Miles' Japanese Blog!

 For this assignment, I watched the 2023 film  Blue Giant , which follows the main character, Dai Miyamoto, as he leaves his hometown for Tokyo to try to become the world's best saxophone player. I play the saxophone myself and enjoy listening/playing jazz music, so this movie has been on my watchlist for a while. I really enjoyed the soundtrack for this movie, mainly just jazz instrumentals featuring the saxophone, as it was able to add to the atmosphere of any scene, regardless of whether it was a sad or "intense". I'm starting to pick up on the meanings of certain bits and pieces of dialogue, such as question words (doko, dare, etc) or general expressions (arigato, sumimasen etc), and I'm looking forward to understanding more and more as I keep learning. 

はじめまして。ぼくの なまえは Miles Thornburg です。わたしの しゅっしんは あめりかの まいあみ。わたしは  のとるだめだいがく の だいがくせいです。わたしは にねんせいです。 わたしの せんこうは びじねすです。どうぞよろしくおねがいします。

 For this assignment, I'm choosing to review episodes 944 and 945 of the popular anime, One Piece. I usually watch this show in dub, due to the large number of episodes, but I am no stranger to watching tv shows or movies in Japanese.   In these two episodes, the paths of Monkey D. Luffy, the protagonist, and Big Mom, a powerful foe converge on the island of Wano after following their respective journies individually for some time. I thought the payoff was decent, as the moment of surprise at their first encounter was pretty funny and the chaos that ensued was entertaining. Getting into the Japanese aspect of this review, I noticed that certain characters (mostly villains) sounded different, in a general sense, which I assumed was matching certain voices to character archetypes (coward, hot-tempered, etc...). It was neat to start to pick up on words and pieces just from the Japanese audio alone, instead of being 100 percent reliant on subtitles. I still have quite a ways to go...

 1. Brief Introduction of Myself My name is Miles Thornburg. I'm from Dallas, Texas, although I was born in Miami and have lived there and Atlanta as well. I'm a sophomore studying Finance and Economics currently living in Dillon Hall. I'm not quite sure what it is I want to do career wise, but I'm looking into consulting. I have two younger siblings, a brother and a sister, and a golden retriever named Finley. Some of my favorite foods are pasta, sushi, and tacos. I play the saxophone in the marching band here at Notre Dame. I like jazz, rap, and indie music. 2.  Why I Chose to Study Japanese I chose to start learning Japanese as I will hopefully be accepted to the study abroad semester program in Nagoya that I applied to. This would be next spring, so I want to start learning as soon as possible as to have the best possible experience during my time abroad. I've wanted to learn the language even before I applied however, and I'm excited to make progress in thi...