Mind Your Manners, Sasuke-kun!

 To anime fans, Naruto is one of the top most popular (and longest!) running series. It follows the story of an aspiring ninja boy with the curse of a nine-tailed fox beast trapped inside of him. He's loud and obnoxious, and usually only thinks of his actions after-the-matter. He has a couple of companions that are assigned to his team. His teacher, Kakashi ("Kaka-sensei"), Sakura ("Sakura-chan"), and Sasuke ("Sasuke-kun").
In the parenthesis, I have included what these characters are usually referred to when watching the show with the Japanese audio. This suffixes are called "honorifics". These are usually used in all Japanese normal society. The only time an honorific is usually not used with a name, is when you have a personal or intimate relationship with that person (i.e. close friend, younger sibling, significant others). It's a common courtesy that the Japanese teach and are taught to expect from others. Often times, students in junior high and high schools will refer to each other by their last names with the honorific "san". Once two students have become good friends, they may allow the other to finally address them by their first name with another honorific (generally "-chan" for girls, and "-kun" for boys). This is so saturated within Japanese culture that animes can often revolve around the climactic moment when the boy she likes tells her to call him by his first name! This can also serve as a stepping stone to the next step in a relationship, and can often be somewhat embarrassing for the Japanese. It is another step towards vulnerability.

(from Kimi ni Todoke)

HONORIFICS:

Suffixes--

-san

•  gender neutral
• used with last and first name
• can be used with occuption
• Example: 
• surname | Yamada-san | 山田さん | Mr. Yamada
  given name | Yoko-san | 陽子さん | Miss. Yoko
  occupation | honya-san | 本屋さん | bookseller
  title | oisha-san | お医者さん | Doctor

 -kun

• less formal than -san
• used with men who are younger or same age as speaker
• usually used at schools or companies
• applies to first and last names
• not used between women or when addressing a superior 

-chan

• often attatched to children's first names
• used to identify a close relationship in childish terms
• used with babies, young children, teenage girls, lovers, close friends, or youthful women
• Example:
• Mika-chan | 美香ちゃん | Mika
  obaa-chan | おばあちゃん | grandma
  oji-chan | おじちゃん | uncle

-sama

• significantly more formal than -san
• used with someone who is of a much superior rank, a customer, or someone you admire tremendously
• in older times, related to "m'lord"
• used for royalty

No one ever uses an honorific with their own name. This comes across as extremely arrogant or strange, ESPECIALLY if you used "-sama" (ore-sama: "my esteemed self").

Non-Suffixes--

There are also other honorifics that are not suffixes, but rather general terms one assigns to different age or gender groups:

In Naruto, however, I recently discovered that the directors made an interesting decision. The character Sasuke Uchiha never uses honorifics.

His parents are dead, by the way. In this culture, although this is considered tremendously rude, it provides an intriguing commentary/insight on Sasukes priorities and views/attitude toward society. He's an angsty character with a dark past, and a single objective. He has a problem with finding value in others due to his hurtful past, and wants to estrange himself from those around him. The lack of Japanese honorifics in his speech patterns is just another way to develop his character in a more subtle and layered manner. In English, we don't get this secondary nuance of attitude from him. But to Japanese viewers, his solidarity and coldness may come across much earlier in the season.

On the flip side, if a character uses honorifics too much, or for the inappropriate person (calling a guy "-chan"), it can give similar commentary to their attitudes or perspectives. This can be humorous, but enlightening as well. So next time you're watching anime, try to pick up on the "friendliness" level of the characters. Did you notice any subtle differences or hidden messages? Happy hunting!


My sources:

Japanese Honorifics

The Jargon in Our House

When you enter our house, among other things, you will see artwork, a lot of books, and cats freely roaming about. Our house is basically a scrapbook of our lives, with so many pictures of our trips and favorite sayings hanging about. But in the midst of this blissful abode, being a guest, you might hear us say a couple of phrases that you most likely wouldn't understand. 

