September 27, 2008
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Bomb Scare
This semester has been hectic. My colleague has been reassigned and most of the work the we had divided between the two of us has been placed in my lap. It's the end of the 4th week, and I can't wait 'til Christmas. But then, I always say that around the 4th week.
Anyway, this weekend was Alumni Weekend at our school. I started this Friday participating in a workshop on the issues of teaching Chinese characters. It was interesting enough as the faculty members from Chinese, Japanese and Korean all had different approaches and methods of teaching. The basic philosophies are so different. In Chinese, there are a kazillion characters to learn, but they are usually read in one way, whereas in Japanese, each character maintains its original Chinese pronunciation--although it has been altered significantly by the Japanese--as well as a Japanese pronunciation that they applied to it semantically. To make matters worse, depending on when the character and concept arrived in Japan, there can be two different Chinese pronunciations and two different Japanese ones.
女： female. Chinese: nyu. Japanese: (Chin) nyou, jo; (Japn) onna, me.
Anyway, the workshop was nice enough. From 3 PM, I signed up to stayin our department to welcome any alumni who decided to drop by for Alumni Weekend. But as we were setting up our conference room, we noticed a large suitcase tucked under the desk we keep in the hallway. A colleague and I asked the others if they knew anything about it. No one knew. The suitcase was rather dirty, pushed beck beneatht the desk in an obvious attempt to conceal it, and had a sticker on its side that read: "Screened: Dubai International Airport." We decided that maybe security should take a look at it.
When the campus police came, they immediately determined that it was suspicious, they blocked access to the area--which actually blocked us into our corner of the building--and contacted their supervisors who then came to confirm the threat. The building was evacuated and we descended down the back emergency stairwell. Soon, the campus police presence was everywhere, sirens whirred as police vehicles cordoned off the streets around the building, and explosive's sniffing German Sherpherds went in and out the building.
After two hours it was safe to return. As we waited, my colleagues and I talked with a member of the Homeland Security response team--yes, they took this very seriously--and he said they identified the owner of the suitcase, apparently a student who carelessly left it there for reasons we'll read about soon in the school newspaper--I don't expect it was even a blip on the media radar on a day when the Obama and McCain debate dominated their attention.
I was hoping to get some grading done while waiting for anyh possible alumni to show up, but the events of the afternoon squashed that plan. But there was no bomb and everyone was safe. I guess that was as good a way to start the weekend as any.
Comments (15)
I would get messed up because I started to mix my Korean hanja with the kanji.
When Koreans memorize hanja, they memorize it in a neat little phrase that goes . So for example, the character 先, they would learn it in school as "meonjeo seon (먼저 선)" or "first seon"; . Its fixed too; so if my parents wanted to verify with another Korean, they would ask, "Oh, did you mean meonjeo seon?" The thing is though that even if Koreans have a Korean term for the character, unlike Japanese, they will never sub the Korean term in for the character (at least in modern usage, can't vouch for the past).
Of course, this may all be moot because the nationalist movement has made it a goal to effectively purge the usage of hanja from use in the language. Depending on who controlled the education ministry when, you'll find entire generations of students who may or may not have learned hanja in school. Its amazing too how quickly it happened; in the late 1960s, you wouldn't have been able to read a newspaper without knowing hanja. Now, hanja has pretty much been wiped away from newspapers except for the purposes of some headlines to grab attention. My own father struggles to even read something he wrote from the 1960s because of how much hanja he used then... and how much he's forgot because of disuse since.
Oh man. Freaky!
Glad you are still all in one piece, there, Sensei.
About kanji - they have this "in group" power going on that Japanese people don't really even realize. And a lot of Japanese don't like it when a foreigner can read them... Like you somehow managed to decipher their secret code or something.
I always respond to those "漢字よめる？すごい"s with "何で？同じ人間でしょ？"
That's my bitch fighting its way out. Anyway. Ciao.
