🇺🇸 4989 American Life Home Thread

[ToasterWilliams]

I listened to this first episode and it cracked me up big time. This lady is funny. I really dig her vibe and will definitely be binging this in my free time.

week 1

When I realized the actual name of the podcast (“四苦八苦: American Life”) I just about lost it. I figured this was going to be an extremely dry, cozy podcast about “nothing”, so it was a very welcome surprise.

Overall I understood about 90% off the cuff. Only lookup of note in episode 1 was 遠距離 (えんきょり, long-distance), which I guessed the meaning of from context. There were surely other words here and there that I missed but not enough that they really impacted my comprehension.

week 2

Lookups:
偏る - かたよる - to be inclined, unbalanced, to lean to one side - when discussing just how many Spanish native speakers were in her ESL class compared to people from other classes.
マンツーマン - Man to Man - One-on-One, private lesson - when discussing people being absent in class creating an opportunity to be paired with the teacher/native english speakers. Loan phrases like this absolutely break my brain. I had no idea what word this was until I used speech to text to catch it and then facepalmed.

Hearing her talk about how the Japanese method for learning English in school ended up not actually preparing her for communication reminds me of conversations I have had with Japanese friends myself, especially when I was tutoring them while living in Japan. Plus, the part about her finding her “listening switch” toggling off during boring topics was pretty relatable.

As listening practice, this is definitely in my comfort zone. My Japanese “level” is really weird and I’m a bit self-conscious about it. I started learning at a young age, did self study in middle and high school, really immersed myself and watched shows without subs and stuff like that. As such, I can listen to and fully understand and follow along with a lot of what is being said. General comprehension and grammar are very strong points for me overall, especially in listening and speaking situations. My overall vocabulary, though, is extremely poor, and I was functionally illiterate in Japanese until college when I moved to Japan. I really struggle figuring out what my “actual skill level” is, especially using learning resources like Wanikani or Bunpro, because I’ll not know how to read important daily words on one hand but on another have literally gone to a bank and managed to set up a Japanese bank account, or have managed to sign up for internet service and a cell phone plan over the phone with no problem, things I have struggled to do in English, my native language. It doesn’t help that ten years ago in college my professors taught out of Yookoso rather than more common options like Genki, meaning a lot of resources made expecting the Genki base of knowledge don’t apply for me! I feel like people underestimate how challenging it can be to get a footing in a language when your study process and history has been all over the place and largely unstructured. All that is to say, I found this podcast quite comfy and relatable.

[Akashelia]

Interesting background
I have some friends in a kind of similar situation. They lived in Japan 10 years ago and their speaking and understanding is still quite good, but they can’t really read and don’t know how to come back to learning.
I would be interested in knowing more about how you are tackling your Japanese studies now?

[ToasterWilliams]

I’m an on-and-off studier but my illiteracy has eaten at me lately so I’m back on the grind. I would like to get certification just to have it, so that’s my goal.

As far as my studies go, for years my best practice has come from casual media consumption. I read Manga in Japanese, play games in Japanese, et cetera. It’s not very structured. When I encounter words I don’t know, I look them up. Rarely do I ever practice, I just get the meaning and move on and if a word comes up enough times I’ll remember it – or sometimes, if I’m lucky, it’s vocabulary I already know but wasn’t aware how to spell/write, and I can quickly internalize it.

These days, as I’m getting back into studying proper, I really just use Wanikani and Bunpro alongside my normal media consumption. Unfortunately this means I spend a lot of time burning stuff I “already know”, but I figure practice is practice. I bought some intermediate textbooks/workbooks to work through to give myself some more structure in my downtime, but I’m not sure exactly how that will actually pan out. I also make an effort to read every night, even if it means only getting through books a chapter at a time because I’m sitting there looking up every single new compound I run into so I can read it properly. I’m also trying to be more active here, at least in an attempt to give myself some accountability for all this “homework” I have assigned myself.

From what I gather, my experience is somewhat typical of children of native speakers. I’m not Japanese, just lucky enough to have gotten experience with the language at a young age (I’ve been “speaking japanese” for about 20 years now, started when I was 9 or 10). I know how to speak and communicate, but wasn’t exposed to writing until very late, so my reading and especially writing skills are poor.

This is all very different from Utaco’s struggles in the podcast, but there is at least some crossover. Maybe that’s why I found the show so immediately relatable.

[nemurineko]

Week 2 @24:40

New vocabulary:
甘やかす（あまやかす）(vt) to pamper, to spoil
甘やかして育てる（あまやかしてそだてる）to bring up indulgently

As much as she is annoyed by packaging that is hard to open, the real shock – the “culture shock” – is the fact that Americans don’t seem to notice it. She then muses that maybe Japanese people have been spoiled by growing up with easy to open packaging:

@25:20:
もしかして甘やかされて育ってきたかもしれないみたいな

[mitrac]

ep 2

Packaging part

@Daisoujou

To her later point, I am sometimes a little annoyed at things being harder to open than they should be so I would understand the way she said no one else did haha. But I didn’t know it was so much easier in Japan apparently

For anyone interested in the details…

In one of my jobs we were getting prototypes of a technology from different suppliers and the Japanese packaging was impeccable in all regards:

Normal company: you will need a knife to open it and definitely wash your hands afterwards. After that you’ll still be covered in staticy plastic popcorn packaging

Japanese companies: tapes are laid down such that the ends are all double folded back for easy pealing off to open. All materials are clean and recyclable. The tapes and labels are colour coded if necessary according to any specific aspects they want to draw your attention to.

