It's been almost 3 months since I signed up in TL, but I've been a lurker way before that. I lurked the general, broodwar and tourney forums, just leeching off as much as I could during my free time, while studying for my GCE O levels.
Then, after the end of my O levels, I found myself very free. Very, very free. I would spend almost 20 hours a day in front of my computer, ICCuping, playing on Garena, stuff like that. Then, I found a thread that would change my life (somewhat).
FakeSteve was in Singapore!
The thread is this one, where I made my first post.
After that, I started to contribute, making use of my Korean/English/Japanese/Chinese language knowledge and benefiting hundreds of others, just through small bit-by-bit contributions. First, it was just Live Reporting, then I started with my first interview translation, for the Fantasy vs Jaedong finals (link), then started translating on a regular basis.
So, enough on history lesson. Who exactly is this suddenly-appeared guy called by his ID konadora?
I'm a Korean who migrated to Singapore when I was aged 5 (6 in Korean age), due to my father being sent overseas by Hyundae to work here. After that, my father quit his job, started his own and made Singapore our new home.
I never forgot my roots, and visited my home country once a year, and attended Saturdays-only Korean school, but it was such a pain in the ass that I quit when I was in Primary 3 (what's that? Grade 3?). From then on, my only source of additional Korean language learning was from my daily conversation with my parents and watching the news on TV (we have a Korean channel here).
Unlike most Koreans living in Singapore however, I attended the local school, although I did attend an international school before that, learning a bit of French and hieroglyphics (which I have totally forgotten - I only remember 'pomme' is apple). This meant I had to take up another language which I hate a lot - Chinese. Korean wasn't offered as a 'Mother-Tongue' subject, and I didn't want to take Malay or Tamil (Indian language), so I had no choice but to take Chinese. Chinese made no sense to me, its words didn't make sense, it wasn't made up of letters, there was no easy way to remember them, just hardcore Singaporean-style study-study-study. I'm now trying to convince my principal to allow me to drop the language completely.
So, right now, I speak 4 languages, English, Korean, Chinese and Japanese. I took up Japanese last year because I have another hobby - Japanese, Anime and Manga culture.
I'll probably post other random thoughts related to SC from time to time in my blog, any questions feel free to drop them here.
I'm attending a proper Japanese school (run and taught by qualified Japanese teachers), and I've been attending for slightly over half a year now (currently half-way through Intermediate 2). I've some background knowledge on Japanese which may have helped, but I guess it'll take around at least half a year to a year to speak conversational Japanese.
As for Chinese, bleh. Years. When I first came to Singapore, it took me almost 4 years of studying Chinese to start speaking conversational Chinese fluently. Probably one of the hardest language ever after Arabic and Indian (god how do they write those).
As for Korean, it's somewhat similar to Japanese, just different letters and a few grammatical differences, I think it'll also take 6 months to a year. Gotta see how my friends are progressing (they are taking Korean lessons atm).
Also thanks a ton for your contributions, just don't burn yourself out on translating. Some of your translation efforts (OSL offlines, anyone?) have been monstrous.
@rgfdxm: Yes, Konata + Toradora Hayate no Gotoku is so fucking awesome, especially because of Hinagiku, Rie Kugimiya voicing and Norio Wakamoto narrating.
I think that fall in post per week was because I was hospitalized.
I was hospitalized + on leave for 6 weeks, hence my suddenly burst of active participation
On May 06 2009 09:08 konadora wrote: Although I would prefer to end the sentences for Japanese in '-masu' form.
Like the first example,"朝、起きます。" would be more commonly used. Or maybe I just prefer to use it that way.
In casual conversations, the -masu form is never used. I did study abroad in Japan after two years of classroom Japanese, and I had to unlearn half the classroom crap in order to keep people from chuckling at me.
And especially NeverGG, I love all your photos and articles, very well written and nicely taken! I wish to become a good photographer like you someday (my birthday soon, gonna get a DSLR hehe)
I have a hunch that GHOSTCLAW beats out konadora for posting, given i remember him being at like 1.5k before blizzcon, then after in like a month he was at 9k.
