25 Random Things

There’s this list going around Facebook and I’ve been tagged a couple of times to do it. It’s been awhile since I’ve done a list so I thought I’d comply. Many may already know the contents of the list below, but I will try to include new facts without being too gross.

“Once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it’s because I want to know more about you.

(To do this, go to “notes” under tabs on your profile page, paste these instructions in the body of the note, type your 25 random things, tag 25 people, then click publish.)”

1. I love dark chocolate and rarely eat milk chocolate. This is not a result of being lactose intolerant, which I am, but there is something about the bitterness of chocolate that I crave.
2. I love dark leafy vegetables. This may be related to dark chocolate in that dark leafy vegetables have a tendency to be bitter as well: spinach, mustard greens, collard greens, shungiku (chrysanthemum leaves), etc.
3. I feel really old these days. While some of this is physiological, a lot of it is situational. I just don’t understand what my students are talking about sometimes, and it really makes me feel out of it.
4. I need to write and submit at least one article during my sabbatical, if not two or three.
5. If I wasn’t a teacher, I’d be a cook–successful or not.
6. When I retire, I plan to move to Japan.
7. But I don’t plan to retire for a long time so plans can change.
8. I got a D+ in Modern Japanese History when I was an undergrad.
9. It took me five years to graduate from a two-year community college–I was working full time most of that time, and had a lot of Ws.
10. I wanted to be a professional musician but realized that the chances of an Asian American becoming a rock star were pretty slim back in the 70s. The reality, of course, is that I was never very good.
11. I tell my students to stop cracking their knuckles, but I crack my own when they are not around.
12. I can do an imitation of Golum. The voice, not the face.
13. I am ambidextrous. I can drink beer with either my left hand or my right.
14. I never cut my fingernails at night because this will bring misfortune to parents–(sub)urban myth in Japan. My parents have been gone for a few years now, but Musubichan’s mother is still around.
15. I can burp and fart at the same time–Just kidding. I’ve actually never done this, but I bet I can if I tried… Anyway, I always feel like these kinds of lists require something stupid and gross, so I feel obliged to put in at least one gross item, true or not.
16. I used to be a Republican and I actually voted for Ronald Reagan. As a teenager too young to vote, I even worked briefly at the Asian Americans for Nixon campaign office in LA. I’m now an Independent. My argument, however, is that I have changed very little over the years. The country around me has shifted to the right, leaving me in the middle–fiscally conservative (basically), socially liberal (mostly).
17. The scar on my right cornea is getting worse, and I think allergies exacerbate the condition. It tears up constantly and it looks like I am crying. Indeed, my right eye often looks puffy.
18. I dream of having a 31 inch waist again.
19. I’m not a liar, I’m a storyteller. I will embellish stories to the point that after telling the same story a hundred times, it sorta becomes the truth and I don’t remember exactly what actually happened. Some might call this lying, and so be it. But I prefer storyteller. I once caught a fish THIS BIG….
20. I used to be a congenital flirt. I love the opposite sex so much–much to the chagrin of Musubichan–that I couldn’t help myself. I have absolutely no ulterior motive–certainly not now at my advanced age (what could I possibly do?)–but I used to love the give and take, the innuendo, and double entendre. The urge is now mostly gone, but sometimes creeps to the surface when I go drinking–it takes a bit of will power to keep my mouth zipped, my hands in my pockets and my eyes looking only at my wife or the beer in front of me. (FYI: Never at work and never with students. Duh!)
21. I want a large flatscreen TV and HD satellite service.
22. Everyone already knows this but I am a J-drama addict.
23. I want to see my daughter in Japan.
24. I love carbs but its a one-sided affair because carbs seem to hate me. Every time I eat carbs, I gain weight exponentially. If there were carb free potato chips, bread, chewy spree, or even cereal, I’d be in heaven.
25. I wish I had a salary commensurate with my background, level of education and dedication to my work. I had my taxes done by H&R Block a couple of years back and the person doing my taxes expressed surprise, referring to my W2 as a “workman’s salary”. Indeed, I found out I make less than my plumber–granted he owns his own business…

I’m tagging the following: Dawn-109, Jerjonji, Kenshiro, Kyzer, La Mangust, Onigiri, SunJun, Takunishi, Whonose, The Greatest Pip. That’s 10. The other 15 I will tag on Facebook.

