Katakana Analysis Draft

In Japanese, titles seem to often be transliterated rather than translated. Looking at the Japanese version of the movie “Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai"  (ゴーストドッグ:ザウェイオブザサムライ), rather than putting “Ghost Dog” in Katakana and translating the rest (as Japanese items are titled in America), the whole title is translated. Thus even the English loan word from Japanese, “samurai,” is treated as a loan word from English. It seems then that the Japanese treat a whole title as a single unit. The movie “Le Samourai” operates on the same principle. According to amazon.jp, this French movie is titled “サムライ” written in katakana for the Japanese release. It is interesting that they dropped the article “le” when they kept “of” and “the” for Ghost Dog. Perhaps it is because Japanese requires no articles, and this one is not essential for the title as a whole. Either way, foreign titles do require katakana even where the word is one as familiar as さむらい. Finally, the album “Mecca and the Soul Brother” (メッカアンドザソウルブラザー) was also fully transliterated. However this does make more sense, since both “Mecca” and “Soul” are usually written in katakana according to various sources on the internet. This allows it to be clear that they are foreign and correctly associates the word “soul” with the foreign genre rather than the philosophical concept. 

In cases such as these, it still seems hard though to explain why exactly titles are transliterated rather than translated. It seems to be a purely cultural trend though, and thus cannot be properly explained anyway. Consider also that certain titles are often left untranslated in English, such as “Yojimbo” in all its releases. Transliteration both makes the object seem foreign and helps where there is no proper translation. Perhaps leaving the titles as they are helps to advertise the mystery of the West. Because katakana is so tied up with these complexities of culture, it is easy to see why the textbooks would have trouble explaining it. Katakana does not abide by any strict logical categories in a way which only those fluent in Japanese can appreciate.

Translation and Dialogue

もくようびにわたしはげきをみます。It was based on a dialogue between the German philosopher Martin Heidegger and a にほんのがくせい。They discuss the notion of いき, which Heidegger's previous student, Count くき had described using both Western Aesthetics and Traditional Japanese Philosophy. The dialogue and the play both deal heavily with how much the Eastern and Western mind can communicate, and the threat that Western culture and intellectual theory will destroy more traditional Japanese notions. くき could understand Heidegger, but Heidegger could not understand いき because they spoke only in German, never in Japanese. Heidegger and the にほんごのがくせい discuss many fundamental differences between the cultures, such as how a traditional play のう differs fundamentally from realistic Western cinema.

Part of why I am studying にほんご is the hope that I can get as close to Japanese culture as I can. いきとむ obviously are worth understanding, but Heidegger was unable to cross the border imposed by language. In order to be comprehensible, the dialogue would have to be in にほんご rather than German. Right now I am stuck thinking in English, only borrowing terms still foreign to me (such as in this very blogpost). I hope that I can get closer to these notions through becoming proficient at the language.

On a less serious note, I have discovered Nujabes. Nujabes Hip Hop producerです。He died tragically last year, but there is still quite a lot of great music he left behind.

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。