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Posted: 2008-05-09 00:58
by jigenbakuda
[quote="Kaimugen"]

Right now I want to take the moral high ground by saying a woman's personality is much more important :D But academically speaking, chinese girls have great hips[/quote]

Chinese do??? *runs off to inspect some chinese idols* I love hips!!!! they are my favorite part on a woman (well that you can see from the outside...)

Seriously, seriously a personality is so much more important for a relationship. I can not stand most chicks, like I can chill with them, but as far as spending lots of time together, no way. Now if we are talking about a smoking 5 hour fling, then personality means nothing, I am just looking at the hardware. But as far as living with and getting along personality is very important.

[quote="harmonium"]I don't think there's a language which is definitively the hardest to learn; it depends on your start point. .......But as a native English speaker, I totally agree that Chinese is way harder than Japanese. Way harder. Tonal languages = killer. Not to mention they use way more kanji.
[/quote]

heh heh, I kinda forgot that languages depends on your starting point.

But from what I understand japanese has 2 tonal levels, about 2,000 kanji that the adult uses, and an very structured easy way of speaking the language (waaaay less exceptions to the rules grammatically, besides articles and counters, I heard its not that hard).

From what I understand chinese has about 13 tonal levels (not sure, maybe 12), and uses kanji for every single word (WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!) even loanwords, plus there are so many regional accents... I heard they are like different languages, not like tokyo-ben and osaka-ben, but like english and spanish (tough break) I think most speak mandarin or cantonese, I heard of people speaking cantonese and not understanding mandarin very well at all... But I do not know much about chinese... I think vietnamese has 7 levels...


Aren't I the ignorant bloke (I love that word :) ) well anyways japanese is not that hard , but its still hard, lol.

lmfao, I wanted to see who he was. Here is Mr.Yamashita
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1155/115 ... 0a.jpg?v=0

Meet the original reason for me loving japanese ladies. Still my favorite japanese lady, after all this time. But miho kanno did compete with her for a little... Anyways without furthaer ado "The Inexplicable" kuriyama chiaki or kuri-chan (dirty joke, gomen, lol)(We are the same age, yay! our birthdays are close too!)
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/37/11841 ... 722a_o.jpg

Posted: 2008-05-09 04:38
by Kaimugen
I dont actually mind the elitist view from japanese, you can get a lot of mileage out of being underestimated. And being a gaijin is a license to make faux pas and get away with it :D but I'm being a jerk. The isolation of japan in the past would be one reason for this superior viewpoint. Except for the occaisional invasion and some mixing with korea and china, japan developed independantly. But they did absorb chinese writing, art and swordmaking techniques.
It would probably be easier learning languages from the same family group like french, italian and spanish which originate from latin. Chinese has little to no similarities in its structure to any western language so its naturally hard to learn. Even the differences in dialects is really hard, mandarin will probably see you right in almost every chinese speaking country, but hong kong and taiwan is largely cantonese, mandarin up north, beijing way, and hokien in singapore. Too much to learn, and thats not counting the writing and the really obscure dialects from province to province. Where for art thou babelfish?

Jigenbakuda, check out chinese girls wearing cheongsams, oh baby! One of the worlds most graceful dresses on the right girl is devastatingly beautiful. A lot of european women look pretty good in cheongsams too, its a flattering style, but you need hips and legs to pull it off and japanese girls don't always have hips and legs.

Posted: 2008-05-09 11:34
by harmonium
[quote="Kaimugen"]I dont actually mind the elitist view from japanese, you can get a lot of mileage out of being underestimated. And being a gaijin is a license to make faux pas and get away with it :D but I'm being a jerk. The isolation of japan in the past would be one reason for this superior viewpoint. Except for the occaisional invasion and some mixing with korea and china, japan developed independantly. But they did absorb chinese writing, art and swordmaking techniques. [/quote]

Korea and Japan didn't have a lot of contact, but Japan mixed with China a lot, actually. A lot of Japanese culture is based directly upon Chinese culture, in more ways than what you listed (even sushi originated in Chinese cooking, which I was not aware of until recently), and many Japanese aristocrats practiced Chinese writing (it was a refined art). I really don't understand the hatred for China when they borrowed so much from them, Ah well. And their mixing with Portugal affected things. Their word for bread, 'pan', comes from Portuguese.

