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Brun_Ugle flies again (TAC 2012 team い)

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Brun Ugle
Diglot
Senior Member
Norway
brunugle.wordpress.c
Joined 6432 days ago

1292 posts - 1766 votes 
Speaks: English*, NorwegianC1
Studies: Japanese, Esperanto, Spanish, Finnish

 
 Message 137 of 276
03 June 2012 at 10:49am | IP Logged 
And one more to be ignored.

歩いても歩いても (Still Walking)

I watched 歩いても歩いても (Still Walking) 3 times. First without subs, and understood a few words: “mom,” “dad,” “good morning,” “radish, “butterfly.” However I felt I got the gist of it. Though I realized after watching it with subtitles that my «gist» was probably based entirely on what I’d read on the back of the box. After watching with subtitles, I was able to pick up a bit more when I watched without subtitles again.

The movie is about family relationships: expectations and disappointments, idealizing the dead, resentments, etc. The family all gather at the parents’ house by the sea every year on the anniversary of the death of the oldest son, Junpei. In the parents’ eyes, Junpei was perfect. He was a doctor like his father, which is the only occupation the parents consider worthy. He drowned some years ago while saving a child. The parents resent this boy for causing the death of their beloved son. “Why did he have to save that boy? It wasn’t even his own child.”

The second son, Ryota is a big disappointment for his parents. HE did not become a doctor, and now he has married a widow with a child. He is also unemployed at the moment, but hides this fact from his parents. They don’t seem to be able to accept his wife or the child. The mother often says things that seem almost nice, like compliments, but under the surface is poorly hidden resentment.

The sister seems to be accepted. She is simply their daughter and is treated pretty much like one would expect.

The mother is bitter and longs for her dead son. She almost seems to worship him. He was perfect in her eyes as no one else can be. She seems to punish the second son for not being Junpei. She is unable to overcome the sorrow of losing him. She can’t move on with her life, and won’t let anyone else move on either.

The father is a grumpy old man. His second son is a great disappointment to him because he didn’t become a doctor. The father is old and walks with a cane, but holds his head high, proud of the respect his title still gives him. Yet underneath is the sadness and feeling of loss as he knows he can no longer really be a doctor. When the neighbor has a heart attack, and calls for his help, he has to tell them to call an ambulance. He is clearly ashamed that he can no longer do the work that gave him his high status. When the woman is being taking to the ambulance, he keeps saying, “I’m a doctor,” but the ambulance people tell him to get out of the way and he ends up standing on the side-lines like the other neighbors. He is no longer “Doctor.” He is just an ordinary person.

At one point the child Junpei saved, now an adult, comes to the house. He is fat, sweaty and awkward. He only has a part-time job working for a company that makes ads for supermarkets, a field that the family has no respect for. Every year, they invite him, and because of the Japanese tradition of respect and politeness, he has to come. Every year he has to thank them and apologize for being alive and causing the death of their son. After he leaves, they make rude comments about him. “Did you see how fat he was?” “He ate two servings of the dessert he brought.” “Did you hear how awkwardly he thanked us?” “One of his socks was dirty.” Ryota feels sorry for him. He asks his mother, “Can’t you let him go? Do you really have to invite him every year?” But the mother says, “I suffer every day over the loss of Junpei. For even just one day of the year, I want him to suffer like I do. It’s his fault Junpei is dead.”

Anyway, I’m not usually good at sitting through movies, so the fact that I watched this one three times in a row says a lot for the quality of the movie. And if that’s not enough, after returning it to the library the next day, I was quite disappointed that I couldn’t watch it again. I definitely recommend watching it, and I’m planning to buy it myself.
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Brun Ugle
Diglot
Senior Member
Norway
brunugle.wordpress.c
Joined 6432 days ago

1292 posts - 1766 votes 
Speaks: English*, NorwegianC1
Studies: Japanese, Esperanto, Spanish, Finnish

 
 Message 138 of 276
03 June 2012 at 10:56am | IP Logged 
And finally, an update:

Log for 2012.05.20 - 2012.06.02 inclusive

Reviewing the Kanji: Time = 1:23. Added 10 new kanji. I’ve been really letting this slide. I probably have a million cards due by now.

Reading: Time = 46:13. I’m starting to realize how crazy long those Harry Potter books really are.

Listening/movies: Time = 5:42. Fabulous movie. See the previous post for my review.

iKnow: Time= 12:24.
     
Total for period: 65 hr, 41 min
Total since start of TAC 2012: 605 hr, 41 min
Total since I started keeping track (2011.11.06): 800 hr, 3 min

Only 1388 hours, 27 minutes and 2 seconds to go ;-)

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Brun Ugle
Diglot
Senior Member
Norway
brunugle.wordpress.c
Joined 6432 days ago

1292 posts - 1766 votes 
Speaks: English*, NorwegianC1
Studies: Japanese, Esperanto, Spanish, Finnish

 
 Message 139 of 276
10 June 2012 at 9:31am | IP Logged 
Here’s a good one from Heisig:

金融 means “finance.” It’s made up of the kanji 金 which Heisig calls “gold,” and 融 which Heisig calls “dissolve.” So "gold dissolves."

After the financial crisis, I think many people probably agree with Heisig on this one.

