William – Introduction to Language / Problematizing Language

(William)Reflective Essay #3

William — Sun, 18 Nov 2018 02:46:53 +0000

Even though there are many Japanese dialects, the Japanese that is taught over the world that is considered is the Tokyo dialect. And because of this. people harder every notices the second biggest Japanese dialect known as Kansai dialect. People in Japan usually calls Kansai-ben but there are more formal ways in say it like “Kansai hogen” or “Kinki” dialect. The Kansai dialect isn’t really spoken around the country other than Japan because the Tokyo dialect is considered the most standard Japanese. This also means that in schools in Japan that even if you speak the Kansai dialect, the Tokyo dialects way of talking is the ones taught in the textbooks. Pretty much everyone in the Kansai region speaks the Kansai dialect and it’s also known as “Kinki” dialect because “Kinki” is another name for Kansai. It’s also important to know the Kansai region is mainly from the two cities Osaka and Kyoto. The only people who speak Kansai dialect as a second language are the mainly people who move to the Kansai region.

The attitude that describes the Kansai dialect should definitely be aggressive. People in the Kansai speak fast and louder than normal because they want their words to be heard. Especially in Osaka, people there are known to have less patience and high temper which results in many arguments. The Kansai dialect is also unique because they change many of the words from the standard way taught to fit their own dialect. For example, “Todemonai” is the usually way to say “no way”, but in the Kansai dialect people use “Akan”.According to the article “The Beauty of Japanese Dialect” by Fabien Mizart, “akan” is most well known characters to people who know the Kansai dialect but might not speak it. What makes phrases unique like this is how most people can still understand words like “Akan” even if they aren’t taught the same dialect because the word make sense to the context and the meaning. For example, “akan” depending on contect can also mean “not good” and “It can’t be done”. But these words are still unusual to those who hears it for the first time and at the same time a good shows the speaker is from the Kansai region.

Even though people in Japan perceive the Kansai dialect as an aggressive dialect, they actually don’t discriminate people who speak the Kansai dialect at all. In the article “Osaka vs Tokyo People: Are They Really That Different?” by Yuka Fiujiwara, it shows how Japan people think of the the Kansai dialect as loud and aggressive but also friendly. They might keep in mind that the people speaking the Kansai dialect is short tempered though and be more careful when they talk. The people who live in Kansai are proud of their own dialect and they often get mad when people make fun of how they talk. But those people who make fun of them are mostly unfamiliar with the language or first time approaching it. Overall, the Kansai dialect is mainly just a dialect they use in the Kansai region and no one in Japan really discriminates against it. This dialect is pass down through the Kansai region as a tradition as everyone speaks this way. Even including the teachers who teach from the textbooks where the content mainly teaches the Tokyo dialect, they would adjust characters to match their dialect into the context so it makes sense.

Work Cited:

Mizart, Fabien. “The Beauty of Japanese Dialects.” SAMURAI MEETUPS, 23 Aug. 2017, samuraimeetups.or.jp/lauguage/the-beauty-of-japanese-dialects.

Fujiwara, Yuka. “Osaka vs Tokyo: The Differences Between Them Might Surprise You.” The True Japan, The True Japan, 19 Oct. 2017, thetruejapan.com/osaka-vs-tokyo-people-are-they-really-that-different/.

Questions:

Should I use more Kansai dialect words as examples?

Should I have to add on or split between paragraph since it might look weird with 3 long paragraphs?

(William Huang) Reflective Essay #2

William — Sun, 21 Oct 2018 17:53:29 +0000

The sign I chose was from an anime store in Flushing called “Anime Castle”. I chose this store because I often go to this store to buy anime related goods especially manga. Just like every other store they have their store name “Anime Castle” big and right in the center. The background is hard to notice but they do list many series in English as the background in very light white color. I actually never noticed the background until I started looking closely to do this essay. Under the store name, there is three sets of characters that are in Chinese and Japanese. On the right to the left, it’s “anime” in Chinese, “anime” in Japanese, and “manga” in Chinese. Even though anime is a huge part of the Japanese culture, the size of the community overseas is way better than it is in Japan.

