What’s up?
Yes its been awhile and yes I have just gotten a lesson in the importance of not only backing up your data, but then checking to make sure your data has actually been backed up….arrgghh!
Between work and the increased number and length of ballet practices I have had little time to write. So let me get you caught up what we have been doing….
What We are reading:
OK, here’s the dealio with this, I hate reading about what other people are reading. I don’t care. But last weekend my parents asked if Sachan always reads more than one book at a time. And the answer isyes, yes she does…and generally has at least two books in each language going at once. Right now she is reading a High School Musical book that is part of a series of short books (ok, 150 pages) that have the characters from the movies going through the rest of their insipid teenage lives; Pita no esu (Peter’s chair), which is about a boy gives his chair to his sister; an Angelina Ballerina book, something about the Rose Princess ballet; and then another Japanese book about a piano that is left in the woods and can only be played by those with special abilities, it’s a book based on a Gibli Studio movie. What? When you were seven you didn’t read books in multiple languages?
I am currently reading a fascinating book that looks at child language development, How Language Comes to Children: From birth to two years by Benedicte de Boysson-Bardies. I was prepared to hate this and disagree with vast portions of this book. However, it is immensely readable and does a really nice job of examining newer research being done on how language is learned and what infants can hear, comprehend and incorporate before they say their first word or develop their early vocabulary.
I am re-reading Dual Language Development and Disorders: A handbook on bilingualism and second language learning by Genesee, Paradis, and Crago for a book discussion thing I do with fellow speechies here in Tokyo. Sadly this reads like a textbook, but still has an interesting approach and goes into some depth on establishing a base language and schooling in a second language.
On a far less technical basis I am reading The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. This is a cross between Tuesdays with Maury, The Bucket List, and a poster I had in college entitled, “All I ever really needed to know I learned in Kindergarten.” Dr. Pausch, a tenured professor and life long geek, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, had a Whipple procedure, survived, then six months later found the cancer had metastasized to his liver and eventually lost his battle with cancer. The book is not about that. The book is about a lecture series Carnegie Mellon has called, The Last Lecture. Dr. Pausch gave one entitled, “Achieving your childhood dreams.” The book is based on his multiple success stories and the fact that he achieved most of his childhood dreams. Great read, highly recommended.
I have also started Rain Fall by Barry Eilser, a murder mystery that takes place in Tokyo and runs through a mess of jazz joints and music clubs. And speaking of music…
What we have been listening to:
I need to repost Eclectic Music Fridays, an old post that describes the so-called organization of music CDs at our local library. We went to the library last Wednesday when Sachan had a school holiday. I picked up Simon and Garfunkel’s pivotal Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme. While I know nearly all of the songs on this album, I have never listened to it front to back. I have no great desire to listen to “A simple desultory philippic” or “7 O’clock news/silent night” for my pure listening enjoyment, but within the context of the album, they are fascinating. I also picked up Olivia Newton John’s Album Have you Never been Mellow. Much to my amusement, Pam had never heard this song before. Pam NOW reports never having to hear this song again. This past weekend The Eagles Long Road out of Eden arrived (yes I am a bit behind). Can you imagine my mother’s thrill and confusion when I told her that she HAD to go to Walmart to get this album. Now don’t get me wrong, I dig that California sound, but what the heck is up with this album? The guys are so old now they can’t plug in their electric guitars and give me something with a pulse? I don’t need a “Life in the fast lane,” but I would like something with a bit more oumpff, I mean is something like “All night long” or HELLO! Joe Walsh, you are still in the band, how about a little “Life’s been good to me;” is that really too much to ask? I have recently gotten my hands on two cd’s that did rock my world. The first is Angela Aki’s 手紙 ～拝啓 十五の君へ～. I don’t usually find J-pop (Japanese pop music) to have any redeeming characteristics other than to be good for the occasional laugh. But this Italian/Japanese artist with her Lisa Loeb-like glasses and Nora Jones piano playing style, caught my attention. Her piano playing is largely soft jazz in nature and great for background music while writing. Less Mellow is Amy Winehouse’s Back in Black. (Yes, I know, again, two years behind) This chick scares me! But I do like her voice and music. How many famous female singers have a voice that qualifies as contralto? Who has a voice like that? I am asking, who? I mean Billie Holiday had that same depth, multi layered complexity to her voice. Its like listening to the baritone voice of Brad Robert’s of Crash Test Dummies. Amy though takes the whole chick angst complaint rock to a new level. And I respect that…but she still scares me.
What we have been watching
Speaking of chicks that I find attractive yet scared to death of: I saw Wanted this weekend. What is it about Angelina Jolie? She exudes charisma…in a frightening “both me and my husband, whom I stole, can kick your ass” kind of way. My favorite part of the movie? That her name is “Fox.” Morgan Freeman is solid; but when’s the last time you saw him in a movie and thought, “man he really mailed that one in?” Always solid, always compelling. And the McAvoy guy is solid and convincing in his role. Unfortunately his “condition” was a foregone conclusion, but maybe that is because Rick Riodan uses this idea in his Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. There is supposed to be a grand plot twist (complete with an actual cliff hanger) but I think even the slowest subtitle reading Japanese audience member saw it coming. Given the plot line and the amazing special effects, is it wrong that I want a solid story line? Or am I just expecting too much from Hollywood movies based on comic books? (excuse me, graphic novels.) On the other hand, I can’t wait to see Red Cliff…that looks intense.
