Since I'm coming up on my One Year Marriage Anniversary I thought I'd put the video we took the day after our marriage. (I can't really say 'wedding' because we didn't have an actual wedding party)
Hindsight: part 1 of 3 from Angharad on Vimeo.
Present:
As of right now I'm struggling to find a good way to study Japanese on my own. A lot of my resources are with my parents in England. I think I'm going to go buy an 'instant immersion' language program and stick it on my computer. Or beg my mother to send me the 'transparalanguage' disks I left behind.
I'm also frustrated with my German. Most of the programs I have are too simple for me and I know everything. However, when I go to watch German TV online or read German books there are so many words and expressions that I am unfamiliar with that I only understand maybe 58-65% of what is going on. I really miss being a part of a class and having a 'master' to ask questions.
I've also found an interesting break in culture that I believe may be universal to an extent. There is a culture for the old and a culture for the young. They exist in an uneasy balance with each other and both hope to influence the other.
The culture of being older tends to revolve around respect and dignity. Though the details of what shows respect and dignity may be different from culture to culture I believe that the foundation is the same.
The culture of being young tends to revolve around freedom, desire, and being casual. They want to do what they want when they want and do away with things like 'sir' and 'ma'am' and have a casual kind of atmosphere between themselves and the older generation. Again the details of this are different from culture to culture, but I believe the foundation is the same.
I find the younger culture a little more difficult to understand personally because I was raised the oldest child of four with older grandparents. At a young age I was molded to regard respect and dignity higher than my own desires. However, I can still relate to the younger generation's focus on freedom. I want to be who I am: Forget dignity and Respect I'm going to go toilet paper that guy's trees!
It's interesting to see the tension between the older and younger generations and their culture and how, though the means have changed, it has remained the same for as long as I can look back.
Recently though in America, I've noticed that the line between the older and younger cultures is getting blurred. I find 40 year old men who act like their 18, or an older woman dressed like one half her age. It's kinda sad to me, to lose that distinction. Differences have, to me, always made the world a more interesting place.
Future:
I'm going to have a house some day! I'm so looking forward to it! I'm going to make a lot of the furniture myself out of interesting things I find.
Like this: Bookshelf! Screen! Table!
I understand you are concerned some languages you learned. like me, I am considering English language so that I can keep improving up with such an environment in Japan now. I hope you find some good sources and some ways to keep your German and Japanese studying effectively.
ReplyDeleteI love your analysis on the paragraph of "present" to tell us about generation. I was surprised at the fact that any culture has a concept of generation that explains who they are and what they are like. In Japanese culture, generation importantly functions and helps the Japanese citizen to live within the culture though.
And I am also looking forward to your future house! :) Yay! House makes people feel happy. I am excited too!