"Kitty shut" the door 

This is what we say when we want someone to crack a door. It means that we'd ordinarly close the door, but for the sake of our poor closed-door-a-phobic cats, we leave it cracked for them to pass through freely; otherwise, they'll find that closed door and cry until it's been opened.

Hoser 

The equivilant of calling someone a "hoser" in our home would be "you stink". This is usually exclaimed in an unfavorable situation during competitive game playing, or if someone said something particularly undercutting.

I'm/who's the monkey(?) 

For years on Sunday afternoons, we used to play this video game called "Monkey Ball". One would chose a monkey to represent themselves, and then compete in various trials. I'm not sure if this phrase originated from this time, or if this dates back further in my dad's timeline.  All I remember was whenever he would win, he started to exlaim "Who's the monkey?!", in a rhetorical fashion. It proclaims one's victory or supremecy, and has since gone on to encompass victory in any situation.

I'm gonna get on the board! 

This is a kind of threat used to rile up others, or generate a competitive mood inducive for playing board games. Dad started introducing cool new European board games to our family a couple years ago, and it caught our interest like wild-fire. Therefore, after a year of competitive playing with Dad, me, and my husband, Dad decided to create a score-board to keep track of who was winning what. This phrase is used to goad someone into wanting to play against you.

"Blue Friggin' Ray!"

One year, my husband bought us a new high definition TV. Once Dad started to collect Blue Ray moviess, he became obsessively excited with the quality difference. He began replacing our DVD library one by one, and each new time we get to watch a new Blue Ray version of a movie (or one that we want to show my husband), Dad gets excited and says: "Yeah, let's watch _____________-- on BLUE FRIGGIN' RAY!"

Check the cat-bus 

The cat-bus is a character designed and created by Hayao Miyazaki in his movie "My Neighbor Totoro". A while back Dad bought a penny bank of this character. Since we own cats, the cat litter must be sifted daily. My little sister and I take turns every other day to do it. However, we would keep forgetting who's turn it was. So, Dad took a paper, wrote our names on either side, and propped it in the slot of the cat-bus coin bank. Now, whoever's name is facing forward is the one who has to do it that night. When we are done, we flip it around to indicate it being the other's turn the next day.

Oh look, it's my turn!

No more good-time-fun running 

When Dad and I started running together a while back, we would start with a short distance and work up. Well I hated bumping up the distance, and when we were going to move it from 800 meters to a whole mile that next week, I dreaded it. Dad and I were laying on his bed and he said, "Well... Starting next week, no more good-time-fun running." I laughed so hard, since I never enjoyed running that small distance!

Cat on my lap 

If you couldn't tell already, we love our cats. They often like to curl up on our laps when we relax together or are watching shows/movies. Sometimes they'll even cuddle up when we sit at the table or computer to work on something. If something has to be done (i.e. turn off a light, turn on a fan, get a snack), a person who has a cat on their lap can say, "Oh. I have a cat on my lap". This statement therefore excuses you from taking responsibility for the action, transferring the duty to another. The cats just look so cute when they're all comfortable and happy, that we've just grown to not want to disturb that happy moment.

Cricket Coffee 

Dad and I are coffee drinkers. For the longest time we had a coffee brewer that we used every morning. When I started to make the coffee, Dad really enjoyed it. When he would try to make the coffee in the morning thereafter, he told me that I just make it better. My nickname from a small age was 'Cricket'. In the mornings, he began to ask, "Ooooh, are you going to make some Cricket-Coffee this morning?" or, "Yeah! I love that Cricket-Coffee". Even now that our brewer has passed on, and we were forced into the cruel realm of Instant-Coffee, the same principal applies. The instant-coffee cup that I'll prepare for him in the morning every once in a while is still lovingly referred to as "Cricket-Coffee". 

I'm the Admiral 

Going back to the concept that we love playing modern board games together, this is an honorary statement. When we play Star Trek Catan, the winner is called "The Admiral of Star Trek Catan", but it is often just abbreviated to "The Admiral". Dad and my husband used to taunt each other in public with this declaration. My dad would visit my husband's work for lunch, and depending on who had won between them, that person would tease the other. This is considered another way to propose a rematch. This can also be used as a kind of come-back. 

