Well, I've got an expected 4 days off and not a whole lot to do.
My Thursday class is canceled and I've no classes Friday. Last week I finished the last of the baito(job) work I had, which disappointingly, was about only 3 hours total(in 2 sessions), last term I clocked 10 hours. I am transcribing some audio tapes by a Linguistics Professor, just simple exchanges, speech acts; complimenting, requesting, comforting, etc. Half of the recordings this time were from children, which, of course, made them very easy to transcribe; simple and slow speech. He's a charming and sincere guy by in addition to being awkward in a standard Japanese way, he's really wiry and jumpy. Note: if ever you make a comment to a Japanese colleague in which some modicum of complaining, perhaps even the slightest notice of something being less than preferred, BEWARE, everyone will drop what they are doing and jump on the problem with chaotic zeal. It's better not to mention things sometimes(most of the time). I was listening to dialogues directly from a camcorder with headphones (on which every button was labeled in japanese, can you believe the Japanese have two words for headphone! headphoneヘドホン and earphoneイヤホン). I realized every time i pressed rewind or any other button, the beeping was not coming from my headphones but from an onboard speaker on the camcorder. So I'm pressing buttons a lot and I think I should probably acknowledge how annoying that must be. I admit what just struck me and say how annoying that must be. Of course they don't admit to it being annoying but instead both of them(grad student and professor) are now standing over me looking at the camera and making various offers of what to do. We can transfer the data to a computer!(which they admitted they could not do earlier that day). I try to calm them down and say "If it doesn't bother you it doesn't bother me!" Slowly putting them at ease I get back to work, in a small office, with an erratically beeping camera.
That's just an introduction to the baito. Today I'm requested to come back and add the introduction to each dialogue on the tape by the professor that last time I was told not to include...which should take me about 10 minutes, but he'll probably give me an hour of credit for. He has 2 PHDs from British Universities, but he's most likely just keeping his study tighter by having native English speakers transcribe the data.
The rainy season is here, but even this weather is spotty. Today the sky is 90% clear and there is only rain in Okinawa and the west of Kyuushuu. I'm awaiting word form a friend as to whether we'll try to do something fun in Tokyo or not, so I'm not really sure what I'm doing today. If all else fails I'll go to the Gym.
Alright, time to make my standard Yakisoba lunch.
