General Yuzuru Chat

[PapiandPooh422]

What a nerd. 

[Bilge]

3 minutes ago, PapiandPooh422 said:

What a nerd. 

Imagine yuzu doing try not to sing challange while skating to their songsXDD

[PapiandPooh422]

22 minutes ago, Bilge said:

Imagine yuzu doing try not to sing challange while skating to their songsXDD

He'll lose terribly. 

[Bilge]

8 minutes ago, PapiandPooh422 said:

He'll lose terribly. 

Before the music starts: I can do this i can do this

After it starts: Screw that imma enjoy this *sings laudly*

[¯\_(ツ)_/¯]

The leader of my team at work spent his whole life in his small rice and fishing village hometown in Japan before realizing he wanted more out of life and went abroad on his own with minimal English (made worse by the fact he's from the absolute boonies...like the nearest 7-11 was a 15-minute bike ride away sort of boonies and he always sounds jokingly defensive when saying stuff like how his family house has at least the Intarnetz and his bathtub and toilet at home were proper modern ones...when I wasn't even asking xD). After graduating from uni (which he did in Tokyo--he's one of the few from his hometown to move out of it to further his education) and working for about a year or so, he went on to spend slightly more than half a decade in foreign countries and even now spends most of his time while not at work at either the gym or at his study desk at home slaving away at his grammar books. The guy said he wasn't exactly the sort to enjoy studying either when I asked if he did a lot of it back in school, but he also said learning wasn't a priority where he came from because people just settled with whatever jobs that are available at home, and most of them don't require a high education. Now he invests a lot of time in studying the English language (to a point where it's a hobby) and he'd compile a bunch of questions to ask me whenever we happen to share a shift. His textbooks (not the Japanese sort either, he uses the ones that gives explanations in English) are all marked and tabbed in an extremely orderly fashion so he can keep tabs on his progress and reach his goals. o.O And then there are his notes.......he doesn't strike me as an overly neat and orderly person (he's pretty average in that department) but if you looked at his textbook and his notes, you'd think he has some kind of mild OCD or something.

 

Currently, even though he's able to understand it quite easily when spoken at him and while he's fluent enough, he still has trouble expressing himself properly in English and even though his brain gets the idea of most of the pronunciation, there are still a lot he can't wrap his head around and even those he could he can't execute cos his mouth doesn't have the muscle memory, the Japanese syllabic system and its phonetics so deeply ingrained into him he just automatically kana-izes some of his words when he speaks.* And this is coming from someone who has high interest in the language and invests a lot of time in studying it and whom I consider speaks quite well.  Although, I must say, I keep telling him that doing theory is great and all but he also needs to move beyond his textbook into the practical realm and actually read, watch and listen to things in English that are within his scope of interest so that his advanced knowledge gets put to use and he'll learn more from there but he seems to have less interest in doing those so maybe that's what's hindering his practical progress.

 

Hanyu doesn't strike me as having that kind of deep interest in language required to master a second one and since he doesn't exactly submerge himself in social environments that would enable him to subconsciously become more proficient conversationally, his lack of fluency is not really a surprise. But because he has to communicate with his coaching team in English, I'm guessing he 's at least able to subconsciously improve his pronunciation that way and have natural native fillers like "you know" and "right" stick to him easier. >.<

 

*And let's face it, English grammar is both confusing and hard. Even for me, who uses English as a first language, among all the languages I've studied, still find English and its grammatical system the most confusing. xD

 

19 時間前, KatjaTheraさんが言いました:

I usually hate talking in any language - I'm more into written communication lol

 

Yay, a kindred spirit! Though it should probably come as no surprise to some of you. Lol.

 

 

 

[hoodie axel]

17 minutes ago, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:

Even I, who uses English language as a fist language, among all the languages I've studied, still find English and its grammatical system the most confusing. xD

 

[¯\_(ツ)_/¯]

1 分, hoodie axelさんが言いました:

 

 

Lol. Ironic isn't it? Of all places to commit a typo. 

