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来たことをnever regret
Jul. 5th, 2008 07:32 pmI find myself much more easily able to express myself in my Mixi diary than this one, despite the fact that my Japanese is still real, real crap, and getting progressively worse by the day. So, sadly, has my English. I might not be the best person to teach ESL on second thought, since I pick up verbal ticks and dialectical nuances really quickly, which means I now speak like my students.
(Even more then the obvious pronunciation errors, I think the two biggest red flags that a Japanese person is not a native English speaker would be statements like these:
"I don't know what sort of movies I like. Maybe, I like all kinds of movies!"
and
"I don't know what sort of movies I like. Now, I like science fiction."
Maybe they don't sound that weird to you, but in context it's obvious that they are just shortcuts, usually fossilized after years of use, to get around saying I might... (or it might, he might, she might, anybody or anything in the whole world might and Recently/these days, respectively.
Of course, I catch myself saying things just like them now.)
I also have a really awful grasp of the whys and hows of grammar. I will know something is wrong, and I will know what it should be instead, but I'll be damned if I can tell you why. ECC is a conversation school and not a grammar school, so I'm not faulted any for not knowing exactly why we say the meeting ended three hours ago and not three hours before when put on the spot, but it still frustrates me. As a fairly educated person, I should have this sort of knowledge. Maybe, I do not study enough!
Sigh.
Tomorrow is my day off, but as I am broke, I am going to do a whole lotta nothing. I am actually going to try and find where I can buy another bug bomb, just so I can set it off on Monday in the hopes that they'll kill whatever is rattling around in my cupboards. -_- Lovely.
Okay! So today I was standing around outside one of the local housing agencies (they had an ad for my apartment building up, half the price I'm paying and no fabled key money, I KNEW IT.) and a clerk from inside came out to give me his business card. Good thing the housing agencies here aren't foreigner shy. I'm still trying to figure out what I wanna do about housing, though. I will run through my thoughts here so anybody who has the time and interest can advise me!
I would like to move into a 2DK (or LDK, but that's a dream XD) next. I'd probably be moving by myself and floating the rent (at least for a while) but that's fine. I don't actually mind paying MORE than I currently pay, especially for a much nicer place. I also don't mind paying key money if need be, since it's not as high around here as I've been told my entire Japan-knowing life.
My main question is where to live. Part of me would like to move somewhere entirely different, maybe up on the Hankyu line, north of Umeda, but... the other part is growing to really appreciate where I currently live. Daikokucho is a mean, nasty city, but goddamn it's convenient. Living within walking distance to Namba has spoiled me; it's nice to have any possible store I'd ever need to go to right there, and, naturally, I've become attached to certain restaurants and stores in my living vicinity.
I would not want to live any more southern than my current apartment, however. Even two minutes south here is a little scary, since Shin-Imamiya is in that direction and, while everyone says it's gotten better, Shin-Imamiya is the sort of place that got my hairs up before I even knew it had a reputation.
I have time to really think about this. I currently have three regular shifts scheduled, and they're all in southern Osaka. If I found the right place, I would not mind a harder commute (mine is laughably easy at the moment), but it's all a matter of finding a city that makes me want to live there.
These fabled "day trips" I keep saying I will go on when I have money are to random cities to check out the surroundings.
I have changed my mind entirely on w-inds.' album. I love it. ._. I'm so easy. It's still not THANKS for me, but it's so addictive. I've apparently listened to it over ten times since Wednesday. x.x
(Even more then the obvious pronunciation errors, I think the two biggest red flags that a Japanese person is not a native English speaker would be statements like these:
"I don't know what sort of movies I like. Maybe, I like all kinds of movies!"
and
"I don't know what sort of movies I like. Now, I like science fiction."
Maybe they don't sound that weird to you, but in context it's obvious that they are just shortcuts, usually fossilized after years of use, to get around saying I might... (or it might, he might, she might, anybody or anything in the whole world might and Recently/these days, respectively.
Of course, I catch myself saying things just like them now.)
I also have a really awful grasp of the whys and hows of grammar. I will know something is wrong, and I will know what it should be instead, but I'll be damned if I can tell you why. ECC is a conversation school and not a grammar school, so I'm not faulted any for not knowing exactly why we say the meeting ended three hours ago and not three hours before when put on the spot, but it still frustrates me. As a fairly educated person, I should have this sort of knowledge. Maybe, I do not study enough!
Sigh.
Tomorrow is my day off, but as I am broke, I am going to do a whole lotta nothing. I am actually going to try and find where I can buy another bug bomb, just so I can set it off on Monday in the hopes that they'll kill whatever is rattling around in my cupboards. -_- Lovely.
Okay! So today I was standing around outside one of the local housing agencies (they had an ad for my apartment building up, half the price I'm paying and no fabled key money, I KNEW IT.) and a clerk from inside came out to give me his business card. Good thing the housing agencies here aren't foreigner shy. I'm still trying to figure out what I wanna do about housing, though. I will run through my thoughts here so anybody who has the time and interest can advise me!
I would like to move into a 2DK (or LDK, but that's a dream XD) next. I'd probably be moving by myself and floating the rent (at least for a while) but that's fine. I don't actually mind paying MORE than I currently pay, especially for a much nicer place. I also don't mind paying key money if need be, since it's not as high around here as I've been told my entire Japan-knowing life.
My main question is where to live. Part of me would like to move somewhere entirely different, maybe up on the Hankyu line, north of Umeda, but... the other part is growing to really appreciate where I currently live. Daikokucho is a mean, nasty city, but goddamn it's convenient. Living within walking distance to Namba has spoiled me; it's nice to have any possible store I'd ever need to go to right there, and, naturally, I've become attached to certain restaurants and stores in my living vicinity.
I would not want to live any more southern than my current apartment, however. Even two minutes south here is a little scary, since Shin-Imamiya is in that direction and, while everyone says it's gotten better, Shin-Imamiya is the sort of place that got my hairs up before I even knew it had a reputation.
I have time to really think about this. I currently have three regular shifts scheduled, and they're all in southern Osaka. If I found the right place, I would not mind a harder commute (mine is laughably easy at the moment), but it's all a matter of finding a city that makes me want to live there.
These fabled "day trips" I keep saying I will go on when I have money are to random cities to check out the surroundings.
I have changed my mind entirely on w-inds.' album. I love it. ._. I'm so easy. It's still not THANKS for me, but it's so addictive. I've apparently listened to it over ten times since Wednesday. x.x
