Nihongojouzu

Apple Mac ads in Japanese

If you pop along to the Apple Japan website you can check out the Japanese version of the infamous Get a Mac TV ads. Instead of John Hodgman and Justin Long the roles of "PC" and "Mac" are played respectively by Jin Katagiri 片桐仁 and Kentaro Kobayashi 小林賢太郎, better known as the comedy duo Rahmens. Rahmens are well known stage performers but they also appeared in a classic series of videos called The Japanese Tradition (日本の形). These videos, like the episode on how to eat sushi are spoofs on Japanese culture, extremely dry and should crack up anyone with a passing familiarity of life in Japan. (This fanblog has more info about the pair)

The first Japanese Mac ad is a little different to the English language version. For one, the "PC" character is called "pasokon" (パソコン), and secondly because Mac brand recognition is not as high here in Japan as in the States, Australia etc the PC character makes a point of asking why the Mac, which is also a computer, isn't just called pasokon too. This established, the rest of the ads are almost identical to the original English versions, down to the fact that the Mac is dressed so casually he looks like he just got up and put on whatever was lying at the foot of the bed. The pasokon character has a much nattier suit than John Hodgman and is similarly likeable. Enough critiquing the merits of the marketing - watch the ads for the Japanese!

Tae Kim’s Language Studying Tips

Tae Kim, 3Yen blogger and author of A Japanese Guide to Japanese Grammar has an excellent post on what it takes to study a foreign language. If you walk away from this article with only one point it should be that language learning requires a consistent, long term commitment. (check out here for an interview with Tae Kim)

Foreign Service Institute courses online

The Foreign Service Institute language courses, used by the US government to train diplomats, are now being made available free online (the stuff is public domain and thus copyright free).  Japanese is yet to make its debut but I am sure it will appear in due course. These courses are comprehensive, in-depth and highly regarded. And free. Don't just picture a bunch of textbooks which have been pdf-ized - the instruction manuals are included of course, but the juicy find is that the listening tapes for each course have been digitised and are sitting, in mp3 format, waiting to be downloaded and put in your iPod. Start your downloads......

Mangajin CDROM

I received an email yesterday offering me Mangajin CDs (I bought some issues a long time ago..):

One of the problems with overselling was that we had to  commission the duplication of more Mangajin CD's, and of course, you can't order them in small lots... so if you haven't picked one up  yet, they are 35% off if you use this URL:

http://www.rolomail.com/cgi-bin/sanadd.pl?111-0-136-cdrom

Please buy one if you haven't yet.  The CD's interface could have been smoother, but the sound files, manga and translations / notes are fantastic.

I can't vouch for the CDs - I have never used one - but the magazine upon which there are based is AWESOME. And I use the word in its original sense - after reading a copy of Mangajin you will be filled with a sense of awe at the cool way in which the mag leads you through learning Japanese via manga. Mangajin the magazine went out of business years ago but you can get back issues though the Wasabi Bros website and I highly recommend them. I have a stack on my shelf which I still occasionally thumb through. The killer feature of Mangajin is the way it breaks down manga dialogue, providing both a word for word translation and then a natural sounding translation of the whole, for example: (p73, Mangajin issue 20, September 1992)

Matsue:    

ところで、そろそろ　あの　騒ぎ　 の　      疲れ　も　取れた だろう。。
by the way by and by that  uproar  of/from fatigue  also was removed    probably/I imagine
"By the way, I imagine your fatigue from all that furor is about gone by now..."    

A great start to reading Japanese and an excellent way to make sure you sound natural when you speak.

Yomiuri Shinbun letters page (発言小町）

Looking for some light reading material? Try the letters page of the Yomiuri Shinbun. The letters make a great read because:

• they are free of painfully difficult kanji
• the writing is conversational and straightforward
• they are not too long
• we all like to read about things going wrong in other peoples' lives

The subject matter varies from the mundane to the depressing but search a little and you are sure to find something to amuse you. Here are a few I found in the 30 minutes I spent on the page today:

• 手取13万のカレとの結婚 (My bloke only makes $1300 amonth after tax - marriage?)

• 老猫の朝鳴き?? (My aged cat's early morning miaowing)

• ご主人の浮気発覚はなにで知ることになりましたか？ (How do I tell if my hubbie is cheating on me?)

Arm yourself with Moji and rikaichan and happy reading.