Khaos

Speaking at YAPC::NA 2008

The schedule for YAPC::NA has been announced. I already knew that my talk had been accepted but I really wasn’t expecting to be the first speaker of the conference. I’m already feeling nervous but at least speaking at the start allows me to relax for the rest of it.

日本語のブログ

今日は日本語のレッスンがありました。大畑先生は日本語のブログを書き始めたほうがいいと言いました。おもしろいでしょうね!

4 Responses to “日本語のブログ”

  1. Barbie Says:

    アランコックスをすることを計画しているあるか。

  2. Norwin Says:

    Will there be a translation of this posting for the philistine gaijin who have not taken the time to learn Japanese?
    Or are you talking about us!!

  3. karen Says:

    I wasn’t planning on translating it – but I can.

    Japanese Blogging

    Today I had a Japanese lesson. My Japanese teacher, Ms. Ohata, said that it would be good for me to start to write my blog in Japanese. This should be fun!

    (I’m not sure how to write sarcastically in Japanese yet…)

  4. Norwin Says:

    Ahh! Now I see her cunning plan. She wants to drum up more business for the International Union of Japanese Tutors, by making all of your blog readers learn Japanese.
    Very clever…

Karaoke Time

Over the past year we have dragged lots of our guests out to Big Echo to take part in the Japanese pastime of karaoke singing. The ability to have a private room makes it much easier to encourage people to sing and also means that we don’t have to listen to strangers crooning strange Japanese songs. This, however, doesn’t protect us from hearing our friends sing strange foreign songs.

When Geoff visited last year he had taken the time to learn a song in Japanese. I was very impressed. I have been here over a year and only recently managed to get the whole way through an Angela Aki song without stumbling badly over the words. So far I haven’t tried to do this in front of any of my Japanese friends. Though I do sing in Japanese for my language teacher – but then the Japanese version of “Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer” is a bit easier than an Ayumi song. Marty can’t sing Japanese songs. Once he makes a mistake he stops dead and gets completely lost. But still it’s amusing to listen to him try.

At the weekend Tony impressed us by singing the Romanian song “Dragostea Din Tei”. He also managed to find the Holly Dolly song “Dolly Song” but the “lyrics” were only written in katakana and none of us have a hope of reading it that quickly.

It is always good fun but sometimes we spend more time laughing than singing. Andrew’s version of “Take on Me” was probably much more amusing than it was supposed to be. I don’t think he realised that Morton Harket had such a wide range and watching Andrew raise his eyebrows in a vain attempt to hit the high notes certainly made me laugh. I think though that the funniest performance so far has been Norwin’s version of “Wuthering Heights”. I really does have to be seen to be believed.

One Response to “Karaoke Time”

  1. Norwin Says:

    The funniest performance??
    After I put my heart and soul into it, summoning the very spirit of Kate Bush!!
    I don’t know whether to be flattered or offended!
    I think I’ll pick flattered 😀

The Joys of Spring

Now that it’s getting warmer the insects are coming back. Last night I saw our first jumping spider and tonight, whilst washing the dishes, I heard a cricket outside. (Now that Andrew has gone back home I have to wash my own dishes again).

Unfortunately the ants never really went away. The ants like house guests. House guests leave cups and plates on the table and more people eating means more crumbs dropped on the floor for the ants to find. House guests also managed to find food that the ants really liked – little sealed cups of jelly that brought the ants out in droves. So that even after cleaning the table with bleach my Japanese teacher was able to teach me the counter for creatures by counting the ants walking over my Japanese text books…

3 Responses to “The Joys of Spring”

  1. cog Says:

    Oh no… There are jumping spiders in Tokyo? :-\

  2. karen Says:

    Yes – but they are cute and tiny 🙂

    There is another bug that I really can’t stand and I seem to remember they had a fondness for you in Houston…

    Hopefully your friend the cockroach doesn’t make an appearance this year!

  3. cog Says:

    they are cute

    A cute spider? I don’t think I’ve ever seen that… 🙂

Biggest YAPC Ever?

YAPC::Asia is really popular this year. At the minute there are 448 people who will be attending and there was an announcement made recently saying that another 50 tickets will go on sale sometime this week. The final schedule hasn’t been released yet but I am looking forward to hearing Schwern give his “Perl is Dead” keynote.

Happy Birthday Sarah!

It’s my little sister’s birthday today. She really hates the fact that she was born on April Fool’s Day.

Sarah in Japan