I can only imagine if you grow up like that, anything else might seem mean spirited! At least, that’s how I understood the emotional intensity of her amazing packaging rant!

[Lisaveeta]

Episode #2 Packaging

21:30 あるあるコーナー:

For those interested, here’s the history of Utaco’s much missed マジックカットpackaging - a Japanese invention inspired by an attempt to tackle opening food on a Shinkansen trip:
「どこからでも簡単に開けられる袋があれば良いのに」と。(Utaco’s clearly not alone in her frustration).
マジックカットの意味は?誰が作った?～誕生と普及から学ぶイノベーションの鍵～ - ものづくりドットコム

I just think Japanese consumers/ customers have high expectations & Japanese craftspeople have high standards. I don’t know which came first, but it’s interesting that in future episodes, she notes that even the American version of some Japanese stores sell lesser quality goods (again to her annoyance). I know that when I’ve visited Japanese supermarkets, I’m always envious that they can buy half loaves of bread. Here, I have to buy a whole loaf which sometimes goes to waste in a household of only two people. Japanese housewives (because it is almost certainly the housewives) will just not put up with that kind of wastage. They demand better and they get it.

[mitrac]

You always find such great articles, thanks!

bread

By the way, bread freezes well, so save an extra bag next time instead of throwing it away. Then when you buy a new loaf, put half in that bag and freeze right away. Make sure it stays closed while it thaws to avoid the bread getting soft from water condensing on it. You can also thaw slices individually in the toaster

But I like the idea of half loafs better! Have you tried finding a local baker? Sometimes people make really good bread out of their homes and sell locally through markets or FB

[Lisaveeta]

More on bread

I buy my bread at the local farmers market -it’s great, but too much. We mostly make our way through it but I long for a half-loaf option.

[Akashelia]

Packaging in Japan

Interesting with the discussions about packaging in Japan. I’ve had only heard negatives things about it, I think it was in Quartet. The negative point was that there is too much of it (not very environmental friendly), like you buy a package of biscuits, that’s a plastic bag, and inside each biscuit is also wrapped individually.

Now I have yet to listen to this week’s episode myself, but planning on making time for it tonight!

[WeepingWeeb]

Week 3

Episode: 003
Time Count: 28:05

[ポッドキャスト] ep.003 / 日々の生活はこんな感じ

Participation

Will you be listening along with us this week?

• I’m listening along
• I have finished this part
• I’m listening to this episode after the club has finished

If you’ve already listened to this podcast but are still going to join the discussion, please select “I have finished this episode.”

[WeepingWeeb]

I’m so glad everyone is enjoying it so far and we have so much participation!

[Akashelia]

Thank you again for organizing!!
I tried episode 3 but I didn’t manage to catch much, not sure if I was very distracted or if it was very hard… I heard like ま。。 ビーチ 。。ま。。only
Will try again, but if any gentle soul can post the main topics that would help a lot! (I did catch something about packaging again, this time about how in the US there is no wrapping gifts service!)

[snowwater]

Chapter 3 vocabulary (and some thoughts)!

Introduction + words I caught-

Utako starts by talking about her daily routine. She talks about the language course she follows, and mentions a kind obaachama who volunteers teaching english lessons.

半ばに - middle, halfway; half
徐々に - gradually
近所 - the neighbourhood
英会話練習グループ - group for practising speaking english
無料 - free!
参加する- to participate
基本的に - basically, fundamentally
向け - aimed at, for
上達 - improvement (eg. of a skill)

She also goes to the gym, and is bad at machines but likes zumba (and dancing in general)

のりのりに - in high spirits
午前中 - during the morning

Of course, she also plans the schedule and logistics of her podcast.
気長に: I don’t remember the context, but this word means unhurried, patient. It’s a new word for me

縫い物 (sewing) and crafting are also mentioned. She has a lot she wants to try/do.

代償 - compensation, reparation

凹む - this is an interesting one with a few meanings. It can mean to yield, give up; or to be disheartened, feel down. Not sure what was the context exactly.

時点 - point in time
ご褒美 - reward, prize

She usually starts making food around 5/6 and they eat at 6/7. When she first moved there, she would start earlier at cooking, since it was new to her. But nowadays she is also busier with homework from her English course amongst others, so she dedicates less time to cooking.

課題 - subject, theme
ゴロン - lying down with a flop

After dinner, her husband will rest in the bedroom, just lay down and browse the web or watch videos etc. If she does the same, she will just fall asleep, so she comes to the bedroom only before bedtime.

