fandomhigh | Conversational Japanese; Wednesday, Fourth Period [01/10].

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Conversational Japanese; Wednesday, Fourth Period [01/10].

It was a very good thing that Yukari's class was in the latter part of the day, because she had pretty much spent the last few days since arriving on this island getting herself set up in her new apartment, which also meant setting up her gaming systems, which then also meant wasting almost all her time playing video games well into the night while drinking a bunch of American beers that she had to try, which meant that she barely woke up in time and only realized she needed to be in class a few hours before it, when she blearily asked herself the million dollar questions, "What time is it? What day is it??"

Which was fine! She'd taught on way less than that before! And while teaching adults and peers was considerably more intimidating than teaching a bunch of high schoolers that she could easily lord over in her superiority, the fact that she only had to teach one class a week was pretty freaking sweet, if you asked her! No more of this every day at hours no one should be awake at for her! She could really get used to this whole college professor thing!

So, as it was, despite only remembering about her class a few mere hours ago, she was bright-eyed and eager to get started when class time actually came.

"Konnichiwa!" she started brightly. "O-genki desu ka! E yōkoso Kaiwa-tekina nihongo! Namae wa Yukari-sensei desu! And if you understood all of that, congratulations! You're already on the right foot to a great semester!

"Either that," she continued brightly, "or you're a ringer and already know the language and are just taking this class to show off! But, either way, welcome, everyone, to Conversational Japanese. My name is Yukari Tanizaki, and I will be your instructor for the semester! In this class, we will be learning some of the most basic elements of Conversational Japanese to hopefully allow you to speak the language comfortably enough to hold a conversation! And since this is the first class, it makes sense to start with the very basics: greetings and how to introduce yourself, as well as how to address others, because in Japan, it is often proper to use honorifics to address other people. For example, I am your teacher, and so you could call me -sensei. You are my students, and if we were still in high school, I might call you -chan or -kun, but since we are all, presumably, adults here, it would be more appropriate to use -san, as that is more honorable and dignified."

So keep that in mind if she ever did call you one of those first honorifics!

"But I'm getting ahead of myself. I am going to pass out a list of phrases and pronunciations for you and we're going to go over each one, and then I would like you to be able to construct and introduction that is the equivalent of Appropriate Greeting, My name is.... and then followed by some little interesting thing to know about yourself. That doesn't have to be in Japanese. Again, because this is a beginner's class, and if you're coming at at me with Konnichiwa, namae wa BILL desu! Piza o taberu no ga suki!, you're probably just here to show off and screw up the grading curve!"

And possibly make her look bad!

Which she didn't need! She was going to do just fine with that all her own!

"Now, then, let's get started with the very first word on the sheet...."

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Wow, this actually feels like an actual, well-rounded and informative lesson! The vocabulary handouts are clear and concise and informative, and Yukari will be going over each of them with context and working on pronunciation to get everyone familiar with it. So far, so good!

And, if there are any questions....well, we'll just have to see how those go when they get to them, but, overall, Yukari is incredibly proud of herself, they probably had no idea (so far) how hungover she actually was!

Alright! Now that you've got some vocabulary and some context down, it's time to put it to use and introduce yourself to your teacher and your class! Don't screw it up!

But also don't be too good at it, either, because then that would be annoying because no one likes a know-it-all!

Who is not constantly passing glances back to the clock to see when she can finally get out of here and go back to her video games or maybe finally getting out to one of the bars now that her weekly obligations were finished, how dare.

Liberty Hazlett

Arden Finch

Llewellyn Watts

By the time, uh, Yukari-sensei (Tanizaki-sensei?) had finished speaking, Arden had already pulled out her phone and downloaded Duolingo. She had a feeling she was going to need to do a lot of practicing to make sure it all stuck.

Stupid America refusing to teach foreign languages in early childhood.

"Umm, hi. Err, I mean, um, konnichiwa. Namae-wa Arden Finch." Forgot the verb there, babygirl, but you were trying. "Ha...ha-jimmy...hajimemashite?" Goddess, please don't let her be butchering the teacher's own native language in front of her.

"And, umm..." This was when Arden realized that she had apparently never liked anything in her entire life and had exactly zero cool facts about herself queued up. "I...I..." Think, Arden, think! "I really love Southern cooking and think it should be more highly regarded than it is."

And then promptly sat down and hoped for the miracle of spontaneous combustion.

Edited 2024-01-10 13:01 (UTC)

"Very good, Arden-san!" Yukari chirped, pleased as punch that there had been some struggle and uncertainty there, because that meant that she didn't have to worry about Arden trying to show her up any time soon! "Totemo ii! And is that American Southern cooking? That means a lot of barbeque," there was a certain glint of excitement there in her eyes, "doesn't it?"

Well, Arden was still regrettably not on fire, so it instead she looked up and gave Tanizaki-sensei (Yukari-sensei?) a small nod. "Yes, ma'am," she said. "Barbeque, brisket, the works."

