Japanese news 日本のニューズ

[Jembru]

We had the idea to start this thread in the anime thread. As I said there, I don't think I watch Japanese TV often enough to update much, and even when I do, I can't pick up all the details, so my reporting would be vague at best (so, they've finally worked out what happened to the salaryman who's dingy (ゴム船: my word of the day), was washed up on the west coast of Japan.  He'd illegally entered Korea and was trying to return to Japan in the dingy when it (possibly, they were keen to point out), had an engine failure. So he wasn't able to make the trip as easily as he'd planned. They'd had a particularly bad winter with severe winds, and they think the boat was flipped over and he drowned: that's as detailed as I can be). 

Still, if others are watching Japanese news and want to update the rest of us on what's going on. This is the thread to do it in. 

For those who don't have a means to watch Japanese TV, I use this site: www.fengyunzhibo.com/space/japan.htm

Some points about this site;

-It's temperamental. How well it works isn't down to your internet connection (although I daresay a poor connection could make things worse), it is a massive amount of data, being filtered through a single server. It has a lot of users. If you're watching at a time when something popular like the latest pokemon episode or whatever, is being aired, don't expect it to play for long before crashing. 
-When it's being slow, which is most of the time, try opening several channels at once (or the same channel a few times), each in a different tab. When you hear Japanese, find which one loaded and close the tabs that haven't loaded yet. 
-When the channel you're watching crashes, close the tab and refresh the menu page. The select your channel again. 
-Make a note of the times of day it works well in your country (probably from around 2am Japan time, until around 3pm, but you might have different experiences to me)
-My favourite channels are of course NHK教育(I massively recommend this channel, this is where all the educational stuff is, like that Otsuta to Tenjirou show I watch while ironing at work, and all the 'made for gaijin' stuff, like '日本語で暮らそう' (which I don't think is showing anymore, but it's a cool show). For fun breakfast news shows*, which is the point of this thread, I recommend either 朝日 or MBS放送, and NTV. There is BSNHK too, that has news, and is good if you want really high-level business Japanese (I zettai don't want that, but if you do, this is a great channel for you). 
-Now and then, when you follow the link to the Japanese channels, the site will take you to a Chinese page. This fixes itself after a day or two, but when it happens, paste 日文 into the search bar, and you should get back to the Japanese channels. 
-Sometimes this site is just having problems. You can do all you can, but it won't load. When it's like that, all you can do is give up, watch something in Japanese on Youtube, and try again another day. 
 

*I recommend breakfast shows for intermediate students like me, because they're visually 'cartoonish' with lots of kanji flashed on the screen, which means if you can read at least a little, you can follow more of what is going on. They try to be quirky and fun (and to my western mind, it seems kind of like programs for children that are trying to be 'grown up', but I guess this is just a cultural difference). 

[Bokusenou]

I haven't watched much news since the JLPT, but for those who feel too overwhelmed by Jappanese news, newsonjapan.com has English summaries of the major Japanese news stories, and a lot of the articles include a related Japanese news clip at the bottom.

[Jembru]

That's the site I meant in the anime section! I seem to brush shoulders with it, but I've never used it, hence I didn't know if it was current news, or just using old clips as examples of language used in news.

I actually have a question, that is probably off topic. Maybe we need a JLPT thread, and can cut/paste this into there, but..

Does the JLPT love to include a question about global warming? It's just whatever I study from, they always seem to include a section about vocabulary for talking about climate change and pollution. It always feels very out of place, like it's tagged on because the teachers know students will struggle without it. I don't see the immediate urgency to know words like 二酸化炭素, as I maybe say 'carbon dioxide' less than once a year, even in my mother tongue (since leaving uni anyway). So the only reason I can think of, why I keep having these words rammed down my throat, is that it is almost predictably a question on the JLPT.

[Bokusenou]

Yeah, it's current news. I used to use it to find interesting news clips when I was preparing for N2. It's been around for a while.

Ah, would people be interested in a JLPT thread? I'm not sure how many people are studying for it, but that's a good thread idea.