I am so glad that the bomb scare just that, a scare. How scary to think that it could actually be dangerous. I hope you tell us why a student would leave a suitcase there.
I always think it's interesting listening and seeing how other teachers teach. I love how their minds work and when I see something awesome, I am quick to steal it!
@shoujo - Actually, your Japanese doesn't "sound" so bad. At least in text form.
がんばって。No, wait. there's actually a good place to go if you want to practice your Japanese. I go there to practice my Japanese, since I too, like you, am a native English speaker. The native Japanese people who blog there will fix your Japanese. Of course, the site is reciprocal, in that they will then expect you to fix their English. But there are usually a bunch of other people willing to help so sometimes it is enought to read and comment. Just Google Lang-8 and you'll find it Im sure. I am, if you're curious, おにぎりまん. DUH!
@motochan - コメントありがとう。今度、reply のボタンを押したら、他の人のコメントへのコメントを書いたことのお知らせがその人に送られます。
That's quite a scare indeed. At least, everyone was safe and sound.
It's amazing how one character has been evolved into different pronunciation through the three languages but still retains the same meaning.
ryc: I used to visit your site when I was more active with the blogging community. But then I dropped off for a while and only recently have started up again. BUT now I look on the side and see additional clues as to who you are and what you do. バカですね？
とにかく、私の日本語はまだ上手じゃないですから、もっとれんしゅうするほうがいいと思う。。。でも友達には誰もが日本語をしゃべれない。Judging from that last sentence, it's probably painfully obvious, isn't it? XD でも来年日本へ行くはずだよ。I don't want to stick out like a sore thumb, so I need the practice!
That must have been kind of exciting yet terrifying to discover a possible bomb. Let us know what the reasons are for that student leaving the suitcase there when the school newspaper comes out!
Kanji has always been a source of frustration for me. It's horrible because I am actually Chinese - and I can't speak my own language. I find learning Japanese to be easier than Chinese, except for those darn kanji. But I can't pronounce Chinese correctly at all. The inflections get me every d*mn time. x_x
A side note... I did not know you are a teacher. For some reason I thought you were still a student. 日本語の先生ですか?
Kanji and bombs...somehow the two actually suit each other pretty well. Glad to hear there was no bomb after all, but is anyone doing anything to save the students from the kanji?
Is there really only one reading for each kanji in Chinese? Even when it comes to names? If that's the case, Chinese may be easier to learn than Japanese, once you get through the pronunciation difficulty. Did I pick the wrong language to learn?
You know what's funny? Last week I took a trip to Japan and I just came back a few days ago and now my brain has become accustomed to reading certain Kanjis in Japanese first than in Chinese.
Like today in HK, I passed by 青山道... and immediately my brain registered it as Aoyama. (As oppose to Qingshan Dao) or when I saw the kanji 神田, my brain registered it as "kanda."
The fact that all three cultures, China, Japan and Korea uses Kanji really fascinates me.
I was surprised because your story suddenly changed direction.
It was frightening.
Anyway I'm relieved to know nothing bad happened, though if something terrible had happened, you would not have written this blog.
To Zihreka
Japanese students begin to learn kanji in the first grade of elementary school.
They don't have special classes for Japanese grammar, because they learn it by reading books or making a composition.
To students, especially to boys, learning kanji is a troublesome.
haaah! hey, at least you got an exciting day out of it. how thoughtful of that student to provide the prop ^___^
Wow, sounds intense. I'm terrified of learning Asian languages, despite being Chinese myself. I lack the background of having it as a native language... my poor retention is so against me.
Missed hearing from you.
Wow Sensei, it was you who found that. I guess that must be exciting in a way! By the way, regarding Kanji/Hanzi I was always of the opinion that after the first year, the entire second year should be filled ramming down grammar and vocab and then the entire year filled ramming down 1000++ Kanji. After all a kid in China or Japan begins learning Kanji in grade school after he essentially has his grammar and vocab down.
-Akhilesh
日本は平和ですよ・・・ (笑)
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