American comedian expresses his frustration in learning Kanji

American comedian expresses his frustration in learning Kanji - Printable Version

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American comedian expresses his frustration in learning Kanji - gluaygluay - 2015-04-23

Forgive me if this is a repost - I searched the forum and didn't find any references.

Article here:

http://en.rocketnews24.com/2015/01/06/why-japanese-people-american-dude-has-us-rolling-on-the-floor-laughing-with-his-comedic-sketch/

Quote:He’s lived in Japan for four years but has only been an entertainer for two months. Even so, this guy already has Japanese celebrities roaring with laughter.

Meet Atsugiri Jason (厚切りジェイソン), whose stage name translates to something like “Thickly-sliced Jason.” This up-and-coming comedic genius was recently featured on a Japanese TV New Year’s special, where he performed a short sketch entirely in Japanese which proved to be so popular that the internet is already buzzing about him making his big break this year.

Anyone who has ever struggled with learning kanji is sure to appreciate this video.

American comedian expresses his frustration in learning Kanji - Aikynaro - 2015-04-23

Ah, so that's why my students are going around yelling 'WHY JAPANESE PEOPLE?!'. I had been wondering where it came from.

American comedian expresses his frustration in learning Kanji - Bokusenou - 2015-04-23

It's interesting that he managed to turn some basic RTK stories into comedy. XD

American comedian expresses his frustration in learning Kanji - Tzadeck - 2015-04-24

More bad Japanese television, and another caricature celeb foreigner. Yuck. Hopefully he has some balls and can use his new-found fame to do something beyond this crap.

American comedian expresses his frustration in learning Kanji - gaiaslastlaugh - 2015-04-24

Japanese speakers feel the same way when they learn how to pronounce "awesome".

American comedian expresses his frustration in learning Kanji - Zgarbas - 2015-04-24

I'm fairly sure all learners of English feel like that whenever they have to learn a new oddly pronounced/spelled word.

I like how when he was drawing 憂鬱 the Japanese commentary let out a すごい out of habit

American comedian expresses his frustration in learning Kanji - anotherjohn - 2015-04-24

He seems to have mixed up 詼 and 譟.

American comedian expresses his frustration in learning Kanji - Thequadehunter - 2015-04-25

You know, I normally hate Japanese style "outrageous" humor (not sure what the actual word is), but I actually laughed at this. Probably because I relate all too well.

American comedian expresses his frustration in learning Kanji - TheVinster - 2015-04-25

The people from my company know this guy personally, he used to work at a previous company everyone came from. One of my bosses also got me in touch with him a few months back. Not a fan of the act but definitely inspired by his career path.

American comedian expresses his frustration in learning Kanji - dizmox - 2015-04-28

Tzadeck Wrote:More bad Japanese television, and another caricature celeb foreigner. Yuck. Hopefully he has some balls and can use his new-found fame to do something beyond this crap.

All I get asked as a white person here is if I'm a model or an English teacher, it's kinda annoying

American comedian expresses his frustration in learning Kanji - Tzadeck - 2015-04-28

dizmox Wrote:All I get asked as a white person here is if I'm a model or an English teacher, it's kinda annoying

I don't get the 'model' question--you must be better looking than me!

Actually, I saw another set from this guy a couple nights ago and it was less obnoxious. I think he was nervous here and really over did it.

American comedian expresses his frustration in learning Kanji - liosama - 2015-04-29

Good for a bit of a giggle as we all have gone through that phase that doesn't last too long. But I hope he gets that it's Chinese and not Japanese and that he ought to just buy a book on Chinese etymology, a history book on sino-japanese intellectual migration, or just DeFrancis' work on Phonography.

If you've ever worked at a company you would invariably come across a process that is begging to be changed or done in a different way.
"jesus why do you guys do things that way for! you can save 5 minutes doing it this way"
"But we've always been doing it this way back since Ron was here!"

American comedian expresses his frustration in learning Kanji - kainzero - 2015-05-08

From what I can tell, he uses that faux-foreigner accent for his routine which I think is hilarious. He's actually on Twitter and he responded to my tweet once, lol.

https://twitter.com/atsugirijason

Here's a video of one of his more recent routines.

.be

American comedian expresses his frustration in learning Kanji - Splatted - 2015-05-08

I like his stuff. I enjoyed his appearance in another show (about training to bat a home run without ever swinging at an actual ball) and he played the clueless foreigner card in that as well but dropped the accent. Hopefully he'll be able to grow beyond the one act because I'd like to see more from him and he strikes me as a very impressive person.

American comedian expresses his frustration in learning Kanji - tokyostyle - 2015-05-08

kainzero Wrote:From what I can tell, he uses that faux-foreigner accent for his routine which I think is hilarious.

I've noticed the same thing. That isn't to say his real Japanese is perfect, but his comedian character has a much thicker accent then when he does interviews and other non-comedy stuff. He also seems to pause right after the main points of his comedy bit, such as right after saying ooki or inu. My best guess for this is to allow second-language learners to enjoy it too.