It's possible I forgot, but I don't remember seeing global warming mentioned on the JLPT, or any of my prep books for it. Most of the more science-y essays had topics like "differences and similarities between chimp and human societies" or "how what language they are currently speaking affects and changes personality in bilinguals".

[Jembru]

Hmm.. I guess it's just a topic that interests the authors then! I'm actually personally interested in the second topic you mentioned. It's absolutely fascinating, but it seems that the languages we speak can genuinely have an influence on how we view the world. I've heard bi-lingual friends report that they have a different personality in L2 compared to L1.

My closest Japanese friend told me when we used to do language exchange (I guess we still do, just less formally), that her friends back in Japan would describe her as outgoing (that's when I learnt describing personality as 'loud' isn't offensive in Japanese), yet she can't express herself in English so feels trapped in a quiet persona that doesn't suit the real Miyo. As my Japanese is improving, and we've acquired more Japanese-speaking friends, I can see more and more of the real Miyo and she really is so much fun.. Every bit as out-going as she claimed almost a year ago. Yet, she lives in an English-only environment, so of course her English has improved more over the last 13 months than my Japanese has, but still, despite having the linguistic ability to do so, she just can't express herself in the same way in English. Something is missing.

[Bokusenou]

Yeah, probably.

Oh yeah, languages effect on personality is really fascinating stuff! And things like using two languages at once, I think it's called "code switching". I think a lot of getting used to a language is figuring out your personality in that language. Some things I used a lot in English I needed to drop when switching to Japanese, like sarcasm based humor. I use it a lot in English, but it didn't come off as well in Japanese, so I had to watch how Japanese people make jokes.

[Jembru]

There was actually a teacher I met while in Germany, who would advise his students to 'name' their English speaking self. He believed this helps them to step into their second persona and mentally 'get in the zone'. So they'd all Anglicise their names and use that when speaking English. My ex also said his English teacher in school used to call him and his brother 'Judge', because their family name translates to judge in English, so I wonder if his teacher translated everyone's name that way. Then of course, some of my Japanese friends go by an English name (although usually because their real name is hard to pronounce, like my friend Chikae), when with non-Japanese speaking friends. So it's maybe not so crazy an idea.

[chocopie]

I like FNNニュース for news: you get a video and the report in writing below (which pretty much follows the speech) for quick looking up of new vocab.

Anyway, today I watched this: 慶大などの研究グループ、iPS細胞を大量培養できる培養液を開発

A research group at Keio University looking at regenerative medicine for the heart, announced they had developed a new media for culturing large quantities of iPS cells. With this they'll be able to culture the cells at a tenth of the current cost. At the moment it would cost 10 million yen to grow enough cells for just one patient. They're aiming to be able to use this discovery in clinical medicine by 2016.  

Words I learnt:
培養（ばいよう） - culture (of cells)
培養液（ばいようえき） - (culture) media
増殖（ぞうしょく） - (cell) growth/proliferation

[Bokusenou]

Feb 4, 2014 15:19:29 GMT Jembru said:

There was actually a teacher I met while in Germany, who would advise his students to 'name' their English speaking self. He believed this helps them to step into their second persona and mentally 'get in the zone'. So they'd all Anglicise their names and use that when speaking English. My ex also said his English teacher in school used to call him and his brother 'Judge', because their family name translates to judge in English, so I wonder if his teacher translated everyone's name that way. Then of course, some of my Japanese friends go by an English name (although usually because their real name is hard to pronounce, like my friend Chikae), when with non-Japanese speaking friends. So it's maybe not so crazy an idea.

Yeah, I knew someone who took a German class, and the whole class had German names similar to their real names chosen for them during the first week, and they had to address each other by those names only while in class. At the time it sounded more fun than the Japanese class I was taking (where everyone was addressed as [Last Name]-san), although some people in the Japanese class ended up picking Japanese names anyway for fun.
Actually I knew a Japanese person named Tomoe who went by Tommy in the US. She thought it sounded really cute, but I was kind of confused at first, since it's usually a guy's name. XD

[chocopie]

I've been following the story about the Japanese divers who went missing off the coast of Bali. Seven went missing and so far five have been found.

www.fnn-news.com/news/headlines/articles/CONN00263298.html

[Jembru]

PS4 IS FINALLY OUT IN JAPAN!!!

