Oddities and Innovation

      I love grammar. Not in the sense that I get a kick out of correcting people who say "me and him went to movies," but rather that I find the conjugation of the verb "to be" in ebonics fascinating. Being trained in Latin, I have a particular interest in verbs, with all their tenses, moods, and other various traits across languages. Latin has well over 30 verb forms, yet Japanese, from what we've learned so far, has only 4. No divisions into 6 tenses with 6 persons, just 4, completed vs. non-completed and affirmative vs. negative.
                        Affirmative         Negative
Uncompleted       おきます　　おきません
Completed       　おきました　おきませんでした
It's amazing how few this is and yet the language is still entirely comprehensible. The rule also seems highly regular. However, my teacher has hinted that the complexity of Japanese grammar lies not in its logical categories, but the societal form of address, which is incredibly interesting for both the language and the culture.

     I've also been thinking about the relation between Japanese and American culture. Before I considered Japan to be mostly an imitator, but now I'm seeing just how ahead of America it can be. I recently saw the movie Tokyo Drifter, a 60's Yakuza movie by Seijun Sezuki. The film is ostensibly a standard Yakuza tale of loyalty and betrayal, yet the whole aesthetic evokes rather a sense for stylish action. The nihilistic beauty of the action movie is its true theme, and one that doesn't truly enter into America until the films of Quentin Tarantino around 25 years later. You can see just how ahead of its time it was from its final scene:

It's also very interesting when Japanese culture manages to take American culture and participate in it. From New York to Japan, Hip Hop also continues to develop and improve:

こんばんにじうにねます。(I hope).

Why study Japanese?

I chose to study Japanese at Columbia for several different reasons. The first is that I've always been fascinated by Japanese culture. Something about the society, both modern and historic, has struck me as simply cool. When I went there 5 years ago, the trip was enough fun that I knew almost immediately I wanted to go back. I have also found Japanese ideas and philosophy to be incredibly interesting, as well as quite hard to understand. Zen and its conception of nothingness seem to have incredible depth. The Kyoto school also corresponded with Heidegger in the 1930's which makes that philosophy certainly worth reading, as Heidegger is a major interest of mine. I think that part of the barrier against my full understanding of these ideas may be that of language and culture. Thus learning Japanese is the first step to breaking this barrier. I've also always loved languages and literature in general, and Japanese is no exception. Finally I cannot learn Japanese in another context. Because it is so difficult, I need good teaching. Thus I hope to reach my goals and be able to engage in the culture through its literature, philosophy, and people.

いち

こんにちは。わたしのなまえはイサンです。わたしはコロンビアだいがくのだいがくせいです。わたしはにほんごのがくせいです。じゅはっさいです。ボットンからきました。ドオゾようろしく。