I hung out with my oldest best friend today. He didn’t say much. Just sat there, wagging his tail and looking at me fondly. I could tell he was tired – it had been a long day – but he made time for me, welcoming me to his cozy bed on the floor. I sat with him for a long while, recounting the days when we played tirelessly in the backyard and wrestled in the living room.

 

We are both older now though and such times are difficult to come by. So, we, my best friend and I, sat together, each enjoying the other’s company with only the intermittent sound of his thudding tail on the hardwood floors disrupting the silence.

 

**Dedicated to my life-long goldie pup friend, Casey Michelle Danielle Wilson who will turning 13 this August**

GAD, for those of you who don’t know, is Generalized Anxiety Disorder. It a mental disorder that starts to show itself in the late adolescent years and can make you feel like you’re going crazy depending on the intensity of it (i.e. slight, moderate, severe). Unfortunately for myself, I have a moderate case of GAD, which, when coupled with school work, relationships, future plans, etc., becomes grossly exacerbated.

Just so you understand how deep-running GAD can be, let me take you through a short summary of my everyday thoughts. Most of the time, my GAD is triggered by some sort of worrisome event. I am a Japanese minor and we have to present memorized dialogues every class. So, a public presentation will be this particular example’s trigger. I worry about messing up in front of the class, looking stupid, forgetting my lines, blushing, stuttering, etc. Now, you’re thinking, how is this any different from a little anxiety before public speaking? Good question. In fact, I thought for years that that’s what it was for me – a little nervousness before getting up in front of everyone to present something. It wasn’t until about 3 years ago that I realized something – my anxiety about public speaking goes far beyond the normal worries. I found myself stressing about events that may or may not occur 6 months in advance.

So, with that type of anxiety stuffed into just 2 days time (which is the average length of time between classes) you can imagine the mental strain I undergo. Now, let’s continue.

We have a trigger (public speaking). Now, let’s explore what ensues. I have anxiety through the public speaking part of the class and into the afternoon, affecting how I think about things. I routinely run through a “worry” list in my head.

(1) Worry about the homework due next class, including memorizing another damn dialogue

(2) Worry about what people/the other students thought about my presentation

(3) Worry about what the teacher thought/thinks about me

(4) Worry about being late for lunch

(5) Worry about upsetting one of my friends with my anxious words

(6) Worry about the weather (Cold, snow, rain, etc.)

(7) Worry about forgetting something important

(8) Worry about finding a job

(9) Worry about finding a place to live

(10) Worry about future plans

(11) Worry about my health

(12) Worry about my family

(13) Worry about my boyfriend’s very obvious dislike of me

(14) Worry worry worry worry

Now, you think: Certainly a time frame can be set for these. You can’t worry about these things ALL the time, right? Wrong. I worry about these and much, much more constantly. And the thing is, not only do I worry about the above mentioned topics, but I worry about their sub-topics and their sub-sub-topics.

Let’s examine the instance of my worrying about the weather. I check the weather multiple times a day, especially if a significant weather movement is approaching the area. If it’s cold, I worry about the right clothes I should wear and about being cold – which makes me even more upset because I REALLY hate the cold. I then worry about something happening and me not being to react properly because I’m clothed in 19 layers and can hardly move. I mean, what would I do if someone came onto campus and started shooting everyone up? I wouldn’t be able to run because I’m encased in a giant orb of clothes. After I worry about escaping the imaginary shooter, I worry about hypothermia. It’s not really possible in northwest Arkansas, but you know, I gotta worry about it. I then worry about slipping, falling, being pushed into snow, having snow thrown at me, getting my socks wet, being too cold, wishing I had worn a different jacket/shoes, etc. You get the general gist.

That is ONE topic.

I could go on and on about the multiple catastrophic events that could happen because I didn’t pay attention to the weather or because I didn’t worry about it.

Living with GAD is certainly challenging. I only barely hide the craziness that tries to leak out of me every day. Unfortunately, the mental fatigue which keeps me in a constantly shifting emotional state, has some other negative side effects. Memory loss and speech coherency. When the anxiety becomes overwhelming, especially during times of great stress, my ability to remember and memorize declines. It becomes increasingly difficult to recite dialogues and to remember if I told a friend an important message. When I have reached ultimate mental fatigue, I stop speaking coherently. My words become garbled and intertwined, not like a drunk, mind you, but like someone who is speaking a foreign language and trying desperately to communicate but only managing various syllabus. I think slower and really have to work to appear intelligent, even around my boyfriend.

