Luke Michio de la Peña

     Before attending this guest lecture, I first didn't know what to expect. It was the first time hearing a fluent non-native speaker speak Nihongo. However, I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised with Dr. Jeffrey's passion for the culture and the language. I also learned a lot from his lecture, and I feel that he made some very insightful points about the challenges of bridging Nihongo and English literature. As a translator, he noted that the actual sentence and word structure of Nihongo is a lot more flexible compared to English which is more rigid. Which makes it significantly harder to translate writings such as poetry. I also found it fascinating that there are only twenty-five Nihongo novels translated into English each year, compared to the thousands of writings that actually come out of Japan each year. Yet, the thing that stuck out to me the most was how he described studying a new language as unlocking a new aspect of yourself, or a new identity if you wi...

 In this blog post, I explored the manga Hunter X Hunter , as recommended to me by my girlfriend.  The plot of Hunter x Hunter takes place in a alternate reality where certain, super powered individuals roam the lands as freelance bounty catchers, these people are known as Hunters. The story revolves around 12 year old boy named Gon Freecss whom learns that his father, whom he had always been told was dead, is in fact alive and one of the most famed Hunters in the world. I found that this manga offered an array of different onomatopoeia  on almost every page.  In this image, Gon catches a fish monster and his excitement can be captured with the use of onomatopoeia. In this case, it is used to show his excitement when he hooks the fish, and while he runs through town with it, too include the town reaction when they all gather around for a look. Here is another example of onomatopoeia being used in the book, however I have to admit the different fonts make it hard...

 こにちわ! わたしは　(de la Pena)です。 ぽくわ　げつようびと　すいようび　ごぜんごじに　おきます。 ぽくわ　ごぜんごじはんに　じむで　いきます。 かいようびと　もくようび　ごぜんくじに　おきます。 ときどき　あさごはんを　とべます。 まいにち　くじに　クラスに　いきます。 じゅうにじごらに　(South)しょくどうに　いきます。 ひるごはんを　たべます。 ぽくわ　ごごよじに　りょうに　かえります。 まいにち　(South)しょくどうに　いきます。 ひるごはんを　たべます。 ぽくわ　ごごしちはんに　りょうで　べんきょうします。 ぽくわ　 よく　ごぜんじゅにじはんに　ねます。 しゅうまつ　あまり　 パーティを　しません。