 

I guess I don't have any language I can claim to use well but the gibberish one I get reduced to using when my thoughts are coming out faster than my mouth could form words for them and the words all end up running together. I thought that wouldn't happen when I write them down but I guess I don't have that either.

 

You got me. I've got nothing. I'm not great at anything and even when I thought I had at least communication on my side, it turns out that I don't after all. I'm a good-for-nothing that ends all good-for-nothings. And hey! That's something! >.<

[hoodie axel]

6 minutes ago, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:

 

Lol. Ironic isn't it? Of all places to commit a typo. 

 

I guess I don't have any language I can claim to use well but the gibberish one I get reduced to using when my thoughts are coming out faster than my mouth could form words for them and the words all end up running together. I thought that wouldn't happen when I write them down but I guess I don't have that either.

 

You got me. I've got nothing. I'm not great at anything and even when I thought I had at least communication on my side, it turns out that I don't after all. I'm a good-for-nothing that ends all good-for-nothings. And hey! That's something! >.<

Well, I found this post hilarious, so that's something! 

 

(Or you can interpret that you're not a good-for-nothing to end all good-for-nothings anymore.)

[¯\_(ツ)_/¯]

1 分, hoodie axelさんが言いました:

Well, I found this post hilarious, so that's something! 

 

(Or you can interpret that you're not a good-for-nothing to end all good-for-nothings anymore.)

 

(Or maybe it *wasn't* a typo and what I actually meant was English is my fighting language. xxD)

[Sammie]

4 hours ago, PapiandPooh422 said:

What a nerd. 

I love him. 

[BWOZWaltz]

Reporting satellite to the planet...only 10 more days till the planet activity level changes to the most volatile phase. Be prepared. I repeat, all satellites must be prepared. 

 

 

 

 

[Sammie]

21 minutes ago, BWOZWaltz said:

Reporting satellite to the planet...only 10 more days till the planet activity level changes to the most volatile phase. Be prepared. I repeat, all satellites must be prepared. 

 

 

 

 

10 more days and I am already nervous and excited all rolled together 

[Danibellerika]

On 9/7/2018 at 7:26 PM, Rainbow said:

As you noticed, it is very hard for Japanese to learn English.  Especially many of us are not good at listening and speaking English.

To those of you who wish Yuzu spoke better English, let me explain as a Japanese why Japanese are poor in English communication.  There are many studies on this subject such as:

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2017/10/29/commentary/japan-commentary/japanese-trouble-learning-english/

It is a long article and some points are:

 

“…the English level of Japanese is ranked 35th out of 72 countries. The top three are the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden, which are all northern European nations. Among Asian countries, Singapore is placed sixth, Malaysia 12th, the Philippines 13th, India 22nd and South Korea 29th. Japan places between Russia and Uruguay.

Even though most Japanese learn English for at least six years in school, why are we still not reaching sufficient proficiency?

 

Usually, the poor achievement is blamed on the way English is taught in schools. It is said that there is too much classroom emphasis on grammar with very little time devoted to actual conversational practice. The emphasis is mainly on the silent skills of reading and writing. Listening is rather passive as opposed to being an active part of a conversation. The focus is on accuracy and avoiding grammatical mistakes. Students spend a great deal of time copying out what was written on the blackboard and memorizing it in preparation for tests… “

 

I can tell you this from my experience. We learn English in a classroom with English textbook read by a teacher who are non native English speaker and with heavy Japanese accent.  I want to emphasize that English language is absolutely different from Japanese in pronunciation and grammar, while European language speaker have easier time learning English because of similarities. 

 

Now imagine yourself being in a foreign country after studying their language (which is totally different from yours) for a few years with textbooks in a classroom instructed by a fellow countryman teacher who has never conversed in that language with native speaker.  In that foreign country you realize that people speak the language that sounds entirely different from the one you learned in the classroom. 

