Darlo’s World

Nothing like starting the day like a disgruntled old man, knarked at something he could never control to begin with. Well that’s a partial lie since I went to bed feeling that way anyway. No I’m not going to bang on about how much harder the Japanese course at Leeds has become, pointing in particular reference to how by skipping an entire book we’ve almost caught up on the final year students (i think we’re one chapter behind them and they’ve had an extra year) because I’ll save that for the Japanese blog itself, since it’s been a while since I wrote anything there.

Think of a time you’ve been asked to give feedback on an experience you’ve had so it can be made better for the next group. What kind of thing did you write/say? Surely whatever words you gave wouldn’t really matter to you because you’ve had your time, and you would receive the benefits of any improvements anyway right? Still though you put down what you think and be on your way. Well I was chatting to a friend of mine who’s studying at Konan this year and it seems some of our words were taken on board for this years new group of exchange students.

With the exception of a couple of students who are doing a shorter exchange program, everyone has a homestay. This is something I said from early on was crucial and hated the idea that (in my year) only student from the IC (Illinois Consortium) were guaranteed the homestay, especially when IC students wanted to change famillies and new ones were ‘discovered’. So I am actually genuinely glad that all the Leeds students now have the chance to live with a Japanese familly as I know this will help there Japanese skills greatly (not to mention it’ll save them a hell of a lot of money).

What really caused me a great deal of pain on the inside to such a degree that I was wretching over my laptop, almost vomiting everywhere was in relation to the scholarships. If you read the blog last year you’ll know I was exploring Japan (a small bit of anyway) on pretty much a shoe string budget, and how I hated when students (mainly the already wealthy ones) would waste their JASSO scholarships on things like hangbags and shoes. The JASSO (Japan Student Services Organization) scholarship is large cash amount (80,000 yen a month, plus an 80,000 yen relocation allowance on arrival) given to students so that they can get the most out of their time in Japan and learn more about Japan’s culture etc. Within the Leeds students we were allocated 1 JASSO scholarship, which I’m happy to say it was given to a student living in a dorm who really did make the most of it.

Those who didn’t get JASSO were given a smaller scholarship of just 8,000 yen a month to try and live on (as I mentioned us living in a dorm still had to buy food a lot of the time. During the conversation with my mate it seems that “pretty much everyone out of the 45 ryuugakusei got jasso because they apparently had loads left over this year”. Don’t get me wrong I’m happy that all the Leeds students got it this year, and it’s nice to see that our comments about our financial worries (especially when the exchange rate died) were responded to, but it was the “left over” part that really made me feel well and trully shafted.

I’m off to do some housework. I don’t really feel much like studying this weekend. Though funnily enough I had an idea for a shirt design: “Things aren’t fair, so get over it!” ^_^

Has been a bit of a while hasn’t it. So what have I been up to? Not a fantastic amount to be honest, but thing have certainly been happening (in other words, I’m not dead). I guess first of all I should announce that the Learn With Anna auditions closed and an auditionee has been selected for the narrator role. After a very tough choice from a wide range of styles I decided to choose Wushubabe, who saw the post on the Voice Acting Alliance website. Congrats Wushubabe, and I look forward to working with you.

The bins! Oh yes the bins. Finally I’ve had my bin emptied by someone (not sure if it was the actual binmen or the contracted collectors), and so the mess outside my house is gone. However I think the strike is still going on, which is going to suck the big one come the time our bins fill up once again.

And finally, I have taken up the Japanese martial art of Iaido. I went to the Leeds University Iaido Club give it a go session on Monday and really enjoyed it, so tonight I’m heading to my first proper session. Though I could give you a full insight into what Iaido is, I’ll just give you this quote from the Wikipedia article.

Iaidō (居合道) is a Japanese martial art associated with the smooth, controlled movements of drawing the sword from its scabbard, striking or cutting an opponent, removing blood from the blade, and then replacing the sword in the scabbard.

On Thursday I had the privilege of being elected as the Anime Officer of Leeds University Anime Society, in a pretty closely heated election right before the weekly showing. The committee position involves the maintaining of the society’s anime & manga library, including keeping records of who has what and (with the treasurer) issuing fines to people bringing things back late. There also have the responsibility for buying the anime and manga for the society.

Four of us decided to run for the position, which normally changes annually, so we each announced why we’d make a suitable candidate. In front of a lot of people I ended up initially forgetting to mention the fact I’d previously set up and ran an anime club in Shropshire, and other things I thought after would have swung votes my way. Votes gave a two-way tie between myself and a well known society member. A second round of voting, for which we were asked to leave the room for vote by show of hands, also resulted in a tied vote. However after yet another re-vote (and what I can only imagine as a lot of luck, for which I’m very grateful mind you) I won the election.