While I watched Angelina get waxed, Pam and Sachan went to see the new Hayao Miyazaki film, Gake no ue no Ponyo, literally “Ponyo on a Cliff.” Apparently, much to the glee of her friends, Sachan can raise the pitch of her voice to sound exactly like Ponyo. This pitch is a third off the pitch needed to shatter glass. I would tell you more but lets be honest, this is not Spirited Away and you won’t be renting this.
We started to watch Forgetting Sarah Marshall. This movie was purchased because Kristen Bell, who starred in Veronica Mars is in it. As added bonuses Jason Segal from How I met your mother and Mila Kunis from That 70′s show are in it. The directors are the same guys that did 40 year old virgin, which we thought was quite funny. I will let you know when we finish watching this, which won’t be anytime soon. Apparently they forgot to give Kristen a script, hoping that her walking around in bikini would be enough (this makes the first half hour worth watching.) Its Mila that steals every scene she is in, having grown up nicely since her 70′s show days.
Speaking of TV shows, Pam and I are currently watching season two of Grey’s Anatomy (yes , three years behind). But we know nothing about what happens and we get to watch an episode every evening…being anachronistic has its benefits. While there are many technically erroneous points about life in a hospital, it is highly entertaining. Watching a show or movie with Pam though always has an extra bit of excitement. Pam does this thing that I used to find somewhat annoying and very bewildering; now, with old age, it amuses me greatly. Pam likes to, and is extremely good at, spotting guest stars and tertiary characters and stating what shows or movies they have been in. So last night we were watching season two, episode 14, “Tell me sweet little lies” and Carole Cook plays an old lady trying to avoid being discharged from the hospital because she doesn’t want to go to a nursing home. Who is Carole Cook, you ask? WELL, there were a variety of wrong answers put forth by both of us…and then it happened: Pam announced, “It’s Grandma Helen from 16 Candles.” Sure enough, Carole Cook, was the cigarette smoking, Molly Ringwald feeling up, grandmother from 16 Candles. I can still see her taking a knife, cutting the tab and opening a box of donuts and saying, “Wha-la, breakfast is served!”
What we are eating…
Speaking of donuts, Pam and Sachan got up at 6 am Saturday morning and stood in line to get Krispy Kreme donuts. There are now 7 Krispy Kreme donut shops in Japan. Pam went over to the original one in Shinjuku. She was there before they opened…and there was already a line. Apparently Krispy Kreme donuts have medicinal properties, or at least serve as a hangover cure. For the record, if you find yourself at the Krispy Kreme Donut shop on a Saturday morning and if you find yourself standing behind a drunk guy, it is OK to step over him when he passes out. And for the record, he will apologize for passing out when he comes to.
Sachan had an outing yesterday which means I had to get up and fix her an obento. She wanted onigiri, so I had to fix rice and broil salmon for her…at six am in the morning. I had forgotten how much I hate making obentos. I really need to dig up that old, old tale about how I used to make Sachan’s obento.
It’s kaki season here in Japan, which means Sachan has been busy eating persimmons (kaki in Japanese). It also means last night we went to our favorite tonkatsu restaurant (deep fried breaded pork cutlet). When in season they have oysters on the menu. Oysters are also called kaki in Japanese, but the kanji is different. Man I do love me some fresh oysters, heavily breaded and then deep fried…yum, yum, yum.
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Comments
One more thing, I plan to repost the Eclectic Music Friday post as well as the obento post in the coming week.
Brian, Just ordered the bilingual book- yes it is 3am here. Don’t ask me why I’m up!
Gary and I saw the movie “Fireproof” with Kirk Cameron and really enjoyed it! He got evil with his wife- quite a stretch for him. Since Sherwood Films is a low-budget group (they also made “Facing the Giants”), the special effects are minimal but the few that are there are quite astounding, considering there were no stunt doubles.
We are reading The Shack, So You Don’t Want to go go Church Anymore, and The Last Jihad (Joel Rosenburg), plus I’m getting ready to delve into Sarah Palin’s biography just for a lark.
And try this for musical updates: trapped in a car, the helpless driver, for five hours (down and back to the in-laws)with teen daughter forcing you to listen to her lime-wire-ladened ipod- I don’t even know if there is a word for that kind of torture…
Margaret,
Thanks for the comment. I keep thinking about writing something about bilingualism. Had a meeting recently with the speechies here. There is always the issue of “where is the line?” That infamous line between where is a language problem start/stop and a REAL speech/language start? The Dual Language book goes into learning the whole socio-economic thing of learning a minority language or a primary language as your second language. A lot of the speechies here found that interesting…they had apparently skipped that day of their linguistic classes while in grad school. The bigger issue we find ourselves running into (and we personally are dealing with) is the ability of the parents to adequately suppport (academically, psychologically, emotionally, culturally) BOTH languages. I preparing a speech for teachers at a International school next month. Have decided to add a section on this topic. While its a major issue, I haven’t (at least in the speechie based literature) seen a lot on this.
Brian- I think there is info on that point of your speech as it relates to additive language acquisition in the area of ESL; however, since this is a field in education, most of the “research” is squishy-soft qualitative instead of quantitative. Need help finding such flimsy research???
M
PS would love to peruse your speech before or after you give it!
Mags,
Curse those soft education researchers! And then I have the linguistic and psych development folks that do hard research, and then conclude everyone CAN do everything. Which is great…unless you work in my field and see that they can’t. You want to preview the speech? Guess that means I need to write the darn thing! …adding write speech to my TO DO list now…
You can find two other tales about donuts on the site: http://talesfromjapan.com/2008/10/12/doughnutsetal/ and http://talesfromjapan.com/2008/10/12/whats-it-worth/ .
The first link is to one of the first tales I wrote. What it’s worth was written last year. Both are currently listed on the home page.
Enjoy!