#Japanese student

[imareticentpotatoe]

Now it's hard to recall, but this is how I used to feel, that time (2022-2024) when I allowed the sea to swallow me.

Image by: @hiromu-maru

[d0llpartssss]

Hiiiii

I haven't done my makeup in a while and felt cute lol!! It's so weird I'm not used to looking this fem LMAOO

And also I am not gyaru. I love love love gals and their makeup, style etc and I recreate it but I'm masc most of the time loll

[my-plastic-life]

Today's Monday 4 Dolls theme on Instagram is "Back To School!" There are some school districts that don't start the new school term until after Labor Day. My area starts in mid-August and ends in mid-May. In Japan, the school year starts in April. During the hot months of August, students get a break from school and go right back in September, which begins the second term. We have two students back in high school now, hard at work! Looks like they're doing math, eek! They're both wearing their uniforms, and the shoes on their feet are specifically designed to only be worn indoors. Yes, that's a thing - there are shoes to only be worn inside the school. There is also a special pair of shoes to be worn only during gym class. In the background, you can see the second chalkboard (a common sight in Japanese classrooms) and bulletin boards with information about upcoming club tournaments, a cultural festival, and student council elections.

Fun facts: Almost all Japanese classrooms look the same. There are windows on the left of the desks that face the schoolyard and windows on the right of the desks that face the hallway. There is a big chalkboard in the front of the room (yes, schools in Japan do not use dry erase boards!), and a smaller one in the back used for things like reminders, cleaning duties, etc. Many times, some artistic students will draw pictures on this chalkboard.

There are no janitors in Japanese schools. The students all clean their own schools. Elementary and junior high school kids also have rotating duties to distribute school lunch in the classroom. High schoolers and some middle schoolers tend to bring their own lunch from home in a bento box.

Here in the U.S., middle school and high school gives us different teachers for different subjects. In Japan, it works like our elementary schools - students get one teacher per grade, so they stay in the same classroom for the entire school year.

Japanese students in middle school and high school, and in some elementary schools, are required to wear uniforms.

There are no school buses in Japan. Students, even young children, travel to school by themselves via public transportation or on foot. Some who live a certain distance away may also ride a bike.

And that concludes today's cultural lesson! Class dismissed!

Hard at work:

Yikes, this looks very difficult:

"Who do you think will be named student council president?"

Clean-up time! This is the proper method of cleaning the classroom - stack the chairs on top of the desks and move them to the back of the room to thoroughly clean the floor:

[fun-time-with-miri]

screen shots from a whats-in-my-bag video i watched everyday lol.. i would link it but i believe the creator deleted the video (T ^ T)

[impishcupid]

今日は小さな勝利！私は二ヶ月間日本語を勉強してきましたが、今日、参考書を使わずに初めての文を読むことができました。通常、私はひらがな/カタカナを書面によるガイドで確認します（私はまだひらがなを読むことができません）。今日の宣告は「大丈夫ですか？」でした！

「しかし、次のように書かれていました。いいっすか」

[nappeumkkum]

Japanese student moment

When you dont know kanji, you've never see it before but you write in right strokes order. 素晴らしい日本語学者 *SPARKLES*

[sleep-deprived-luka]

Vbs a Christmas Carol, for reasons I can no longer explain

[yuwuta]

please feed us some yuuji blurbs there’s a lack of him rn :(

ofc… sweetest boy all time… here’s something was was meant to be a longer project but got lost in the editing whirlwind… love him so bad... 

NEVER LOST IN TRANSLATION, BECAUSE YOU KNOW WHAT I WANT 

notes: reader is implied to be american/english-speaking, yuuta and megumi are bilingual, yuuji, bless his soul, is not. i didn’t use italics for conversations between yuuji and megumi because it would all be in japanese, but when they get mixed later in the scene, japanese is differentiated with italics. hope that’s not too confusing lololll

Honestly, Yuuji tried his best in school. Some things came easier than other, but with a bit of hard work, and help from his friends, he always managed to pull pretty good grades. But right now, his biggest regret is not taking english more seriously in high school, because it’s been about three weeks since he met you, and he’s only been able to say maybe five full sentences to you without the help of Yuuta or Megumi translating. 

He was excited when Yuuta said his friend from abroad would be coming to visit and study, but god, he didn’t expect you to be so pretty. To have such pretty eyes, and pretty lips, and pretty hair, to have the prettiest voice in the world despite him only understanding every eighteenth word you say. You’re beautiful to him, and Yuuji thinks that even if he could speak your language fluently, the words would still get caught in his throat. He’s so lovesick, it’s embarrassing—his friends have been harping on him blushing and stuttering over you for the past month, and he can’t even blame them.

“What does she say to you when you guys talk,” Yuuji whines, hovering around Megumi, and not-so-discreetly looking back at you where you’re still sat in the living room laughing with Yuuta, “Does she ever say anything about me? I mean—probably not right? Which is fine! Actually, dont tell me—no, do. Or maybe—”

“She asks about you,” Megumi says, matter-of-fact in delivery, as he places a bag of popcorn in the microwave, but that doesn’t curb Yuuji’s enthusiasm. He’s practically bouncing, if he weren’t already—begging Megumi to spill the details, “What did she ask? Tell me! Tell me!” 

