Job Discussion Forums

[AgentMulderUK]

I just wonder, does it drive anyone else nuts when Japanese people on TV seem continually amazed by anything.

"It's a fish!! SUGOI!!!"
"That's a really big carrot"
and outbursts of
"Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" at the slightest thing.

Their jaws seem to drop in amazement for any reason at all, however mundane! Know what I mean?


Half-seriously, I started to wonder if it's because maybe they have such uneventful and repetitive lives, but that's justs sounds like I'm being cynical..........

[kamome]

[Mike L.]

Look at the average Japanese life and there's your answer!

[shmooj]

Gee Mike... I met some Japanese whose lives made me go
eeeeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh they were so extreme. For starters, where else can you find professional hobby-ists?

Just cos they utter sugoi or oishii or eeeehhhhhhhhhhhhhh doesn't mean that's what they think - that's just what they say. You should have realised by now that what a Japanese says and thinks are almost always on two different planets, hence the similarities of everyone's responses and the general lack of adjectives in the langauge for daily use.

[Celeste]

Japanese does seem to have relatively few adjectives, but a wealth of specific nouns. (I am thinking of all the titles I know that mean some level of middle manager)

I asked a Japanese friend of mine about the fake excitement on tv thing and she told me that most of these programmes (cooking shows, travel shows, home reno shows, etc) were little more than infomercials and that the responses of the hosts were scripted and paid for by the sponsor companies. She is a bit of an intellectual and the principal of a school that I work at and she strongly encouraged me not to waste my time watching this drivel. I told her I wanted to improve my Japanese, and she said to me that I shouldn't do it by trying to sound like an idiot on tv. ( She speaks really good English and has quite a way with words.)

[Gordon]

[guest of Japan]

I'm pretty much in agreement with the last few posts. I for one find most Japanese TV to be painful, although I do enjoy occasional dramas. Strangely, I also often like the various SMAP programs. I've definitely been here too long.

[ryuro]

Hey all,

No offense shcmooj, but I like Mike L.'s comment about the typical Japanese life.

However, to be fair my home country (US of George W Bush A) has been in the throws (or should I say gutter) of reality TV mania for the better part of a decade now.

It's truly sad when you go home to visit and you can't even join in a converstaion because you haven't seen a single episode of 'Surburban Survivor' or whatever banal incarnation they're currently on.

When a society has 'evolved' (or should it be 'devolved'?) to the point where they've nothing better to do than to sit around and watch other people's "reality" on TV rather than going out and living their own reality- I say bring on the asteriods, plagues and poison monkey's! It's time for a global catastrophe to re-set our priorities.

Sorry, just a little tangent rant there.

Cheers,
ryuro

PS. the only redeeming show on US TV, IMO, is the Simpsons.

PPS. I AM NOT a George W Bush supporter!

[sidjameson]

Talking of responses. Anybody else have the experience of telling a story to a Japanese person and for them to go Eeeeeeeh way before you even get to the interesting fun part. I find it really disconcerting especially when I know that language ability is definitly not the issue.

"yesterday I got up"
"Eeeeeeeeh"
"went to the station"
"eeeeeeeeeeeeh"
"and the station had been blown up"
"Eeeeeh"

[Canuck2112]

When your hobbies are "sleeping" and "driving car", I imagine even the most trivial thing would elicit a deep, gutteral "SUGOII!".

[king kakipi]

[/quote]
However, to be fair my home country (US of George W Bush A) has been in the throws (or should I say gutter)

[guest of Japan]

Saying either throws or throes will be OK. It's the writing which presents a problem.

[Ailian]

[shmooj]

Well Mike L, Agent and Ryuro ... you must all simply have the most boring Japanese friends around.

I had a great bunch of friends and mundane and boring they certainly weren't. Routine they may have had, but interesting routine.

What you have posted here proves that Japan works and that, for you at least, sakoku is still in force. At least I made it to Dejima.

[shmooj]