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Showing posts from March, 2025

漫才-日本の伝統的なコメディ

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     Comedy frequently ranks among the most difficult concepts for a foreign language learner to grasp. So, this weekend I challenged myself by listening to a Japanese comedy performance. In the video, ナイツ - - - 「自己紹介」/『ナイツ独演会 其の二』より  the Japanese comedy duo (ナイツ) performs a routine in a traditional Japanese style known as まんざい (漫才) which relies on the exchange between two people for comedic effect.      From the performance title 「自己紹介」, I gathered that the comedy would be based on the each performer’s self-introduction. But the speed of the dialogue prevented me from effectively understanding the performers, let alone the jokes. Nevertheless, I observed that one of the two performers seemed to act expressively and whimsically. Meanwhile, the other performer, who maintained a more reserved demeanor, chastised his partner for comedic effect.      Interestingly, many jokes towards the end of the performance seemed to involve a Japanese so...

書道

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  The video 日本習字漢字部令和6年8月号行書課題「山遥かに不断の雲」, offered an interesting glimpse into the traditional Japanese art of calligraphy or shodou (書道) . In the video, an artist briefly explained the techniques for creating different strokes in shodou before demonstrating how to write the Kanji dan (断)、 fu (不)、 kumo (雲)、 haruka (遥)、and yama (山).  While observing the artist, it was interesting to see the subtle differences between shodou and standard techniques for writing Kanji. Although he consistently followed standard stroke order conventions, the artist frequently wrote two ordinarily separate strokes in a continuous movement of the brush. In fact, even when the artist lifted the brush from the paper entirely, he seemed to gradually move the brush along a continuous path without ever pausing abruptly. While I have typically admired the content of writing, it was striking to see how shodou makes an art of Japanese orthography itself. The painstaking attentiveness that shodou pr...

日本語のビデオプロジェクト

春休み

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  春休みを楽しみにしています。土曜日にひまですが、日曜日にバンドといっしょにひこうきでサウスベンドからノースカロライナ州のチャロレットというまちに行きます。 ノースカロライナ州でバスケットボールのしあいに行って バンドと音楽をえんそうします。 そして、かんこうしてみます。ひまな時、そして、しゅくだいをして数学や宗教をべんきょうします。 でも、春休みはとてもいそがしくてちょっとたいへんですから、私も休みます。 よんでくれてありがとうございます。すぐに会いましょうね。