No, I'm serving army in Singapore Konata ftw <3 Ami ftw <3 No consoles, except PSP. I play WC3 (standard), DotA, Assassin's Creed, COD4, COD5, CNC3 /a/ Aren't you Japanese?
On May 06 2009 09:57 NeverGG wrote: I wondered where on Earth you suddenly popped up from! Anyway, welcome again and thanks for all the translations and nice comments on my posts.
Same here... I had felt you were just an old member that just randomly reappeared... but nope! You're insane...
On May 06 2009 10:57 konadora wrote: No, I'm serving army in Singapore Konata ftw <3 Ami ftw <3 No consoles, except PSP. I play WC3 (standard), DotA, Assassin's Creed, COD4, COD5, CNC3 /a/ Aren't you Japanese?
Kugimiya is alright until she does so many flatchested tsunderes that you see her name and start to lay out a good guess of what the plot of the anime is about. Then comes Queen's Blade.
Mugi might as well as be a fujyoshi lol, if you have to break her down, ojou-sama + healing + fujyoshi?
On the matter of k-on, need Azu-nyan already so they stop abusing Mio.
Denpa eh, dunno, that never quite mixed well with yandere for me, gets a bit too weird at some point. More classic examples like Shiki of rakkyo or Kotonoha do much better. Denpa is much more amusing as some kind of a comic relief. I should probably take the time to actually look at some of the works cited on the wiki page for that though, who knows, something neat might turn out.
Okay, so first one is IevanPolkka Second one is wtf lol Third is simply mindfuck with yui overdose No.5, lol @ kruzer, and the ending is LOL No.6 is touhou looool so random but awesome No.7 moe moe kyun overdose :3 lol wtf is no.8? sounds like another touhou last one is one of the best summary videos ever. They reused the BGM from that Saki's Yuuki-Mahjong remix you posted in your thread. Any idea what the BGM is?
Although they made Yui seem mildly retarded in the first few episodes.
On May 07 2009 14:05 dronebabo wrote: that's really catchy lol i don't know where it's from but the description has dr. slump in it watched it 6 times now
It was my message alert tone until my friends got annoyed and forced me to change it ;___;
Gah why are people linking youtube links of nico during finals week, if this keeps up I am going to need to request for another self-ban lol, not that it'll save me from nico.
On May 06 2009 08:54 konadora wrote: So, right now, I speak 4 languages, English, Korean, Chinese and Japanese. I took up Japanese last year because I have another hobby - Japanese, Anime and Manga culture.
I want to learn all 4 of these languages. I'm Chinese but know so little ;_; I love languages so much. What do you think is the best way to start? Taking school courses for them?
Thanks for all your translations also! I read every single one of them (well, maybe not when they involve khan winning haha).
Best way to start is by finding interests (for me, Animu and Mango hence Japanese), then do some slow self background research and self-study for a short period of time (at least a few months though), then take up a course. That way, it's easier to absorb what you learn, and your interest won't fade off so easily as well.
On May 07 2009 14:48 konadora wrote: Best way to start is by finding interests (for me, Animu and Mango hence Japanese), then do some slow self background research and self-study for a short period of time (at least a few months though), then take up a course. That way, it's easier to absorb what you learn, and your interest won't fade off so easily as well.
Yeah I'm interested in Animu and Mango as well. That's why I want to learn Japanese haha. And Korean because of Starcraft, but it also seems like a fun language to learn. Chinese is self explanatory since I'm Chinese myself. Guess I should start some self studying O_O Where do I start though? Like learning the alphabet and whatnot by googling?
And lol at me being a retard. In my previous post I said I wanted to learn all 4.........and English was included. Boy, it's been a longgggggg day -_- haha
Try watching a few animes, then slowly pick up words that are commonly used, keep doing that for a few months. Try to learn alphabets either from books (there are very well illustrated and interesting textbooks for beginners if you search hard) or online sites before you attend the actual classes.