“She once asked if you dye your hair.”

“That’s it?!” Yuuji screams, heartbroken, and visibly deflating.

Megumi shrugs, “Yuuta probably knows more. She’s his exchange buddy friend thing, so ask him.”

“I can’t ask him, he’s right next to her!” Yuuji pouts, “Wait, what does ‘exchange buddy friend thing’ mean? You don’t think they’re more than friends, right…? I can’t blame her, senpai is really pretty, too, and he can actually talk to her… so unfair.” 

“You know, she’s not fluent, but she can understand some Japanese,” Megumi reminds him, “So, she can definitely hear you, and probably understand you.”

Yuuji’s shoulders slump, and once again, he turns around to look back at you. This time, you two make eye-contact, and that instant, Yuuji’s cheeks go pink, a nervous hand raised to wave at you, and instant internal regret at his actions; but, then you smile, and wave back, and Yuuji stays like that, dumbfounded and lovestruck and on autopilot as he waves with hearts in his eyes until Yuuta looks up from his phone and catches him.

Embarrassing. He knows he’s not the brightest, but he’s at a record high of self-embarrassment since he’s met you.

Yuuta finds himself chuckling when Yuuji spins around and goes back to prodding Megumi with questions. When you turn to face him again, it’s with a shy smile.

“I told you you’d like him,” Yuuta grins—the kind that seems sweet and innocent, but has just a kiss of that all-knowing tease to it; the kind that reminds you that he’s truly related to Satoru.

“Oh, be quiet,” you grumble, tucking your legs in and resting your chin on your knee. You spare another glance in Yuuji’s direction, for once, grateful for the language barrier between the two of you, when you turn back to Yuuta to proclaim: “I can like someone and not do anything about it. You’re real good at that, aren’t you?”

Yuuta’s slightly cocky grin falls into a scowl, and now you get to smile when he argues back, “We said not to bring up he who shall not be named in the presence of my friends!”

“Then don’t bring up my he who shall not be named in the presence of him!”

“Aren’t Americans all about forging new frontiers and chasing after your dreams?” he taunts, “Well, your dream is right in front of you.”

“My dream right now is to kill you.”

“Lucky for me, you’re going to have to hold off on that because your lover boy is approaching.”

You don’t have time to argue back with Yuuta when Megumi and Yuuji approach the living area with snacks in tow. Yuuta scoots to the tail end of the couch under the guise of giving Yuuji space to place the popcorn and nuggets in the center of the coffee table, but he has just enough time to flash you a wink before Yuuji settles in between. Megumi opts for the loveseat closets to Yuuta’s end of the couch, and you do your best not to reach over Yuuji and strangle Yuuta.

The boys decide on watching a movie you’ve never heard of, but Megumi reassures you it’ll be easy to follow and has English subtitles. You don’t mind, settling in to your corner of the couch with a handful of popcorn just as the title-screen for Human Earthworm 3 rolls across the TV.

You can follow along well-enough—even without subtitles, you get the gist of the movie. What you really find entertaining is Yuuji, who occasionally blurts out a comment or exclamation, or audibly coos whenever something sad is happening on screen. He’s almost as animated as the characters; you’re more of the silent-watcher type, but you find yourself endearing by this commentary, even if you can only understand parts of it.

You particularly appreciate the way that after every comment, he either motions to Megumi, or turns to you himself to repeat his thoughts in his best broken English, and even when you don’t understand his words, you understand him. His emotions are all on his sleeve: frustration, happiness, confusion, curiosity—communication between you two should be more difficult, but Yuuji makes it easy.

It gives you the confidence you cough out your own observation, “You, um… you’ve… seen the others? You seem to like this series.”

Across the room, Megumi and Yuuta hold their breaths, opting to not translate for you when you switch from Japanese to English. Yuuji is quiet for a moment, turned to face you with a slightly confused look on his face that makes you nervous, until his eyes brighten up and he smiles and begins nodding fervently—“Yeah—yeah, I do! It’s my… hm how do I say it… Oh! It’s my favorite!”

Between the smile on his face, the blush on his cheeks, and sincerity in his voice, you feel like you’re wrapped up in his world. It’s a little confusing, and scary, but it’s not all that bad. Maybe you can do something about it, eventually.

“I.. I think I like it, too.”

[expiationist]

— political culture of east asia notes

[thelailasblog]

[lottiestudying]

15.09.2024—planning for the upcoming week. this year is going so fast

[elizabugz]

[mochayoubi]

one of my students shared this cool website where you can drill yourself on japanese conjugations: link

i looked at it myself and you can mess with options to choose if you want verbs, adjectives, which conjugations you want to practice, if you want furigana, etc. there's a bunch of stuff

[ryllen]

[lauralearns]

learning the basics 📚

(yet again)

(this time i won't abandon the language istg 🥲)

[yzhiche]

　　　　　　　세상은 chocolate 삼키자, so sweet