Jade in Japan @ryetojapan - Tumblr Blog

the worst part about studying languages is knowing that you will never be nearly as good at it as a literal baby

The only reason babies are better at language learning is because it’s their full time job and they don’t get embarrassed

what-even-is-thiss

If you, a teenaged or adult human, wasn’t embarrassed and could study language full time you would learn way faster than a baby.

sandersstudies

In my defense, babies receive more positive reinforcement than I do as well. Babies will say ha ba bah dah ba hah and all the adults around them will be like 🤯 really? Wow 😱 that is so interesting 😁 great job! 🤗 and then what happened? 🤔

computationalcalculator

also people who are like “I’ve been studying for a year and I only have an eight-year-old’s grasp of the language”:

how long do you think it took the eight-year-old

lang-hoe

benkyogo-deactivated20190412

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More resources available here.

tiktokmuseum

howdy!

edit: of course they said howdy back!

kaiyotih-deactivated20210901

its payment for every weeb who goes to japan and thinks anime is real

imsopopfly

Actual encounters I had while in Japan:

- the exact one in the video multiple times

-a little old lady who literally followed me for two blocks excitedly babbling about how she had never seen anyone with such big boobs in her entire life and did not think anything over a d cup was actually a thing that existed and did all Americans have big boobs? And if so how did we find bras that fit? I was of course uncomfortable talking about my boobs with an absolute stranger so I did my best to pretend I didn’t understand Japanese very well. This only encouraged her to start MIMING her words while she spoke.

- a cultist who explained to me in broken English that George Washington had secretly been a member of her cult and that’s why I should totally join it (the cult in question was founded less than forty years ago and believes this one lady in Korea is the second coming of Jesus)

-a man who absolutely lost it and went positively giddy with excitement when he found out I was from Texas, proceeded to ask me many questions about Texas in surprisingly good English

-a fellow student who, upon hearing me mention that I had tried natto and enjoyed it, immediately assumed I didn’t have a very good grasp of Japanese and patiently explained to me that “suki” was not in fact the word for “hate”

-a lady who got excited and started talking to me way above my comprehension level in Japanese when she saw I had been reading the information plaques in a local museum with few problems. I managed to communicate to her that I was an exchange student but honestly I did not catch most of that conversation

-a terrifying phone call where I had to convey to a guy who spoke no English that I had seen his missing cat

crumplelush

That natto one is hilarious. “There’s no way a foreigner actually LIKES that stuff. They must have confused the words for like and hate.”

#the natto one cracked me up

herosofmarvelanddc

Duolingo: *makes me feel like I know more French than I actually do*

French Infant board books: *make me question if I know any French at all*

#me but with Japanese

salvadorbonaparte

Hey did you know I keep a google drive folder with linguistics and language books that I try to update regularly

salvadorbonaparte

**UPDATE**

I have restructured the folders to make them easier to use and managed to add almost all languages requested and then some

Please let me know any further suggestions

salvadorbonaparte

tokyo-fashion

Japanese Coming Of Age Day 2021 furisode kimono at Meiji Jingu shrine in Harajuku today. Government ceremonies and parties were canceled because of the partial lockdown, but many new adults visited Meiji Jingu (a huge outdoor shrine with lots of open space), as is traditional. Congratulations to all of the new adults!!

twinicegiantorbiters

i don’t know why but i’m really amused by the winner of some ‘new kanji’ contest:

compare with the real kanji

座 (seat/gathering), but the two 人 (person) radicals have been moved from next to each other within the 土 (earth) radical to diagonally from each other, making this “social distance(d seating/gathering)”

jadethest0ne

This is hilarious, but to further the hilarity, I’d like to point to the fact that half of the “A rank” (runners up) for this contest also are related to 2020 epidemic jokes

First up we have:

Compare with 太

The original kanji means “to gain weight”. But it adds the コ “ko” and ロ “ro” katakana symbols at the top to represent the weight you gain while staying home due to the corona virus.

