O'Meara-JCCC

  Well, I guess you could say it all started when I was attending a private catholic school for preschool through 8th grade. I started going there when I was 5 or 6 years old going into preschool I had a sister at the time who would watch amine and I would go into the room to watch with her but she will never admit to it I think that is when I got interested the Asian culture in general. Time skip to July 15, 2012, when I was 10 years old. When the song Gangnam Style by PSY was released and it took the hold world by storm this is the first song that actually got me interested in artists from different parts of the world other than America or Canada. But as soon I did research on the dark side of the entertainment agencies, I found out that trainees are going to the extreme with dieting, practicing 18 hours or more a day, and getting threats from people that don’t like them because they are not pretty enough or they're to fat to match to Idol standard. It’s just wrong in my opinion....

The topic that I choose was the bowing culture of Japan. And how there are different types of bows used for different situations. The first type of bow is a causal bow called the Slight Bow it is a 15-degree bow and is either used to say thank you or excuse me but some people will use it incorrectly at times or in the wrong situations. The next type of bow is the Normal Bow it is a 30-degree and some will consider it to be more polite than the Slight Bow probably because it is used more in the work environment or it is meant for the work environment. The third type of bow is called The Deep Bow and it is a 45-degree bow it is only ever used if you are really thankful towards someone or if you are really sorry towards someone and you're apologizing to them in a formal situation. The fourth type of bow is called the Deepest bow and it is a 90-degree bow and it is only ever used for public apologies. While the last type of bow is similar to the Deepest bow, the last type of bow is use...

  The story that I choose was called にく肉じゃが. It was a simple story about how the reader would be able to prepare a beef and potato stew called nikujaga which originated in Japan. The dish itself would mainly consist of meat, potatoes, onion, and sweetened soy sauce and it would sometimes come with vegetables. But in the book, it only showed the meat, potatoes, onion, the vegetables, and the soy sauce which you really only need if you are doing a classic version of the dish itself. For me, I have only experienced a few things like this the first thing that comes to my mind is when I made egg drop soup in cooking class as a sophomore in high school, and yes I know egg dorp soup originated from china but it is the closest thing that I have tried to Japanese cuisine. The other thing would be when I tried boba tea or bubble tea and it was fine and everything, I think it was more or less for someone with an acquired taste for the boba pearls, and yes I know it didn’t originate from Japan...

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ia2AxasvnKo I think when it comes to greetings most foreigners think that Americans are down-to-earth and a lot more open-minded than their own culture allows them to be or what they are not used to that is. But I think that in Japan when speaking to someone and you don’t know who they are it would probably be better to speak more formally with them compared to how you would talk to your friends or family members because to my understanding that is just being respectful in their culture. When it comes to the actual greeting itself in America we probably just say “hi” or “hello, nice to meet you I’m Michelle” and that would probably be followed by a hug or a handshake. While Japanese introductions and greetings are similar you would still say “hi” or “hello, nice to meet you I’m Michelle” but instead of using your first name, you would say your family name. But instead of a hug or a handshake, you would bow. I would say when I am trying to speak Japanese I...

  I remember when I started to learn how to read and write in English because it was right before I started preschool and my parents wanted me to have a good understanding of what I would be learning then so they made me practice during the summer breaks and then a few years later I got a tutor to help me with my reading and writing skills that my parents weren’t able to help me with. I think the main difference between English and Katakana is that Katakana has a lot more characters to memorize compared to the English alphabet. And with English, it doesn’t require as many strokes for a letter or character that some of the Katakana characters would need. But comparing it to Spanish which I barely remember from when I was little, I would say that in some cases it is like Katakana because you always can’t rely on the sound of the word for example “in” in English translated to Spanish is “en”. Another way that there different is that Spanish is close to the English language while with ...

Honestly, I was expecting to do a lot worse with that self-assessment for my Japanese class but hey you got to start somewhere I guess. But even though I’ve only been studying Japanese for a few weeks I kind of surprised myself with the results even though they are low it is a good starting point for me I guess you could say. And while looking at the tasks I realized that I completed little to none of them. I don’t know how to ask questions or tell someone where I was today. But really the performance descriptors for a beginner really didn’t surprise me at all. The assessment was a lot more helpful than I expected it to be, it didn’t only ask questing about what I could do as a novice learning Japanese but it also asked questions about what a novice learning Japanese should know and should know how to do it. I did better than I expected and I am happy about that but now it looks like I need to work on my presentation skills considering I got a 4 for both speaking and writing assessmen...

  For me, I can remember when I started practicing reading and writing English because I would always see a tutor to help me with spelling or just how to read in general because I was a slow learner and I still am. I think the main difference between Hiragana and English for me is that the English language is set so that you can put letters together which is similar to Hiragana, but as a non-native speaker, it is very difficult to look at those characters and try to figure out what each word means. Honestly, they are all hard to memorize but the easiest one for me, I would say is either ri or ra, and the rest I have problems with. The only mnemonic that I have used for learning Hiragana was for そ (because it is SO dangerous out in this heat right now) With the rest I ended up using memorization and just trying to match the character to the sound. For me, the difference between Japanese and English writing is that English alphabet is very simple, whereas the characters in Hiragana ...

  In the book “すみません (Sumimasen)” which can be found on the website Tadoku.com it can mean sorry or excuse me in English can be found nine times in the book out of the ten pages in the book itself. In the book, it was used to ask for forgiveness, say thank you to someone, and also for someone to express their gratitude. And while some might say that apologizing for everything and anything is strange I think it is starting to become more common now. For every region, I think it will have its own common expression like “oh” or  “ope” or “sorry”. But for Midwesterners personally, I think they either will either use “ope” over “sorry” for most things. For me, I would personally use “oh” or “sorry” for most situations. Also but while it is not the same in the English language there is something called “homographs” it is where two words have the same spelling but a different meaning. An example would be to conduct business with the staff the teacher would need to finish conducting t...