The SKOOKUM! Blog

This is the Official Blog of SKOOKUM! the online manga. In this blog you'll find news, blogs and all kinds of strange information relating to SKOOKUM! as well as of its creators.

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Page 112. Japanese and Obsession with "Correct" English?



I stumbled upon this on the Internet, and without any offense, I just think this ad is merely an extension of the fetish the Japanese have with the English language. Read On!

I don't know the story behind this kooky/pervy morsel. If appearances are true, it's a Japanese instructional video that teaches English phrases for picking up gaijin hotties. It could also be an excuse to drool over chicks clad in teacher and schoolgirl uniforms who say dirty words in lo-res. Perhaps one of our Japanese-speaking readers can clue us in. Link

Reader comment: Anonymous Japanese speaker says,

I think it's the intro gimmick from some porn. Check out the extremely cautious mosaicing when the girl reveals her panty-clad cockpit to Taro. I've got 1000 yen right here that says that after they move onto standard porn sex (maybe with some forced English cries of pleasure). The other proof is the "nukenagara manaberu" that the main teacher says at the start -- "you can learn while jerking off". It's not at all uncommon for Japanese porn videos to be that direct about helping the viewer masturbate. I dunno about overseas.
Also, the reason "omanko" (cockpit) is censored and "ochinchin" isn't because "omanko" is a stronger word than "ochinchin". "Ochinchin" is more like "willy" than "dick", but "omanko" really is like "pussy", or maybe even "cunt".

Reader comment: NH says,
This *does* appear to be an instructional video on talking dirty in English. I've only studied Japanese for a little while now but I gather that the female host is telling the audience ("mina-san") that she and the women behind her are "sexy teachers" ("watashi-tachi sexy sensei ga") and that they are glad to meet you. Before holding up a giant cue-card spelling out "dick" she explains that they'll begin with "simple study" ("kantana-kara-no-benkyoushimashou"). Following that, but before the totally hot conversation (or train wreck of words, but who's counting?) they go from "simple study" to.... "not-simple study." You wish I was kidding. If you're baffled by what the symptoms of a nasty case of taro could involve, you should see a doctor immediately.
Reader comment: Alex Waters, who presumably speaks Japanese and is not just pulling our cockpit, says:
It's indeed an instructional video on talking dirty in English, and it's HILARIOUS. But they encourage you to drool as well - the viewer is offered a choice of studying either conversation or "masterbation" [sic]. After the teachers introduce themselves, they inform us that in order to learn to converse, we must first study some basic vocabulary. (Note to readers: Are you SURE you know the definition of "cockpit"?) As an interesting aside, it's acceptable to talk about dicks, but all the instances of "manko" - "pussy" in Japanese - are bleeped out, and one character is censored when it's written onscreen as well.
After finishing up with vocabulary, the "Sexy Senseis" move on to real world applications - the conversation lesson! It simply must be seen to be believed. Luckily for the English speakers out there, the conversation lesson is all in English, and subtitled in both English and Japanese.

I can't WAIT to try out my new conversation skills and see if they work.

Reader Comment: Rachel
Another noteworthy detail: it's pretty clear that none of the caucasian women in the video are native speakers of English.
It wouldn't surprise me at all if they were Russian, as there's a pretty large population of women from the former Soviet republics doing sex work in Japan. But their accents didn't sound Russian, so maybe they're from somewhere else. Anyway, sexual negotiations are definitely one of the more important purposes Japanese men have for conversational English.

On the site hosting the Youtube vid, it said the women were "overdubbed", but it sounds pretty clear to me that those were their real voices; they just don't speak English clearly because it isn't their native language.

Reader comment: Mark Malamud says,
I just got back from japan, and the video appears to be a parody of one-minute instructional english videos they're showing on jr trains and subways in japan (at least on the yamanote line).

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

113rd Street. The Anatomy of a Shark Bite

I have always been fascinated with sharks. The TRUE monsters of the ocean. Since my childhood they are living reminders of why I should not surf, dive or ever get caught in a situation that lands me in shark infested waters.

I am a lover of animals and I like to believe that in my category of animals, sharks should be included. I am personally against the eating of shark fins (though I must admit they are pretty tasty), for I think that it is undoubtedly cruel to remove the fins of a shark while it's still alive and toss the tortured struggling shark back into the ocean - where it spends it's last agonizing moments.

I have watched several documentaries to know that the evil side of sharks have been exaggerated by the media and the infamous "Jaws" by Steven Speilberg. Although the documentaries try to establish that sharks are aggressive only when they have too, that does not make me feel any less afraid of them. One notable documentary, one that I watched yesterday seems to reflect the greatest fear I have about sharks. The documentary's called "The Anatomy of A Shark Bite". The documentary relates how a marine biologist while filming a documentary with the famed Nigel Marvin about the harmlessness of sharks, ends up getting attacked by a Bull Shark. He lost his entire calf muscle as a result of the freak accident.

The sight of the the bleeding leg without the calf portion sends the reality of a shark bite back home.

Although the documentary aims to inform the viewers on how sophisticated a shark bite is, somehow, the only thing that remains is how formidable a shark bite is. It doesn't make me feel awed by sharks - it makes me fear them EVEN more! At the same time, I have nothing but respect for the Marine biologist, who dedicated his life to the study of sharks, and even the loss of a calf cannot dampen his passion to study them in full detail. How many people these days possess such passion for their occupation? I believe that there is a special connection between man and animal. Once the connection is made, nothing, even a life-threatening accident, can destroy it.

Considering this, is the human love for an animal then stronger than the human love for another human?

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Page 113 Temporary Post

Page 113

Thursday, April 06, 2006

The Angel of History



German Literary philosopher Walter Benjamin once wrote:

A Klee painting named “Angelus Novus” shows an angel looking as though he is about to move away from something he is fixedly contemplating. His eyes are staring, his mouth is open, his wings are spread. This is how one pictures the angel of history. His face is turned toward the past. Where we perceive a chain of events, he sees one single catastrophe which keeps piling wreckage upon wreckage and hurls it in front of his feet. The angel would like to stay, awaken the dead, and make whole what has been smashed. But a storm is blowing from Paradise; it has got caught in his wings with such violence that the angel can no longer close them. This storm irresistibly propels him into the future to which his back is turned, while the pile of debris before him grows skyward. This storm is what we call progress.

“Theses on the Philosophy of History,” [1940], Illuminations: Essays and Reflections, ed. Hannah Arendt, tr. Harry Zohn. New York: Schoken Books, 1968, (253-64), 257-58.

The "Angle of History" is to me particularly, an important trope that influences all of my work. The Angel, looking back at the wreckage of the past is forcibly made to move forwards towards an unknown future it cannot see. And it cannot stop moving forwards since it is inevitable. What results is a conflictous condition, desiring to salvage a past, and yet unable to move towards a progressive future.

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

The iPod Flea

Folks.

Naw, it's not a new update, but a new hilarious video I found on the Internet. Thought it'd be nice for all of you to have a look at it!