クールジャパン

 This video is a documentary of the Battle of Cannae (カンナエの戦い), which was fought between the Romans and Carthaginians in 216 BC during the Second Punic War (218-201 BC). The narrator begins with a brief description of the war before the battle. It has not been going well for the Romans, so they decide to muster the largest army they have ever yet assembled to defeat the Carthaginian general, Hannibal, once and for all. However, Hannibal, despite being badly outnumbered, manages to annihilate the Roman army, creating a panic in Rome that the war is lost. I realized I need to study kanji more; the subtitles, being full of unknown kanji, were hardly any help in understanding what the narrator was saying. However, thanks to them, I noticed something interesting about writing numbers. At the 2:05 minute mark, the narrator gives the sizes of both armies, and the Romans' 86,000 men is written onscreen as "8万６０００" where I suppose I would have expected, if kanji were to be used, ...

 我が秋休みはどこへ行ったか知りたいです。今学期こそ、私は休みがいりました！このめんどくさいスケジュール…大嫌いですよ。論文を書かなければいけないけど、秋休みがなかったから、時間がないんです。私はがんばっているのに、この状況は大変すぎると思います。 論文の話題：アリオウィストゥスとカエサル つかれたんです。まだ２０ページを書かなけてはいけませんよ。ジェンキンス様、助けていただけませんか？

 かぐや様は告らせたい (Kaguya Wants to be Confessed To), adapted from a manga of the same name,  is a comedy about the less-than-academic activities of the student council of a prestigious high school in Tokyo. President Shirogane Miyuki and Vice President Shinomiya Kaguya have crushes on each other, but each, believing that love is a some kind of war in which the loving side loses, is too embarrassed to make a move on the other. Since it's midterm season... Even before I watched this how, I knew that the Japanese school year started in the spring, but it seems the student council timetable doesn't line up with the school terms; in the show, the characters leave office and new elections take place shortly after the summer break of their second year. Turning to language, the characters make extensive use of casual speech and slang: I've noticed a negative form -あん used in place of -あない. For example, 分からん instead of 分からない or かまわん instead of かまわない. I've also noticed the んです form wit...

  世論に反して、私は酒飲みじゃありませんよ。でも最近、よくこの梅酒を飲んでいます。以上。

 中学生と高校生の時、父が医者なので、私も医者になりたいと思っていました。そのために、AP化学の授業をとったけど、そのせいせきはわるかったから、化学はきらいになって医者にならない方がいい思いました。その後で、古典学の先生になろうと思っていて、前よりラテン語を勉強してしまいました。ゆっくりしてはいけないから、今もまだ勉強しています。でも先生になりたかったら、古典ギリシャ語も勉強しなければならないです。ラテン語と日本語よりむずかしいけど、私はがんばります。ほら、一年だけ勉強した後で：κατέβην χθὲς εἰς Πειραιᾶ μετὰ Γλαύκωνος τοῦ Ἀρίστωνος προσευξόμενός τε τῇ θεῷ καὶ ἅμα τὴν ἑορτὴν βουλόμενος θεάσασθαι　＝　昨日アリストンのグラウコンと一緒にまつりが見たかったから、ピレウスへ女神を礼拝しに出かけた。

 今四年生だけど、卒業した後の予定はありません。でもせんこうは古典学だから、先生になるために、大学院に入学するつもりだと思っています。 だって、せんこうが古典学だから、出来る仕事は先生だけですね。まぁ、いいですよ。ほかの仕事をしたくないんです。 外国へ仕事をしに行く前に、しゅうしょくした方がいいかもしれません。アメリカにも仕事を見つけるのはむずかしいから、外国には見つける方が不可能だと思います。

 Initial D (頭文字D) was first adapted into anime in 1998 and centers on the street racing exploits of Fujiwara Takumi, a high school student who obtains his driver license just before the beginning of the story. However, he has been driving on the mountain roads for far longer as a delivery boy for his father's tofu business. Fujiwara works at a local gas station, and one summer his friends there, through four episodes of dramatic irony, get him involved with their street racing team on the local mountain pass, Mt. Akina (which in real life is Mt. Haruna in Gunma). Unfortunately, it seems whoever holds the rights to the show has decided to scrub YouTube clean of his copywritten material, so this recap edit was the best clip I could find. While watching, I learned much loanword vocabulary about cars and driving: タイヤ、コーナー、ブレーキ、ドリフト、ターボ, etc. I remember finding the phrasing for "powerful car" in one episode particularly amusing: ビッグ‐パワー車. I also noticed several times where, wh...