"Yes, sensei," Yukari corrected, gently but with a twitch, because being called ma'am made her feel almost like Arden might as well have called her Obaasan. "Or better yet, hai! That's yes in Japanese!"

But, more importantly....

"But that's excellent!" she continued. "I love barbeque, and I've been excited to try some authentic American barbeque while I'm here! That's it!"

Dramatically, she slapped her desk and let out a laugh.

"Your homework, Arden-san, is to bring everyone in class some authentic Southern barbeque next week, and we'll be discussing food! Perfect! Everyone else, bring in food, too! It'll be delicious!"

Gray

Hey. Gray wasn't a ringer who was here to show off! He was a ringer who was here for an easy A! That was totally different!

He did look slightly guilty, though.

“Konnichiwa,” Watts began, with a little nod in place of a bow, ”Namae waDetective Llewellyn Watts desu.” A beat. “Watts or simply ‘Detective’ is fine, as I prefer to be addressed by my surname.” Another slight pause as he tried to think of some interesting fact about himself. “I speak several languages, though Japanese is not yet one of them.”

"Konnichiwa," Gray said. "Namae wa Gray desu. //Waffles are the best food in the universe//." And then he shrugged and admitted, a touch sheepish, "It's me, hi. I'm the ringer, it's me. I used to live in Japan," he explained, since he wasn't even wearing an anime t-shirt today for them to extrapolate, Oh, he's a weeb, from (even though that was also true). "I don't want to show off, I just wanted an excuse to practice." And an easy A. "Did the office tell you about my sleep disorder thing? When I fall asleep during class," because it was a when, not an if, "it's not my fault. It's Sloth's." That butthole.

Edited 2024-01-10 13:51 (UTC)

"Yes, ma--uh, I mean, yes, sensei. I mean, hai, sensei."

Guess that meant she would be figuring out how to barbeque enough food for the whole class because she sure hadn't found anywhere on the island that did proper Southern barbeque.

"Um, like a whole meal?" she checked. "Or didja just want some barbecue pork? Maybe I could make pulled pork sandwiches? Well, you gotta have coleslaw with that..."

Even if Yukari-sensei answered, it was possible that Arden wouldn't notice. She was figuring out logistics for a good pulled pork. And maybe something with tofu for Detective Watts? And anybody else vegetarian or vegan...

Steve McGarrett

Okay, so Steve was also a little bit of a ringer, but his Japanese wasn't nearly as good as his Mandarin, and can anyone truly be fluent in a language that isn't their mothertongue?

And he'd never really had formal training, just what he'd picked up from the people around him in Honolulu! Why yes, he was justifying this to himself. Shush.

"Konnichiwa,," Steve began with a little head bow, "namae wa Steve McGarrett desu. //I speak some Japanese because I grew up in Hawai'i and this is how you get the best food at Japanese restaurants.//"

He switched to English. "But my vocabulary is pretty limited to food and words you'd use to threaten Yakuza gang members."

Oooh, well, la-de-dah, look at the fancy detective who knew millions of other languages, apparently! Yukari made sure to look very unimpressed.

"Well!" she said, sounding overly cheerful about it, too. "Won't it be just fun to add Japanese to one of your many different languages that you know, Tantei!"

But then she squinted at Watts calculatingly. "Or is it Keiji?"

First and foremost, Yukari was going to take a moment to look very skeptical about that statement about waffles, considering that the only acceptable time to make such a claim was at around eleven o'clock in the morning after a long night of heavy drinking in the corner of some greasy restaurant where all the waitresses give you dirty looks because they were too busy being a wage slave serving hungover teachers waffles to have fun.

And then she was going to look skeptical about this whole 'wanting to practice' claim, although, to be fair, she did included that in the course description.

Oddly enough, she did not look skeptical about the claim about this sleeping disorder, but, instead, just sort of blinked at Gray for a moment before gushing out, "So kaaaaaa, //is that what that note was about? I thought maybe I read it wrong, but wow! What a stroke of luck! What I wouldn't give to just fall asleep in class!"//

And it might have been a bit rude, to say that all in Japanese in a room full of people new to it, but if he was a familiar as he claimed, Gray would understand it, and hearing it spoke was important to newbies! It was a type of immersion, to hear it spoken naturally!

Two ringers in this class was a bit worrying, but Yukari was immediately distracted by that with her eyes going a bit wide and openly gawking at Steve.

"Yakuza? Honto yo?? In Hawai'i??"

And then she laughed, waving a hand dismissively. "Oh, I get it. You're a big fan of all those dramatic American cop shows, aren't you?"

He was a dramatic cop show!

"Something like that," Steve said, smiling. "I'm the head of a special task force in Hawai'i. Taking down international crime syndicates falls under our pervue."

So did "guy killed at an Elvis impersonation convention." Their writ was ~~not well-written~~ quite broad.

“That is the hope, yes,” Watts replied earnestly. “And I don’t as of yet know the difference between the two terms, so you tell me.”

