tend to just alter the sentence to express politeness/humility (i.e. "would you be so kind as to...?" vs. "please do..."), whereas in Japanese, there are a multitude of verb conjugations, special words and expressions etc. to use. You must also take into account the social status/relative position of the person you are speaking to, whether he/she is an "outsider", etc etc. There are both polite and humble forms of numerous verbs...try to imagine having to decide between three different words for "eat" or "give" or "look" or so forth, depending on who you are speaking to...yeesh, the whole thing makes my head hurt.
Well, must get back to my...not doing very much, I suppose.
2 comments:
A Cautionary Tale:
An Unfortunate Encounter
(with a gentleman of the undead classes)
As I walked out one foggy eve,
in the streets of London town,
I came across a freakish fellow,
whose flesh was pale and wan
He made shambolic murmurs, stood with ghastly limbs outstretched,
No witty conversation came from the lips of this poor wretch.
Tattered rags adorned him,
He was a complete and utter shower,
The simple act of perambulation
seemed far beyond his power.
To my untrained eye, it seemed as though he was coveting my brain
"Away from me, you roustabout, lest I thrash you with my cane!"
To him my threats were idle,
since he lacked the gift of ears
and had general mental faculties,
denied him many years.
His gnarled hands then reached upwards for my stately stovepipe hat,
So I staggered wildly backward and stepped upon a cat.
The feline made an unearthly howl
and bolted off with fright,
to timidly rest upon the lamp
of a nearby gaslight.
I seized this brief distraction and sought to flee with haste
Only to find my dread pursuer, now ensconsed about my waist.
Was this to be the way it ends?
Would I die here on this night?
Would my entrails spill across the ground,
As this wraith took its first bite?
But lo, a pleasant sucking sound had soon allayed my fears,
And quelled a long held legend, that zombies can't be queers.
Hehe...been another hard day at work, has it?
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