- speaking of kafka... -

currently listening to - Awaking Emotion 8/5 (Wentz Eiji)
mood - still sleepy

slogan of the year: nihongo umai ne.

apparently there's this "nihongo umai ne" campaign going on among the japanese and i am one of their regular targets. it seems that someone made it compulsory for everyone to use the phrase "nihongo umai ne" (there are improvised versions like "nihongo pera pera desu ne" or "nihongo jouzu da ne", they all mean the same thing..) whenever they first encounter a person like me. now im so used to this phrase i even discovered the most ideal reply to that phrase - "ie ie sorehodo demo".

i dont know why but somehow, i feel sad about this.

*****

a month passed after my university life began, and i am proud to say that my unsystematic and disorientated lifestyle hasnt "deproved" to a more human-like stage, nor has it "improved" to a more exciting and heart-stopping stage. though i must say i almost got myself kicked out of the dormitory for illegally importing humans into my room. yay. it's FIVE-STAR PRISON all over again..

no worries. i havent received any warning letters from the administrators. besides, life has to be spiced up with some interesting happenings. ;)

so for the first semester, i chose Introduction To World Literature 1 as one of my compulsory elective art subjects. compulsory because we are required to obtain at least 4 credits for art subjects to proceed to year 2. elective because we are given quite a few choices to choose from - other than the one i chose, there are subjects like column writing, art and museums, daily life and law, reading confucius's works, introduction to economics, and so on. it's not like i have a special interest in literature or what.. according to the analysis of our senpai, as long as we attend the class and write a book report at the end of the term, we will definitely get our credits.

frankly speaking i really don't know much about world literature. i would gladly transfer to one which is related to manga or anime if there was one........ anyway. during the first lesson we were told that we'll learn about literature from germany, france, US (or was it british..), and china. the head lecturer is responsible for german literature, and apparently his specialty is german-language novelist, Franz Kafka.

and so we spent 4 weeks on kafka, his life and works.. and even watched The Trial, an english movie based on one of his most famous works Der Prozeß. for me it was depressing and slightly unpleasant to watch.. partly due to the fact that i didn't know the flow of the story because i came to class late (because my previous lesson ended late..), and that the movie is in black and white and the graphics are not really clear (because it's made in the 60s).. to top it all, i was sitting at the edge of the second row which was very close to the screen, and the person sitting between me and the screen kept changing his sitting position every 2 minutes.. which gave me a slight headache towards the end of the movie..

i think i'd rather read the novel if i must. after all im more of a "reading person" rather than a "watching person". same goes to the manga-anime case, which i personally prefer reading the manga than watching the anime of the same title.

unless the anime is NOT originated from any manga or book, like Darker Than Black. =p

oh but it WILL be adapted into a manga i heard...

*****

1) nihongo umai ne - u speak good japanese / ur japanese is fluent
2) ie ie sorehodo demo - typical japanese way of expressing "oh come now, you flatter me" (when translated literally, it's "no, no, i'm not as good as you think i'd be").