081 Facets [Accidental Video:Engish] Forward dated to about ten pm tonight

[wearsatorc]

[Knuckles is sitting at a kitchen table writing something down. He reaches over to the communicator and presses buttons and a Japanese voice plays and he writes some more, he reaches over to make whatever post he was listening to play again, but he pauses to yawn, then notices the record button.]

Huh? Must have pressed it by accident.

[click]

Comments

[open commentlog for roommates!]

[wears-a-torc.livejournal.com]

[Knuckles has a sheet of paper before him...several sheets of paper in fact. With English words next to...jumbles of letters, most of which had been scribbled out and replaced with new jumbles of letters. There are notes in the magins like "different grammar structure".

Someone fluent in both Japanese and English would quickly figure out that they're Japanese words spelt phonetically, thanks to the auto translating of text Knuckles has never seen how Japanese is written. A lot of Knuckles attempts at translation are wrong, but that's to be expected since he's using trial and error to learn and he does seem to be making some progress as he goes at least.]

Maybe I should call it a night for now.

[Knuckles yawns again]

[commentlog of DOOM!]

[twin-sai-kame.livejournal.com]

[Surprisingly, Raphael is up, though becomes obvious why when he slips out of the bathroom. The light from the kitchen though draws his attention from returning to bed, and he heads that way]

Hey, yer up late. [He greets the echidna as he steps into the kitchen, giving a yawn. He eyes the papers though as he approaches the table.] What are ya doing?

[commentlog of DOOM!!]

[wears-a-torc.livejournal.com]

Yeah I guess I lost track of time.

Learning Japanese...well trying anyway.

[commentlog of DOOM!!!]

[twin-sai-kame.livejournal.com]

[Raph took in the notes, and tried japanese letters, as he listened.]

Ah, yeah, easier to learn when ya aint half asleep. I know some Japanese, but I aint anywhere near fluent in it, specially writing it.

[commentlog of DOOM!!!!]

[wears-a-torc.livejournal.com]

Heh, well I wasn't half asleep when I started.

[Knuckles is starting to gather the papers, he automatically starts rolling one up like a scroll before be realises what he's doing.]

Heh, old habits.

[He flattens the page out flat again and puts the papers in a small pile instead, resting the communicator on top.]

I guess I wouldn't really need to be able to write it here...which is a bit ironic...

[commentlog of DOOM!!!!]

[twin-sai-kame.livejournal.com]

Did you work with scrolls back home? [Raph noted the rolling, and then unrolling of the page, and then eyed the communicator for a moment, almost warily, those darn things were about as sneaky as ninjas.

He chuckles though]

Figured that, most people don't start stuff when they're half asleep.

Yeah, it seems ta be mostly spoken here. I always found the tediousness of having to do all them squiggly lines, and crap boring, when writing them. Plus the words are always written down the page, instead of across. [It's obvious he's done it before]

Eh, yeah, anyway.

[commentlog of DOOM!!!!]

[wears-a-torc.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I usually have to spend a lot of time translating the Ancient Echinda texts.

[Bet Raph never pictured Knuckles as a book worm, and don't worry, the communcator's not doing anything...this time...]

Squiggly lines? Heh, usually I have to deal with weird shapes.

Down the page...I had figured out the grammar was different, but that's a bit more than I was expecting...

[commentlog of DOOM!!!!]

[twin-sai-kame.livejournal.com]

(( I think it's written down the page anyway. xD All the times I've seen people write in Japanese, they wrote down the kanji down the page, kind of like how we do sentences, only not across))

Dammn, that must be hard. [Nope, never pictured him as one, interesting to know.]

Yeah, dunno why it gets written down the page, but it's done a line down the page, get to the bottom, ya go back to the top, and start a new one.

[commentlog of DOOM!!!!]

[wears-a-torc.livejournal.com]

{I'm pretty sure you're right.)

Sadly being guardian means more than just beating things up. [He's kinda smirking about that, yeah, he knows how most folk see him.]

What's it look like?

[Knuckles snags a sheet of paper back out of the pile and flips it over, then after a few moments with a pen, it looks a bit like this (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/Game_freak/Other%20pictures/Echidnascroll.png)]

I'm pretty sure it's not perfect, but that's what I normally need to read looks like.

[commentlog of DOOM!!!!]

[twin-sai-kame.livejournal.com]

[ Raph snorted at that] Think I'll stick with the just beatin' people up. [He eyed the new scribbles, raises an eyeridge.] Yeah, I aint never seen that.

And actually, now that I remember, the more modern version does have them written horizontal. [ He'll snag a sheet, and a pen] This aint a brush, but... [he scribbled out the kanji, though the stroke widths, and such are off, he's not great at it after all.]

These are two Master Splinter taught us, they mean rat, and turtle. [He'll flip the paper around so the echidna can see] Leo's better at this than I am though, not ta mention knows more.

[commentlog of DOOM!!!!]

[wears-a-torc.livejournal.com]

Sure stick to the easy part.

[Knuckles watches with interest as Raph draws the Kanji]

That's Rat and Turtle huh? [The Echidna sighs] This is going to be harder than I thought.

[boy-fatality.livejournal.com]

Are you learning Japanese?

[wears-a-torc.livejournal.com]

...[stupid communcator]

I'm trying to, but I've only just started.

[boy-fatality.livejournal.com]

I see.

What are you studying at the moment?

[wears-a-torc.livejournal.com]

Mostly This one (http://foxtamer.livejournal.com/5529.html) at the moment.

[witchoftheweek.livejournal.com]

...Studying Japanese? It is a hard language.

[wears-a-torc.livejournal.com]

Yeah, and I'm quickly figuring that out.

[witchoftheweek.livejournal.com]

It took me about a year to get the various forms of writing down...

And another to be able to speak it fluently.

[wears-a-torc.livejournal.com]

I don't think I'll have to worry about the writing here thanks to the communicators...

But I considering how may people speak Japanese here I really should learn at least enough to know if someone is yelling for help or not.

[witchoftheweek.livejournal.com]

Indeed.