Anyway, I didn't say their elitism doesn't have a basis, I know they chose isolation for a long time and they're still adjusting to globalisation, like everyone. But they've been open for a while now, I think it's time to change their thinking, but I know they drag their heels when it comes to tradition, so I'm not expecting miracles, it's just wishful thinking on my part, I guess (I wish every country would smarten up about this sort of stuff). And hey, if you can make their elitism work for you, that's cool. :D Their elitism isn't really a big deal most of the time; just because they think foreigners can't learn Japanese doesn't mean they can't, we're doing fine, thanks. Just those few cases where they really hate foreigners are kind of disheartening, to put it mildly.

[quote="jigenbakuda"]But from what I understand japanese has 2 tonal levels, about 2,000 kanji that the adult uses, and an very structured easy way of speaking the language (waaaay less exceptions to the rules grammatically, besides articles and counters, I heard its not that hard). [/quote]

Japanese doesn't really have tones like Chinese. It uses inflection similar to English (to a much lesser degree, though). When you ask a question in English, your tone changes. When you're being sarcastic, your voice takes on a different tone, that sort of thing. If you're not sure about the right stresses in Japanese, it's often recommended you stick to a monotone, because the tones aren't that big a deal.

You put stress on certain syllables in words same as you do in English (and the stress you put on the word in Japanese varies from dialect to dialect; even Tokyoites have difficulty pronouncing Kansai-ben with the proper stresses). It's not the same as Chinese tones, which are specific and killer. I want to learn Mandarin, but I don't want to do it unless I can find a teacher. I don't want to screw up my tones. XD

Kanji aren't as bad as everyone makes them out to be, in my opinion. But yeah, Chinese uses many, many more (not to mention that there's a simplified and traditional version of each character). Also the dialects Kaimugen mentioned are tough.

And yeah, Yamashita Tomohisa is gorgeous, that picture you linked is often passed around. XD I really like thispicture, myself. <3

I had never seen Kuriyama Chiaki before, but I can see why you like her, she's really, really pretty. I Googled Kanno Miho, and she's really gorgeous also.

Posted: 2008-05-09 16:47
by Kaimugen
I thought the tension between china and japan was due to the war, and its china holding the real grudge. I think there is a meeting taking place now between the two countries and the chinese prez said something about always being enemies or words to that effect, I missed the full thing on the beeb. My grandfather lived through the occupation of singapore and he was no big fan of the japanese, I dont feel this resentment from generations born after the war though, naturally.

On a lighter note, Kanno Miho is a really classically beautiful woman, I especially like her eyes. I was a big fan of Azechi Reiko, she has a fantastic profile, great shape to her face but she was really skinny (nothing a month of fast food couldn't fix), and like a lot of japanese models she always seem to wear too much make up. If a woman looks that good she shouldn't need to. But Azechi and Aragaki Yui have brilliant smiles, so I like them for that.

Harmonium, you must be a real glutton for punishment, learning mandarin after japanese, I'm so impressed. How about going whole hog and picking up korean too? :D

Just saw Mac F ep 06. Everthing hits the fan and Sheryl and Alto are getting pretty close. Sheryl sings a longer version of 'Diamond Crevasse', IT IS GEORGEOUS! The best Sheryl song so far. Mike is going to be rapt when he watches the episode.

