Japanese Language Module 2.3
Japanese Language Module 2
What he wants to do as an artist
Step 1 Learn vocabulary and expressions before you watch the interview video.
Step 2 Watch Video - Interview
Step 3: Check your understanding with the comprehension quiz.
Take the comprehension quiz here.
Step 4: Supplemental Activities
1. Blurring Expressions
Natural utterances tend to stretch out. For one thing, as we have seen before, speakers insert expressions to give themselves time to think.
Desire to avoid direct and assertive statements may also contribute to the prolonging of each sentence. This is particularly noticeable in many Japanese speakers’ speech. They often insert various blurring expressions such as ような、とか、など、and prolong the ending of each sentence or phrase thereby avoiding to quickly come to a conclusion.
Now read this transcript here from which interjections have already been removed, paying attention to the blurring expressions marked in bold. Then view the video again.
Now, read a condensed, more assertively articulated version of the above statement here. You can check the translation of this paragraph.
You can listen to the audio file for this text here.
2. Different Viewpoint
Read this summary of the interview here, written from the point of view of a reporter of a college newsletter.