The Kashimashi Conspiracy

[elfs]

I have this weird conspiracy theory that Kashimashi is an attempt at international politics. The vocabulary and grammar of Kashimashi is exactly within reach of anyone who's finished the Pimsleur Japanese 90-day course (Yes, that link is exactly what you think it is) and the content of Kashimashi is the sort of thing that seems to appeal to the American otaku audience as much as the Japanese.

Combined with the sudden appearance of subtitling tools for Linux and the rise of "soft" subtitles (those in which the subtitles are provided as a text file rather than embedded in the image), there are a whole bunch of amateur SRT (Soft Subtitle) files translating the first and second episodes in a variety of languages, including English, French, and Italian. None of them are excellent, and my Japanese is good enough that I disagree with many of the bits in them.

So, bear with me: both America and Japan have much to lose in the economic struggle with China. Traditionally the #1 and #2 economies, we tend to rise and fall together, and our biggest weakness is the language barrier.

The part of me that delights in conspiracy theories proposes that part of the reason that Japanese companies don't fight fansubbing is not because fansubbing provides a barometer of American interest. Instead, I propose that the Japanese government has discouraged lawsuits against fansubbers because the more Americans there are who can speak Japanese, the better for both nations.

It is a silly idea, but I can't help but be surprised by just how accessible this show is.

Comments

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Yaknow, I was just thinking about two weeks ago as to how us and the Japanese ought to gang up on China economically...

[sierra-nevada.livejournal.com]

We don't need to gang up on them; just stop trying to compete in industries which require cheap labor. Even the Japanese have sent a lot of manufacturing "offshore" (from their perspective).

Trouble is, even Japan has untouchable sectors of its economy; a full free trade agreement between the USA and Japan would probably cause Japanese rice farmers to revolt. There are also some rather quaint business practices which complicate things between a liberal society like the USA, and a more traditionalist one like Japan.

It's not just language.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

No, it's culture too... but language is the door to culture.

[blaisepascal]

If I were to click on the second link and spend several hours in a multi-GB download, how am I supposed to use the result? One of the difficulty of acquiring instructional materials that way is the lack of instruction.

[elfs.livejournal.com]

RAR files are like ZIP files: instead of an unzipper, you'd need an unrar-er. (RAR is some kind of ARchive facility). From there, you'd have to figure out the contents: audio, video, txt, pdf, etc. For a file ending in ISO, you'd need to burn it to a CD-ROM of some kind and then re-insert it to see what you'd gotten: audio, data, etc. (If you're on Linux, you can mount the ISO as an image using the loopback device, but that's technogeekery at its finest.) You'd need something to burn ISO CD-ROMs. http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm provides an interface for burning ISOs if you've got a CD-ROM. Windows XP's on-board burner is not so friendly.

[blaisepascal]

That wasn't exactly what I was referring to. I was referring more to how does one follow the Pimsleur course.

[elfs.livejournal.com]

Oh! The Pimsleur course is meant to be audio only. Once you've got it in a portable form, just be sure to take a 30-minute walk somewhere where you won't be arrested for talking out loud in tongues... All of the instructions are in lesson one. There's no written component unless you want to take notes. I did.

I can't recommend enough dense-packing your learning with lots of anime and a good night's sleep every night.

[lazarus834.livejournal.com]

I couldn't find subtitles for part 2 and watched it without. I don't really know japanese but I saw enough animes to get the general idea of what they are talking about. I could follow it quite easily.

Interesting series, I agree.

[bolindbergh]

Meanwhile, episode 3 is available from your usual sources of pirated entertainment and features Tomari vigorously denying that she's masculine at all. Also, some scenes filmed in Yasuna-Vision™.