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07-14-2007, 12:18 AM
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How wonderful to talk to you, Suki-chan! Thank you for your explanation of "don" and "el". In fact, I know the meaning of the title "don" through a Japanese comic book which tells the life of Pedro l de Borgoña, el Cruel or el Justicero. It is one of my favourite mangas. If you like Yaoi, you may know the same author's works -- her name is Yasuko Aoike (青池保子), the author of popular slash comics such as "Eve's Sons" (イヴの息子たち) and "From Eroica with Love" (エロイカより愛をこめて). I'll put a link to a page which celebrates the finale of Don Pedro's comic, "Alcazar: the King's Castle"（アルカサル 王城） -- the whole series consists of 13 or 14 volumes, but it takes 24 years to finish!! asahi.com This manga is really great; brilliant mixture of historicity and fiction. If you can buy this series in translation, I definitely recommend you to read. My friend told me that Garcia Lorca is killed by some political reason; but I don't know that he was also a gay! I never hear about the singer you mentioned (you like his/her CD, then?), but I saw Carlos Saura's movie "Bodas de Sangre". Well, it's not bad; however, for I wanted to listen to my favourite lines in original language, it was a little bit disappointing. As for Spanish movie -- hey, I'm a big fan of Pedro Almodovar! I watched almost all his films. My favourites are "All about My Mother", "Talk to Her", "Bad Education", "Tie Me Down! Tie Me Up!", and "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown" -- yes, so many favourites! When I go back to Japan, I will go to cinema to watch his latest movie "Volver". He is pretty popular among Japanese people, and in "mixi" (Japanese SNS) more than 3200 members belong to his fan group. Also, I watched the movie "Juana la Loca"; she is a great character, isn't she? In Japan we can buy the DVD of that movie, and there are also some books on her life. Thanks for your advice about Dickens's works; I will check them when I have time! I drink sangria frequently; even in Japan, we can buy the bottle of sangria with reasonable price. Now in England, however, my Chilean friend makes it for me. She is so sweet like sangria's taste  It's a pity, but fresh orange juice is quite rare and expensive in Japan. That's why I prefer satsuma juice in Japan. That's nice of you for correcting my mistakes; so, like French, you do not pronounce "h", don't you? I will repeat these phrases to memorize. Or, should I learn more useful Spanish phrases? Some of my favourite writers are from South American countries (Garcia Marquez, Vargas Llosa, Isabell Allende), only if I could read Spanish ...! By the way, I heard that in Spanish "vaca" means beef and "ajo" garlic; but in Japanese, both of them （馬鹿、阿呆）indicate "idiot". Likewise, someone says that a Japanese word "kakka" (閣下："Your Excellency", "the Honourable") means "poo-poo" in Spanish ... if it is right, so funny  I really like Spain; that's why I know a little bit about your culture. I used to wear clothes of "Zara" and "Mango". If you do not mind, please tell me about Spanish culture. -- Thomas Malory, Le Morte D'Arthur
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07-14-2007, 03:47 PM
It's nice talking to you too! We have so much in common! Guess what... Gabriel García Márquez is actually my favorite author! His novels are just... awsome, no other way to describe them. Have you read One Hundred Years of Solitude (Cien Años de Soledad)? It's one of the best books I have ever read, it kept me away from reality and the characters in it where just amazing. Now I want to read Chronicle of a Death Foretold (Crónica De Una Muerte Anunciada) and Love in the Time of Cholera (El amor en los tiempos del cólera), my mother is like his biggest fan so she's got the whole colection. ^^
As I told you, García Lorca was killed for being Communist but there were those hidden reasons. It wasn't easy to be homosexual in those fascist times. The singer I mentioned is called Ana Belén, she's a very well known artist over here. That's the sleeve of the album --->  It is a set-up picture, of course they never met. I like Almodovar pretty much too. I have only seen a couple of his films: All about My Mother and Talk to Her, and they were both great. Maybe I should watch some more since -again- my mother loves him and has all of them, especially Volver, I've been looking forward to watching it since it was on the cinema. Pedro's definetly got something for Penélope Cruz, ne?  Quote:
It's spelt caca though. And yeah you're right, baka in Japanese sounds the same as vaca in Spanish, and it means cow ^^ And no, we don't pronounce the H so for exampple, the word hospital is written the same way in English and Spanish but we pronounce it like "ospital". Those sentences you said are useful when you travel to countries in which Spanish is spoken. Some greeting phrases might be useful too, such as: ¿Qué tal? / ¿Cómo estás? ---> 'How are you'. The first one is more informal but used just as much as the other one. Me llamo Lauren, soy japonesa y me encanta la literatura ---> My name is Lauren, I'm Japanese and I love literature. There're loads of things I could tell you about the Spanish culture, is there anything specific you would like to know? I really hate those who think Spain is all about bullfighting, very few people supports it and in fact most of us want it to be illegalized. Back to the sangris subject, I drink it quite often too. It's easy to get it here in almost every restaurant. I wish someone would make it for me! xDDD You should try to learn Spanish, I don't think it would be hard for you. I am working on a college project about the difference between Spanish and Japanese and some girls from the University of Kyoto are helping me (I interviewed them and such). They think it's easy to learn, much easier than Englsih, they say; it is because of the pronunciation, which is similar. Well I think that's long enough already, I should quit typing now. xDDD Pd- I don't really read yaoi manga and I had never heard the author's name before. That sire looked interesting but oi I can't read a word of Japanese... (not yet anyway) =P everything is relative and contradictory ~