Some things people should know first is that anime to many people just means cartoons from Japan but that gives a very big misunderstanding. While there is anime for children, most anime are from authors, light novels, and manga where the audience around the whole world is mostly around teenagers to people in their forties. Basically anime is equivalent to novels, television shows, and stories in America but instead it’s animated. The Chinese and Japanese characters doesn’t not mean the store is for Asians because these character are part of the term “anime” itself. This store actually is meant for English speakers since all the light novels and manga are in English.

Since the location is in Flushing where there is more Asian people, this store kind of aims for customers in this location. But the truth is that there is a lot of people from all over New York to come to Flushing to buy manga because most anime stores don’t actually sell manga and light novels. And also, all the light novels and manga are in English. This is basically a small underground anime store that sells accessories but mainly light novels and manga.

Overall, it’s not easy to open an anime store because most of the stores eventually don’t profit as much. The Anime Castle is one of those who survived and supporting the anime community in New York. The characters in Chinese and Japanese on the sign is just part of the anime itself so it’s for everyone and not just for a certain group. They actually hired all people who like anime to work there and they are not just Asians. This is one of my favorite stores because I like anime myself and goings here is how I kind of support the anime community.

Do you think I gave a clear explanation of “anime”?
Were you able to imagine the sign from my description without looking at the picture?

Linguistic Landscape (William)

William — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 13:38:37 +0000

a) Where was this picture taken? Main Street Flushing

b) What languages area used? English, Chinese, and Japanese.

c) What does the sign say? English says anime castle. Chinese on the left says anime and on the right says manga. And the Japanese in the middle says anime.

(William) Reflective Essay #1 Draft

William — Mon, 01 Oct 2018 02:20:53 +0000

Language has always been in an awkward position between family and school ever since I was little. Especially when I was little, I had difficulties speaking at home and at school. Even though I was born here, my first language was Chinese since that’s what my family spoke at home. I later on learned English while in school but always behind the majority of the class.

The main problem is that my parent didn’t really teach me Chinese when I was little so I had to figure most of it by myself. So whenever I wanted to know the meaning of a word, I would need to find out through the context. Especially in the Chinese language, context is a big part of the language. I also was not taught how to read or write but I was able to learn a little bit of the easy words through subtitles of television shows. And at that time, I had a shy personality so I usually don’t ask my parents when I wanted to know something. So now I have some difficulties speaking with my family with the problem being not being able to speak as fluent.

Then, I had to start going to school where I eventually learned English. I can say for sure that it’s really hard to learn English if it’s not the first language. It’s probably the same for every language and I was not able to keep up with the class. No one in the class spoke Chinese so I was kind of isolated from everyone. But I remember when I was able to pick up English when I was repeating letters and words when the whole class was repeating after the teacher. Even today, I feel like I speak English better than Chinese even though my English is not that good either.

When I started to go to middle school and high school, I noticed people would know my bad accent and try stay away from me. Even at home, I talk really little to my family because whenever I speak it sounds and feels different from people who can speak Chinese fluently. So, I was stuck in this spot where I can’t speak either languages without a problem. Then, I practiced English to get rid of some my accent but couldn’t do the same for Chinese since I can’t read or write. For Chinese, now I’m taking a Chinese 101 course in college so I can speak better with my family.

There are always difficulties if your different than the usual and that’s why some people might find to hard speak with people who speak differently. Most people try to find people who speaks in a similar way as them and this makes it hard for people who have accents. It’s hard to get other people to change so I tried hard myself to practice English. Even though I might still not be able to speak English as well as others, I do feels not as isolated compared to when I had a heavy accent.

Questions:

Is context really important in Chinese? (In my opinion, it is but I’m not sure and I put it in my essay.)
Is it normal to be isolated for kids learning English as their second language in school?

Language Myth: Writing is more perfect than speech.

William — Sat, 15 Sep 2018 01:04:49 +0000

Writing is more perfect than speech is true because to begin doing speeches you would have to be good at a certain level of writing first. It is also easier to perfect an essay than it would to perfect a speech. Depending on the person, doing a speech may cause to person to be nervous that can cause fast talking, mumbling, and forgetting part of the speech. The speaker would also have to learn to have a right tone of voice, eye contact, hand gesture, and etc. If the person is already good at writing it does not mean they are good at speeches but you can’t do speech if your bad at writing. If the speaker make mistakes during the speech, they won’t be able to fix their mistakes. Writing is clearly easier to master than speeches because speeches are basically writing with more thing required to do.