![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
edenfallingIntended to sleep in today and run errands in the afternoon -- it being my day off -- but GS is apparently sick with a fever, etc., and PM (the manager) called me at about 9am to ask if I could cover for him. So I was at work from 1-6pm, and there went my lovely naptime. *pouts*
On the bright side, at least one of my tax refunds seems to have come in, because otherwise there is no way to explain the sudden jump in my checking account balance. Yay! Now I can pay my rent for April and May, which was, for a while, looking like it might be damn near impossible.
I really need a better-paying job.
...
Do any people out there need editing advice on essays and whatnot, and if so, are you willing to pay me? I'm actually a very good editor -- I'm exhaustively thorough -- even though it drives me batty if I indulge too often.
--------------------------------------
In a completely unrelated question, does Japanese ever use the consonant combination TS in front of any vowel other than U? Because I see the syllable TSU a lot, but I've never seen TSA, TSE, TSI, TSO, TSAO, etc.
ETA: Thank you to everyone who explained pieces of the Japanese syllabic system! (That stuff about appending Y syllables is absolutely fascinating, for example.)
On the bright side, at least one of my tax refunds seems to have come in, because otherwise there is no way to explain the sudden jump in my checking account balance. Yay! Now I can pay my rent for April and May, which was, for a while, looking like it might be damn near impossible.
I really need a better-paying job.
...
Do any people out there need editing advice on essays and whatnot, and if so, are you willing to pay me? I'm actually a very good editor -- I'm exhaustively thorough -- even though it drives me batty if I indulge too often.
--------------------------------------
In a completely unrelated question, does Japanese ever use the consonant combination TS in front of any vowel other than U? Because I see the syllable TSU a lot, but I've never seen TSA, TSE, TSI, TSO, TSAO, etc.
ETA: Thank you to everyone who explained pieces of the Japanese syllabic system! (That stuff about appending Y syllables is absolutely fascinating, for example.)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
tsu
Date: 2006-04-14 11:54 pm (UTC)I don't think so. "Tsu" occurs in the sound-set that begins with the consenant 't', which is "ta chi tsu te to" (so "ti" never happens, either). The reason you see sounds like "cha, chu, cho" is because those are actually the result of combinations between "chi" and "ya, yu, yo". This can happen with the other special "i" sounds, like "shi", which occurs in the sound-set that begins with 's', "sa shi su se so".
(I made up some of this terminology.)
The reason I'd say I don't think so is the Japanese seem to try for some unusual sounds when using foreign loan-words, so something could happen there, maybe.
Re: tsu
Date: 2006-04-15 02:49 am (UTC)I think I've never used any of the non-existent syllables (because I have minimal sense -- enough to create most character names by playing around with cheap online dictionaries) and it's really cool to learn the reason they don't exist.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-15 02:13 am (UTC)If you ever do work for students, go with the hotel school people. They have low expectations, will be extremely grateful for any help you give them, and pay generously. On the other hand, do NOT solicity work from law school students, who are the exact opposite.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-15 02:53 am (UTC)The problem, of course, is that the university itself has an official program where you bring your essay in to a group of students (mostly work-study people, I think) and they give you an hour's worth of editing and organizational advice. So I need to find out if that costs anything, what exactly one gets from that service, and therefore what I would be competing against.
...
Y'know, I could probably offer to clean up papers for people who speak English as a second language. I'm usually fairly good at translating mangled writing into coherent English. (I just suck at doing that with verbal exchanges. I have a terrible ear for resolving accents -- it's probably related to the way I find it very difficult to pick out threads of conversation from general noise, or distinguish one particular instrumental line from an orchestra.)
(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-15 03:15 am (UTC)Are you acquainted with any members of your own congregation who work at the university, or in local industry? I understand there's been a big biotech explosion in the area in the last 15-20 years. I used to do a lot of work for tech companies, and I didn't necessarily understand the technology--but I understood the English language and could tell when a sentence just didn't make sense. (One of my most-used marginal comments was always "Will audience understand?") And every freelance editing job I ever got, I got through someone I knew. Would it be too weird for you to mention that you're looking for editing work during your congregation's "Joys and Concerns"? Or you could just mention it at coffee time. If people who know you in real life are even half as impressed with you as I am, I think there's a very good chance you'd find something that way.
I really want to encourage you to pursue this, because (a) you're gifted at it and (b) you can make a lot more money in a lot less time doing editing than you can working at the smoke shop. Not that there's anything wrong with working at the smoke shop; in fact, I think it's really good for a freelancer to have a regular job where you go in and deal with people on a regular basis. But editing is fun; it lets you make the world a slightly better place by reducing the amount of bad writing in it; and, for me at least, it doesn't take a lot out of my soul, leaving me with enough emotional energy to do at least some of whatever is really important to me at the time. And it can help you make enough money that you don't have to worry so much about whether you're going to be able to pay the next two months' rent.