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07-15-2007, 04:06 PM
Hola! ¿Cómo estás? φ(ﾟ▽ﾟ*)♪
Thanks for your post, I really want to travel Spain again ... oooh, I miss that clear blue sky ... I feel excited to know you're also a fan of García Márquez! Yup, it is almost impossible to explain the charm of his "magic realism" narrative. "One Hundred Years of Solitude" (in Japanese, it is translated literally as "百年の孤独") is totally amazing -- while I was reading the book, I felt like a visitor of Macondo. I heard that one Japanese novelist Kenzaburo OOe (he also won the Novel Prise) is under the influence of García Márquez. I read "Chronicle of a Death Foretold" (予告された殺人の記録) and, to my personal opinion, it is one of his best works as well as "Innocent Erendira". I also watched the movie, which is quite good. The film change the main focus from the crime to love affair, still it does not spoil the original. Thank you for informing me about García Lorca's CD (the picture is pretty cool!) I checked Amazon.jp and found that I can buy Ana Belén's CD in Japan ヽ(^◇^*)/ The title is, however, called "Los Esenciales". Is this the CD you told me? I can't see the picture in Amazon.jp, so if you know, will you tell me, please? I'm glad that we both are Almodovar lovers o(>▽<o)(o>▽<)o When I saw "All about My Mother", I couldn't stop weeping. I had to put many facial tissues on my cheeks, honestly! I'm so looking forward to "Volver"; Penélope Cruz is very cute and at the same time she's a great actress. By the way, we Japanese generally use title after the name (e. g. "Roi taisa" = "Major Roi", "Yukimura dono" = "Sir Yukimura"). As for pronunciation, I remember "hola" is articulated as "ola"; the sounds of Spanish are really sweet. I especially like the rhythm -- though I cannot understand Spanish at all. I never try to learn Spanish properly; because I'm afraid that there are so many cases in Spanish, as well as French and Latin. When I was undergraduate (by the way, my Uni is also in Kyoto!), I learnt these two languages at the same time, which was really nightmare. I hate to memorise something; or rather, I can't memorise such complicated rules (´□｀｡) It seems that Spanish pronunciation is close to Japanese, but ... how about grammatical rules? Is it simple? During my stay at Spain, I never watch bullfighting; it is too violent to me. I prefer flamenco dansing. Will you tell me something about flamenco? Also, I'd love to know Spanish history (especially medieval one) and Spanish arts such as pictures and fashion. Oh, again, sorry for long reply and I look forward to your answer ((o(^∇^)o)) PS. If you're interested in Don Pedro's manga, I'll send you some pieces of information  -- Thomas Malory, Le Morte D'Arthur
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07-17-2007, 11:44 AM
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Oh yes I forgot to mention Chronicle of a Death Foretold, it is said to be one of his best novels. "Los Esenciales" isn't that album. The one in which she sings Lorca's poems is called Lorqiana. I don't know if you'll be able to get it in Japan but you can always download it from the Internet.  I don't like Penélope Cruz that much. She looks so fake! Well the real reason is... I'm jealous cause she starred in that film 'All The Pretty Horses' with Matt Damon, and he is one of my favorite actors... xDDD Now seriously, I don't like the way she acts that much nor think she's all that pretty. Quote:
What's the difference between -sama and -domo? And when does a boy get the title -kun and stops being called (something)-chan? Is there an age? Actually, the only thing Japanese and Spanish have in common in the pronunciation. To every Spanish person who studies Japanese it is easy to get used to the sounds, cause they're pronounced as written (in romanji). It's quite an advantage when learning a new language ^.^ Quote:
So yes, Spanish has many many many past, present and future tenses and if you're not native speaker it is very difficult to learn which one to use in every situation. Funny thing is there isn't really a rule, you just have to know when to use each of them... and the only way of learning it is getting used to the language and listening to people. Latin is more similar to German though. As for the grammar rules... well, they're quite simple. It's always like Subject-Verb-complements. Same as English, but we don't use pronouns all the time so you know who does the action cause of the verb, which is different for every person. Example: I play the guitar. You've got the "I" there cause it indicates who playes the guitar. In Spanish you'd say Toco la guitarra. There is no subject but you know it is me (I) cause "toco" can only go with 1rst person singular. It's not really that difficult. Quote:
Spanish pictures... well many famous artists were Spanish, such as Picasso, Dalí, Velázquez, so we got some beautiful museums here. I have never been to the ones in Madrid though *sad*I have to go, I'll tell you about Spaish history the next day. Pd- If you've got info about Don Pedro's manga I'll be delighted to read it, but if it means you'll have to spend some time searching for it on the net then don't bother. See you. xxx everything is relative and contradictory ~
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07-17-2007, 01:46 PM
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07-17-2007, 08:00 PM
Oh, my friends frequently use the word "porqué": that means "because", then.
