Japanglish

All the posts below this one are the pages from my senior project "Japanglish." It is written in taditional Japanese manga style and reads from right to left and top to bottom so please keep this in mind while reading to avoid confusion.

Abstract II

The thesis of my senior project is to convey the message of being open to and accepting of cultures other than our own. I plan to use the recurrent theme of the differences between Japanese and American cultures but in the process of pointing out these differences trying to create a desire amongst the reader to go out and experience these differences on his/her own. For the most part these differences will be pointed out and discussed directly in my dialogue but I also wish to cover a few more subtle issues defining the two cultures, such as culturally determined ways of thinking which will be best seen in the artwork rather than described. I also want to try and write the manga bilingually, so that even though it won’t be open for all cultures to enjoy it will be available for the two it has basis in. As of now I have no real set defined good titles and I am going to be using Japanglish (Japanese+English), going for a fusion of sorts of the bilingual aspect of the project. Recently I have been thinking that I might like to add a preface or some type of author’s notes in my manga. The notion of author’s notes is something that is commonly used in actual manga and it felt like doing this would give my project that extra bit of manga feel to it. I also left the idea of a preface up for grabs in the event that I can’t spare the time, effort or energy in trying to do the slightly more difficult author’s notes. As far as the project itself goes, the style I want to use is coming together nicely and I have the overall story arc. Another thing that occurred to me that I had actually overlooked until this point was that I would need a cover and as I thought about making one the more difficult it became. This is probably because I am severely over thinking the task and can’t get out of the mindset of trying to capture the atmosphere of the entire manga within a single drawing but the cover seems like it should be one of the final pieces, like an introduction, that is best left for the end when everything has already come together.

Abstract

The thesis of my senior project is to convey the message of being open to and accepting of cultures other than our own. I plan to use the recurrent theme of the differences between Japanese and American cultures but in the process of pointing out these differences trying to create a desire amongst the reader to go out and experience these differences on his/her own. For the most part these differences will be pointed out and discussed directly in my dialogue but I also wish to cover a few more subtle issues defining the two cultures, such as culturally determined ways of thinking which will be best seen in the artwork rather than described. I also want to try and write the manga bilingually, so that even though it won’t be open for all cultures to enjoy it will be available for the two it has basis in. As of now I have no real set defined good titles and I am going to be using Japanglish (Japanese+English), going for a fusion of sorts of the bilingual aspect of the project.

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Schodt, Frederik L. Manga! Manga!: The World of Japanese Comics. Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1997.
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Hart, Christopher. Manga Mania: Chibi and Furry Characters. New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 2006.
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Amoss, Berthe and Eric Suben. Writing and Illustrating Children’s Books for Publication. Cincinnati: F+W Publications, Inc, 2005.
Nagatomo, Haruno. Draw Your Own Manga: Beyond the Basics. New York: Kodansha America, Inc, 2005.
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Ethics

I've read and understand the concerns behind and problems posed by doing such things as interviews, survey or anything else of the like for a project. I do not see myself facing this particular problem while doing my project. Since I am going to make a manga/children's book I won't be involved in the classical research that many others will be implementing for papers and such. Thus far the majority of my research has been and looks to be mainly focusing on how to make a manga/children's book. Mostly its just been reading up on drawing and writing techniques in order to make my end product the most effective thing I can. There will be a small amount of research involved when I am actually creating the book. I may need to look up a particular aspect of Japanese or American culture that I am unfamiliar with in order to ensure that is receives a fair representation. Also if I wish to portray certain images and styles accurately I may want to find and utilize actual pictures asa reference. Still the bulk of my story and artwork will be pulled from my own knowledge of the two cultures and from my experiences will I was abroad. Really the only point in which I can envision myself needing to utilize the ethics matters detailed would be if I were to ask friends to tell me of their time in Japan in order to develop a plotline or point I wish to convey when my own experiences fall short. Since it is not my account or story then I would probably need to obtain some form of consent but owing to the nature of my project I don't see these stories lending themselves to being something which someone would not want released.

My Senior Project

I looked over past Senior Projects that were related in some way to my concentration. All of them were research papers and for the most part all were done quite well. I still have no real concrete idea as to what I want to do for my project but I was going through their papers I had the realization that Japanese life and culture can't really be experienced through a paper. I want to do my prjoect on some aspect of Japan and the Japanese culture but there are too many ideas at this point and I need to narrow the field. I have been leaning towards doing some type of presentation on manga, Japanese Comics, as an artform. In America there tends to be an idea that comics are for children and in no way could be considered art but in Japan manga is accepted, read and renouned by a large portion of the population. This has been the idea that has been coming to the forefront of my mind the most but I am a bit hesitant to take it up. Since manga is paper based it easily lends itself to be done as a paper and while I still have more time at my disposal I want to explore around and try to come up with a more creative means of presenting this idea or to come up with something all round better and more creative. Basically what I am trying to say is that I'm still trying to figure out what I want to do for this project.

Past Senior Projects

I read, or at least skimmed, three senior projects that were related to my concentration which is Asian Studies. The titles of the three that I read were as follows "The Transition of Japanese Adolescence into Adulthood Using Education as a Background" by Cassandra Christen, "Bushido" by Ryan O'Connor, and "The Interactions of Language: The Phenomenon of Japanese English" by Lauryn Curtis. The first was a good account of the Japanese daily life and society as an individual would experience it from adolescence into adulthood. "Bushido" by O'Connor details the inner wokings and mindset behind the samurai's form of chivalry which is Bushido. Lastly, and the one I would like to focus the most attention on, is "Japanese English" which presents the argument that Japan has taken English and made it something uniquely Japanese, as Japan has done historical with numerous other things. The premise behind the idea is an excellent one but having read the argument and have a knowledge base in the Japanese language I just felt it to be too bold in some of its claims. The topic is excellently research and the ideas are presented in a straightforward and logical manner. The real trouble comes when Curtis believes she has presented enough evidence to back an idea and then makes a sort of sweeping generalization. Also some of her argument towards the end seems to contradict her prior statements. She builds the case that Japan has turned English into something that is uniquely its own but at the end she includes a section detailing accounts of Japanese people who fail to comprehend this language that is supposedly their's. Overall it was good, it just seemed to be hit and miss when it came to the finer points.

Academic Career

I started college back in the Fall of 1999. My intial goal was to go to Appalachian just for 2 years so that I could get a pre-med background and then switch out into one of the pharmacy programs offered at either Furman University or UNC Chapel Hill. This idea didn't quite come out as planned and I found myself at App for a third year. During this year I took Japanese language courses on a whim and became highly interested in the subject. I took all the Japanese language courses offerd by App at the time and then hit a dead end of sorts. I took a year off to try and decide what I wanted to do with my life. I gave a Chemistry major a second try during my first semester back but hated it too much and transfered into IDS because my sister was already in the department and told me about the Asian Studies concentration but more importantly the opportunity to study abroad and learn more Japanese. My year abroad is definitely the time in which I learned the most, about myself, Japan, and the Japanese language among other things. Now I am back at App taking the IDS required core classes so I can graduate. I've filled in the time remaining to be a full time student with Asian based courses, despite wanting to focus mainly on Japan App offers very few Japan specific courses and I have had to make due. As far as courses I've taken goes I have 28 hours invested in Japanese, several more in Japan specific as well as other Asian religions, Japanese and Chinese history, Chinese, Asian geography. In addition to these I also have a background heavy in the sciences and math because of my initial attempts toward the medical field, which as an end result turned into my minor which is Chemistry.