O.O

[akujunkan]

I hate fansubbed anime. It always makes me so terribly depressed, because whenever I try to tear my eyes from the words on the bottom of the screen, I find that I can no longer follow most of the dialogue. I was especially aware of this this afternoon while rewatching some of the earlier eps of The Ishida Uryuu Show Bleach in order to chat metal_dog5 up about them without inadvertently spoiling her. I tried positioning the viewer window so that I cut off the bottom of the screen, but I just wasn't able to follow any of it, and so finally gave up and read the subtitles.

I then proceeded to watch a raw ep of The Ishida Uryuu and Abarai Renji Show the second season of Bleach. I was about 20 minutes into the episode before I realised that I had understood every single word, phrase, and sentence as if I had been watching an English language program. It was unreal; I actually experienced a few moments of disorientation while I tried to figure out what I was listening to. It's hard to put into words, but it was just amazingly fluid and unconscious. There were sounds, and I understood them, and all the intentions and emotions that were being conveyed by them as well. I of course have no problems comprehending most colloquial spoken Japanese (which is basically about the only language you'll ever hear in anime), but up to this point I was very conscious of the fact that I was listening to a foreign language. This time, things were said, and I comprehended them. Not only that, but I hadn't even really been paying much attention to the show itself - I was off cleaning, eating dinner, and texting on my keitai - but everything was being taken down by my brain as if I'd had say, South Park on in the background instead. It was as natural as if I'd been listening to English. Very very cool indeed, and I will now allow myself to feel a small measure of satisfaction in my progress, and to hope that I will one day be able to speak this language as if I'd grown up doing it.

Comments

[ascetic-hedony.livejournal.com]

Well done you. Reaching that point where you interpret on automatic sounds like approaching mastery. Of course listening is one part - there's also speaking and writing. From the sounds of it, you're getting closer to your goals there too.

So... does this mean that you'll start speaking english with an accent? (Well, an accent other than that of your place of origin).

[akujunkan.livejournal.com]

Thanks a million! I think I was so happy about this development precisely because it's so hard to evaluate one's own ability in a 2nd language. Things like speaking especially - no one has any trouble understanding what I'm trying to say to them 98% of the time, but I don't know beyond that. After all, no one wants to be the asshole who corrects the non-native speaker when that speaker is comphrehensible, but phrasing things badly.

While I don't speak English with an accent, I find that Japanese words occur to me faster and more frequently than the English words for the things I'm trying to say, even when I'm speaking in English. You should see what some of these lj entries look like before I spent 15 minutes scratching my head and trying to remember how to say x in English.

[ascetic-hedony.livejournal.com]

Excellent. Dabbling in multiple languages and shagging a linguist doesn't really qualify me to judge - it just seems like your fluency is increasingly good. When you're able to correct your students in their native language....
Also you seem to be noticing more of the very subtle things, rather than the basics... suggests that the basics are automatic.
But if you have to translate back into your native language, then you're not thinking in english any more... v. cool :)

[akujunkan.livejournal.com]

Ooh, what languages, may I ask? If left to my own devices, I would exclusively learn foreign languages (and read books and play music, but that's all, really...)

The problem is not so much that I'm not thinking in English any more, but that I'm not thinking *exclusively* in English. There are just better ways to say things in one language versus the other, so I've got a bit of an amalgamation of both going on at all times now;)

[ascetic-hedony.livejournal.com]

Keeping in mind I'm a total dabbler and haven't kept current with anything. I like languages but not enough to be disciplined about learning them.

That being said, I've picked up bits and pieces from French, German, Greek, Italian, Hebrew and Japanese.

Think I get what you mean about the amalgamation. Training multiple styles of martial arts is like that, where there are a variety of possible responses, some more suitable than others. Downside is that if you get confused you become a total spaz.

[metal-dog5.livejournal.com]

I was about 20 minutes into the episode before I realised that I had understood every single word, phrase, and sentence as if I had been watching an English language program.

To quote you: !!!
That is so cool :)


while rewatching some of the earlier eps of The Ishida Uryuu Show Bleach in order to chat metal_dog5 up about them without inadvertently spoiling her

::hugs you:: Don't worry about spoiling me, I'm quite happy to hear/read/watch stuff about a show. I do it all the time, and have done for *years*¹. Hell, if you knew the order in which I've been watching Saiyuki...

The only reason I haven't downloaded and watched all the Bleach eps is I'm trying to keep to our dl limit. By next week I should have them all ;)




¹There have been a few exceptions to this, Desperate Housewives and NCIS being the most notable. But if I do get accidentally spoilt, I don't get pissy over it.

[akujunkan.livejournal.com]

Weehee! I only have to wait until next week then. And no matter what your thoughts on the matter may be, I'm not going to be the one to spoil you, because as a huge fan of the force of narrative revelation, I want to know what your reactions are when you get to bit C in the text. I'm an ass that way.

The order in which you're watching Saiyuki is probably the order in which I'm watching it, 'cause the eps are a bitch to get, and I'm usually not in when it airs.

[ishuka.livejournal.com]

awww... ^-^ the feeling must be really amazing... =*__*=