<p>how many languages do you know?!? so far it’s been AP Spanish, English (obviously), Japanese, and Chinese? all self-studied? wow.</p>
<p>purrli,</p>
<p>There is also of course the problem in Japanese with the fact that there are no set definitions of which kanji to use in any given situation. For example, the name 田中 is never an issue. It’s always “tanaka.” But, first names…oh dear. First names get complicated. </p>
<p>But with the case of our friend 浜崎アユミ、we may be seeing the use of the kanji for artistic effect. Something tells me that her actual legal name still uses the character hama/浜 (very common kanji in Japan for place names. I actually have a 浜崎 by me), but for whatever reason the other character was used either for recognition or because it has a prettier meaning.</p>
<p>Then again, there’s also the chance that they were afraid that stupid pre-teens wouldn’t be able to read the older, rarer 浜. Who knows. I never question kanji usage anymore. It’s incomprehensible to me.</p>
<p>purrli,</p>
<p>I didn’t do much self-study, but I have (in order of descending ability) English, Japanese, Spanish, and Mandarin under my belt. And I can more or less slog through French if need be.</p>
<p>So our friend isn’t too rare. :)</p>
<p>By the way…</p>
<p>J-Pop is crap.</p>
<p>Yaoi is crap.</p>
<p>The vending machines with panties do in fact exist. And are crap.</p>
<p>Japan is more crap than any of you 外人 know. :p</p>
<ol>
<li>annoying people</li>
<li>prats</li>
<li>boredom</li>
<li>my brother.</li>
<li>my music teacher</li>
<li>waking up at 5 am</li>
<li>the heat of the sun</li>
<li>no internet</li>
<li>my brother</li>
<li>my brother</li>
</ol>
<p>people who say that their parents made them do this and their parents made them do that … “my parents are forcing me to go to to an ivy league school” “they will kill me, i got a 98%, not a 100%”</p>
<p>Yeah, that’s extremely annoying.
People who get upset if they miss 2 or 4 points on a test and say they did really bad. People who say “like…like…like” all the time.</p>
<p>People who say “You got a B and deserve to be punished” (ie a standard overinvolved mother)</p>
<p>Girls that wear fake eyelashes. It looks weird!</p>
<p>yup. What really ticks me off are people that constantly use cliched phrases such as “Gets my goat” or “watch out for that last step-- it’s a doozy”… A little bit is cool, but when EVERY sentence is a borrowed phrase… it gets annoying.</p>
<p>I have never ever heard anyone say “gets my goat” or “watch out for that last step–it’s a doozy” EVER.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Yeah I agree. Never in my entire being have I heard these phrases uttered. EVER.! :p</p>
<p>Me neither…but I love a well-timed cliche once in a while because they fit a lot of the time better than anything original. I like ‘time is money’ when I need my cousin to hurry up (inside joke, I guess…not everyone would find it funny).</p>
<p>I have quite frequently but only from older people.</p>
<p>I think I might’ve heard “gets my goat” but rarely. I’ve definitely never heard the doozy one.</p>
<p>i’ve heard the “its a doozy” one quite a few times from really old people</p>
<p>My Pet Peeves?</p>
<p>1). People who don’t flush the toilet, and after a few hours, starts to stink up the place.</p>
<p>2). People who think they are better than everyone else b/c they have a different view on things (ex. music or movies)</p>
<p>3). People who kill jokes</p>
<p>4). People who don’t take me seriously when I KINDLY ask them to please take me seriously (I’m typically a “out-spoken” and funny person, and I get goofy sometimes, but some people simply ruin the fun of it by constantly refering to a stupid joke I made or something)</p>
<p>5). People who think getting a 95% will ruin their lives</p>
<p>6). Overly smart people who think they rule the world.</p>
<p>7). People who always ask “hey whats you listening to on your ipod” like every day.</p>
<p>UCLAri, Hamasaki Ayumi’s real name is this: 浜崎あゆみ and is used on everything except when she was a model, when Kurumi replaced Ayumi as her first name.
And the fact that teens won’t understand the character: I could see that, and it would be saying a lot about Japan.
41. People who use facts against you for their advancement.</p>
<p>Oh I hate getting asked where I’m from (like what city/town) because no one ever knows where that is and I have to like draw it out from them with lots of directions and everything</p>
<p>kman,</p>
<p>That’s why I wrote it exactly how you did, except that I used katakana for a first name (not an uncommon practice.) </p>
<p>I don’t really think it says a whole lot about Japan. The character is pretty rare, and it’s not that big of a deal if particularly young people don’t know a few odd kanji. By the time most Japanese are adults, they would certainly recognize it.</p>
<p>But again, there are plenty of other reasons why someone might change their name’s kanji. Like I said earlier, it may be purely aesthetic reasons.</p>