Here’s one of the worst parts. I can’t tell my friends. My boyfriend is very supportive and works with me often, encouraging me to tell him all of my worries and to just explain to him the directions my thoughts carry me (i.e. the sub-topics, sub-sub-topics). Aside from him, only my roommate has an inkling of my condition. It’s torture. I want to be able to explain to my friends about the thoughts that wildly race through my head, but I can’t because most people would think me crazy.

If you would like to learn more about GAD, please visit one of the following sites:

http://www.helpguide.org/mental/generalized_anxiety_disorder.htm

http://psychcentral.com/disorders/sx24.htm

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/generalized-anxiety-disorder/DS00502/DSECTION=symptoms

 

This very bizarre articles focuses on a sentiment that is predominantly found in the East – Shame. Yes, we as Westerners feel it, but for different reasons than those described in this article. Apparently, a syndrome called “jiko-shisen-kyofu” or “fear of one’s own glance” is starting to appear in Japan.

Just read the article and try to grasp the concept.

Sincerely,

夢の目

http://www.weirdasianews.com/2011/01/01/fearing-glance-odd-asian-syndrome/

Being an undergraduate with Japanese and Asian Studies minors of course entitles me to take some pretty interesting classes. In one of my classes – Language and Society of Japan – we break into small groups to present chapters of our textbook in PPT format. This is our handout concerning Robert B. Kaplan’s article Cultural Thought Patterns in Inter-Cultural Education.

~<~>~<~>~<~>~<~>~<~>~<~>~<~>~<~>~<~>~<~>~<~

In this article Robert B. Kaplan analyzes the differences between the teaching of reading and composition to foreign students versus the teachings of reading and composition to American students. He discusses the meaning of rhetoric by referring to it as being a mode of “finding all available means” for the achievement of a designated end. It is concerned with what goes on in the mind as well as analysis, data gathering, interpretation, and synthesis. He believes that a descriptive approach to the teaching of English seems to work best.

Diversity affects the whole system of institutions that are tied to the language. Logic is not universal, but rather is evolved out of culture. Every language offers to its speakers a ready-made interpretation of the world. The English language and its related thought patterns have evolved out of the Anglo-European cultural patterns.

The Platonic-Aristotelian Sequence, as noted by Kaplan, identifies four key cultural patterns. He goes into these four patterns in grave detail; Semitic, Oriental, Romance/European, and Russian. We must inevitably see the universe from a centre lying within ourselves and speak about it in terms of a human language by the exigencies of human intercourse. Any attempt rigorously to eliminate our human perspective from our picture of the world must lead to absurdity. Just because a foreign student can write a coherent essay in his native language does not mean that he can do so in English, nor does that mean that an American, of whom can write a coherent essay in English, can do so in another language. Understanding all of the vocabulary and grammar of a language does not teach you the cultural thought pattern of a language, which can differ from different groups of people who speak the same language, such as America and Great Britain.

Summary of Ideas

1. Platonic-Aristotelian Sequence: Kaplan conducted an experiment to see how foreign students would write an essay in a language that is not their native language. His hypothesis is that the foreign students use the thought patterns of their native language, even if they are exemplarily fluent in the second language in which they are writing the essay in.
   1. English: In English, it is common and an accepted rule to use indentions in formal writing. This small detail is something that could define the writer as a diligent individual or an amateur. It is not mandatory, but considered respectable to separate one’s thoughts clearly when composing in English. A paragraph is understood to describe only one topic or one aspect of a topic. Coherence is the quality attributed to the presentation of material in a sequence which is intelligible to its reader. There were 600 to 700 foreign student compositions used in Kaplan’s experiment.
   2. Arabic: Paragraph development is based on a complex series of parallel constructions, both positive and negative. Such development in a modern English paragraph would strike the modern reader as archaic or awkward and more importantly it would stand in the way of clear communication.
   3. Oriental: Languages that fall in the category or ‘oriental’ are widely considered being an approach by indirection. The development of the paragraph may be said to be “turning and turning a widening gyre”- the circles or gyres turn around the subject and show it from a variety of tangential views but the subject is never looked at directly. Things are developed in terms of what they are not, rather than in terms of what they are.
   4. European: Languages of Europe, such as French, Spanish, and English are considered to have much greater freedom to digress or introduce extraneous material.
   5. Russian: Structure of the Russian sentence is entirely different from the structure of the English sentence. But some of the linguistic difficulty is closely related to the rhetorical difficulty. Russian in comparison to English has long run on sentences and awkward punctuation.
2. Descriptive vs. Prescriptive: Kaplan contrasts the differences between description and prescription. Both have recognized the existence of cultural variation as a factor in second-language teaching, the recognition has so far been limited to the level of the sentence including grammar, vocabulary and structure. Despite the grammatical similarities, the verbal universe is divided into a multitude of sectors
3. Teaching Devices: Scrambled Paragraphs: Students are asked to rearrange sentences in what appears to them to be a normal order. Demonstrate the diversity of views or cultures represented in the classroom.

