Language, Disasters, Slang

Learning Japanese via online help can be super difficult because one doesn't know what information to trust and to ignore. For example, Sharedtalk is a great start, but once you talk to other non-native speakers... it can get a little more than confusing.

Using Anki can only help you get so far because it doesn't give you grammar or speaking practice. It is a great was to increase one's vocabulary and reading kanji skills.

Line is supposed to be a common way Japanese people instant message, but if you don't have the skills to understand 25%, you could easily get lost if they can't meet you half way with languages.


The rapidly growing Radiation Problem is obviously way less important to our current president than starting a war with Syria. Who needs the West coast when we have to wage war?! And to make it better, Tepco has decided that they want to build an Ice Wall to try to stop the problem as if fish haven't already been bleeding from their eyes in the middle of the ocean due to radioactive exposure. As if Japan wasn't already in massive amounts of dept, Tepco wants to spend $470 Million to build their ice wall to at least delay exposure. I wonder how the Japanese people are dealing with this and whether they know that the problem is way more severe than originally thought. On top of it, I wonder whether people in Fukushima will have to cope with inequalities just because of the the nuclear plant being in their prefecture. I can only imagine that more social problems may arise as a result of this.

Yesterday I was thinking, does this blog make me a weeaboo? I don't think it does because I admit my country sucks. But I don't think Japan is the greatest thing ever. I like different aspects of both, but I what I really like is the way the cultures have become quite interwoven through media influences and yet still remain vastly different since World War II. I don't like the politics of either one too much, but then again... it is politics. I really enjoy the differences of recreation and views on things. I feel that if I were just a weeaboo this blog might be a bit more... focused on one thing instead of trying to cover a wide variety of topics, including Japan/U.S. relations. And no, I don't think that I have great Japanese (I often screw up pronouncing train station [eki] for some reason, but do fairly well overall on pronunciation, granted my grammar is definitely not the best). And please forgive me for not going as in-depth as I have in earlier posts on a single topic. I've been really busy this summer and haven't been thinking too much about these things lately. Hopefully when classes start, I'll make better posts.

In case you don't know what a weeaboo is~

Word of the Day: Weeaboo

A non Japanese person who basically denounces their own culture and calls themselves Japanese. They try to learn Japanese through the anime they watch and usually end up pronouncing it wrong and looking like a complete idiot.

KEEP IN MIND: that a non-Japanese person can like the culture, watch anime, speak the language and RESPECT THE CULTURE, while still keeping in touch with there own. Which keeps them from being a Weeaboo, Japanophile, etc.

Weeaboo's basically disrespect the culture and make complete asses of themselves.