So I spent roughly four years learning Spanish in order to... well, watch Japanese anime with Spanish subtitles. No, really. It's like the Japanese companies don't care if the videos are up with French, Italian, Portuguese, or Spanish subtitles, but as soon as it's in English, they delete it. I also sometimes watch Korean dramas with Spanish subtitles. (There's something really, really weird about hearing sarang and reading amor, it's like my brain can't handle the discrepancy.) The sad truth is that I haven't really practiced speaking Spanish in such a long time that all I can actually say is the basic stuff. I can still read Spanish at a pretty good level and can somewhat still write in it, but speaking? I was trying to help a constituent in Spanish over summer and pretty much failed.
I've been changing some of the sites I go to into Traditional Chinese settings, ostensibly to help me practice, but it doesn't actually help. The sad thing is, I spent so many years of my childhood practicing piano, which is a relatively useless skill. I love it, but will playing the piano like a concert pianist help me with IR research? I can't even read Chinese novels, at least anything with more meaning than what an elementary school kid can probably read, and I probably miss every 1/10 words in the newspaper. Sometimes I'm still sad over the fact that I never even got a chance to go to Chinese school, since my mom was so determined that I could just learn it on my own. Well yeah, I learned violin on my own and lot of other things, but learning Chinese isn't exactly like practicing until you manage to vibrato. During the first two years of college, I (re)learned a lot, but then life caught up and Chinese got bumped down the priority list until it basically fell off altogether.
Language skills. I was talking to a friend and saying that if I had some sort of wish for a superpower, I wouldn't necessarily go for something big and flashy like being able to fly. I think it would be pretty cool to be the ultimate polyglot, because so much about culture and respect for others is linked to language.
It's one of those things that people know but don't really pay attention to, like the idea that communication is essential to X or Y or Z. Being able to understand someone else, and have them understand you - it doesn't sound like much, but it's one of those evolve/regress paradox issues, like the fact that we might kill each other with smart bombs and nuclear weapons now, but a thousand years ago, we still killed each other with stones and in some parts of the world, still do. Even with all our new ways of communication, it feels like we're just progressing in a regressive fashion. I'm reposting this from my friend's tumblr (and she reposted it from somewhere else) because it beats the longwinded paragraph I was going to write about the film Babel and the mute Japanese girl.
In one word: sad. My hypothetical superpower might seem nerdy and practical, but I still think it would be an amazing superpower. They don't have blogging on here since it's not exactly within the parameters they're probably using, but I'm guessing it would fall between 7 and 6. What about livejournal fiction writing communities? I wonder what that counts as, although I guess creative communication/writing is too different anyway to put into a ranking.
ARTIST: (Alexander) Wang LeeHom (王力宏) ALBUM: Heartbeat (心．跳) Songwriter: 王力宏 /易家揚; Composer: 王力宏 Translator: bloodredrosez, keep this credit if taking for use or reposting.
Notes: l can almost bet that someone else has posted a translation of this already, but this was one that I did a while ago when the album first came out and completely forgot to put up. I don’t like this album as much as his others, but I do like this latest addition to his collection of soulful love ballads, though the lyrics aren’t that amazing. The “pit of my stomach” line is really unromantic in translation, but I didn’t want to say “love appears in the pit of my stomach” either. It’s basically what Americans would call the “gut feeling.”
心跳 | xin tiao | Heart Beat (Traditional Chinese, pinyin, and English translation.)
想跟我吵架 我沒那麼無聊 xiang gen wo chao jia wo mei na me wu liao You want to pick a fight with me, I’m not that bored
不懂得道歉 我沒那麼聰明 bu dong de dao qian wo mei na me cong ming I apologize without understanding, I’m not that clever
好想要回到 我們的原點 Oh ~ # hao xiang yao hui dao wo men de yuan dian # I really want to go back to our starting point #
你又在哭泣 我給不了安慰 ni you zai ku qi wo gei bu liao an wei You are sobbing again, I can’t comfort you
我又在搖頭 有那麼點後悔 wo you zai yao tou you na me dian hou hui I’m shaking my head again, I have in that way some regret
愛情的發展已難以回頭 卻無法往前走 ai qing de fa zhan yi nan hui tou que wu fa wang qian zou The growth of love makes it hard to turn back, yet I can’t move forward
*但身不由己出現在胸口 *dan shen bu you yi chu xian zai xiong kou *Still, in spite of myself, the feeling appears in the pit of my stomach
兩顆心能塞幾個問號 liang ke xin neng sai ji ge wen hao How many problems can two hearts resolve? //alt. trans. How many questions can two hearts block?