だらだらして - leisurely, slowly
のびのび - comfortably, peacefully
精力的 - energetic, vigorous

She wants to start studying spanish this year, its something she has wanted since moving to the US.

計画的に - planned, scheduled, systematic

あるある corner
Most stores do not offer wrapping services for gifts.

紙袋 - paper bag
定番 - standard item, go-to choice
ぐちゃぐちゃに - sloppy, untidy
ださい - lame, unfashionable
再生紙 - recycled paper
おしゃれ - fashionable
ビリビリに - rip, tear to pieces

テンションが上がる - this is an expression I always find interesting. It means: to get excited; to get hyped up; to become happy; to get in a good mood. I always find it confusing at the first moment, because I think of “tensing up” automatically, which isn’t a good thing!

英語の話 corner
The topic of the day is the R sound.

満足 - satisfaction
意識 - awareness
真ん中 - midpoint, center
ちなみに - by the way
謎 - puzzle!

By the way, at the end (~27:00) I’m quite sure she said episode 2, not 3…

@Akashelia hope this is at least a bit helpful
By the way, I only wrote down my thoughts up to half way through episode 2… I ended up forgetting to listen to the rest and just kinda rushed through it yesterday evening…

[Akashelia]

Thank you so much, even better than what I’d hoped for

[Lisaveeta]

Episode 3: Around the 16:40 mark she riffs on one of my all time favourite Japanese 四字熟語 (four character idioms): 三日坊主 ( someone who’s only a monk for three days - i.e. someone who can’t stick at things). Having listed all the the things she wants to do, she comments that she wants to avoid becoming a 「1ヶ月坊主とか3っヶ月坊主とか」- someone whose commitment only lasts in terms of months.

[Lisaveeta]

Just realised my book on ことわざ has an entry on 三日坊主:

三日坊主

[lcaraba]

三日坊主

I don’t know about her Spanish language studies, but she’s kept up with her podcast for 300+ episodes and counting, so far past 三日 or even 三ヶ月.

I really like the expression 三日坊主 too! I was wondering if there was an opposite expression in Japanese… I found 七転び八起き (falling down seven times, getting up eight) which I’d heard of, but found a new one (also from Buddhism with the theme of 3):
石の上にも三年 (if you sit still for three years on a (cold) stone, the stone will also warm up), meaning something like patience and perseverance pays off in the end (no pun intended).

[Lisaveeta]

Hey, I like the sitting on the stone for 3 years idea! (That’s how long I’ve given myself to reach WK Level 60). I once had a conversation (actually it was more like a dispute) with another Japanese learner who said Japanese people don’t do irony (!). I think Japanese expressions like these reveal just how good at dead-panning Japanese people can be. I mean just think of the words for baby - 赤ちゃん、赤ん坊 (I read them and snigger).

[soggyboy]

episode 3 thoughts

@snowwater

のびのび - comfortably, peacefully

I also looked this up, along with ゆったり- comfortably, relaxed. She said that her expectation before coming to America was that she would be starting a free 自由 new life in a new country, living a のびのびゆったり lifestyle, but in reality she has a lot she wants to do.

2 things stand out to me here, first being that maybe this was related to her assumption about California culture being laid back that she mentions at the very beginning? The second is that it gives me the impression they are being completely supported by her husband’s income and she doesn’t need to work at all. She doesn’t really mention working, just going to ESL classes and things like that, so I think that may be the case. He must have a good job to support both of them moving to America and her not needing to work, in that case. I doubt that a lot of people would assume moving to a completely new country is an opportunity for のびのびゆったり lifestyle.

She also talks about how American stores don’t have wrapping services, and everyone wraps presents themselves or puts them in a bag with tissue paper. She says that cute wrapping paper is expensive, so she went to the dollar store to look for cheap wrapping paper… but it was all tacky Poor Utaco. I think she was saying after this that it seems to be a cultural difference that Japanese people care more about the wrapping being nice (it’s easier when you can get a wrapping service, I think!) than Americans.

She also talks about English pronunciation difficulty with R and L. I actually appreciate when people talk about their difficulties with English, because it makes me feel less like a loser whenever I struggle with Japanese. Keep it up, Utaco!

[Lisaveeta]

on Utaco’s not working

@soggyboy

The second is that it gives me the impression they are being completely supported by her husband’s income and she doesn’t need to work at all. She doesn’t really mention working, just going to ESL classes and things like that, so I think that may be the case. He must have a good job to support both of them moving to America and her not needing to work, in that case.

In a later episode, she explains that the visa she has is one which does not allow her to work - she manages a short workaround for a semester - but basically she is dependent on her husband financially. There are plenty of times through the episodes where she refers to their financial constraints which are no doubt the result of being a one income family in a country where dual incomes are now the norm.

I just want to add that the one income family has survived longer in Japan than perhaps elsewhere - housewives used to have a significant amount of community respect and responsibility. Many Japanese husbands still hand over their pay check to their wife who hands back to him “pocket money” while she manages the household budget, and in my experience, Japanese women are amazing household budgeters, keeping company-like financial records. I’ve always felt completely financially irresponsible in comparison.