Speaking Japanese

When speaking Japanese, non-native speakers need to remember to be polite.

Most languages have at last two levels of speech. In general, they are formal and informal. In the US, this is especially true in business. You call people Mister, unless told otherwise. You speak and act politely, unless you become very familiar with your superior. Do you slap you boss’s back and tell him “Good job, dude”?

In Japanese, the line is even more pronounced. Unfortunately for most Japanese learners, a Japanese speaker will not correct a non-native speaker when they speak informally. Many Americans will come back from Japan thinking their Japanese is all that. I certainly have many students like that as well. And for the most part, their confidence is well founded. Their Japanese is relatively fluent and unobstructed by the fear of using the wrong word.

However, if they are too informal with me, I will always correct them. I don’t mean to be a hard-ass, but someone needs to correct them because if and when they return to Japan for work or graduate study, they cannot talk informally when talking to a business colleague or professor. They have to learn to turn the formality switch on and off in any given situation. And the level familiarity rarely has anything to do with it. I worked at a Research Center for two years in Japan and became very familiar with my bucho (division chief). We often drank together, and he is the one who dubbed me the “American who speaks English“. But one night while drinking, I spoke to him a bit too familiarly. Now, in Japan, drinking often excuses an error in judgment, and most will laugh it off the next day. But my error in being too familiar with my bucho put me in his doghouse for two weeks. He literally did not speak to me during that time, relaying messages to me through others.

The bottom line is–been there, done that. So I tell my students to speak to me formally whenever they decide to speak to me in Japanese. If they think I am a hardcase, then so be it. I take it upon myself to be their practice partner, their opportunity to learn how to turn that formality switch on and off.

The Year in Review

It’s been a pretty interesting year with a cat-and-dog Democratic primary with Hilary and Barack, the ultimate election of Obama, $4 gasoline that fell to under $2 in the blink of an eye, and an economic disaster brought on by deregulators like McCain (economy is fundamentally sound) and his economic adviser Phil Gramm (nation of whiners). I’m not sure I could have guessed in January that we’d be where we are right now. It’s been a pretty crazy year.

In comparison, my year has been pretty mundane, just busy.

• During the spring semester, besides the four courses I taught, I judged haiku written by K-12 students for Mid Atlantic Association of Teachers of Japanese (MAATJ). This sounds pretty hard–most of my colleagues would never even touch something like this. But I find it invigorating that there is such interest in young students in the DC area. I hope they come to study at my school when they graduate.
• At the end of the spring semester, I gave a lecture at the Foreign Service Institute–a branch of the State Department–on Japanese literature. Mostly its to provide cultural background for those going to Japan, so I positioned the lecture as a lesson on Context and Intertext. That is, how text in Japanese literary history is used intentionally to influence each other over the centuries.
• In Fall, I taught my usual four courses again. I was also the keynote speaker at the MAATJ group at the Foreign Language Association of Virginia held in Richmond, VA. I talked about haiku and how to incorporate it into class. Perhaps more significant was the reassignment of a colleague of mine. Finding a replacement was not so hard as both she and I were planning to take successive sabbaticals this academic year and we already had someone lined up to replace us both. What I wasn’t prepared for was the workload of program coordinator. Usually, a coordinator teaches two classes, but I did not get any course release and taught my normal load. I would have at least appreciated a bonus, but as it turned out, all I got was a pat on the back for university “service.”

Amazingly, with all this work, I still had time for J-Drama. My students laugh, convinced that I must not be that busy. It’s probably the only thing that kept me from going crazy. I allowed myself the luxury of totally escaping work for a few hours a week, thereby preventing a mental breakdown. We gotta do what we gotta do, y’know?

The saddest thing for me this years was the totally inept UCLA football team. *sigh* Will I ever live to see them win a National Championship? Go Bruins! (please?)

Christmas Eve Cheer

Yesterday was the only day I go to school this week and next, and guess what? I get a package. There’s no one on campus, no one in the department, except me.

“It’s either work or an important Christmas card,” I tell Mr. Fedex.

