Sunday, February 12, 2006

Learning languages?! sanny @ 3:54 AM

Mami just came today 'cos she's got to settle some administrative stuff for Marissa's schooling, which simply cannot be carried out in Indonesia. Sigh...anyway she brought lots of food and there goes again our dieting plans! I don't know whether to laugh or cry really... Oh, and since she's here, I could start picking up Cantonese, seriously. Due to some sudden circumstances, my stay at the current department I'm attached is going to be extended for 2 months and I'm handed this big business partner from HongKong. Apparently those who'd handled them mentioned that they're not exactly the easiest of customers to handle and that English and Mandarin conversations don't really get your messages across to them...Oh well...the only Cantonese I know are those 'Good Morning', 'Thank you' greetings or 'Can I have this, can I have that' (for shopping) or 'Cheh! Gam ba bei' (a phrase we often use when we're put off by some irate people) and 'Hou hou mei' (delicious!)...err...that's about it (excluding some swear words that every foreigner would learn fastest). Anyway, I do understand chunks of Cantonese conversation listening wise but saying it out requires practice and practice. And since this purportedly demanding customer is the 吃软不吃硬 type，I must learn the art of tai-chi speaking (using the soft to balance the hard, so to speak-this is tai-chi kungfu philosophy), just like the One-Finger-Stroke (一指功) used by Chinmi in Kungfuboy or 鉄拳チンミ or 铁拳小子 (ahh I miss reading this series!). The new season of Tekken Chinmi, 20th volume. I prefer the old one though, when he's still a young boy honing his Kungfu skills and travelling from place to place. But in the new season Maekawa-sensei's art is much slicker. Back to the learning thing, so, I'm going to pick up whatever Cantonese I can from my mom before she returns to Jakarta, as well as my Japanese too; I want to watch more dramas and animes and read more! Speaking of reading, I've got the new Artemis Fowl series (yes, after waiting for so long since it came out) despite having tons of unread books (some overdue too - I hope the bookshop Auntie would give me more time to read the borrowed books). Artemis Fowl's going to be made into a movie I heard, though no concrete plans as yet. In my mind it's going to be way cooler than Harry Potter and Narnia and what-nots because of the technology gadgets and I want to see Foaly spouting D'Arvit every other scene, heheh. Oh, and Death Note is going to be made into a drama too! Something to look forward to...hmm...who should act as Yagami? I think it'd be interesting if Yamapi's cast as him, and anyway he wouldn't have to change his hairstyle dramatically. And he'd win accolades if he could pull it off as the hypocritical, psychotic genius Light Yagami. The hair fits, and he can look disturbingly diabolical, with the right acting. Although my first pick would be the amazing Yuuya Yagira, if he's older he'd just be so right, what with his acting chops and dao look. He's my favourite Japanese actor (amongst younger ones) by the way. Good luck if you had to share screen time with him. Wait. I think his face here looks perfectly like Yagami (just change the hairstyle). So I hope he can do dramas (which I doubt), if they have the ￥ to pay him anyway. I'm very curious to know how it'd turn out. But I'd be even more curious should, if ever, Monster is going to be made into a real-life drama, which is difficult, because if they weren't speaking German somehow it wouldn't look authentic. Plus there's the need to find GREAT German actors (twins at that) who can actually potray Johan and Nina. And doesn't reading Monster make you so want to learn German and so in awe of neurosurgeons like Tenma all of a sudden? Meantime, I shall just continue with my language lessons...hopefully I wouldn't get blur and end up learning a bit of everything but mastering none...the other day I just used hair shampoo as shower cream (luckily I realised that halfway)...that's how absent-minded I am...hohoh comments ♥ Put your finger in the pie ♥