As for the Cesspit remarks, no I’m not talking about my failing progress in classes (for once). I’m talking about the ongoing strike action taking place in Leeds in regards to refuse collection. Rubbish is piling up all over the place causing bugs and other nasty crap to emerge from every street-orifice in a fashion resembling the zombies emerging in Michael Jackson’s Thriller video.

I open my front door and across the road there’s a matress and a fridge, both dumped there from one of the neighbouring restaurants/landlords. Cheeky buggar initially put the matress to rest on our house; we put it right back. I look to the right from my front door and 10 meters down the road there’s another matress, sodden and covered in oil from a restaurant and the recent rain. But worse is when I turn the corner of the house. Full wheelie bins and bags of crap lying in wait to be collected by someone, anyone!

The council (apparently) have contracted private refuse collectors for now, but collections are few and far between. It didn’t really help that people walking by from the takeaways would use our bin anyway, but now it’s seriously getting nasty. The advice the council have given is

Residents should continue to put all their bins out – black, green or brown – on their normal scheduled collection day.

If your bins have not been emptied by 8 p.m. (please note new time) on your day of collection please take them back into your garden or yard and put them out on your next scheduled collection day.

If your bins are full, put any extra rubbish into bags, store them safely and put them out next to your bin on your next scheduled collection day.

You can also take any excess recycling or waste to your nearest Household Waste Sorting Site. More containers have been provided for both recyclable waste and rubbish at Household Waste Sorting Sites – please check for a full list of our sites and their opening times.

but this leaves a few problems. We don’t have a yard or garden, and we’re sure as hell not having this crap in the kitchen or living room. I’ve also looked at where these Household Waste Sorting Sites are and unless I fancy carrying bags of shite for miles, I’m not budging. I also don’t think I could take a bus with them either. I’m not going to pretend like I know all the ins and outs of why the binmen are striking, but as long as they’re holding the city of Leeds at randsom, it’s pretty hard to sympathise with them.

Classes started again at 9 o’clock this morning and man does it look like it’s going to be a buggar of a year … again. As far as Japanese language classes go it seems we’re all now together regardless of level; we were told we’d all come back and be roughly the same level. I was sitting next to someone who’d studied Japanese since school (and was in the higher class pre-japan) and behind someone who’d just been living there for 2 years. Not exactly on what I’d consider to be my level of play. I did receive some kind words from one teacher though who said that it appeared from my resit that I had been studying hard. True as this is, I still couldn’t learn my result other than ‘pass’.

I made a change in my modules this morning as a few new ones had been added onto the system since initial registration, dropping a 20 credit Japanese history module in favour of two 10 credit Japanese Economy/Management/Environment ones. On arrival to my environment class this afternoon, it seems that not many other students had thought about it either (I only found out about its existance on Friday) as I was the only student. After a short while we were joined by one more student, doubling the student population of the room. I’m intrigued to see how the class progresses from here.

On Saturday I had a rather fun time at a Jiu Jitsu “give-it-a-go” session, thanks to Leeds Uni Jiu Jitsu club. Tonight I’ll be heading over there again to see how I feel about it. I still want to try a few other clubs before I settle on a sports one (to add to Japan Soc, LSTV, Anime Soc and possibly LURPS).

Well I’ve finally finished it. Ish. The animation that I started over a year ago. The only thing I’m missing is sound, and I’m hoping that’s where you come in. I’m looking for a narrator to interact with Anna, the main character, while she learns a simple Japanese phrase. I don’t mind about the voice too much, as long as you’re clear and easy to listen to, but remember that this is in the style of a children’s show (though if Stephen Fry wanted to audition I’m sure he’d be perfect). As Anna’s learning a Japanese phrase, a basic knowledge of how to pronounce Japanese words (written in romanised text) would be helpful. I should also point out that Anna doesn’t physically speak, but uses text bubbles. So if you want to have a go, here’s what you need to do.

Record yourself following the audition lines below in MP3 format, and send them to me at darlo@darlosworld.co.uk. The audition deadline will be Saturday 10th October (6pm BST), so there’s still plenty of time.

Audition Lines:

• Good morning Anna, are you ready to learn today?
• Would you like to learn some Japanese?
• Do you know any Japanese already? (Anna thinks, but doesn’t seem to know any) Oh I’m sure you know some Japanese words, let’s think really hard.
• To say “I am Anna”, you say “Watashi wa Anna desu”.
• (Anna get’s it wrong and laughs it off) Never mind, shall we try again?
• Very good Anna well done … (stammers and get’s cut off as Anna recites a phrase of Japanese) oh Anna, now you’re just showing off, aren’t you.

Here’s the animation so you can get a feel for it. Don’t worry about timing the lines accordingly, as I will make adjustments to the timings.

AUDITIONS RECEIVED (last updated 10th October 09)
Kakkun
Jason Phelps
katy
R Wong
slowolf88
Tiffany
wushubabe
Damaru12
Jennifer Vaughn
KingTsundere
Tylec