Teaching a Japanese course to an anime crowd - suggestions?

[jecca-neko]

I might be teaching a Japanese beginner course (1 session, between 60-90 minutes) to a group of anime fans. I want to teach some standard basic Japanese, but instead of focusing as much on what would help you if you're traveling, like basic Japanese classes typically do, I want it to be a bit more focused on basic Japanese found more in anime. Any common phrase ideas I could add to my "script"? Here's some ideas I've had so far...

- explanation on honoriffics
- a tongue twister (probably the "basu gasu bakuhatsu" one that was featured in Azumanga Daioh)
- a few infamous anime character phrases (Sailor Moon's "oshiokiyo" phrase and Mahoro's "ecchi" phrase)

[quenelf]

Since it looks like this is only a simple taster session, how about a section devoted to fun words from English that are used differently? 'Lucky!', 'Chance!' and 'Pinch!' are obvious ones that come up all the time in anime. Also W is fun. (W as in double.)

Which brings me onto... not really anime themed but a mention of the three/four writing systems would be more useful, these are frankly the most interesting things about the language IMO and presumably you want to interest people. If you want to give an example of a kanji compound, maybe there is an anime one to use (although I rather like 'volcano' = 'fire' 'mountain'). If you want to discuss advantages of the writing system, Sailor Moon manga includes a good example of using furigana to indicate pronunciation separately from meaning: all the attack names are written in Japanese kanji but with 'English' kana pronunciation in the furigana.

An entertaining pronunciation example would be 'shoujo' (vs. shojo, shojou(?), shoujou), which is good for a laugh.

--quen

[Banchan]

[ QUOTE ]
quen said:
Since it looks like this is only a simple taster session, how about a section devoted to fun words from English that are used differently? 'Lucky!', 'Chance!' and 'Pinch!' are obvious ones that come up all the time in anime. Also W is fun. (W as in double.)

--quen

[/ QUOTE ]

Don't forget "waist-shake"
Kool-Aid Man: "Oh yeahhhhh"

[JohnThacker]

[ QUOTE ]
quen said:

An entertaining pronunciation example would be 'shoujo' (vs. shojo, shojou(?), shoujou), which is good for a laugh.

--quen

[/ QUOTE ]

True. I also find that shujin (主人 - husband/head of the household) vs. shuujin (囚人 - prisoner) is good for a laugh as well.

[jmarken]

[ QUOTE ]
quen said:
Which brings me onto... not really anime themed but a mention of the three/four writing systems would be more useful, these are frankly the most interesting things about the language IMO and presumably you want to interest people.

[/ QUOTE ]

And since it's an anime crowd, one example you could use there is how Lain was different depending on whether she was 玲音, レイン, or Lain.

[Kintaro]

It's always funny to explain why the "mother" kanji has those two dots in it [img]/images/graemlins/happy.gif[/img]

[quenelf]

[ QUOTE ]
JohnThacker said:
True. I also find that shujin (主人 - husband/head of the household) vs. shuujin (囚人 - prisoner) is good for a laugh as well.

[/ QUOTE ]

Heh, hadn't noticed that one. Neat.

Despite my previous comment, if I were giving such a session then the laughter would be at my expensive, since my pronunciation remains atrocious. [img]/images/graemlins/happy.gif[/img]

--quen

[wrex]

You could also point out frequently used words in anime, such as "kill, defeat, win, lose, etc." ("korosu, taosu, kiru, katsu, makeru") and their various verb and noun forms (korosareru, koroshitai, koroshiya, etc.). Those were from shonen anime of course; for shoujo anime, you could focus on confession language.

You could also look at street forms of language, such as "sugee, korosee, omee, etc." for words like "sugoi, korosu, omae."

[jupiterstar]

[ QUOTE ]
Kintaro said:
It's always funny to explain why the "mother" kanji has those two dots in it [img]/images/graemlins/happy.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]
It's definitely not the titi. haha! [img]/images/graemlins/sdsmiley.gif[/img]

edit: think Kunrei romanji. I've had a long day at work... [img]/images/graemlins/happy.gif[/img]
editx2: ah, i just remembered #2 meaning. oh well...

[Legion]

May I suggest you encourage your students to not actively slip random basic Japanese words you teach them into English? [img]/images/graemlins/sweat000.gif[/img]