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Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6587 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish
| Message 297 of 420 06 November 2013 at 11:14pm | IP Logged |
cathrynm wrote:
On the whole weight issue -- you know, Japan is the superbowl of skinniness. However much weight I lose I'm never going to be 'Japan skinny' -- really, it's like medically scary at that level. Anyway, at least, if I'm thin enough, I start to look close to the Japanese born haafu. I've had this conversation at the meetups where I say I'm haafu and they loosen up a little bit. The thing is, though, like the first grammar mistake just blows then I'm back to 'jouzu jouzu' and all the other beginner conversation stuff.
Anyway, a lot of this does come down to weight, I think if I'm smaller, Japanese people will talk to me more, and if I'm fat it's nothing but talk about why I'm so fat. You can't fight this. |
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Hm, to me "too fat" sounds the same as too old or stuff like that. Just think of the people who can be convincing enough despite being Caucasian or even black (like Khatzumoto). As someone who cares more about the language skills than weight (my own and other people's), I find this sort of statements very uncomfortable. Good luck with your diet, but when it comes to Japanese it's much more productive to improve your actual knowledge than to try to look more Japanese. They've already seen plenty of people who look Japanese but don't speak it.
I'd also assume that the Japanese are tactful enough not to talk of your weight unless you bring it up yourself.
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| kraemder Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5174 days ago 1497 posts - 1648 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese
| Message 298 of 420 07 November 2013 at 3:39am | IP Logged |
Your mileage might vary but from what I've seen the
expats from Japan gain weight just like we
Americans although pictures of Japanese people in
Japan is another story. They're really thin!
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| cathrynm Senior Member United States junglevision.co Joined 6115 days ago 910 posts - 1232 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Finnish
| Message 299 of 420 07 November 2013 at 4:31am | IP Logged |
I have full-blooded Japanese relatives and in-laws here in the USA and a substantial number of them get fat, and some massively so. I had one cousin, this guy was full-blooded Japanese, became a base player -- not famous, but eeked out a living and played with some famous people. I wondered if he inherited the Sumo wrestler gene, because even as a kid he was just huge. Anyway, just a few years back -- I went to his funeral. Just heart attacks, and diabetes and it caught up to him -- now he's dead.
Yes most people there are massively thin. And if you're female and have even an average build for the USA, unless you have huge self-confidence, in Japan you're going to have body issue. And, yeah, random guys won't mention how fat you are. But, maybe it's different in the family? I'm on the half-Japanese facebook group, and a few people going back to meet relatives got the 'You got so fat' comments.
What can I say? I want both, I want to be thin and I want to know Japanese both. So both of these goals have to compromise a little due to time constraints.
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| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6587 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish
| Message 300 of 420 07 November 2013 at 10:10am | IP Logged |
But you're already good at both of these (for a lack of a better wording). Your confidence will affect hugely how you come across, so best include this component too.
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| cathrynm Senior Member United States junglevision.co Joined 6115 days ago 910 posts - 1232 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Finnish
| Message 301 of 420 10 November 2013 at 3:36am | IP Logged |
Well, Kraemer(sp) mentioned the 進撃の巨人 and I watched a few more of these last night -- according to the CrunchyRoll Roku app I've already watched about 8 of these, so I started around 9. Actually this show, I did spot quite a few things that were going on. The 'It's a crazy idea but it just might work' scene -- and the battles and few scenes were guys are being digested inside the giants and screaming. I was pretty bored by this at the beginning, but actually, the kyojin are quite creepy, really. In the end it seems like another talk, fight, talk, fight show, but anime-wise that's expected. Odd thing is I'm never sure how much I pick up from the dialog and how much I get from the visuals. I work in videogames so I'm become kind of a borderline visual arts type person just by being around so many artists. I can watch anime with no sound at all and be entertained simply by the visuals.
We're doing grammar and some JLPT listening and reading in the class. I'm getting better at reading, often I'm understanding, but I miss the questions. The grammar, I'm now in my 3rd year of going over these N2 grammar points, and they are actually starting to soak in. My sample tests come out around 50% on reading/grammar/vocab. I'm still not feeling too confident about the listening. On the practice question, I'm coming a little bit better than random chance -- though the problem is I often take the bait on these questions and end up even worse than random chance. I think I've developed skills to fake my way around poor listening comprehension, and the JLPT N2 just exposes all that. I just need to somehow actually understand it.
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| cathrynm Senior Member United States junglevision.co Joined 6115 days ago 910 posts - 1232 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Finnish
| Message 302 of 420 16 November 2013 at 6:45am | IP Logged |
Ugh, well, all the things. I caught a cold, and Wed/Thu I was in bed all day. Today, Friday I still didn't work, but I feel like I'm slowly pulling myself together again. Anyway, right now trying to get back into the language swing of things.
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| cathrynm Senior Member United States junglevision.co Joined 6115 days ago 910 posts - 1232 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Finnish
| Message 303 of 420 02 December 2013 at 2:33am | IP Logged |
And now it's over. Another JLPT test. On the reading, it's interesting. I really do feel like I understand all the readings, though the questions are still difficult -- I think I"m basically getting it, but missing subtle points. Listening, we'll see. I did quite a bit of guessing on the listening section -- now and then I'd know for sure the answer to something, but mostly I was pretty wobbly. The Grammar Vocab section is always surprisingly tricky. Actually, I have been working on grammar, so grammar not as much -- but this test is always going for some vocab that's just past my range.
What amazes me now is how absolutely dead calm I am during this test. Really, I do not sweat at all, I fill in the answers, if I don't know I guess and move in. I met quite a few people there -- maybe 7-8 people I know, and I talked to a few other people who are quite friendly.
I did get some studying in this weekend, but I've been distracted. I know this sounds crazy and I'm getting too old for this, but I'm afraid I'm going boy crazy or something. I'm exercising and dieting and thinking about men all the time -- which is a massive distraction really. Normally I'm content to just sit in my room and read books, but now and then the whole 'sex drive' thing bubbles up and takes over. I can't turn it off -- or maybe I can but a part of me doesn't want to.
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| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6587 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish
| Message 304 of 420 02 December 2013 at 3:07am | IP Logged |
It's the hormones, we all have them :-) See my log for some info and links on the first page.
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