                     Example: "I did really well on my test today."

                                   "Yeah, but you're not The Admiral, now, are you?"

"Well Met Friend!" 

Ever since it was gifted to my Dad for Christmas in 2011, Skyrim has become a staple game in our home. I fell in love with the endless creative possibilities, and inspiration of this beautiful land. I would often create original art featuring my different characters. Sometime I heard that the game created before this one, Oblivion, was very good for its story-line and imaginative quests. So, I started to play it. Not only was this game 10x more difficult, it's graphics quality was drastically less than that of the newer game. The alarming nature of even the most ordinary of characters in this game made traversing through this world quite thrilling. It turned the most mundane of tasks into uncomfortable social challenges, and increased the monster-chase thrill factor by 20. The first time I came across a Khajit (cat-person) in this game, I was excited because they had been so neat looking in the other game. But as soon as he turned around to greet me, I cried out in alarm. His friendly greeting ("Well met, friend.") HIGHLY contrasted with the brutality of his face!

   SKYRIM (what I'm used to):

OBLIVION:

Ever since I showed Dad this contrast, it became an inside joke. We eventually found this comic that accurately expressed our alarm:

This image is what comes to our mind when we quote it to eachother.

There are so many other phrases that I haven't covered in my blog, but at least this would be a good "starter's guide" for any visitors. These phrases pull our tiny community of family into a closer circle. The fact that we can practically talk in code to each other represents the amount of shared events and feelings that we've developed or experienced. It draws us closer into the same category of shared life experience. As language keeps evolving, there will always be pockets of seemingly nonsensical lexicons created by those of a common mind.

Ambiguity

In Dan Piraro's cartoon, two birds are enjoying each other's company, and one asks another if they "can talk". This image is funny because the bird could be asking a multitude of questions:

• Do you and I have time to talk right now; there's something on my mind.
• Are we physically able to speak?
• Does our opinion matter?

This is due to lexical ambiguity: Ambiguity (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

The word that is ambiguous in this question is "can".

The first interpretation is often found in personal interactions in which one person would like to confide in, or spend time with another person.

The second interpretation questions the state of being that the speaker is taking part in. This one is is very ironic since the bird "speaks" in order to ask if he can speak. Since the bird is already talking, the obvious answer to this one would be, "well, duh you can speak!". It has a similar effect to someone asking if they can breath. This one, in my opinion, is the funniest aspect to the cartoon.

The third interpretation follows a social line of thought. It can be a commentary of the birds, though obviously able to speak, (and who may have been "speaking" this whole time to humans) can not be understood by them, and are therefore being ignored. The birds might then begin to question their importance in the societal chain due to this impudence.

With all the different ways people can be interpreted after saying just one sentence, I can begin to understand why we have so many misunderstandings! However, I believe tone is the key factor in making yourself understood clearly.

#followme

The change in modern communication has been as drastic as the change in our modern technology. Although the professional world worked with typewriters only about 40 years ago, compared to the technological advancements of today, it already has a somewhat ancient connotation. In Dustin&Genevieve's parody of the "Circle of Life",  from the Lion King, they make fun of some common modern attitudes, and the differences in how we tend to communicate ourselves now-a-days (espcially among the younger generations).

We have suddenly become very enveloped in how we portray ourselves online. Selfies are rampant! It has become such a common way to take pictures, that there is even a certain unspoken "right" way to do it. Every once and a while you will come across someone who's selfie obviously looks tacky, or unfashionable, when another person's can look stylish, or even dignified.