Libby, who had been taking furious, eager notes the whole time they were going through the vocabulary lists like the good little student that she was, was extremely excited and nervous when it came to her turn and was reading off of her meticulously transcribed introduction when she made it.

"Konnichiwa!" she said, proudly, and beaming, because look at her! Speaking Japanese! Who would have ever imagined? "Namae-wa Liberty Hazlett desu, but everyone just calls me Libby. I'm really excited to be learning Japanese, actually, I'm hoping it will be very useful in my nursing career, I'd like to learn all sorts of languages to help me better communicate with my patients, so when the opportunity came up, I knew I had to take this class!"

Also, she knew that the lobsters were from Japan, so she was hoping she could pass some of her knowledge onto Stabby so he could impress them more!

Yukari nodded, glad to see that Watts had picked up one the trail she was laying down, although, really, if he hadn't, then he probably wasn't a very good detective, no matter what the distinction.

"A tantei," she said, slipping into her lofty teaching-moment mode, being the great imparter of knowledge that she was right now," is more like a private, independent detective, while keiji is a detective that is affiliated with the police.

"Sometimes also known as a buta."

Yukari!

Belle

If Yukari would merely open her mind, she would find that waffles were the perfect food for any time of the day or night ~~especially if you were entirely incapable of forming anything that could be even generously described as a sleep schedule~~. But Gray understood that opinions would vary.

"//I would say more inconvenient than lucky,//" Gray said. Also, sometimes, extremely annoying. "//I just didn't want you to think I was being rude.//"

"Konnichiwa," Belle said hesitantly. "Namae wa Belle."

Her pronunciation was a bit off but she was doing her best.

"I've never had any formal language training that I recall but I look forward to it."

Tony Stark

And there was ringer number three!

"Konnichiwa," Tony said in a passable attempt at the accent, but it would never be perfect without, you know, being a native speaker. "Namae wa Tony desu. //I picked up some of the language for business meetings overseas, but it's been quite a while since I used it.//"

And an ex-girlfriend. But shhh. Not important.

Guillermo de la Cruz

”Konnichiwa” Guillermo said when it was his turn, “Namae Wa Guillermo de la Cruz…. desu,” he stumbled over the introduction slightly, “and I can also speak Spanish fluently,” he said when he tried to think of an interesting fact.

Well, in another universe he’d experienced a brief foray as the former until circumstances brought him back into the fold as the latter?

“Keiji, then,” he said with a nod. Don’t think he wasn’t also going to look up buta as soon as he had the chance, though.

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Conversational Japanese; Wednesday, Fourth Period [01/10].

Sign In - Conversational Japanese, 01/10.

Listen to the Lecture - Conversational Japanese, 01/10.

Class Activity: Introductions! - Conversational Japanese, 01/10.

Talk to the Teacher - Conversational Japanese, 01/10.

OOC - Conversational Japanese, 01/10.

Re: Sign In - Conversational Japanese, 01/10.

Re: Sign In - Conversational Japanese, 01/10.

Re: Sign In - Conversational Japanese, 01/10.

Re: Listen to the Lecture - Conversational Japanese, 01/10.

Re: Class Activity: Introductions! - Conversational Japanese, 01/10.

Re: Class Activity: Introductions! - Conversational Japanese, 01/10.

Re: Class Activity: Introductions! - Conversational Japanese, 01/10.

Re: Class Activity: Introductions! - Conversational Japanese, 01/10.

Re: Sign In - Conversational Japanese, 01/10.

Re: Listen to the Lecture - Conversational Japanese, 01/10.

Re: Class Activity: Introductions! - Conversational Japanese, 01/10.

Re: Class Activity: Introductions! - Conversational Japanese, 01/10.

Re: Class Activity: Introductions! - Conversational Japanese, 01/10.

Re: Sign In - Conversational Japanese, 01/10.

Re: Listen to the Lecture - Conversational Japanese, 01/10.

Re: Class Activity: Introductions! - Conversational Japanese, 01/10.

Re: Class Activity: Introductions! - Conversational Japanese, 01/10.

Re: Class Activity: Introductions! - Conversational Japanese, 01/10.

Re: Class Activity: Introductions! - Conversational Japanese, 01/10.

Re: Class Activity: Introductions! - Conversational Japanese, 01/10.

Re: Class Activity: Introductions! - Conversational Japanese, 01/10.

Re: Class Activity: Introductions! - Conversational Japanese, 01/10.

Re: Class Activity: Introductions! - Conversational Japanese, 01/10.

Re: Sign In - Conversational Japanese, 01/10.

Re: Class Activity: Introductions! - Conversational Japanese, 01/10.

Re: Class Activity: Introductions! - Conversational Japanese, 01/10.

Re: Sign In - Conversational Japanese, 01/10.

Re: Class Activity: Introductions! - Conversational Japanese, 01/10.

Re: Sign In - Conversational Japanese, 01/10.

Re: Class Activity: Introductions! - Conversational Japanese, 01/10.

Re: Class Activity: Introductions! - Conversational Japanese, 01/10.