Bahhhhh

OK, just because we need a new entry:

  • Yet another article condemning Japanese children’s knowledge of kanji characters — The company who runs Kanji Kentei says 1st year college students only averaged 40% correct on a kanji test using questions from old Kanji Kentei 2kyu (intended for high school students), not even close to the 80% required to pass (Thanks, kboy — I looked it up)See if you can get these:
  • 大学1年生には、「閑古鳥」「吟味」「醜聞」の読みや「魚のクサミ」「マイゾウ文化財」「門前のコゾウ」の漢字を書かせる問題などが出題された。

    Answers:

    閑古鳥 【かんこどり】 (n) a cuckoo
    吟味 【ぎんみ】 (n) testing, scrutiny, careful investigation, (P)
    醜聞 【しゅうぶん】 (n) scandal, (P)
    臭み 【くさみ】 (n) bad smell, affectation, fulsomeness
    埋蔵 【まいぞう】 (n) buried property, treasure trove, (P)
    小僧 【こぞう】 (n) (1) youngster, (2) young Buddhist priest, (P)

    Guess what: I didn’t get them at all and still haven’t looked them up, though it would be cool one day to pass 2kyu myself. Let me give you my completely pedestrian and baseless opinion: the Kanji Kentei people should stop conducting surveys like this because it just shows how irrelevant they’re becoming and the precious idioms that they are trying so hard to protect are slowly but surely dying out of the Japanese language. Those conservative old guard slush-puppies (new word?) should just go cry into their bourbons at the members-only enka-only karaoke bars they came from.

  • www.videonews.com — Free video of news events in Japan — the current top link has the recent public debates leading up to the election in full.
  • Imperial Family changes car from Nissan to Toyota — not much else to say about that, really. I don’t even care what car they use. In fact, if it were up to me there would be no Imperial Family at all. It’s the height of pretentiousness! But it did show up in the Top News section of Technorati Japan.
  • Honestly, I haven’t felt much like blogging the last few days/weeks. I was inspired to blog mainly as a way to keep up my Japanese by translating articles. Over the year and a half or so I have spent blogging, my translation skills have improved enough to land me a few good jobs.

    However, now I’m a lot busier in my new job and translating news articles is actually something I do every day — and get paid for. So the inspiration is gone a little bit.

    Another thing is I have started considering who my audience is here and asking myself “what impact is what I say going to have?” and I have to answer “not all that much.” Not sure what that means to me, but it does certainly mean there’s no point in starting “Internet debate” in my posts (because, as has been said before, it’s like the Special Olympics: even if you win, you’re still retarded.)

    Anyway, anonymous readers, my point is please bear with me while I consider what role blogging will have in my life.

    Random picture of an Adam Richards (THIS ISN’T ME!!!!!!!!):
    Oh shit

    Baby ‘Critical,’ Man Arrested

    Police say Adam Richards admitted to abusing the baby

    Police say a Union Township man admitted to abusing his girlfriend’s baby boy.

    Five-month-old Dillion Richards is now in critical but stable condition at Children’s Hospital, with multiple fractures.

    Adam Richards, 23, was behind bars Thursday night, charged with felony child endangerment.

    The baby and suspect have the same last name but are not related.

    Police say Richards beat the child at his home in Union Township.

    The child’s mother is Megan Cloud, and she has not been charged.

    Shit, he’s my age and everything. Stay away from my unborn kids.

    4 thoughts on “Bahhhhh”

    1. Actually the article says that the average first year student got less than 40% right on the test. Given you need 80% correct to pass that equates to a lot less than 40% of students passing. Perhaps if you worked on your kanji a bit more you might be able to read articles like this properly!

    2. well nananana foo foo.. Yes, I made a mistake… But isn’t it only just for me to make careless mistakes in a post that advocates ignorance?

      After seeing a bunch of similar articles over the past year or so I must have stopped bothering to read them. Let me correct that.

    3. I can’t sleep so I decided to check your blog and I found something to respond to.

      I would keep the Imperial Family because they make foreign delegates who love the pretentiousness of a royal treatment happy. And it’s a big deal what car they drive. If they drove a foreign car, that would be news because the Japan’s “symbol” is driving a foreign car. They ought to drive a Japanese car, and if the old one was a Nissan, why not give Toyota the next chance.

      Not that anyone cares, but in my view, if the way the family is acting (always smiling, waving hands, etc.) appears pretentious, it is not an act but a necessity. They and the staffs think the citizens want them to act that way, and indeed, people like them that way because again, we are taught that they are the Japanese peoples’ “symbol.” Some people’s perceptions of the family probably changed after the current Empress went into the family as the first non-imperial citizen to go into the family. These people started to associate the Imperial family with class in their society, because the Empress was from the highest class in the society. But the Japanese Imperial family is no Kennedy’s, and if anything, many people secretly feel sorry for their formality, if not find it pretentious. And it’s hard to be a “symbol” of Japan when the people have come to be more diverse and generational differences exist.

      Besides, the family also does do a lot of community services (though criticisms exist they are doing too much of outside work and not enough praying (e.g. for good harvest)). Many elderly really appreciate their coming and attending to them when they are in crisis situations.

      zzzz……

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