Callistonian.net

Disclaimer of sorts: Don’t take the following post on Chinese, Korean, and Japanese too seriously. It’s not meant to be offensive. It’s sort of a joke. It’s just a quick dirty not-quite-foolproof 30 second lesson on how to differentiate between the three languages. ♥

Admittedly, being able to tell the three apart is not an important life skill. But! it does give one the ability to say, “Look at that pretty Chinese website (sign, artwork, writing, &c.)” with confidence. If a girl can tell languages apart, she won’t have to fear nasty reprimands of this nature: “OMG! You idiot, that’s Korean!” (Have you ever been reprimanded in this way? XD )

So, here we go.

Chinese and Japanese do not have stand-alone circles! If you see a circle, it’s Korean. The image above is Korean. The circles are gray.

With this one, it’s a bit harder. Generally, Japanese is less complicated than Chinese. If you see simplistic looking roundish or stick-like characters, it’s Japanese. In the image above, the roundish characters are purple.

Chinese just looks complicated. ♥

A quick review: Remember, Korean = circles; it’s the least complicated. Japanese = no circles and medium complications; it features simplistic roundish/stick-like characters. Chinese = no circles; it looks very complicated.

Now that you’re fluent in Chinese, Korean, and Japanese you can tell them apart, figure out which line in the following image belows to which language. After you’ve figured it out, look at the solution.

That’s it. You can thank me for making you slightly more clever? Anyway, comment if you know of any clever ways to tell any languages apart (these included). Also, e-cookies and much love to anyone who recognizes any of the material quoted in any of the images above.

キャー！

I saw a bug. While I was reading, a period sized insect materialized on the page in front of me, triggering a fasian moment. I screamed, “怖い～ (scary!!)”and tossed the book into the distance. I don’t like bugs.

Japanese comes out when I’m startled? English is my native language and I’m supposed to be studying Korean – my brain’s automated response to frightful things shouldn’t be in Japanese. So, what’s to blame for this outburst?

Anime? No, I hate don’t watch anime. An internal desire to become Asian? No. Yearnings from a past life? Nope. Recent events? Perhaps. I’ve been thinking about Japan a lot. Lately, Abe and other ministers have been getting quite a bit of attention from the press. Last week, three of my dear friends moved to Japan. I’ve been working on song translations and a J-pop review. I’ve also been watching way too much Japanese stuff on veoh. These things surely bumped “怖い～ (kowai)” up a few spots on my brain’s list of how to immediately react to bugs. But-

I blame this particular fasian outburst on a pretty Japanese girl who loves to imitate rabbits (うさちゃんピース)　and yet, can’t hop to save her life （モー娘。の一番かわいい女の子：道重さゆみ）. 　While jumping rope, she chanted “kowai” like a slightly panicked and very frustrated child reading a ton of write offs from a blackboard. Jumping rope is scary? I suppose it can be – you never know when someone twirling the rope will mess up and smack you in the face, right? Anyway, if she didn’t repeat the word incessantly and in such a quiet (at first) and hypnotizing fashion, I doubt that I would have screamed it. Instead, I would have reacted in the proper American way, “Ahhh!”

Hmm… As long as I say, “ouch” or “ow” when I get a boo-boo instead of “痛い~” I’ll be okay. But, 　my speech is being corrupted. First, “full stops” instead of “periods” and now, “kowai” instead of “Ah!” No one will believe me when I tell them that I’m an American.

Continue reading to a see a picture of the girl who finds jump roping scary.

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In hopes of improving my foreign language skills, I opened Skype and for the first time, dared to interact with strangers. While I had the most amount of fun possible on the Internet, I failed to utter more than a handful of words in another language. I’m a shy perfectionist and thus… I’m scared.

I did- however, manage to cover all of my bases. A man from Africa saw my obviously French name and weaseled a few French words out of me. When I confessed to being interested in Korea and Japan, I was forced to say hello in those tongues and to answer questions about the time. It was scary!

I need confidence! If only I studied…

I was in a Skype chat room for a little more than an hour. At any given point in time, there were never more than ten people and YET, one of them was an alumnus of my high school! wtf. It was 2-something in the morning. We were the only two people from an English-speaking country in there & we attended the same school… that’s crazy.

I’m always meeting people who I know in random airports or in foreign countries or meeting friends of friends while out on these trips. It’s so weird to be on the other side of the earth and to have a stranger ask, "Hey, do you know X? I met him in Taiwan!"

I’ve started adding photos to S.A. Waltz again.

Also, feel free to add me on Skype (my id: aeri.elle).