Posted: 2008-05-09 17:54
by harmonium
Kaimugen wrote:I thought the tension between china and japan was due to the war, and its china holding the real grudge. I think there is a meeting taking place now between the two countries and the chinese prez said something about always being enemies or words to that effect, I missed the full thing on the beeb. My grandfather lived through the occupation of singapore and he was no big fan of the japanese, I dont feel this resentment from generations born after the war though, naturally.
Yeah, I agree with that, the resentment is more ... pronounced with the Chinese (and other countries who suffered under Japanese military rule), and it's kind of understandable (especially when you consider the whole Yasukuni Shrine and Japanese textbook drama, among other things). I've just heard some bad stories about racism against Chinese (and Koreans) in Japan. Although again, you're right, China holds a bit more of a grudge as a whole because of the invasions in the past.
On a lighter note, Kanno Miho is a really classically beautiful woman, I especially like her eyes. I was a big fan of Azechi Reiko, she has a fantastic profile, great shape to her face but she was really skinny (nothing a month of fast food couldn't fix), and like a lot of japanese models she always seem to wear too much make up. If a woman looks that good she shouldn't need to. But Azechi and Aragaki Yui have brilliant smiles, so I like them for that.
Yeah, Kanno Miho is beautiful; every picture that came up on my brief Google image search was fantastic. Azechi is pretty too, and so is Yui. By the way, what do you think of Leah Dizon? I know a lot of people are into her now. I think she's cute, but some people seem to be totally turned off by her, so I dunno.
Harmonium, you must be a real glutton for punishment, learning mandarin after japanese, I'm so impressed. How about going whole hog and picking up korean too? :D
I am, I think. XD I dunno. I love languages, I'm so jealous of Mezzofanti and all those other polyglots (there's this Japanese linguistics book I have written by Samuel E. Martin, and he has written several extensive linguistic books on both Japanese and Korean ... He knows these languages better than many natives, I think, and I am so, so jealous). I would like to learn Korean too actually. XD But for now, I'm trying to perfect my Japanese, I really want to be fluent and I'd also like to challenge the KanKen someday. Someday far in the future, though. KanKen is killer. D:

Posted: 2008-05-10 03:30
by Kaimugen
I'm one of those people, Dizon never really interested me, I can pin down why, maybe just not the type that I like.

My linguistics tutor say the more languages you learn, the easier it is to learn languages so look on the up side, it will get easier for you.
Languagese has never been my strongpoint so I'd be happy with passable japanese and a smattering of chinese dialects.

Posted: 2008-05-12 09:31
by kirei_lanford
this page slowly turned to be more like a thread for cool people to post .. i mean i took some time scrolling down the messages.. anyway, if it's about girls than i'm in.

does anybody know kuninaka ryoko? she has a cute facial expression.. i love her too ^^

Posted: 2008-05-13 01:36
by jigenbakuda
I don't really like dizon. But still I haven't seen her as much either, but from what I saw she was not my style. I generally find idols, or non-idols (ueno juri WOOT) from j-dramas/movies. So I guess I don't dig the race queens. But I'm starting to have an online affair with mizugawa asami... last friends is making me love her! I tend to like musical girls just because they are in music. I detest idol groups, with the exception of 2, vanilla mood (idols playing instruments very well!) and perfume (techno-pop). But some musical beauties include shiina ringo, emyli, MIKA NAKA "frickin" SHIMA (did you see that love addict PV?), of course the wonderful maaya sakamoto, fumi from polysics, wakeshima kanon, ayu-chan, and many more. But why am I talking about women so much???

And we are not getting too far off topic are we? Doesn't my knowledge of japanese beauties make me uncool? For I am the withered shell of a great man that used to be... I am not cool enough to post in most places, so I will just see if some fanboys share my interests in cyber-stalking/ getting the cyber pantsu shot for j-celebs. We even have a fangirl among our ranks :) I wouldn't mind her spouting about her j-interests. Harmonium do you like gackt? I ran across a live performance of his that involved quite a bit of shounen-ai stuff, are you interested? (just to clarify, I was looking for stuff on youtube with my little sis and knew gackto was good for a laugh :) )

Posted: 2008-05-13 08:35
by Kaimugen
I think a comprehensive (obsessive) knowledge of idols that you will never meet is incredibly nerdy and uncool, so lets just make ourselves comfortable here until Sakura throws us out of this topic.
So my list is Azechi Reiko, Aragaki Yui, Fukuoka Sayaka, Maaya and Mitsui Chieko. In the pro model dept, Itou Misaki and Nishiyama Maki are beautiful but I don't really like the Cancam girls as a whole.