Terminology

1. Rhetoric: A mode of “finding all available means” for the achievement of a designated end.
2. Description: A statement, picture in words, or account that describes; descriptive representation.
3. Prescription: Denotes normative practices on such aspects of language use as spelling, grammar, and syntax. It includes judgments on what usages are socially proper and politically correct.
4. Synonymous Parallelism: “His decedents will be mighty in the land and the generation of the upright will be blessed.”
5. Synthetic Parallelism: “Because he inclined his ear to me therefore I will call on him as long as I live.”
6. Antithetic Parallelism: “For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous: But the way of the wicked shall not perish.”
7. Climatic Parallelism: “Give unto the Lord, O ye sons of the mighty, give unto the Lord glory and strength.”

Questions

1. Do you agree with Kapan’s analysis on the cultural thought patterns of the four main genres of languages, Semitic, Oriental, Romance/European, and Russian?
2. Do you believe that logic is universal? Why or why not?
3. For the foreign students, have you/do you still face challenges with cultural rhetoric when composing an essay in English? Explain the differences between American English rhetoric and that of your native language’s cultural rhetoric that you have noticed.

Comments

After analyzing Kapan’s article on Cultural Thought Patterns in Inter-Cultural Education, we believe that there are differences in the rhetoric between different languages due to the cultures and not so much on the languages themselves. Although there are grammatical similarities between languages, contrastive rhetoric becomes most apparent when utilizing grammar in an expository setting.

English teachers, when teaching foreign students, must understand that their students come from different cultures which use various forms of rhetoric in their formation of discourse. Teachers must also make this blatantly apparent to their foreign students so as to increase general understanding and retention. We believe that it is vitally important that English teachers not overload their foreign students and aim too high. The students, after all, are returning to their home countries soon enough. They will remember only the basics of ideas and theories.

Reference

Kaplan, Robert B. Cultural Thought Patterns in Inter-Cultural Education. University of Southern California.

Sincerely,

夢の目

So, one of my friends on Facebook posted this a while ago. I thought this was a pretty cool video.

The choreography is AMAZING! I’m so impressed.

Sincerely,

夢の目

So, I came across this extremely funny Japanese commercial the other day. It is a bit long, but the ending is priceless. I thought I’d share this. I know haven’t written in a while, but hey – I’m a college student. Also, who reads this blog except me?

 

Sincerely,

夢の目

 

 

As far as this blog is concerned, this is my last post concerning my Multimedia class. That’s right, this entire blog has been an assignment. Despite that though, I may continue to write on it just because I enjoy sharing my thoughts with everyone – even if by everyone I mean a handful of my friends. I know that no one in the outside world read this, so really, why bother? AT ANY RATE, this is my last post to fulfill the 20 post requirement for my class so I thought I’d share just a few random things – and I do mean RANDOM. So, here we go. 行きましょう！

Firstly, Anime’s everyone should watch.

夢の目’s must-watch list:

♪Fullmetal Alchemist (鋼の錬金術師,)

♪Cowboy Bebop (カウボーイビバップ)

♪Blood +

♪Wolf’s Rain (ウルフズレイン)

♪Death Note (デスノート)

♪Mobile Suit Gundam SEED (機動戦士ガンダムSEED [シード])

** There are several more, but I thought I would just start with these.**

Next, I want to do teach ya’ll a few phrases. That’s it. I’ll put it in English and Japanese.

Good morning	Ohayo gozaimasu	おはよございます
Hello/Good afternoon	Konnichiwa	こんにちは
Good evening	Konbanwa	こんばんわ
My name is…	Watashi wa _______ desu.	私は＿＿＿＿です。
How are you?	Genki desu ka.	元気ですか。
Where is…	_______ doko desu ka.	＿＿＿＿どこですか。
Do you speak English?	Eigo wo hanashimasu ka.	英語を話しますか。

 ** A cute note that some of you may not know – the Japanese language does not use capitalization. There is no need for it. **

Here are some of my top Japanese artists and composers:

-          High and Mighty Color

-          Yoko Kanno

-          Sato Naoki

-          Angela Aki

-          Asian Kung-fu Generation

-          CHEMISTRY

-          Home Made 家族

-          Nami Tamaki

-          See-Saw

-          Maaya Sakamoto

-          T.M. Revolution

-          Toshihiko Sahashi

-          Utada Hikaru

So, check those artists out!!! おねがいぃ～

I know there seems to be a lot of listing involved with this particular post, but I want to get these out there before other people stop reading my blog. Let’s see….What else should I quickly squeeze in? Oh, I know! Cultural things! Let’s list some more!!