愛讓我們流多少眼淚 ai rang wo men liu duo shao yan lei How many tears will love make us shed?
Chorus:
你的眼神充滿美麗 帶走我的心跳 ni de yan shen chong man mei li dai zou de de xin tiao Your eyes brim over with beauty, taking away my heartbeat
你的溫柔如此靠近 帶走我的心跳 ni de wen rou ru ci kao jin dai zou wo de xin tiao In this way your tenderness is close, taking away my heartbeat
逆轉時光到一開始 能不能給一秒 ni zhuan shi guang dao yi kai shi neng bu neng gei yi miao Time has turned back to the very beginning, can it give me a moment?
等著哪一天你也想起 deng zhe na yi tian ni ye xiang qi I wait for that day when you will recall
那懸在記憶中的美好 na xuan zai ji yi zhong de mei hao The beauty that is suspended within your memories. // end chorus
Repeat from beginning until #, then skip to * Repeat chorus
I just have to rant a little right now. IMEEM got bought out by MySpace Music in a firesale, which means...
All my links are dead, which I don't really care that much about. What I DO care about is all the playlists that I made on Imeem with tons of rare songs that I don't actually HAVE, or all the amazing playlists that I favorited which introduced me to artists I would have never otherwise known existed. All gone! Overnight, they just took down everything on imeem - and I was starting to use the site a lot to discover new music, since they have new full album releases of popular artists like Rihanna, Jay Sean, etc. As for their promises to transition, I doubt they could even if they sincerely tried! If they wanted to, they wouldn't have abruptly taken down imeem like that either - at the very least, they could have put up a Site News before the redirect to MySpace Music, or kept imeem up while transitioning so users can start frantically copying down information like ALL THOSE SONGS ON THOSE PLAYLISTS. In effect, imeem going down is like losing half of the music on my hard drive! Only worse, because I relied on imeem for all those obscure artists who barely even show up on Youtube b/c they don't have music videos.
I can only imagine how much worse it is for those people who actually blogged on imeem and spent time making their user layouts nice, etc. The thing with imeem is that it's one of those international sites where if you check out the most played list of songs, some random Thai song will be up there with say, Chris Brown. I can easily make a playlist with Russian, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, and English songs. I can find that one Mandarin song that I heard during my childhood, that was released 20 years ago, or some obscure OST for a Taiwanese wuxia drama. I can listen to whole CDs so I know whether they're good, or whether the artist only has one or two good songs, and everything else is filler.
You think MySpace music has classical music? Or Se7en's Korean songs? Or people's unique arrangements of Joe Hisaishi's orchestral scores into different piano/violin/quartet variations?
I pointed out to my friend exactly how much Asian music is on that site and also pointed out that I highly doubt MySpace supports Asian music. I don't even think the MySpace search can search Asian text. Searching "Jay Chou" turns up a grand total of 182 results. "DBSK" gives me 126. "JJ Lin" gave me 59. Yeah, FIFTY NINE. I have more than 59 songs from him on my laptop. "KAT-TUN" somehow only gave me...ONE result! WTF.
SERIOUSLY, MySpace?
I just searched 林俊傑 and got a grand total of 11 results, all music videos. I don't even want to try with Korean text.
I mean, I've read about imeem's financial troubles and their last minute fundraising, plus the layoff of 25% of its employees, but this was still completely sudden. I just wish I had known earlier so I could salvage some stuff. Warner wrote off its 15mil investment in imeem and cut its investment in lala.com in half - I don't use the latter, and even if I started now, there's a good probability that it'll also get bought out.
If anyone knows any good music sites that support Asian music, leave me the link.
Since I keep getting messages about what's playing on the player at the bottom of the page, I added "Current Playlist" to the navigation. Hopefully I'll remember to update this list when I change the playlist. Remember, this playlist is subject to change at any time, although I haven't been changing it as consistently as I used to. Once upon a time, I had a different song for every entry that I posted.
1. Leona Lewis - Run (cover of Snow Patrol, see #4)
Since some people have been emailing about past songs too, I'm going to start putting them here:
Big Bang - Haru Haru
Epik High - One
Epik High - Fan [for lyrics, see below]
George Davidson - Cristofori's Dream
Epik High - 1 Minute, 1Second
DBSK - Mirotic
Final Fantasy OST - To Zanarkland
Yiruma - River Flows in You
---
Epik High – Fan
Translations compiled from aheeyah & various versions of youtube subtitles.