American comedian expresses his frustration in learning Kanji - Jawful - 2015-05-28

Careful about mocking the guy. His Japanese is pretty boss and his kanji knowledge is basically on the same level as knowing all of RTK 1 2 and 3. Maybe that's where he got it, who knows, but he said he can write over 3000 off the top of his head. But anyway, his jokes were funny the first time and he had to rehash them over and over as he's been on TV more lately. They aren't funny the 2nd, 3rd etc times. But he's a smart dude and he's playing his role on TV well. I say good for him.

American comedian expresses his frustration in learning Kanji - Copycatken - 2015-06-03

Atsugiri Jason seems to be a Reviewing the Kanji user! At 1:26 in this video, you can see him reviewing cards on his smartphone and the interface sure looks like this site: https://youtu.be/fM0N8_k-szI?t=1m26s

Here's a screen capture taken from the video: http://imgur.com/tDF9kYZ

American comedian expresses his frustration in learning Kanji - Bokusenou - 2015-06-03

Woah! I wonder if he's posted here...
That he's done RTK doesn't surprise me, since it can turn people into major kanji fans (or maybe that's just me?). Maybe he even uses Anki too...

American comedian expresses his frustration in learning Kanji - erlog - 2015-06-04

I dislike him intensely because now whenever someone finds out I have Kanji Kentei 2級 they say, "oh you're like Jason!" and it's like, "umm... no. I have actual certifications that took me years to get."

I also find his act really tiring since anybody who has studied RTK knows exactly the kinds of things he's going to say, and he doesn't appear to have any real insight of his own. Japanese people are wowed by it because they don't learn kanji in a systematic way, and so they never think about it.

With the way Japanese TV personalities come and go I imagine that TV producers will get tired of him after he finishes covering all the low-hanging fruit in terms of kanji jokes, and he probably will still have made many times more doing his IT day job than from anything to do with TV. TV is a real bad way to make a living in Japan.

There is one very impressive talent he does have, though. He manages to sound just as fake and devoid of true personality as every other Japanese TV personality. It's uncanny.

American comedian expresses his frustration in learning Kanji - wareya - 2015-06-04

>Japanese people are wowed by it because they don't learn kanji in a systematic way

Post discarded.

American comedian expresses his frustration in learning Kanji - Taurus - 2015-06-04

erlog Wrote:I dislike him intensely because now whenever someone finds out I have Kanji Kentei 2級 they say, "oh you're like Jason!" and it's like, "umm... no. I have actual certifications that took me years to get."

I also find his act really tiring since anybody who has studied RTK knows exactly the kinds of things he's going to say, and he doesn't appear to have any real insight of his own. Japanese people are wowed by it because they don't learn kanji in a systematic way, and so they never think about it.

With the way Japanese TV personalities come and go I imagine that TV producers will get tired of him after he finishes covering all the low-hanging fruit in terms of kanji jokes, and he probably will still have made many times more doing his IT day job than from anything to do with TV. TV is a real bad way to make a living in Japan.

There is one very impressive talent he does have, though. He manages to sound just as fake and devoid of true personality as every other Japanese TV personality. It's uncanny.

Wow. This is a really bitter post. Are you sure you wouldn't be happier living outside of Japan?

I dislike this guy's act intensely because it's not that funny and I don't like all the shouting; and I think the risks of going into TV as a gimmick/one-joke comedian are pretty well-established - the attrition rate is famously low and they even have shows about what the last lot of one-hit-wonders are up to. But I hope it works out for him - I think there is something to be said for pursuing the dream, no matter the odds.

American comedian expresses his frustration in learning Kanji - patriconia - 2015-06-04

Well, the thing with Chinese characters is that they came from...wait for it...China. As in, not Japan. Making his punchline a complete non-sequitor, and an annoying one at that, now that people have taken to feeling the need to randomly recite it back to me...ugh.

American comedian expresses his frustration in learning Kanji - tikka - 2015-06-04

patriconia Wrote:Well, the thing with Chinese characters is that they came from...wait for it...China. As in, not Japan. Making his punchline a complete non-sequitor, and an annoying one at that, now that people have taken to feeling the need to randomly recite it back to me...ugh.

If that made sense, I could make fun of the English language, for example by questioning the rationale behind the letter "b" in the word "debt" and end my comedian act by shouting WHY ROMAN PEOPLE WHY?!!?

Im not an expert but I think most of kanji are simplified versions of some ancient Chinese nonsense. So the question "why, japanese people" could be seen as "why didnt you simplify all the kanji like the chinese themselves have more or less done now".

If I didn't know about RTK, the use of traditional characters would seem to me like using a south-pointing chariot instead of a compass.

American comedian expresses his frustration in learning Kanji - PMotte - 2015-06-04

erlog Wrote:Japanese people are wowed by it because they don't learn kanji in a systematic way, and so they never think about it.

I'm sure they will also have noticed the 1 - 2 - 3 and then 4 situation.
And, by the way, I hadn't noticed the 'big' - 'dog' transformation either. He makes it funny because of his remarks that most dogs are tiny. I had never seen it that way.
Actually: humour is very often based upon making you see something that you didn't have seen before.
So, what's the problem?

American comedian expresses his frustration in learning Kanji - PMotte - 2015-06-04

There indeed is something like simplified Chinese, but it isn't simplified that much, you know.