How to Haze in Japanese, and Other Lessons

Today I got a lot done that I needed to do, and it wasn’t as stressful as I had anticipated.

Speaking class today went normally. We're now learning causative verbs, which is confusing because in Japanese "I force someone to do" and "I allow someone to do" are said the same. The book's examples are funny, though, in a sick sort of way; I'm calling this lesson Chapter 22: The Hazing Chapter. There was this whole exercise we did where you are an older student on the tennis team and you have to make sentences like "I make my underlings do my laundry," or "I make the first years run up the hill." Not okay!

Afterward, I checked my mail and found that my absentee ballot had arrived! So I hurried off to lunch in the small cafeteria and ate curry rice as I voted. I was so happy that the paperwork had come in time. Although earlier information said that they needed to have the ballot a week before the election, the sheet this time said it needs to be at the County Clerk’s by 6PM on Election Day. As soon as I finished eating, I ran to the post office and mailed it, so hopefully I’ll be in Kentucky on time. It has seven days and 6.5 hours (not counting the fall time change and International Date Line; I’m not sure how that changes things) to make it from Hirakata to Louisville, because I mailed it at 11:30PM. Filling in that little bubble next to Obama’s name, using my #2 pencil and making my mark heavy and dark being careful to leave no stray marks on the ballot, was the proudest vote of my life. I’m really excited about him as a leader. I really, really hope he wins.

Anyway, I had just enough time to make it back to campus for my noon reading and writing class. I really like that class; Kawahara-sensei is young and hip and a lot of fun, and my classmates have a great sense of humor. Plus, I just love learning kanji. It’s like being back in second grade learning cursive, where you have to trace the lines in your handwriting book. (I never liked writing those silly cursive capital Xs, though. Really, does anyone actually write an X like that, with the hook and loop thing going on? I’ve never seen it.)

In Asian Psych today we had our midterm debate. I was on the Taoist team, and I had one minute to answer the question “What Is Pathology?” from a Taoist viewpoint. After everyone had answered their questions from the three psychological systems we’ve studied, we had to address the other groups and tell them why they’re wrong. That part was fun; some of us, including me, got pretty into it. I said that the Yogis and Buddhists are “Debbie Downers” and they “need to chill the heck out.” Yes, I used those terms, too, and Dr. Pawle and the rest of the class laughed. In any case, the debate went much more smoothly than I anticipated, considering how disorganized that class can be.

In Film and Literature we had our midterm exam, which was very easy. Ten matching, about 15 true/false, 25 multiple choice, two short paragraph answers, and some bonus fill in the blank questions. Not a problem, although true/false often trip me up because I overanalyze everything. In any case, I expect an easy A from that one.

Did some shopping at the QQ after stopping at the more convenient 7Eleven and realizing how overpriced everything was there. Sorry, but I’m not paying 298yen for six slices of bread, 7Eleven, when I can go down the street and get the same thing for a third of the price. At QQ I bought a yakisoba sandwich because I love carbs, and what’s better than fried noodles on bread? I had it for supper and it was kinda disappointing, though. The bread was that nice sweet tasting yellowish stuff that you often get at Easter time, and mixed with the soy sauce and ginger in the noodles, it just wasn’t my thing. A very good idea, though, and something that I could definitely eat in a pinch.

I’m now reading The Red Tent by Anita Diamant. I really like it so far, and it’s a book I’ve been wanting to read for a while. It makes me a bit lonely, though, with its talking about all the women living together. I dunno; it’s a very AHS book in many ways, I think, and it makes me miss that women’s retreat community feel that Assumption was so good with. It's not something that's easy to come by in college, it seems.

Oh, remember how I said I can’t understand Japanese boys when they talk? Well, the other day when I Tomoko-san was taking me to her tutoring place, we were talking about American Japanese language classes. She mentioned that she doesn’t know of any men Japanese language teachers in the States. I don’t either! They’re all women, as far as I’ve seen. I mean, I know there are men out there who teach Japanese, but none are at Witt, and none of my friends’ high school teachers were men, and come to think of it I don’t believe Earlham has any men teachers either, nor Crane House. It’s interesting. Tomoko-san said, though, that because of that, whenever American guys speak Japanese they sound really feminine to her because those are the pronunciations and structures we’re used to hearing. So it seems that I’m not the only one who notices a difference between the speech of Japanese women, American women speaking Japanese, Japanese men, and American men speaking Japanese. That made me feel better. Also, I’m kinda laughing internally at Fedora, Mr. I-Want-to-Be-a-Samurai, because he probably sounds like a little girl and doesn’t know it. ^_^ Don’t tell him that, though.