“It’s from a CB,” the delivery dude said and looked at me in anticipation.

Aaah, CB. A former student who graduated a year ago. She’s was as cute as a button, and as sharp as a tack. One of the best and most insightful student I had in my Lit in Translation course. She often came to office hours to say “hi” and chat a bit, and we got to know each other pretty well considering that she never studied anything else related to Japan. She told me that she wanted to invite me to a “distinguished student dinner” last year, but refrained as it conflicted with my late class. I ended up going anyway when another student asked me. I never pass up a free dinner.

Anyway, the last thing I remember of CB was at the end of Finals period last year. She came by the office to say “good-bye” and that she enjoyed the classes from her “favorite teacher.” We hugged and she left for bigger and better things on the West Coast.

“Ah, my girlfriend in California,” I smiled at the delivery dude.

He grinned as I signed for the package, and he descended down the hall seemingly pleased at the thought he was delivering joy instead of work over the holiday season.

I knew better, of course. As any experienced professor could have easily deduced, inside the package was a request for a letter of recommendation. *sigh*

Merry Christmas Eve everyone!

Christmas Eve Cheer

Yesterday was the only day I go to school this week and next, and guess what? I get a package. There’s no one on campus, no one in the department, except me.

“It’s either work or an important Christmas card,” I tell Mr. Fedex.

“It’s from a CB,” the delivery dude said and looked at me in anticipation.

Aaah, CB. A former student who graduated a year ago. She’s was as cute as a button, and as sharp as a tack. One of the best and most insightful student I had in my Lit in Translation course. She often came to office hours to say “hi” and chat a bit, and we got to know each other pretty well considering that she never studied anything else related to Japan. She told me that she wanted to invite me to a “distinguished student dinner” last year, but refrained as it conflicted with my late class. I ended up going anyway when another student asked me. I never pass up a free dinner.

Anyway, the last thing I remember of CB was at the end of Finals period last year. She came by the office to say “good-bye” and that she enjoyed the classes from her “favorite teacher.” We hugged and she left for bigger and better things on the West Coast.

“Ah, my girlfriend in California,” I smiled at the delivery dude.

He grinned as I signed for the package, and he descended down the hall seemingly pleased at the thought he was delivering joy instead of work over the holiday season.

I knew better, of course. As any experienced professor could have easily deduced, inside the package was a request for a letter of recommendation. *sigh*

Merry Christmas Eve everyone!

Timex

“Takes a licking but keeps on ticking.”

That’s how an old Timex commercial went after abusing the watch by placing it in a stram of water, or run over by a car. I think they had an elephant step on it once, although it actually broke. Hahahah. Well, after this semester, with all the extra work as coordinator, but the same heavy teaching load, I’m beat. Like that Timex watch, I too took a licking, but I keep on ticking even with this, as of today, 53 year old body…

Genji

Next Fall semester, I have an extra slot to teach…. ha! Like I need another course to teach! So I’ve submitted the following proposal for the Dean’s seminar to teach a course on The Tale of Genji.

Genji, the Shining Prince, was not just about a dilettante and playboy, although I can understand such comments by students in a survey course of Japanese literature. But when a student compares this icon of Japanese literature to a suspect on MSNBC’s “To Catch a Predator”—even in jest—I am compelled to consider a course dedicated to a deeper appreciation of one of the masterpieces of Japanese literary history, The Tale of Genji. A Dean’s Seminar would provide an appropriate venue for such a course.

Misconceptions concerning the Genji are not limited to my students. The Japanese novelist and nun, Setouchi Jakuchō, regards Genji’s actions as more than seduction: “It was all rape, not seduction.” If Setouchi—a recognized “expert” on classical literature in Japan—can make such a comment in a New York Times interview (1999.05.28), then comments such as those uttered by my students should not surprise anyone. Using an abridged version to accommodate a survey course, that covers more than a thousand years of poetry, chronicles, diaries and essays, simply compounds the problem. All available abridged versions primarily cover the early chapters when Genji is young and sexually active. As a result, even an astute reader such as Virginia Woolf fails to capture all that the Genji has to offer. In a review of the first volume of Arthur Waley’s Genji translation, Woolf writes: “Some element of horror, of terror, of sordidity, some root of experience has been removed from the Eastern world so that crudeness is impossible and coarseness out of the question, but with it too has gone some vigour, some richness, some maturity of the human spirit.” (Vogue, Late July, 1925) Such conclusions, based only on the first few chapters, are unfortunate but inevitable. Time, effort and, of course, reading the entire text are necessary to appreciate fully the Tale of Genji.