Then we have:

Compare with 会

The original kanjij means “meeting”, but the lower radical is changed to look more like a “Z” to represent Zoom meetings. Thus, the new kanji means “web meetings” or “zoom calls”

And of course another social distancing one:

Compare with 話

This means “to talk” or “chat”, but it’s changed simply to show the two radicals social distancing from one another as we should also while holding conversations nowadays.

At least we can have some fun language humor despite all of this!

polyglos

a caveman could express more complex thoughts than i could in my target langs pozdrawiam

spraakhexe2

I was looking for example sentences to put into my Memrise course for Swedish, and came across this website! It gives you a free test to assess your level of your target language! Try it out!

I scored a 53/70, so I’m going to go practice!

language-princess

Norwegian 48/70 , quite ok??? altrough i felt like these were quite easy and I am just silly. But on the other hand not bad after one year of self-teaching right???

emindenmark

40/70 - alright 😬😬

ryetojapan

44/70 (Intermediate level)

#japanese #and I didn't study at all #you really do learn naturally on exchange

How many hose families did you have and were they strict? Did you have any chores?

So far, I've had three host families, and I know that I will have at least one more. My first host family was pretty strict and wouldn't let me leave the house by myself unless I was going to school or it was just more convenient for them. They also gave me several chores such as cleaning the bathroom/toilet, taking out garbage, doing laundry, and vacuuming. They also didn't like it if I was downstairs too long, left the windows closed when I left the house, or forgot to unplug chargers when I left the house. My second host family wasn't strict at all. They gave me a bus pass and told me to do whatever I wanted as long as I messaged them if I would be late. I helped set the table, but it was never really a set chore that I had to do.My current host family, who I've been with for less than a week, requires that I do my own laundry. They don't mind if I leave the house, and the downtown area is so close that I can walk there.

Hey I was wondering how much rye was?

I'm pretty sure I've answered this elsewhere, but...It depends on your sponsor and and host districts/country. For me, it was around $4,900 for the year. Some people had to pay more for their host country's insurance or for extra trips. Most clubs also ask for an emergency fund of around $300 that you get back at the end of your exchange. I have to pay a bit more for insurance because I got suckered in to getting Japanese health insurance in addition to RYE insurance. It's ¥1,790 a month (about $17), so I usually just subtract that money from my monthly allowance. My current host parents were nice enough to cover the costs for me for 3 months. The only other money that I need is pretty much for souvenirs and other stuff that my allowance won't cover.

I keep forgetting to ask you this: I don't know how long you're staying, but if you get the chance, can you please see Shin Gojira for me?

I would love to, but unfortunately it comes out after I leave Japan! I'm set to leave Japan June 17th.

Kurashiki Orientation

(February 6th-7th, 2016)

I finally got to meet up with other exchange students! The actual orientation was pretty boring and we went to places that I’ve already been, but it was still a lot of fun. Strangely enough, I found myself around Japanese outbounds more frequently than the inbounds.

There was a talent show that I did not prepare for (It was labeled as an “entertainment show” with no other description), so I decided to do a speed drawing of a cat. Everyone seemed to like it enough. One of the members of my host club took pictures of me and other Rotarians in front of it.

#rye #rotary youth exchange #japan #orientation

Hiroshima

(January 23rd - 24th, 2016)

During a Rotary New Years party, my host dad asked me if I wanted to go on a trip to Hiroshima. Of course I said yes!

It was about two and a half hours by car to Hiroshima. Once we arrived, we went to a friend’s restaurant and had Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki. It was tasty, but very filling. It was fun to watch them make it.

(It’s pretty big)

After that we went to see where the atomic bomb was dropped.

In American schools, you really aren’t taught just how horrible this really was. We tend to see as just being a bomb, but it was so much worse than your average bomb. Few people actually died right away. Many were aware of the fact that they were MELTING. They threw themselves into the river because they felt like they were on fire. I went to the museum after this. They had pictures of burn victims, and many mothers kept “souvenirs” from their children to show their fathers when they returned from war. There were many hair, nail, and skin clippings, as well as school uniforms. Many doctors also took samples, as the effects of such high levels of radiation had never been seen before. At the museum, they have a couple of these samples. They include tumors and cancer-filled bones. It was easy to see why the Japanese are so adamant about staying out of war. They never again want to witness such suffering.

