japanese or chinese? part 1

To most of us who watch japanese animation, watching it in the jap language and reading the subtitles is the way to go. but is it so all the time?

As a japanese animation connosieur, I had strongly believed that japanese animation must be watched with the audio tuned to japanese and subtitles in english for understanding (although sometimes the subbing sucks. and i have an example of that in a later post as well). However, recently, i have discovered a few japanese animation that are better viewed in the other languages like english and chinese. most of the times, it is because the translation makes it sound even funnier. just to quote a few examples, La Bi Xiao Xin (Crayon Shin chan) is funnier in chinese because of the vocalics, Slayers is funnier in english because of the semantics.

to help illustrate this, i have posted a sample of this animation online. the animation is called Hanada ShouNen Shi. this animation, personally i prefer watching it in chinese because it comes off funnier in chinese than in jap. thus, to provide to contrast, i have recorded the animation in two languages. See which you prefer =) the clips are taken from the first half of the first episode of the animation. Yi Lu  1 is the japanese version, and Yi Lu 2 is the chinese version.

Do comment on which you prefer =)

Hanada Shounen Shi (chinese)

from mekanasai.multiply.c posted with vodpod

Hanada Shounen Shi (jap)

from mekanasai.multiply.c posted with vodpod

Singlish

Singlish, our own special language that brings every race in singapore under one common indentity. Compromising of any language available to present day, this language, is exclusionary to people who do not live in Singapore.

i have come across ang mohs, europeans etc.., over this poker table when i was playing with 6 other non-singaporeans and they asked, “what does lah mean?”

when left to open interpretation, some say, “does it mean friend?”

but how do you explain what “lah” means? we explained it to be just an expression we use in Singapore like a punctuation. and the ang moh says, like “thank you lah?” (this said in the most sincere and formal way)

so that is one slang that has been mislearned, there is still many to go. hopefully they’ll get one right.

the new extended vocab is one thing. another would be the stringing of the words together to form the sentence to get singlish. sentence structure. although singlish may be termed as one of the most random languages one could ever come across with sudden transitions of language used in that one sentence, it is still a strictly governed form of language. the four laws that govern language play very important roles here. the flouting of any may lead to a a wrong message communicated. and im sure we all know when =).

Quote of the day: speak, but only of what you know

The Avoidance

We have always been told that running away from a problem will not solve anything. But what if the problem refuses to come to terms with the fact that it is a problem? then, wouldnt facing it be pointless? seeing that you are facing a problem that doesnt even recognise itself as a problem? in this kind of situation, i feel, it is best to leave it alone. which i guess we can term as avoidance, otherwise, we might just further complicate the situation.

let’s take an example. my ex boyfriend. who up till now refuse to come to see the “ex” in front of his status now. explaining the problem to him, does not work. because, he refuses to understand. the concept of “no trust” doesnt make any impression on him, despite the many occasions that both party got hurt thanks to what he did. Nope, he never thinks that he is at fault, although you may grab a few hundred people off the streets and tell them the whole situation and they will agree it is his fault. tell me, who is at fault here. The boyfriend times his girlfriend twice.

you might say the girl is probably a horrible person that is why he timed her twice, but if that is the case, why dont he just break up with someone he thinks is so horrible?

too many examples to cite, too lazy to type so we shall not make a worse impression of this guy who so obviously lacks of any integrity in him.

the point is, he does not think that he is to blame AT ALL for hurting his gf. nope. timing is nothing wrong. (how blasphemous although i am sure most of you guys out there identify with this statement)

after many turbulent discussions, tears and saliva wasted, the problem projector does not perceive what he projected as a problem. so after repeating the same process, wasting more saliva and tears along the way, we are back at square one. nope, we haven even made any progress to the tile beside. WOW. you know i reckon we have accomplished something none other couple could usually achieve. the best part? he is still blissfully oblivious to his role in this, conveniently pushing all the blame to the girl as though she wanted to be timed.

and so, he still bothers me every day, every night. threatening me when i do not pick up his calls or reply his messages. and im just trying my best to avoid him. telling him to (insert profanity here) off have never produced any effects. nothing i say, ever get processed in his system. so why waste more time?

Let there be silence and may the silence fill all the unspoken wrath and words such that someone that unreceptive would be able to recept it.

Quote of the day: Behind every successful man there is a woman. behind every unsuccessful man, there are two.

