"Watashi wa GEI" Coming Out in Japanese II
Feb. 2nd, 2021 03:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lydamorehouseSo, it's Tuesday, which means I am getting ready for my class tonight.
I've actually had a busy week, so I haven't practiced as much. Plus, as I was telling Naomi via email, I've been really struggling over what to say this time.
The assignment should be easier than the previous one. All I have to do is come up with a couple of sentences that describes my family. I am SURE 88% of my class is not struggling with this at ALL--it's all very STRAIGHT forward for them, (pun intended!)
And, it's not that I feel at all weird or embarrassed or ashamed to say "my wife" either in English or Japanese It's more that I feel like I want to say something more than the awkward mic drop of, "my family consists of three people: me, my wife, and my son." But, if you decide to watch the video, you'll know that, like, everything else that I came up to talk about is super awkward, too?? Maybe I should just chicken out and say: also we have three cats.
IF I had gotten my act together more, I would have polled all y'all to see what you think might be best. However, given that I only have about four more hours until class starts, I have decided to bust out with the TMI option instead of the awkwardly sad option (see video for details.)
In other news, I had a good first class of my own, the one I taught on Friday. I do, in fact, have eleven (because there's always an add-on last minute) students and so that's a darned full class. I think it went pretty well, if I do say so myself. I find it's often really difficult to get people to engage via Zoom, but I managed some back-and-forth... not exactly discussion, but I asked questions that people actually seemed to want to answer. That was a major win from my point of view. It helps that the first class is basically all about talking about yourself and your writing habits.
The demographics of my class were shockingly binary. I always, always open with asking people for name and pronouns and every single person in my class is using a binary option, so that's... weird. I'm hopeful that not everyone is straight, but that's not something I can ask. All I do in that regard is make it clear that I'm queer AF and hopefully vibe WELCOME, MY GAYS on high volume.
Despite being awkward about in Japanese, I'm pretty good at it otherwise.
I've actually had a busy week, so I haven't practiced as much. Plus, as I was telling Naomi via email, I've been really struggling over what to say this time.
The assignment should be easier than the previous one. All I have to do is come up with a couple of sentences that describes my family. I am SURE 88% of my class is not struggling with this at ALL--it's all very STRAIGHT forward for them, (pun intended!)
And, it's not that I feel at all weird or embarrassed or ashamed to say "my wife" either in English or Japanese It's more that I feel like I want to say something more than the awkward mic drop of, "my family consists of three people: me, my wife, and my son." But, if you decide to watch the video, you'll know that, like, everything else that I came up to talk about is super awkward, too?? Maybe I should just chicken out and say: also we have three cats.
IF I had gotten my act together more, I would have polled all y'all to see what you think might be best. However, given that I only have about four more hours until class starts, I have decided to bust out with the TMI option instead of the awkwardly sad option (see video for details.)
In other news, I had a good first class of my own, the one I taught on Friday. I do, in fact, have eleven (because there's always an add-on last minute) students and so that's a darned full class. I think it went pretty well, if I do say so myself. I find it's often really difficult to get people to engage via Zoom, but I managed some back-and-forth... not exactly discussion, but I asked questions that people actually seemed to want to answer. That was a major win from my point of view. It helps that the first class is basically all about talking about yourself and your writing habits.
The demographics of my class were shockingly binary. I always, always open with asking people for name and pronouns and every single person in my class is using a binary option, so that's... weird. I'm hopeful that not everyone is straight, but that's not something I can ask. All I do in that regard is make it clear that I'm queer AF and hopefully vibe WELCOME, MY GAYS on high volume.
Despite being awkward about in Japanese, I'm pretty good at it otherwise.
no subject
Date: 2021-02-02 09:50 pm (UTC)Huzzah class!
no subject
Date: 2021-02-03 07:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-02-02 10:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-02-03 07:45 pm (UTC)Turns out, I had some grammatical errors in my speech, but THAT'S WHY I'M IN CLASS, so that was good to find out.
no subject
Date: 2021-02-02 11:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-02-03 07:46 pm (UTC)Thanks for watching. I feel like an idiot (also apparently my grammar was not perfect, but, hey, that's why I'm taking a class!)
no subject
Date: 2021-02-03 01:39 am (UTC)What's the word for artificial insemination?
You should ALSO say you have three cats. Show off the correct cat plural! I once attempted to tell someone I had two cats, but accidentally used the plural for flat objects. Even very polite people will burst out laughing if you inform them that you have two flat cats.
no subject
Date: 2021-02-03 07:49 pm (UTC)san-biki! Because ONLY THE JAPANESE would count big animals differently than small ones.
At least according to Google Translate (but this was not what my teacher quibbled with, so it seems to be okay?) is "jinkou jusei." I had just used the wrong particle before umaremashita (having been born), so that was his only quibble?