Thank you for your information about the album. Then, I'll download it ((*´∇｀人´∇｀*))) As for Penélope Cruz, we have different opinion on her; still, I must agree with you that Matt Damon is really cool (〃ω〃) Japanese grammar and vocabulary are sometimes totally complicated, even to native speakers -- so I check my dictionary; compared with "dono", "sama" is more respectful. "Dono" is used among colleagues, while "sama" is for superiors (e. g. customers). We use "chan" for something pretty; so, when a boy is fully grown, people use "kun" instead of "chan". The usage depends on the situation, however. The problem of language education in Japan is, I think, we put too much emphasis on grammatical rule. Therefore, if we fail to memorize these inflections, we feel that we can't learn that language. It seems Spanish language is just between Classical Latin and French, then. As well as Classical Latin, the form of verb indicates who is the subject, doesn't it? Hmm, that's really interesting. By the way, I by chance heard about a language called "Catalonia"; is this totally different from Spanish, or something like dialect? Oh, and I have another question; when I went to Barcelona, we had one yummy soup for lunch; the waiter recommended it because that broth was traditional Catalonian dish. Do you know the name? I'll attach the picture.  It is one of my favourite; I cook it by myself in Japan and even in the UK （￣▽￣）=３ Thank you for these pieces of information; I'm looking forward to read your post about Spanish history. PS. at the moment I don't know any English website about the comic; so when I find some interesting pages I'll tell you. Thank you for your consideration! -- Thomas Malory, Le Morte D'Arthur
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07-17-2007, 08:03 PM
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My hometown is called Tsukuba, approx. 1 hour to Tokyo. I, however, had lived in Kyoto for 8 years, because my Uni is there. When I go back to Japan, I'll be with my parents for a moment. Then, I may move to Kyoto to finish my Ph.D degree. So, you live in Yokohama! How is the life there? I've been there just twice, but people say Yokohama is very beautiful and sophisticated. -- Thomas Malory, Le Morte D'Arthur
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07-20-2007, 10:50 AM
Hello again! ^.^
Yes, because is porqué and why is por qué. Easy peasy. Thank you so much for the domo/sama, chan/kun explanation. Japanese is the only language I know that uses this kind of sufixes. So when you have just met someone is it politer to call him/her (name)-sama at first? Actually I think knowing loads of grammar isn't that important as long as you can use the language accuratly. Like if you want to get to speak English well you need to spend a lot of time in places where English is spoken, so that you get used to hearing and feel forced to use it as well. There's no point in going to a language academy cause doesn't matter how hard you study, books cannot teach you everything. That language you talk about is Catalan (which indeed is spoken only in Catalonia) and it's my mother tongue. Well, the truth is that every Catalan speaking can use Spanish just as well, but as I told you there is sort of rivality between Catalonia and the rest of Spain, and some people here refuse to use Spanish at all. xDDDD So yeah, it is a complet different language but it's got pretty much in common:English ---> It's rainning, can I borrow your umbrella? Spanish ---> Está lloviendo, ¿me dejas el paraguas? Catalan ---> Està plovent, em deixes el paraigües? (lol it's just started rainning for real! xD) I'd say Catalan is more similar to French than Spanish. And Latin seems more like German to me... cause of the declinations (I love Classic Latin, been studying it for 1 year and that was enough to get charmed). That soup you mean must be "escudella/brou". I cannot see the pic but I figured out it must be something like this:   That's a typical dish we eat at Christmas time. As for the Historial matter, I think you must know more than me about this since you study Medieval History. I just read a book called Un Soñador Para Un Pueblo (A Dreamer For The People) by Antonio Buero Vallejo. He's a well known author. It's about King Charles III of Spain (1716-1788) and Marquis of Esquilache, and how they want to introduce the Enlightenment to the country without taking into account the people's needs. I love historical novels. This one is theater though. What we basically study at school is General Franco's coup, the conflic between frascists and republicans that led to the Civil War, and stuff like that. If you're interested in something particular let me know!! I'll read you soon! XxX everything is relative and contradictory ~
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Like to speak -
07-20-2007, 11:55 AM
Hi Laurel,
I am an Indian working as software engineer in Tokyo, I like to speak to Japanese persons who know English.I am interested to talk to you if you are interested please mail to my yahoo id: jarockiadoss@yahoo.com Regards J.Arockia Doss Quote:
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