JLC- Mason Brianna

Reflection: For this report, I chose to do two informational picture books: one about swallowtail butterflies and the other about bread. I happen to really love animals and food topics, so I enjoyed reading both. After reflecting on the styles of the previous books- and the culture information around some of the types of bread in Japan- I found the latter to be almost a little too easy to read. It wasn't any less enjoyable, and I did learn information, but the book about bread actually seemed to mesh really well for me. On the other hand, a lot of the more niche vocabulary used in the butterfly story through me off and had me second guessing my intuition on what was happening in the book. This led to a little bit of frustration, but I carried on after some time to calm down, and I was able to read through it after a few tries. I appreciate that that happened even though at the time I was upset, because it helped me realize that there are times when it is appropriate to take a break...

 Reflection: While both of these stories might be considered picture books- and that does help when dealing with more unfamiliar vocabulary- the two have very different content. My first book in this investigation is about a man named John and his trip to Japan and what he does with a friend he meets on the plane there. My second book, however, is simply listing out information about bananas and their history with Japan. The first feels more like an actual story, since it revolves around daily life, and the second was surprisingly a little more confusing since the information actually started to blend together a little. While initially I thought that staying on one topic might be easier to understand, it was a little strange to find out that since the author goes into much more detail when speaking about the bananas, I found it was easier to get the information mixed up on my first read through.

Reflection: After learning about the culture variations when dealing with weather, I was excited to see quite a few contrasts to how things are taken in Japan verses where I am from. (For the purpose of this reflection, I am specifically comparing what I've learned about Japan and my own experiences of where I have lived/grown up.) The biggest difference that I've noticed is that when dealing with Japanese culture and its relation to weather is that Japan seems to have a much larger use of descriptors and association with more 'seasons'. Growing up in East Texas, no one really bothered to differentiate the seasons except with weather the plants were dead or alive and subsequently if it was hot/humid or bearably cool. Our summer season really took up the majority of the year and it never really got cold- enough so that if there were even minor flurries the schools would shut down because of power outages. Japan, with the excitement of very specific seasons and special fe...

Reflection: After reading an article about a Japanese salaryman who decided to break 'tradition' to help raise his child and take care of the home- eventually actively taking up the housework on the weekends, I feel split in regards to stereotypes and the complexities of different individual family values. My first gut reaction is to say that the patriarchal tendencies are a bit higher in Japanese society since that is what I've read, but I also see those views in most of the American counterparts I have had to witness. On the flip side, from what I've seen, it isn't less looked down upon but a little more fixated in the idea of single working mothers when dealing with America, but I also feel that might be simply do to exposure and I am not super comfortable delving into this topic without having more exposure in real life. That being said, when it comes to language, the structural differences in deference and retaining respect is quite a bit different. It is alway...

Reflection: When starting this project, our class split into two separate groups and singled out different parts of the song's lyrics for better understanding. By doing this, certain patterns became clear, and it was easier to answer questions at a later date. Out of three categories- katakana, kanji, and a mixture of kanji and hiragana- katakana seemed to be more prominent. While I recognized all but maybe two of the katakana for the different types of vegetables, I struggle with hearing it as 'English', so until there was some clue given for pictures, some were harder to guess. This included mostly ones related to greens. During our discussion I also realized that words normally written in hiragana were changed into katakana because the 'vegetables were speaking' and it mimicked how sounds are written, and it was interesting to see how heavy the use of listing for this particular song was.

  「しょどうの具」 こんいちはみんなさん！！元気ですか？ しょどうです！ しょうどの具は何ですか？文鎮と硯と下敷きがあります。筆と墨と半紙がありますね。 Reflection: I absolutely love Japanese calligraphy so this was a pleasure to write! I really enjoyed learning the kanji and names for the actual tools more in depth than what was in my previous classes, and it was nice to at least visually already understand what the elements are and what they do.