Posted: 2008-05-13 17:54
by harmonium
I do like Gackt, lol, but more for his music ('Mars' has some really beautiful songs, and 'No ni Saku Hana no You ni' was lovely, and I'm really looking forward to his next album and his American movie debut alongside Josh Hartnett).

I don't like too much sexual fanservice, to be honest, of either the heterosexual or homosexual persuasion. Some is OK, but overdoing it kind of ruins the show for me. I like the JE brand of fanservice. Check out these shots if you want to see what I mean.It's cute to see them acting like good friends or maybe something more if you're so inclined to interpret it as such. 8D (Sometimes. XD)

Posted: 2008-05-14 00:13
by jigenbakuda
JE... you know I was reading on D-addicts about JE. I read the guys were getting sexually harassed/ forced to do sexual stuff with managers (guys of course). I do not listen to any JE althought when I was in japan, I could not avoid, I learned some of the parts of the song. I think it was news... I watched smapu smapu on tv, lol. My girl made me laugh watching that show.

I likt gackto from malice mizer, without mana-sama (or kami if your nasty) I don't like his sound. But he was doing some great fanservice in the vid I saw. Hell malice mizer had great fangirl fanservice (mana has made it all up with wakeshima, I want fanservice dammit!) as well.

@Kai
I wish I was on my pc, instead of my wii internet, I would check those ladies out... I have to do it tomorrow... :( I don't know any real models... or gravure idols... or av idols. I said I was going to learn about more idols but I never did I only got music and movie stars. I never heard of any of those girls so I must start my research. I hope at least one is my style.

Posted: 2008-05-14 01:11
by harmonium
^ Yeah, I know, the rumours have surrounded Kitagawa for a long time (see his Wiki article; the Japanese side is much more detailed, though).

LOL, yeah. Gackt always provides fanservice, I've never seen his female fans dissatisfied, tbh. 8D

Posted: 2008-05-15 21:41
by frecklegirl
People who know Japanese aren't "allowed" to post in this thread, harmonium. 9_9

But as for the current language debate, I tried to learn Mandarin at the beginning of last semester, but unfortunately had to give it up because I was taking too many other classes and would have had to pay a fee. But yeah. It was crazy hard. And in Mandarin there are 4 tones you have to start off learning. There are no formal tones in Japanese that you have to start off learning specifically like "this is tone 1, tone 2" etc.

I also want to learn Korean someday, I like how it sounds. I'm also a language fiend. Besides Japanese I know Spanish, French, and now one semester of German. I'm at an advanced level in Japanese, French, and Spanish but I haven't studied Spanish in a couple years so I'd need to brush up before being able to actually converse in it. >_>

Posted: 2008-05-16 10:51
by kirei_lanford
could somebody pls stop talking about gackt.. but, uh yeah, since harmonium is here, then.. :roll:
this is one pic of kuninaka ryoko-chan. roll the camera! action!

about the other girls.. i could really east forget someone names, so if she was only a photo model then i could easily forget. so the ones i remember usually a dorama actress or a music actress.. including aragaki yui, tomiko van, ueno juri, nakayama miho, hirosue ryoko, nagasawa masami, maaya, miku and many more. you name it!

Posted: 2008-05-16 22:42
by harmonium
@frecklegirl: I thought it was for people who aren't cool. 8D I can speak japanese, but there are many aspects of myself which are ... pretty lame. 8D

Yeah, Japanese is much easier in terms of pronunciation, you only have to worry about your pitch accent, which is way easier to understand than the tonal system applying to Mandarin and other Chinese dialects. :? I'd love to learn Korean too, yeah (I'm tempted to start now, I've been getting into some K-Pop lately ... :maayagrin: ). I was thinking of picking up one of those books discussing the links between Japanese and Korean to start ...

@kirei: OK, no more Gackt, sorry if the talk of Gackt bothered you. XD The girls you mentioned are gorgeous, yeah. I really like Hirosue Ryouko, she's so cute and she's a pretty good actress, in my opinion. <3 I really liked her in 'SUMMER SNOW' and 'Moto Kare'.