East Asian Study Group

[Whodathunkitz]

First time I've signed up to one of these.

Clueless!

Hopefully doing it right.

I've seen someone has signed up for Tagalog.

I'm learning a less learnt Philippine language called Cebuano.

2 years on and off. My first L2.

Previously mostly Memrise, 5000 items, most of the courses. Created a few of my own, some public. None great!

Now listening and reading new testament bible 1 to 2 hours a day. Half way through third gospel in just over 2 weeks.

Very few resources.

4th day of speaking mostly Cebuano in the house with wife. We're avoiding English if we can.

I haven't read all the posts. Bit late now here in England. Will look later and better understand what I'm meant to do.

Watched (background to other activities) Jesus film a few times, only once closely for about an hour.

I don't know the bible very well so I was a bit confused.

I'll rewatch soon as probably I have listened to 20 to 30 hours cebuano audio drama bible since then plus a few hours reading in English. About 15 hours of new material but listened to some bits repeatedly.

I think I'll find it more interesting now that I know more.

Also recently watched 30 minute political punditry.

I understood many cebuano bits plus some was in English.

I found it quite funny at times.

I won't post the link to either as I'm on phone and hard to do. Plus want to avoid political posts.

Cebuano Jesus film easy to find on YouTube. Probably dubbed into hundreds of languages.

I have a daily log on this site.

[rustygecko]

You guys are strict!

Theres a reason it called "Challenges" xP

But watching one movie is a lot easier than watching a whole drama. They can be very long.

Exactly. They are not focused to watch a completed drama.

I'll try harder...

[Sizen]

I've been rather busy lately, and so whenever I get a free moment, rather than posting here, I've been spending time with Japanese.

It's been a few days since I watched it, but I recently watched 君の名は (Your Name).

In all honesty, I was very intrigued by this film for a few reasons. One being that, so far, I've found all the Shinkai Makoto films that I've watched to be pretentious in an oddly off-putting way. I don't think they're necessarily meant to seem that way, but I always feel as if Shinkai is trying to forcefully cram all sorts of hidden meaning into every aspect of his movies. This is not a problem in and of itself, but I don't feel that his style of direction calls for being so artsy and contemplative. So when I heard that his movie was a hit with the general public, I was a little surprised and intrigued.

The second reason is that I liked the premise. Two people swapping bodies at random seemed liked the kind of idea you could make all sorts of interesting movies out of, and I was interested in seeing what Shinkai would do with it. Would he somehow manage to make it less pretentious? Would I finally "get" what he does?

Without going into too much detail about the plot of the movie, I'll say that I enjoyed Your Name quite a bit. Shinkai has moved away from his old directing style and has started to adopt a purer storytelling technique. The symbolism is still there, but it takes a backseat to character development and narrative. The former was especially welcome, as I actually came to like the characters in this movie, which is, I believe, the main reason I enjoyed it.

I get the feeling that die-hard Shinkai fans will find this to be his weakest work, and I certainly can't fault them for that. As I understand it, many of Shinkai's fans see him as the second coming of Miyazaki, and this movie felt more like a drama wrapped in a lighthearted comedy than a Miyazakian masterpiece. All in all, it was a good, fun movie, though and I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a decent movie to watch.

[Xelian]

Earlier this month I watched "Kimi no na wa" because of all the fuss that was going on around it. There are no really big spoilers in this post.

I don't typically watch anime series anymore, but I will occasionally watch a Japanese animated movie, as I love Miyazaki films (of course) as well as a few others. (for example, Hotarubi no Mori e, Paprika... etc.)

I didn't really like this movie plot as much as my other favorites, and am not so sure what the hype was all about, other than the love story (which was sub-par in my opinion). It was sporadic and not completely original, which is okay. I've seen stories where a boy and a girl "switch bodies", for example, in the Korean drama Secret Garden, and the result of the switch is pretty similar to what the movie portrayed. I think that the idea is interesting, as it has a lot of potential, but what actually was shown just didn't really resonate with me in this movie, nor in Secret Garden.

On the other hand, it did have some aspects which I really appreciated, such as the explanation from the grandmother about the word 結び, as well as the art of the film. I love the idea of visiting rural areas of Japan and going on hikes through dense nature, like what was shown in the film. I did enjoy snippets of this, it was very beautiful.

Anyways, if you're curious, I recommend you watch it, but be prepared for some pretty nonsensical events (not that it's bad to have a good imagination sometimes). But... I doubt I would watch it again. I'd definitely recommend a movie like "Hotarubi no Mori e" over this, but that's probably because I love stories with youkai in them. (I've seen that one 3 times already).

(Edits from typos and adding secondary thoughts)

[Nandemonai]

Booked a ticket to see 君の名は on Tuesday. Looking forward to it! I haven't seen any of Shinkai's movies so far, so I don't really have any expectations on how it'll be. (haven't Miyazaki's movies either... should probably do something about that)

[moo]

May I join this group? *shy face

[cathrynm]

Oop, and just got my JLPT N2 Scores. language knowledge=24/60 reading=27/60 listening=26/60 77/180. Need 90 to pass. So still not really close on the N2. Oh well, will take again 2017.

[cathrynm]

My plan mostly is to ignore the JLPT until I get to about June or July, just work on Finnish and read and watch random Japanese stuff. Also I'm taking class once a week and we do reading and I'm tested on writing Kanji there. I'll start thinking about JLPT and then make a go at actually studying around Auguest/September or so, probably with practice tests. My vocab score wasn't so great, so maybe I'll go back and get a Vocab book. Vocab is crammable, I feel like. Part of the problem is I'm just busy with work, and I'm also learning Finnish, so that just limits me.

[cathrynm]

May I join this group? *shy face

Probably yes, but not sure who makes the decision about this.

[cathrynm]

What's suprising to me is I got 26/60 on the listening. I swore I was blind guessing through that whole section, but I guess it wasn't as bad as all that? Not sure how this happened.