JLC- Mason Brianna

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.

 「私のしゅみ」 こんいちはみんなさん！はじめまして。 私はブリアナ・メイソンです。Gladstone に住んでいます。英語と少し日本語が話せます。学生です。MCC とKansas City Art Instituteで勉強していますよ。私のしゅみはかんじの心を書くことです。行書が好きです。それはおおいに楽しいです！ Reflections: Over the time of working on these various blogs/other formats of writing, I am starting to be taken a little less off guard when it comes to sentence structure. I am still learning, and even though some intricacies with grammar are different (or feel that way), I honestly am starting to believe it is simply because even when learning English, I never really paid much attention to 'why' something was done and more that it just felt better that way. This mindset is why I think it is feeling so complicated at times, because I am trying to rationalize in a way my brain doesn't like. I think this mindset might aid me in Japanese- the trial by error method if you will- and am thinking about trying as much in a class setting.