How to SELFIE

But appearence aside, pop-culture as a mass, has gotten used to the hashtags flying everywhere online. This, however, was not always this way. The use of hashtags were originally organizing tools used on Twitter. Then, people began to "mis-use" them, as some would attest. At first there was a very black and white following of hashtags. Some people embraced them, feeling that they were a freeing means of communicating more complex or humorous emotions. Some people detested them, and felt offended that people were "ruining the English Language". Then, when Facebook became trendy, the hashtaggers invaded. Many people were, again, outraged. However, as this trend stuck around, debates rose, and people began to wonder if they really were as incorrect as they seemed.

In Muriel MacDonald's article, How #Hashtags Change the Way We Talk (Huffington Post), she demonstrates three points to illustrate their legitimacy. 

1. Hashtags are "paralanguage"
2. Hashtags are our Greek Chorus
3. Hashtags were always meant to mimic speech

She raises the point that hashtags open a new form to demonstrate a self-mocking attitude. It offers a third person view point (narrative's view) on what had been said. It can produce a layer of subtext in which the reader knows the comment was made in a tongue-in-cheek manner. 

She introduces the concept that a hashtag is really a commentary on our own comment. Hashtags make the transition from first person to third. This is not a new concept, since the greeks did this all the time in their writing.

Her final pont is that hashtags are really tools in order to get a more "real life" meaning across in text format. It produces a more accurate atmosphere that the writer was attempting to create. 

"#Hashtag with Jimmy Fallon & Justin Timberlake"

Another way to communicate that has ravaged the informal world, are memes. 

meme

mēm/

noun

1. an element of a culture or system of behavior that may be considered to be passed from one individual to another by nongenetic means, especially imitation.

   • a humorous image, video, piece of text, etc. that is copied (often with slight variations) and spread rapidly by Internet users.

To best explain, here is an illustration. One of my personal favorites is the "Y U NO" meme. 

Any meme begins with the original, un-edited photo/graphic.

You then place a funny, commonly mispelled, relateable idea/frustration on the image with the prefix "Y U NO" (meaning, why don't you...)

Here are some examples:

Memes are often used with popular movies, historical figures, or games/shows to add to their humorous effects:

Personally, I love using images to help my meaning come across in text. I view them as elaborate emojis. I often choose cute anime characters to get an emotion across, or save random funny expressions I come across to use as a humorous punchline. For example, if I would usually respond to something my husband says with a show quote, I may send him a picture of that character or a still shot of the scene when he/she said it. He can then, from context, imagine my "real life" response. 

As much as this digital world has offered us a platform to communicate ourselves clearly, I honestly don't know why we still have so many misunderstandings. Laziness? Well, that's a topic for another class ;)

                

What Makes A Word Real?

Anne Curzan, guest speaker in the 2014 TED talks, discusses the origin of common-day words. She relays an inside view into the mind of an dictionary editor, being one herself, and offers that language is determined by the general populous. She presents the idea that, in order to be real, a word would only need to be commonly used among the people.

I agree. She further explains that dictionary editors often feel flustered in trying to keep up with the change in words, and dread placing undeserved importance on words that only become fads in the end. Because of our tech savvy world, new words such as "app", and the prefix "e-" have become second nature. These are commonly used, and have now been counted officially into the dictionary:

-App Definition-

Anne introduces the point that language is not based on personal opinion, only on what is widely used. No matter how absurd a word sounds to a singular person, if it is used, it is indeed a word. One such word formed more recently is "hangry" (hungry+angry). Although, it was most likely begun as a joke, most people understand the meannig, and popularity and common use has increased greatly. In another note, pre-existing words evolve. The word decimate used to mean "to kill one in every ten", but now means to "kill, destroy a large percentage of". No word is safe from the changing of culture.

Humans have a unique ability to continue creating new words, expanding upon what is already existing. If a word is created, and continues to be used, it will eventually become part of the common vocabulary. The general public has always decided which words are real or not, whether they were concious of it or not.