Deafening Silence

people always say pictures speak a thousand words. that’s true. it conveys the meaning through what one would perceive from the picture. however, what one percieves may be wrong.

same goes to silence. in a moment of silence, many unspoken words and emotions can be exchanged in that momentary silence. this is best experienced when someone says something awkward and the room falls silent. Get the conveyed meaning? well unless your deaf, which makes silence or response of not much difference, most people do get the meaning.

that is more or less how i communicate with my cousins. the irritating ones, i mean. imagine this, you are watching television on a peaceful, bright, monotonous afternoon enjoying what time you can afford to procrastinate from your work when suddenly someone comes right along to break that precious moment when your brain was just about to enter the world of absolute oblivion to things around it. brought back to earth with an irriating incessant tugging of your shirt and suddenly a slap on the lap… seriously, thats a not a good way to try and reboot a brain that decided to go into hibernation. so you direct your gaze at the television, staring intently at the actor in the screen (helps alot if its George Clooney) and ignore that source of irritant because you are irritated by that irritant. Ignoring, has another alias. Cold War. which means in essence, silence. and this silence, though come with much pain if your cousin is the violent sort like mine, conveys a message that reverberates louder than the sound of the screaming and slapping of them. honestly, i love silence in these situations. it just hangs in the air, open for anyones interpretation =)

ever felt sooooo uncomfortable when caught in a moment of silence that you cannot stand it anymore you just have to break it? to prevent this from happening, i have decided to add music! just to break the silence =)

Quote of the day: Silence is golden. but duct tape is black.

Perception

everything boils down to how we perceive things. we may see it one way and yet our friend may see it in another. just one example would be this conversation i had with my friend. For sake of parties involved, names shall be substituted.

Me: Mr B, it’s a tree.

Mr B: No, to me it’s a plant.

Me: But it’s a tree. it’s got a trunk and branches and leaves and bark and stems and roots and everything else that a tree should have.

Mr B: No, it’s still a plant.

(sound familiar Brendan?)

So anyway, just from that we can see how diff perceptions cause us to see things differently. i may think it is a tree, but someone like Mr B might think it is just a plant. Ok, it is a plant. But i perceive things in more “specific” terms and Mr B in “general” terms.

See the power of influence of perception? It is just another tree but its identity as one is being disputed due to different ways of perceiving it. its going through identity crisis. so i guess we can see why some individuals go through a period of finding themselves. Trees are being subjected to dispute over its identity as a tree.

Quote of the day: When a man opens the door for a woman, either the car is new, or the woman is. (yet, another perception of a skeptical individual =) )

When everything seems to go against for that day, don’t blame it on your luck, blame it on everything else! Nothing is your own fault. You see, when you start blaming yourself for something that has already made you feel lousy, you’d start feeling even lousier. So why not shift this blame to something else? (technique called Displacement in psychology) Something that cant feel your wrath nor react back to it. For example, the weather! “Oh, I almost crashed my car today, thanks to the swelteringly hot weather…” Although the real reason is that you were talking on the phone. But, who needs to know that?

The bottom line, nothing is your own fault. If it is, you have committed that mistake for a better outcome later. Anyway, what can go wrong, will go wrong. What will happen to you will happen. It’s only a matter of sooner or later. There’s a BRIGHT future ahead of us!

- Last comms lesson was interesting. The animation was funny. And it addressed the problem of meaning lost in translation.

- Stats is killing some of us.

 - It’s a Friday!! Which means we get to sleep in… (yay!)

Quote of the day: Perfecting the art of making myself feel better in different situations.

Hello world!

Well… I won’t pretend to be too happy about this account.. After having thought long and hard about which username to use, it finally dawned on me to use my trademark quote; Mada mada dane. BUT, someone has already taken up my trademark as username!! oh well.. Today’s a Sunday and tomorrow will be the start to a new school week cycle again. Sundays are somewhat depressing sometimes when you think of what is in store for you on the coming monday..

What seems in store this week would include increasing workload with increasing toughness. But as women of this new century, my dear friends out there, WE WILL SURVIVE!!

Tasks to complete:

- to absorb details as a dry sponge in water for communications quiz 1 tomorrow. Bacon worships idols. (ok no, i’m just joking)

-to come up with intelligent, intellectual, not time wasting questions for profiling for ESL408 class on Mon as well.

-enjoy the process of completing the two tasks above

-find new ways to advertise for the tuition coordiantion services my friend and I have set up together under desperate circumstances and an extra stroke of genius to earn extra cash.

-get rid of the swelling of lips thanks to dishonest market people who lie that the prawns they sell are fresh from the sea.

Quote for the day: It is not procrastination. It’s inertia.

-Anne