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Brun Ugle
Diglot
Senior Member
Norway
brunugle.wordpress.c
Joined 6432 days ago

1292 posts - 1766 votes 
Speaks: English*, NorwegianC1
Studies: Japanese, Esperanto, Spanish, Finnish

 
 Message 140 of 276
15 June 2012 at 8:53am | IP Logged 
I just got called in for a JOB INTERVIEW! I'm all aflutter. The interview is on Wednesday. Hopefully it will be a job without sociopaths in management, though I suppose it would be best not to ask that in the interview.

I don't know what the pay will be, but I imagine the base salary it will be the same or probably a bit higher than what I have now. We are paid very badly at the company where I work now. It seems to be part of their strategy. Get some grunts in to do most of the work, pay them terribly and when they move on to better jobs a few years later, get in some new grunts. Every year 10 % or more quit. This year it's already up to 10 % and the year is only half gone.

Even if the base salary is higher, I will still get less in total, because there won't be any overtime. But since it is a government job, it comes with a fat pension, and you have to count that when calculating the pay. Also, the hours are shorter -- only 7.5 hours per day instead of 8. So I imagine, if one calculates the hourly wage, including those things, it's quite a bit higher even in total.

The job is at the hospital in Levanger, so it means I won't have to spend 40 minutes on the train each way to get to my treatments. That was a problem with my current job. I felt guilty for being away half the day on those days. And Levanger is a quieter town than Steinkjer plus my few friends live in that area, so I might see them once in a while.

All in all, it seems like a great job. The only negatives are that it is a great drop in status and the job is only for three years. However, once I get my foot in the door, I should be able to get something else there when this runs out - maybe even advance up the ladder. My background and experience is probably much better than most of the people I will be working with, so there is probably a reasonably good chance for advancement.


Edited by Brun Ugle on 15 June 2012 at 8:54am

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Sunja
Diglot
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Germany
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1 sounds
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 Message 141 of 276
15 June 2012 at 8:09pm | IP Logged 
Sounds great! It's nice to see somebody climbing the ladder. Good luck on Wednesday!
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fortheo
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4848 days ago

187 posts - 222 votes 
Studies: French

 
 Message 142 of 276
16 June 2012 at 8:45am | IP Logged 
Good luck with your job! good ones are hard to come by now a days.

Don't feel too bad about slacking on reviewing the kanji, chances are that you get a decent review from reading harry potter :)

Quote:
I watched 歩いても歩いても (Still Walking) 3 times. First without subs, and understood a few words: “mom,” “dad,” “good morning,” “radish, “butterfly.” However I felt I got the gist of it. Though I realized after watching it with subtitles that my «gist» was probably based entirely on what I’d read on the back of the box. After watching with subtitles, I was able to pick up a bit more when I watched without subtitles again.


lol the same thing happens to me, except I am even more oblivious too it. I will watch a show i have seen a hundred times and be like " wow, i am really understanding this "

then i watch a new show and understand about 20% :/

Anyways, you seem to be doing good. Keep it up!
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Brun Ugle
Diglot
Senior Member
Norway
brunugle.wordpress.c
Joined 6432 days ago

1292 posts - 1766 votes 
Speaks: English*, NorwegianC1
Studies: Japanese, Esperanto, Spanish, Finnish

 
 Message 143 of 276
16 June 2012 at 9:51am | IP Logged 
Sunja wrote:
Sounds great! It's nice to see somebody climbing the ladder. Good luck on Wednesday!


Actually, getting this job will be more like falling off the ladder, but I know I'll never get anywhere in my current job, so maybe it will be better to just find a new ladder. Also, once you get a job in the government, you can pretty much stay there for life if you want too. Insiders have first dibs on new jobs in the same organization and I am pretty good at what I do (even if the sociopath at work seems to think I'm too dumb to tie my own shoelaces), so I think there is a possibility for me to move up in the future. But first, I have to get the job.
1 person has voted this message useful



Brun Ugle
Diglot
Senior Member
Norway
brunugle.wordpress.c
Joined 6432 days ago

1292 posts - 1766 votes 
Speaks: English*, NorwegianC1
Studies: Japanese, Esperanto, Spanish, Finnish

 
 Message 144 of 276
16 June 2012 at 10:13am | IP Logged 
fortheo wrote:
Good luck with your job! good ones are hard to come by now a days.


Actually, Norway doesn't seem to be affected much by the financial crisis, though the company I work for keeps using that as an excuse for not paying us more.

The only effects I've really noticed are:

My mutual funds haven't been doing well, but that's not a problem since I'm buying, not selling. So I'm buying low and hopefully when I start selling in 30 years or so, I can sell high.

Also, interest rates are generally very low. The interest rate on my student loan is only somewhere between 2%-3%. Funnily enough, I was able to find a bank willing to give me 4 %, so I'm earning money by not paying more than necessary on my loan.


fortheo wrote:

lol the same thing happens to me, except I am even more oblivious too it. I will watch a show i have seen a hundred times and be like " wow, i am really understanding this "

then i watch a new show and understand about 20% :/

Anyways, you seem to be doing good. Keep it up!


The thing that really gets me, is that the very first time I listened to the Harry Potter audio book, I was able to understand most of it without difficulty. And yet, when I try to watch a movie, all I catch is "radish." It seems weird. I suppose maybe I'm just imagining that I understand Harry Potter. It might be that I'm only catching a few words and since I know the book so well, I automatically know what they are talking about even though I didn't really understand many words. Maybe I should give it a listen again, but I'm getting so tired of it. I guess I could just listen to a few of my favorite parts....



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