Okay… there’re a couple of terms that I’ve run into inside and outside of anime and games that I, quite frankly, don’t have a real grip on. And since the only dictionary that I have only translates from English to Japanese, I can’t really look them up in the hopes of clarification (I suppose I could try net searches… occassionally they turn up something interesting). I figured instead I’d throw the question out to those of you who have a more solid background in Japanese. The words are otaku and senpai. The first time I ran into otaku, it seemed to be refering to anime fanatics, but I sense a broader application than this. And senpai seems to indicate a fondness for a person, but I don’t know if it carries any particular meaning. A little help…
Senpai = upperclassman. Word used to refer to a fellow coworker, or student, etc. who is of higher standing than you.
Otaku = obsessive fanatic. There are gun otaku, anime otaku, hentai otaku, and so on and so forth. There are probably Noh otaku. Otaku, as I understand it, literally is an extremely polite way to refer to someone’s house (something like “residence of the honored so-and-so”). It is used as an insult to refer to wholly isolated people with no friends whatsoever and thus have to be polite all the time with everyone about everything. It is a very bad insult. (Then the Americans changed it to mean ‘anime fan!’ in English.)
Speaking of vocabulary, Noh is a type of theater correct? What type of theater is it?
Noh is actually a very clever form of Japanese torture.
Okay… in truth, it’s a kind of opera incorporating music, dance and acting in a very structured and ritualized manner. The stage is based on Shinto architecture and has five pillars which mark where the actors stand. There is one main actor (shi-te) and a number of supporting actors (waki). They wear wooden masks to represent the parts that they are playing, as well as bulky costumes, and props, such as fans, that are usually symbolic. Their movements are slow and stylized. The music is provided by flutes, hand-held drums and taiko drums. There is also a Chorus–but don’t expect much singing, just chanting. All Noh actors are men, and the tradition is passed down through families, with the actors starting at a very young age, playing children’s parts in the plays. That should give you some idea, anyway…
Thanks, Nandemonai, for the definitions… now I understand…
Wolfson-san, do you subscribe to the J-List updates? Besides some of Payne-sama’s interesting insights, he also includes occassional explanations of Japanese terms like “senpai” and “otaku”. It’s fun reading if anything.
here is another that i found during the same time period.
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ja-mata yo
quote:
Originally posted by ekylo:
Wolfson-san, do you subscribe to the J-List updates? Besides some of Payne-sama's interesting insights, he also includes occassional explanations of Japanese terms like "senpai" and "otaku". It's fun reading if anything.
I'm not sure if I had asked for those or not... I do know that I'm not getting anything from J-List e-mail-wise at the moment. Is it pretty easy to find where to subscribe to the updates? (I'm pretty sure that I asked to be informed of updates, since i'm expecting to know when the calanders come out, though...)
Kamikazesan: thanks for the link--that'll prove useful to me, I'm sure!
[This message has been edited by Wolfson (edited 07-07-2004).]
I haven’t gotten any emails from JAST USA, Peach Princess or J-List since I changed my email account and subscribed that one… I asked if they blocked J-List emails, but they don’t.
(snif)…
Hmm, you should be able to go to the J-List site and subscribe. I think it’s on their main page. It’s been quite awhile since I’d subscribed myself…
You can also look on Payne-sama’s webpage at www.peterpayne.net, he usually has older updates on there. I vaguely remember him talking about “senpai”, “kohai” and such within the past couple of months at least.
Yeah peter had that a few months ago. It’s so funny that you guys can’t subscribe, becuase when I first bought something from jast/j-list i was automatically subscribed and couldn’t get unsubscribe This is just my contribution since everyone else already explained everything.
quote:
Originally posted by Kamikazesan:
i found this interesting site when i was taking Nihongo in College
japanese/english server
Ah, thank you very much. This should be quite helpful.
quote:
Originally posted by wanfu2k1:
Yeah peter had that a few months ago. It's so funny that you guys can't subscribe, becuase when I first bought something from jast/j-list i was automatically subscribed and couldn't get unsubscribe [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/tongue.gif[/img] This is just my contribution since everyone else already explained everything.
Nandemonai also got subscribed without asking, and he blocked the address because apparently he was too lazy to unsubscribe.
I got subscribed without asking as well, but I don't mind. [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/smile.gif[/img] I want it back, actually.
Well, I think I already subscribed, but I subscribed again, just in case (which undoubtedly means I’ll get two mailings, unless they’re really on they’re toes). But I’m pretty sure I only subscribed about a couple of weeks ago, so If it’s been a couple of months since anything went out, that would explain why I haven’t received anything.
J-List emails are every 2 to 3 days, usually.
I wish they would send less… but I don’t want to miss anything.
Hmmm… wonder if my Spam filter is filtering them out?