-          Japanese are polite. Above anything else, they value politeness. So, if you’re going to Japan to visit, be quiet, well-behaved, and bring a small present for your host family.

-          They also value hierarchy. So, if there’s any doubt in your mind where you stand in that hierarchy – BE POLITE!

-          Because the Japanese are made of, well, Japanese people, many find the culture to be extremely racist. Younger generations aren’t nearly as bad as the older ones.

-          It is impolite in the Japanese language to address ANYONE as “you.” One must always use that person’s name, even if they’re standing right beside you!

-          The Japanese, just like America and the rest of the world, have weird fetishes. Accept them and move on.

-          Rice normally accompanies EVERY meal. Get used to it.

-          Anime is very, very big over – it’s not just viewed as cartoons. It’s entertainment.

-          Japanese people love parties and festivals.

-          The mass transportation system in Japan is better than the majority of other countries – including America.

-          Learning English is a big thing in the eastern country, however not everyone is learning it. If you’re lost or in trouble, try to find someone of a younger generation. They’ll probably know more English than someone who is middle-aged.

Well, that’s about all I care to produce for you. The rest you will just have to pick up on your own or from a guide.

I hope you have enjoyed this short and very brief wrap-up of my blog.

Sincerely,

夢の目

So, I thought that I would give a brief lesson on kanji – you know, those crazy symbols that everyone in the Western world thinks looks like chicken scratches. So, I’ll give you a basic look at them. I promise it will be very short.

So the Japanese use 3 different writing systems.

★  Hiragana

★  Katakana

★  Kanji

The first two are a lot like our alphabet except with sounds not letters. However, kanji is a different monster. I guess…the best way to go about this is purely by example, so we’ll take the English word “university” and examine the Japanese equivalents.

English: university

Hiragana: (daigaku) だいがく

Now, daigaku can be written in either hiragana or kanji – not katakana because daigaku is not a foreign word. To make it easier to read, the Hiragana is forgotten and changed to Kanji. So, we get this character:

大学

Those two characters each have a sound.

大: dai – big

学: gaku – school

Now, sometimes when the Kanji is MUCH more complicated then a third type of writing is brought into play. Because not everyone in Japan knows EVERY Kanji, Furigana is added. Furigana is the tiny Hiragana/Katakana characters placed above Kanji characters.

For example….

Well, I hope that kind of cleared some things up. Just like all other languages, it just takes practice and a certain mindset. It’s not really as complicated as it looks.

Sincerely,

夢の目

This is going to be a relatively short post. I just thought I’d share this information with ya’ll (my wonderful, loyal, readers).

So, I was talking with Kaoru the other night and I decided to bring up an interesting topic – WWII. One would think it to be a taboo topic when speaking about it with your Japanese friend, however, this was not the case. The reason I had brought it up was because a year ago and a half ago, another Japanese friend had asked me whether I celebrated it or not. At the time, I was utterly lost for words. Really, I had tried to explain to her that we don’t commemorate it or celebrate it…. At any rate, that’s why I had decided to talk to Kaoru about it.

I asked her about how Japan felt about the use of the A-bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Kaoru explained that Japan felt that it was very misfortunate and that it was a very sad event. She also told me something quite interesting.

Apparently, the Japanese people at the time (and eve now) were not happy with the Japanese government. Kaoru explained that the Japanese government had been very bad at making negotiations at the time and that because of their extreme pride, lives were lost. She added that some people feel more strongly about the attacks if family members were involved but that many regard it as the past – as something to learn from.

Learn from history.

Sincerely,

夢の目

So, an interesting story. As many of you know, the latest movie in the Twilight Saga, New Moon, just came out. (It’s AWESOME!) At any rate, this sparked conversatio between myself and Kaoru, my good friend living in Japan, and I learned quite a bit about some things.

The first three books of the Twilight series have been translated to Japanese. The fourth, “Breaking Dawn,” only JUST came out – and it was only the first half of it. Nevertheless, this warranted some unhappy words from Kaoru. She now gets to wait until next year to find out the “exciting” conclusion of the series. LOL XD

I honestly don’t know why I thought this was interesting. She’s just as excited about the Twilight series as any American teenagers (and she’s going into graduate school). So, this gives you an idea of the extent of Stephanie Meyer’s works (although, literarilly speaking, they don’t deserve nearly this much attention).

New Moon comes out in Japan on November 28.

Sincerely,

夢の目