I didn't realise it was today. I just saw a clip of them counting down to the release at midnight. They're running through the headlines and that came before the riots in Kiev (basically all they showed on British breakfast TV). That's right Japan, get your priorities right.

Mind.. I've noticed a few times, that Japanese news peppers in good news like this quite a lot. In the UK, they leave the happy stuff to the end usually. I think other English speaking countries do this too, right? (the 'and finally'). It maybe depends on what channel you watch, but I've definitely noticed a lot more happy news reported between the kidnappings, murders and suicides, when watching Japanese news.

Weehee, maybe we'll get some decent games now!

[Bokusenou]

Interesting point about the good news in Japanese news shows vs Western news shows. What you said about UK news shows is probably the same in the US as well. Now that I think about it, I don't think I've ever watched a whole (non-Japanese) news show, as opposed to just turning on one of the 24 hour news channels and seeing what they were talking about (bad news, almost always, or political news), and I stopped doing that after I discovered internet news sites.

[Jembru]

Ah, I wish I could say the same, but I work until 8am and generally have little to do between 5am and 7am (sadly, usually too tired to study Japanese during those times, although I do try for a few short bursts). At that time, there is little on TV besides shopping broadcasts, and the news. I choose the news because at least I'm keeping myself informed. My pain in the butt of a boss, comes in so bleeding early that he can honestly walk in the door from as early as 5:30am! My theory is his partner doesn't know he's still smoking so he comes to work to smoke if he wakes up early, but hey, that's just my hunch. Anyway, he turns a blind eye to us using the work laptop for non-work related things, but he'd rather not know about it. So I'm uncomfortable using the laptop after 5am. So that really just means it's news or news.. Sigh. I usually watch 'Daybreak' from 6, because it tries to be up-beat and cheerful, but honestly, compared to Japanese breakfast TV, it about as merry as death row.

I wonder why we have such gloomy news broadcasts in the English-speaking world (I actually just had to use the Japanese to look up this expression in English.. I drew a complete blank, lol). Here in the UK, it's just sorta flat and lifeless. These are the facts.. make of them what you will.. we have no opinion...

In the States, at least the bits we get to see, the reporters are at least a bit more energetic. When something catastrophic happens over there, sometimes they'll show a news clip from the States in our news, and the news reporter will be so alive and animated, really passionate about the breaking news... Although usually with a nuance of 'we're all doomed... doomed I tells ya...' I'm amazed the Brits aren't all depressed and people in the US aren't all paranoid!

Japan on the otherhand, seems to have accepted that life is a dull, monotonous rotissomat, escapable only through death, so does everything it can to make it's broadcasting upbeat and fun and show the viewers how lucky they are, nay, blessed they are to be living in such a bright and cheerful, magical world.. I guess I like that escapism. It may not represent reality, but it's fun to make-believe that it does. Well, besides all the darned lolicon. I used to find it funny, but now it just grates on me. 'We're talking about important world events.. lets ask the bespectacled girl in a cat costume what she thinks...' 'thank you Neko-chan.. now back to the studio to ask my 15 year old co-presenter with the blatently put-on high voice what she thinks about the matter...' (you probably think I'm being ironic, but I'm actually describing what I genuinely saw while watching NTV before work last night. *sigh)

This of course, is all purely conjecture lol

[chocopie]

And now for something completely different.
A 61 year old man in Tokyo has been arrested for property damage. He was throwing curry into a library's book returns box... The man claims he thought it was a rubbish bin.


It had been happening since the end of January and the library has had to throw away over 50 damaged books.

[chocopie]

The Atlantic has an article on photos of Japan in the 1950s. It's very interesting!