One of Ours

The Japanese language is rather a complex animal because of its long history of being influenced by outside sources. Modern Japanese combines several writing systems, including hiragana (a syllable-based writing system used for Japanese words), katakana (a syllabary for foreign loan words and names), and Chinese kanji characters (which provide visual meaning). There are fundamentally two ways to read each kanji character: the on-yomi or the Chinese reading, based on what the reading for the character was when it was imported into Japan around the 4th century A.D., and the kun-yomi or Japanese reading, an original Japanese pronunciation assigned to the character. No system is perfect, of course, and some kanji have many more than two readings, and the end results it can be quite difficult to know exactly how to pronounce the characters you see. (Chinese people really hate this aspect of learning Japanese -- they can read the meaning of what's written easily, but don't know how to pronounce it out loud.) Sometimes confusion can reign when two words have the same pronunciation, such as the words for "private" and "public" (both of which are pronounced "shiritsu") -- quite confusing when you're asking someone if their child attends a private school or a public school.

Becoming bilingual in a language is fun because you learn so much about how your own brain works. Back in my SDSU days it would be interesting to analyze the process that goes on inside my mind as a new word or grammatical concept was learned, as it went from my short-terrm memory, through longer-term memory until that magic point where the word or concept was fully internalized, and could be called up and used without thought. Then there's what linguists call "interference," when the grammar or pronunciation rules of one language interfere with the operation of another language, sometimes with embarrassing results. We're learning new things about how language and the brain work, still: my third-grade son knows all his timestables back and forth when he's thinking in Japanese, but since he'll be attending an all-English school next year, he has to re-learn everything in English. So far this is proving incredibly difficult for him.

The Japanese are always pleased by foreigners taking an interest in their language and becoming fluent in Japanese, and many of the actors and comedians on Japanese TV are gaijin who have mastered Japanese enough to even be entertaining in the language. There's an unwritten rule that gaijin living in Japan will hate these people, usually because their Japanese is better than ours. Dave Specter, an American who came to Japan as a TV producer, is one such TV personality, despised by all Westerners living here (he actually dyes his black hair blonde to appear more "American" on TV). Thane Camus (pronounced "Sane Kamyu" in Japanese) is a super-cute "gaijin talent" (and grandson of French novelist Albert Camus) who does a show called World's Funniest English, in which Japanese are asked to tell stories in awful English while the exact translation of what they're saying appears on the TV. Appearing with him on the show are three bumbling men from Kenya who speak hilariously mistaken Japanese -- they've become so popular that they appear in TV commercials of their own these days. And then there's Wickie-san, who came to Japan from Sri Lanka and passed the entrance exam to Tokyo University, Japan's top-ranked university. His primary goal is to get Japanese people to learn that Sri Lanka is not part of Africa.

[...]

Tom Brokaw: As long as the United States military remains a conspicuous presence in your country working hand in glove with the new Iraqi government, won’t you always be seen really as an instrument of the U.S. military and therefore of America?

Prime Minister Allawi: Iraq, as everybody knows, is the front state now — as the main theater to oppose and fight terrorism. And, with the help of international community and with the help of the region and with the help of the Iraqi people, we are going to win. We are going to prevail.

Brokaw: I know that you and others like you are grateful for the liberation of Iraq. But can’t you understand why many Americans feel that so many young men and women have died here for purposes other than protecting the United States?

Allawi: We know that this is an extension to what has happened in New York. And — the war have been taken out to Iraq by the same terrorists. Saddam was a potential friend and partner and natural ally of terrorism.

Brokaw: Prime minister, I’m surprised that you would make the connection between 9/11 and the war in Iraq. The 9/11 commission in America says there is no evidence of a collaborative relationship between Saddam Hussein and those terrorists of al-Qaida.

Allawi: No. I believe very strongly that Saddam had relations with al-Qaida. And these relations started in Sudan. We know Saddam had relationships with a lot of terrorists and international terrorism. Now, whether he is directly connected to the September — atrocities or not, I can’t — vouch for this. But definitely I know he has connections with extremism and terrorists...

America's military commander in Iraq ordered British troops to prepare a full-scale ground offensive against Iranian forces that had crossed the border and grabbed disputed territory, a senior officer has disclosed.

An attack would almost certainly have provoked open conflict with Iran. But the British chose instead to resolve the matter through diplomatic channels.

"If we had attacked the Iranian positions, all hell would have broken loose," a defence source said yesterday. "We would have had the Iranians to our front and the Iraqi insurgents picking us off at the rear."

[...]

"Some Iranian border and observation posts were re-positioned over the border, broadly a kilometre into Iraq," a Ministry of Defence spokesman said.

The incident began last July when Revolutionary Guards pushed about a kilometre into Iraq to the north and east of Basra in an apparent attempt to reoccupy territory which they claimed belonged to Iran.

Lt Gen Ricardo Sanchez then ordered the British to prepare to send in several thousand troops to attack the Revolutionary Guard positions....

...thank you very much for the ‘occupiers’.. Those who helped us in liberating our country from the tyranny, the ‘occupiers’ who liberated Iraq on the 9th of April, the ‘occupiers’ who sent Mr.Paul Bremer as we did not have a governor at that time..the ‘occupiers’ who helped us in forming a governing council.. The ‘occupiers’ who helped us in the interim constitution.. The ‘occupiers’ who stood against the terrorists.. The ‘occupiers’ who helped us in forming and training our army......etc.. then those ‘occupiers’ handed over the sovereignty to the Iraqis.... they are the best ‘occupiers’ I’ve ever seen.. I hope they’ll ‘occupy’ the countries who are in need to be improved !
Thank you very much...