 

So please give Yuzu a break.  He needed to unlearn what he was taught in English class back home and started learning conversational English from scratch.  To me his English is excellent with good pronunciation.  Many of us Japanese would dream to be at his level.

 

Also Yuzu is an athlete and his focus and priority is training in FS.  Many Japanese athletes who are active in English speaking countries bring in their interpreters.  Most of the Japanese baseball players who joined US major leagues do not speak English even after playing there for many years, some for decades.  Compared to these athletes in other sports who are helped by interpreters he struggled to learn English and I admire his tenacity for not giving up.  There are some Japanese figure skaters who become quite good in English while training overseas but looks like they are partly helped by their off-ice active social lives.  We all know that Yuzu did not even go to dinner with Javi.

 

IMO his interview in Japanese with interpreter is a good idea as he can express his opinion freely without language handicap.  It is not the same situation but many Japanese politician and businessmen use interpreters in meeting and negotiations even when they are bilingual.  That way they have time to plan their answers while their interpreter is talking.  So until the time Yuzu feels comfortable speaking English I do not want him to be forced to speak English in interview.  Seems like he has more important thing to learn and focus now anyway.

 

For my graduate program we visited Waseda U and had a discussion with their students and professors and we talked about this a lot. Of course everything you said is true but on top of that, you don't really need English in Japan to function and have a good life.  Life there is busy enough as is, so why take even more time to learn another language you don't even need?  And while this is a case by case basis, a lot of times people in Japan are more shy and afraid of making mistakes, so speaking English only gives them negative reinforcement.  It's similar to the US in that sense because we don't really need another language aside from English.  Granted, I live in the DC area and it's extremely multicultural here, so I hear a different language on the street everyday.  And we have a very large Spanish speaking population so many things are offered in English and Spanish but you will find that many people will use one or the other, not necessarily both. 

 

My mom is in her 60s and just last year got her first passport.  Only about 40% of the US population even has a passport (compared to Japan's 25% in 2010 which was a decline from he previous year) and then many who do travel don't bother learning another language because we know there's likely going to be some English assistance wherever we're going.  I have friends that live in Japan now and I speak better Japanese than they do since Tokyo is generally really english friendly with so much english signage from menus to how to use the trains, etc.   A lot of English speakers who move to Japan teach English, but even with the prevalence of so many programs I'm not sure how effective it is.  Oh the flip side, here in DC we have language schools too so I do think people are interested, but as an adult it requires a lot more dedication than what you're going to get out of a classroom.  Class is only a supplement to my studies.  Japanese classes always fill up in the beginning levels, but as you go further along in the language, the difficulty, frustration, and time it takes to get good at it can be pretty humbling, so naturally the numbers drop (my program is a good example of it, though lately the higher levels have been pretty full which is nice to see).  Everyday I have to remind myself why I do it, and sometimes I feel like I'm never going to get there when I study something and think I understand it only to encounter exceptions that then make me realize I didn't get it after all; I often ask "why" without getting a clear answer. Someone as analytical as Yuzu probably encounters the same thing and it's probably amplified for him.  Japanese is ranked as one of the most difficult languages to learn for an English speaker so it's not unreasonable to assume that it'd be the same the other way around.  Learning a new language is rewiring your brain, but I think it really helps broaden your horizons and your perspective, so I endure, especially because I originally started learning in 2005 and it's been off and on ever since. I've put in so much time already, I should just keep at it and hope something sticks.  

 

I met Takeshi Honda in Helsinki and his English is quite good, though I know he lived abroad for a while.  But for Yuzu, I understand if he wants to put English beyond the basics on the back burner. He has bigger fish to fry. 

 

 

[monchan]

My current Fanyu mood:

 

Others doing warhorses: mute! mute! mute! Hurt my ears, poison my life  Warhorses should be all BANNED next season 

Yuzu doing POTO and R&J:

[yuzuonice]

Awww Brian please drop that photo of you and the GOAT

Spoiler

 

 

It's a very cute GOAT indeed