And now I will stop giving you career advice so we can return to our regularly scheduled program of fanfic and life complaints. Hope you don't mind--sometimes I just have trouble containing my enthusiasm for what I think is a really fabulous idea.
Re: tsu
Date: 2006-04-15 02:32 am (UTC)With the comment above about the foreign loan-words, that uses the katakana .. alphabet, which, pronunciation wise, is the same as hirigana, so, same syllables. It could be that the unusual sounds come from ... well, young speakers are lazy, and they slur. They leave out sounds because it's too much work; for example, they'll go "daiski" instead of "daisuki". It's like in English.
Re: tsu
Date: 2006-04-15 02:45 am (UTC)No, I wasn't thinking about the writing, but actual sounds (as seen in the writing). I don't have my textbook with me, though, so I don't have any examples for you now.
Re: tsu
Date: 2006-04-15 02:51 am (UTC)Re: tsu
Date: 2006-04-15 02:57 am (UTC)*delurks*
Date: 2006-04-15 02:41 am (UTC)"Tsu" appears because it is part of the Japanese syllable alphabet. It's in the "t" character line - ta, chi, tsu, te, to. (The T line contains two of the odd Japanese syllables, the other lines being S, which is sa, shi, su, se, so and H, which ha, hi, fu, he, ho) There are only really two other ways to get unusual combinations - one is the created syllables from joining a ya, yu, or yo to another syllable to create, for example, the sha, shu, and sho sounds. (When I say join, I mean that the ya/yu/yo is place at half-size next to the primary syllable) However, those always join to the "i" syllables in each line - ki, shi, chi, ri, hi, mi - for example, when combined with yo become - kyo, sho, cho, ryo, hyo, myo - respectively. I may be missing a line. So tsu, never joing with any, could never become any of those combinations.
The other strange way to form things is via katakana. It's how you can get a 'fa' sound - it's a normal fu with a small a next to it. But that only happens with katakana, as far as I've seen. So while it's remotely possible that it could happen...maybe...I've been studying abroad in Japan since september and can't think of ever seeing it.
Sorry for the length.
Re: *delurks*
Date: 2006-04-15 02:50 am (UTC)Also "ji", I think. (I hear "fu" pronounced kind of like "fhu", kind of like how the 'r' sound is really between 'r' and 'l', so does that one count as being strange?)
Re: *delurks*
Date: 2006-04-15 05:56 am (UTC)The other one that I'm a little proud of myself for figuring out is the Japanese 'R' sound - it requires convincing your tongue to pronounce an 'L' and your vocal chords to pronounce an 'R' at the same time... Interestingly, more gutteral (ie, English-like) pronounciations are apparently associated with Yakuza. Compare, say, Gamabunta and Kakashi sometime...
Ja, -n
Re: *delurks*
Date: 2006-04-15 01:47 pm (UTC)On Yakuza Slang:
yachimae - equiv. to korose, or I'll kill you
yabai - that's bad
ending things with 'e' - uruse, although that bleed into command form, which is considered yakuza-ish anyway.
...and yes, I just asked my Japanese host family what Yakuza speech was like.
It makes reading manga in Japanese a lot more interesting, I think, because a lot of that doesn't translate well, or really at all.
Oh god the "r" and "l" sounds. I've had friends who've done JET who've spent classes and more on that pronounciation difference.
Re: *delurks*
Date: 2006-04-15 06:06 am (UTC)Except for the pure vowels (a, e, u, i, o) and, IIRC, the 'Y' and 'R' lines, all of the various kana can appear in either voiced or unvoiced modes - that is, an unvoiced 'ta' will sound and be written as exactly that, and a voiced 'ta' will have a mark at its upper right corner that looks damn near exactly like a Western quotation mark (") and be pronounced 'da'. Likewise, 'ka' --> 'ga', 'sa' --> 'za', and 'ha' can be voiced either normally, as 'ba', or with a little circle instead of the quotes, in which case it becomes 'pa'. 'Chi' and 'shi', for no reason I understand, are both voiced as 'ji', and I have no clue what 'tsu' comes out as.
It's not quite as complicated as it sounds, honest!
Ja, -n
Re: *delurks*
Date: 2006-04-15 07:06 am (UTC)Re: *delurks*
Date: 2006-04-15 01:29 pm (UTC)Re: *delurks*
Date: 2006-04-15 07:59 pm (UTC)Thanks! -n
Re: *delurks*
Date: 2006-04-15 03:17 am (UTC)Thanks for the lesson! I don't know much about syllabic systems, so this is very interesting for me.
Re: *delurks*
Date: 2006-04-15 01:34 pm (UTC)Pretty much all of what I know is direct from Japanese classes, and not from studying the linguistics themselves, sadly. They're very interesting in their own right.