We went out for dinner, and then I went to karaoke with my host mom and her friend. I was the only one that sang, but that didn’t seem to bother anyone, myself included.

The next day, my host dad went bowling with and friend, leaving my host mom and I to go to Miyajima, an island off of Hiroshima. It was snowing quite heavily, which was exciting for me. That week was my first time ever seeing snow.

We went to the temple there, which is famous for its tori.

We had lunch and got a ride back to the train station. My host dad wanted to stay longer, so we took the shinkansen home. It took about a quarter of the time to get home as it had to get to Hiroshima in the first place. It’s kind of funny how that works.

#rye #rotary youth exchange #japan #hiroshima #miyajima #okonomiyaki #snow

Compare and contrast Japanese toilets to American toilets?

There are actually two types of toilets that you will typically find in Japan: Japanese-style and Western-style. I'll do both of them.Western-style: I'll start with these because these are the toilets that people most commonly think of when they think of Japanese toilets. There are variations in designs, but I will cover the most common features.Similar:-Same design-Used in the same wayDifferent:-Bidets (you usually only use these in your toilet at home, but most public places have this too)-Heated seats (this is amazing in the winter, or even just a cool morning)-Sound (you can often play sounds on public toilets to cover up the sound of you doing your business. These sounds range from fake toilet flushes to birds chirping)-Automation (this is not all that common, but some toilets automatically lift and lower the seat, as well as flush.)-Flusher (In the toilets that do not flush automatically, there will usually be a knob that can be moved either up or down. Pushing towards "大" will make a big flush, while pushing towards "小" will make a small flush. This is supposed to save water, but I've found that in many toilets, the small flush won't even get down toilet paper)Tips: If you see a red button on the wall, DO NOT PRESS IT. It does not flush the toilet, it is an emergency button that will send out an alert. In general, do not press a button if you don't know what it does.Japanese-style: This is the style of toilet that foreigners have the most trouble with - the squat toilet! Similar:-They both flush-They are both most commonly made out of porcelain-Think urinal on the groundDifferent:-Method of usage (obviously, you have to squat to use these toilets.)That's about it... they really aren't all that different. They're a pain to use, but you won't need to use them all that often.Tips: squat facing the hood... so basically, upside-down urinal style. Make sure that your clothes are not touching the floor and that nothing is underneath you. Unfortunately, in a lot of tourist areas with this style of toilet, there are a lot of "accidents" - basically, a foreigner uses the toilet improperly and ends "missing." Thus the whole "keep your clothes off the floor" bit. -Do not step into/fall into the toiletGeneral toilet tips:-If you see that bathroom slippers are provided, use them-Some toilets have sinks built into the top that run water after you flush. The water that comes from the sink is then used to fill up the toilet tank. If you see this, wash your hands quickly as they don't run for very long.-In bathrooms with a mix of Western and Japanese-style toilets, the doors are often marked with a picture of the toilet in question, or in some other manner.-In areas with a lot of people and in private homes, you are more likely to find Western-style toilets. In more rural and traditional areas, you are more likely to find Japanese-style toilets.

What Japanese language tips could you give? :)

Try to find fun ways to learn your language! Find tv shows, games, and so on to use as material to aid you in your studying. Note that I said AID. We have a funny story here about someone who tried to learn Japanese by watching Dragon Ball Z and ended up speaking the most casual and vulgar Japanese ever,and totally had to start over XDIf you're talking about language learning in general, then dedication is key, but if you're talking about learning while on exchange, D then don't stress it too much. Find out how quickly you can pick up on the language naturally. If you don't learn very quickly, then do more traditional studying, try to limit use of your native language, and MAKE SURE that you are speaking your host language with your host family - THIS IS ESSENTIAL. In almost every case where someone comes back from exchange either not speaking their host language, or speaking very little of it, they did not speak their host language with their host family.

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