Summer term is [cursed] bestowed upon a handful of us [not so] lucky daigaku no gakusei 大学の学生 (college students). But anyway, I’m not entirely cursing this summer term for taking away my precious drama-watching, spazzing, lazing and nihongo-benkyou time because I’d still be able to have my dose of Nihongo Benkyou 日本語勉強(Japanese language study) while at the university.

Hai! I took JSP1 (Japanese Language and Culture I) as my foreign language elective. This is one of the 3 subjects that we’re supposed to complete this summer term. It covers the first 5 lessons of the Genki I textbook. Now, don’t scoff at me for taking this self-study-able subject. I seriously need an A or an A to pull up my [predicted] Statistics grade. Besides, taking this subject would probably give back a third of my stolen precious drama-watching, spazzing, lazing and nihongo-benkyou time.

That’s it for now. For anything else, you can follow me on Twitter and [please stalk me] on Plurk.

I was born and raised a Filipino. To be honest, I’ve never set foot in any of the countries whose cultures I learned to love but I do love the cultures anyway and because of this, it was inevitable for people to question my love for my own country.

In an English class in my university, we were tasked to write a reflective paper with a common theme among our own groups. My group decided to have “The Filipino Identity” as our binding theme. How ironic. I am one whose “Filipino Identity” could not be seen by people who think I’ve forgotten all about it due to my very obvious liking for the Korean and Japanese culture. My fascination for other cultures clouded my “Filipino Identity.”

I think it’s time to clear things up.

My reflective paper: I Do Not Smell Like Raw Fish

NIHONGO TANGO:

韓国 (kankoku)

n – (South) Korea.

* “Raw fish” is a rough translation of malansang isda or putrid fish in English. It came from the Filipino proverb: Ang hindi marunong magmahal sa sariling wika, daig pa ang hayop at malansang isda. (He who does not love his native language is worse than a beast or a putrid fish.)

* The post header shows my name in Alibata ( Tagalog script which isn’t used anymore, by the way), Hangul (Korean alphabet), and of course, Katakana.

So desu. If you still haven’t seen the obvious, this blog was made by me (see profile box on the right) for the simple purpose of documenting every effort I make to become closer to the culture I really really really like. Of course, I wouldn’t have done this in blog form if I didn’t have another honest intention of sharing what I learn, think of and like to others… like you! ^^

I’m not expecting everyone to like the Asian culture or the Japanese culture in particular but knowing that I’ve made people see more of it can already make me squeal like a fangirl… KYAAA!!

Okay, that was quite scary but seriously, wouldn’t it be wonderful if people knew more than sushi, Rain or Pokemon? ^^

NIHONGO TANGO:

新しい (atarashii)

adj-i - new. (JLPT 4)