The Genji, written by Murasaki Shikibu (b. ca. 973-d. ca. 1014), provides a view into the culture of the Heian court, a place both foreign yet somehow familiar. For example, political power was controlled by a branch of the Fujiwara family, a control based on political maneuvering: Through the mid-Heian period, Fujiwara leaders arranged for their daughters to become the primary wives of succeeding emperors, ensuring their position as imperial advisor/regent by virtue of being the grandfather of the crown prince. In the Genji, this legitimacy is challenged when the Genji—charismatic and beautiful since birth—is born of a lesser imperial consort. His mother is literally bullied to death and the emperor’s primary wife reveals herself to be an evil step-mother, coddling her own son the crown prince while tormenting Genji. The emperor, all too aware of the situation, ensures his son’s safety by assigning Genji to a distant branch of the imperial line, thereby disassociating him from any issue of succession.

However, knowledge of the political and cultural realities of the time is not the only requirement to appreciating the Genji. Japanese literature is notorious for its open-endedness. Anyone who has read “In a Grove” by Akutagawa Ryūnoske—later made into the film Rashōmon—will have experienced the Japanese sense of non-closure. This is certainly the case in the Genji, in which the main character dies with one quarter of the story remaining. The narrative continues, focusing on Genji’s descendants and how they are influenced by his past actions, whether by karmic affect or a confluence of circumstances. The effect on the reader is an appreciation of the open-endedness of life as portrayed in a story that seems to continue on regardless of the absence of the protagonist. Life goes on no matter who dies.

A course on the Tale of Genji will deal with topics such as these, through readings of the main text and selected secondary sources. The main text is a recent translation by Royall Tyler (2001). The fact that it is in translation should not detract from any appreciation of the tale; Tyler has provided a translation that is remarkably faithful to the original, making it just as accessible as the Genji monogatari translated into modern Japanese for college students in Japan. Secondary sources will provide insights that will lead to deeper discussions and analyses of the story. Ultimately, the course will reveal the vigor, richness and maturity of the human spirit in the Genji that was lost on Woolf, while encouraging diversity in thought and flexibility in opinion for our incoming Freshmen through an understanding of a world centuries away.

Genji

Next Fall semester, I have an extra slot to teach…. ha! Like I need another course to teach! So I’ve submitted the following proposal for the Dean’s seminar to teach a course on The Tale of Genji.

Genji, the Shining Prince, was not just about a dilettante and playboy, although I can understand such comments by students in a survey course of Japanese literature. But when a student compares this icon of Japanese literature to a suspect on MSNBC’s “To Catch a Predator”—even in jest—I am compelled to consider a course dedicated to a deeper appreciation of one of the masterpieces of Japanese literary history, The Tale of Genji. A Dean’s Seminar would provide an appropriate venue for such a course.

Misconceptions concerning the Genji are not limited to my students. The Japanese novelist and nun, Setouchi Jakuchō, regards Genji’s actions as more than seduction: “It was all rape, not seduction.” If Setouchi—a recognized “expert” on classical literature in Japan—can make such a comment in a New York Times interview (1999.05.28), then comments such as those uttered by my students should not surprise anyone. Using an abridged version to accommodate a survey course, that covers more than a thousand years of poetry, chronicles, diaries and essays, simply compounds the problem. All available abridged versions primarily cover the early chapters when Genji is young and sexually active. As a result, even an astute reader such as Virginia Woolf fails to capture all that the Genji has to offer. In a review of the first volume of Arthur Waley’s Genji translation, Woolf writes: “Some element of horror, of terror, of sordidity, some root of experience has been removed from the Eastern world so that crudeness is impossible and coarseness out of the question, but with it too has gone some vigour, some richness, some maturity of the human spirit.” (Vogue, Late July, 1925) Such conclusions, based only on the first few chapters, are unfortunate but inevitable. Time, effort and, of course, reading the entire text are necessary to appreciate fully the Tale of Genji.