Entry #1: Tips to Speaking Fluently, Quickly

  In Abroadin Japan's youtube video, "Speaking Japanese Fluently in 6 Months", he comically, and with somewhat of a sailor's tongue, offers some tips in learning (really any) language within a limited amount of time. His points are:

1. MASTER THE ESSENTIALS: Learn 1,000 words of core grammar.
2. MASTER CONVERSATION FILLERS: They are useful.
3. REAL LIFE JAPANESE PEOPLE: How to find a Japanese teacher anywhere in the world.
4. MASTER EVERY SITUATION: Think/problem solve in Japanese at all times.
5. GET EXCITED ABOUT SYNONYMS: Don't allow yourself to get stuck. Move on.
6. FORGET YOUR NATIVE LANGUAGE: Either speak Japanese or say nothing at all.

  Of course everyone is aware of the need to memorize a basis of vocabulary when entering a new language. However, in his second point, I was a bit surprised. Being raised in this American culture of teaching correct English, students are reprimanded when using conversation fillers. Although he is not condoning the use of them as correct grammar, he is implying that, because it is widely used, one will seem more fluent, more likely to fit in with the culture when using them. This leads to the point that fluency isn't just about being grammatically correct, but considering the cultural "norm", as well. He transitions into his third point of using the internet. He discusses a useful website called italki.com. This website does not only serve for Japanese to English purposes, but almost any language someone might be learning. Personally, I use conversationexchange.com, as introduced to me by a fellow student taking Japanese 102. It allows the same diversity as the first site. 

  Another great option is to visit your local college campus. If you are learning a new language, the study centers might have tutors available to practice with. I just recently started visiting my local Japanese tutors, and I am already benefiting from the person-to-person interaction. 

  I believe that points four and five are connected. Abroadin Japan explains in point four that there are certain words you can use to describe something you don't understand (ex: "thing"). Using such words in conversation, and showing your confusion can prompt the other person to fill in what you are trying to describe. As long as you can describe it, you'll most likely be fine. The next point encourages the use of synonyms. Don't get so hung up on remembering one specific word that you don't replace it with one that would have worked just fine. The specific word doesn't matter as long as you can get your idea accross. 

     EXAMPLE: What you want to say--> He's tall.

                                      (you can't remember the word for "tall")

                           Instead, say:   He's big.       or       He's not short.

The last point Abroadin Japan emphasizes is "forgetting" your native tongue. Although he does not mean that literally, it puts pressure on only speaking in the foreign language. He proposes that some people don't want to do this, that they will feel dumb for not being able to speak so eloquently in the foreign tongue as they can in the native one. However, this is an important stepping stool in order to start thinking and problem solving in that language. 

    These tips don't only apply to Japanese, but any language someone might want to improve in. I belive that if school classes assigned time to practice with a native speaker (maybe hire someone), the students would improve tremendously. In my American Sign Language class, our teacher requires that we have a certain amount of study group time. This is already immensely helpful in recognizing others' speech patterns, and improving interaction skills. This has really helped everyone involved learn how to "work around" a word by trying to describe it with our limited vocabulary. 

   Now that you know the secrets to fluency, 

try out this new-found success system

with a new language!

(Japanese. Why not ;)

Learn how to introduce yourself.

About Me

Although "Lady Pendragon" is my mask name, I am an ordinary quirky college kid like the rest of them. I've had ups and downs, defeats and victories-- and arrived to be the person I am today.

I met the love of my love at the very end of high school, and we began dating in the fall of 2014. We finally permanently entwined our lives in holy matrimony this past January 16, 2016. Many of the things I love to do involve my beloved husband: cooking, watching anime, and studying God's Word.


              

In high school, I began taking French. I loved it so much, I decided to take it all four years. I then took an interest in Japanese, which I attempted to self-teach. I began taking Japanese in my first semester, and am only now able to take my third online. I will be taking JPN202 during the summer, and with that,

complete my certificate in Japanese! I find the language very challenging, but entertaining and wonderful. Because my Japanese class had been dropped last semester, it gave me the opportunity to take American Sign Language. It is very fun, and suprisingly similar to Japanese in sentence structure.
  I truly hope to further my education and become completely fluent in French, Japanese, and American Sign Language.

My goal is to become an interpreter.