Movie "SAYONARA"

I took a day off to cure a cold yesterday. All I did was watching TV sitting on my couch slumbering. Plus cold medicine upset my stomach badly and I couldn't go back to sleep around 3am this morning. Then I decided to watch a late night movie or two until I became sleepy. They aired this old American movie "SAYONARA" which I had never seen before.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayonara

It's not bad - I should say it's pretty good - because the scenery of Japan in that film is from years before I was born that looks very new and fresh to my eyes. First, I thought Eileen Webster was pretty. But I found I didn't think so anymore after I saw Hana-ogi. She is the beauty! Katsumi was an average looking Japanese woman at that time. I don't know how Hana-ogi is seen to Westerners' eyes and probably definitions of beauty are different now. But this movie shows something true about Japanese people and culture in late 1950's unlikely those weird typical Japanese images in Hollywood movies in '70s and '80s. Katsumi's way of speaking her Japanese dialogues is very similar to that in Yasujiro Ozu's movies, so I think Japanese people spoke like that in real life at that time. It is also very different from the way we speak now. It's amazing to learn how the way of speaking of Japanese people has changed in 50 years!

Older people always complain of younger people's slipshod ways of speaking these days. Honestly I don't know if it can be called "slipshod" but I have heard many young people sound rude and intellectually-challenged in a sense. I remember my mom saying one day she didn't like the way I spoke when I was 13-14 years old. I didn't know how I spoke at that time - still don't know it either - but she described it coy sounding. Obviously I was influenced by new friends at junior high school which held over 1,000 students total then. Herhaps she felt my childhood was almost over entering the grouwn-up's world. Funny enough, her words made it clear to me that it was the time for me to grow away from my parents.

I heard it from my mom some years after my dad died that he actually wanted me to get married before I became 19 years old and have a child or two by age 20! His big dream was to be a grandpa before he becomes 50 years!! His dream never came true. He should have told me about this dream of his much earlier before it got too late but he never did. Sorry, Dad! But it's partly your fault ;)

Anyway, the way you speak is definitely influenced by the environment you are in at times. The older you get, the wider your territory becomes. New culture you are exposed to is also an influence. After all, the way you speak shows who you are and where you are from. I often hear me speak at interviews because it's always recorded and it always surprises me. Of course, my voice sounds differently from what I hear in my head and the way I speak... sounds embarrassing. Maybe it's a good way to learn a little bit of yourself and to say SAYONARA to what you take for granted in your head. At least I think so.