The Genji, written by Murasaki Shikibu (b. ca. 973-d. ca. 1014), provides a view into the culture of the Heian court, a place both foreign yet somehow familiar. For example, political power was controlled by a branch of the Fujiwara family, a control based on political maneuvering: Through the mid-Heian period, Fujiwara leaders arranged for their daughters to become the primary wives of succeeding emperors, ensuring their position as imperial advisor/regent by virtue of being the grandfather of the crown prince. In the Genji, this legitimacy is challenged when the Genji—charismatic and beautiful since birth—is born of a lesser imperial consort. His mother is literally bullied to death and the emperor’s primary wife reveals herself to be an evil step-mother, coddling her own son the crown prince while tormenting Genji. The emperor, all too aware of the situation, ensures his son’s safety by assigning Genji to a distant branch of the imperial line, thereby disassociating him from any issue of succession.

However, knowledge of the political and cultural realities of the time is not the only requirement to appreciating the Genji. Japanese literature is notorious for its open-endedness. Anyone who has read “In a Grove” by Akutagawa Ryūnoske—later made into the film Rashōmon—will have experienced the Japanese sense of non-closure. This is certainly the case in the Genji, in which the main character dies with one quarter of the story remaining. The narrative continues, focusing on Genji’s descendants and how they are influenced by his past actions, whether by karmic affect or a confluence of circumstances. The effect on the reader is an appreciation of the open-endedness of life as portrayed in a story that seems to continue on regardless of the absence of the protagonist. Life goes on no matter who dies.

A course on the Tale of Genji will deal with topics such as these, through readings of the main text and selected secondary sources. The main text is a recent translation by Royall Tyler (2001). The fact that it is in translation should not detract from any appreciation of the tale; Tyler has provided a translation that is remarkably faithful to the original, making it just as accessible as the Genji monogatari translated into modern Japanese for college students in Japan. Secondary sources will provide insights that will lead to deeper discussions and analyses of the story. Ultimately, the course will reveal the vigor, richness and maturity of the human spirit in the Genji that was lost on Woolf, while encouraging diversity in thought and flexibility in opinion for our incoming Freshmen through an understanding of a world centuries away.

vote Early, Vote Often

The talking heads on TV keep talking about how this is going to be record voter turnout. So I woke up early and headed for the polls at 5:45 AM… and there was a line…

But it wasn’t too bad of a line. The polls opened at 6 AM and I cast my vote at 6:50, fulfilling my civic duty.

While I was standing in line there was a stout lady in front of me. She said she was from New York and she certainly talked and talked and talked like one. But it helped pass the time as she offered her opinion on everything in the world. After voting, I looked her way, gave her a nod and told her to have a nice day. When I arrived home and got out of my car, I still heard her voice. “You’re my neighbor?”

Huh?

The lady I had talked actually live on the opposite block of townhouses where I live. I’ve been living here for over 8 years now and have never met her. It took Decision ‘08 to meet a new/old neighbor.

Go figure.

Remember to Vote

Keep in mind that you should vote. There was a time when many people I knew said they thought their vote didn’t count anyway. “I’m only one vote. What’s the dif?” Well, it’s a big “dif”. If everyone said that, no one would vote. It is you right and your obligation. I don’t care who you vote for, or who you support. But the person who goes to the White House will determine the way our future plays out. So please vote.

But I’m getting worried. I’m busy enough as it is, but now I have to stand in line for hours, maybe? Why doesn’t Virginia have early voting like other sane states? Is this like the old fashion Poll Tax that prevented poor Blacks from voting back in the day? Now the working poor are forced to take half a day from work in order to vote.

I swear, if I have to wait more than a couple of hours, I’m gonna write to my congressman. I thought Tim Kaine–VA governor–was Obama’s buddy? I would have thought that he’d figure out ways to increase the number of polling places and invest in new voting machines, or keep the poll places opened longer–as it is, its 6 AM to 7 PM. I go to sleep aroun 4 or 5 AM anyway; maybe I’ll just stay up and be the first one to vote.