*Oh! (Even if I can’t have you) Even if it’s only in my mind (Even if I can’t touch you) Even if this dream will never come true (Even if I can’t say it) Even if I hide far away (You know I do) I love you (Even if you don’t know who I am…)
Verse 1- Tablo
Oh, baby don't you know? You don't even know my name.My heart flutters as I look at you through the night.Oh so beautiful, the photo of you that I hold in my hands.My psychotic whispers of love have been swept away in the world's cheerful praise of you. You probably can't hear it, right? Even if I die, it won't work out, right? Of course, even in my next life, you probably won't know me then either. I can't turn back now because I want you too much. I clutch my pillows tightly as I yearn for your kiss tonight.
Verse 1- Mithra
Does today mark our first meeting? You always ask that sort of question. I'll try to converse with your fleeting presence again today. It is always the same, but I'll be shaking again as I greet you. Even if the whole world stops listening to me, you'll be there to hear me out. I want you to shake my hardening form as I watch you get farther away from me. Far away, far away, you become a speck in the distance. Now from where can I see you again?
*Hook
Verse 2- Mithra
I wonder why you're not smiling today? I hope it was nothing serious. I can't bear to look at your grief stricken face, I'd rather it was me who was in pain. But the fact that I can't do that is such a pity. I want you to greet me happily for once. Ask me how I've been and then embrace me as I try to answer you. You, whom I can't have, feel, nor embrace...I'll be meeting you again in my dreams tonight.
Verse 2- Tablo
Even if it's just my dreams and people tell me that it won't work or laugh at my love...Even if people tell me that I'm insane and try to erase my world...You are mine, so why do I keep losing you to all those undeserving people? No, I can never do it, I'm going to make you look at only me from now on. I'll give you everything and when you kiss me, I'll give you the world. I will trap you inside my cold, dark chest so you can't escape from me. [ENG] You are my star, I'm your number one fan. Baby please, take my hand.
*Hook*
[ENG] Boys and girls who have fallen in psychotic love say oh, oh oh! [ENG] Boys and girls who have fallen in idiotic love say oh, oh, oh! Boys and girls who have fallen in hopeless love say oh, oh , oh! Boys and girls who have fallen in love like mine say oh, oh, oh!
I should be 100% focused on finals right now, but I can't help but focus instead on the fact that I just read a short piece by a long ago self proclaimed fan of mine and...
Why can I write like that?!
The ironic thing is that she was the one who was gushing to me about how she wanted to write like me. And now, about three years later, she's a better writer in the ways that really count. I know that's just in my opinion, but still, it makes me want to just go jump off a cliff.
I've noticed that some of the worst writers, from the conventional standpoint of spelling/grammar/etc. are the ones that best capture the really raw emotions. It's almost as if sophisticated language becomes a barrier to the actual thing - you get so wrapped up in the beauty of the words that it softens the impact somehow. Even with wrong word choices, the visceral emotions come through sharply. It's almost as if by breaking the language, or at least stretching all of its rules mostly unintentionally, it more direct conveys the human experience - I guess in the same way that almost all written dialogue is artificial, because people in real life simply don't speak so smoothly and clearly.
You know what I mean. There are really sophisticated and thoughtful TV shows out there that simply don't touch your heart, or sometimes they do, but while it makes you feel somewhat sad, you're not going to identify so strongly that you cry. And then there are horrible TV shows - a lot of those so-called "reality" shows, actually - that you know are supposed to be horrible and stupid, but they make their point and you just can't turn away from seeing those basic emotions at work. Somehow they they tap into what's common in all of us, so that we identify so strongly that it's impossible to deny.
A while ago I tried breaking down my own writing to try to tap into that basic, raw emotion. Instead, all I ended up with was more "beautiful" writing. I freaking hate my own writing style. I hate how I can't seem to break out of it, no matter what I try to do to it. People say the grass is always greener on the other side and I guess this is somewhat one of those cases where instead of being happy about the way I write, I want to be able to write like that, dammit.
What makes a piece of writing good? A lot of people can tell you a lot of things, but let's start with this working definition: A piece of writing is good when you can't help but read it.
Current Playlist updated btw. First song is now Leona Lewis' cover of "Run"
on October 9, 2008
