OH MY GOD.
MY JAPANESE CONVO PARTNER, MITA TAKASHI, LOOKS JUST LIKE ISHIDA AKIRA.
<---Ishida-san, not my convo partner, btw.
I WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO CONCENTRATE NOW, GREAT. AT LEAST HIS VOICE ISN'T THE SAME CAUSE THEN...THE RESULTS WOULD NOT BE PRETTY, AND WOULD HOPEFULLY COME OFF IN THE WASHER.
I DIE NOW THANKS.
ETA:Ok, I've calmed down a little now, and will write more. After I spent five minutes wandering around aimlessly through Rudder trying to FIND the box office (hey, it's been a while, spare me), I finally got there, and luckily, since I had no idea what the guy looked like, I was quickly able to spot him, as he was the only other person--let alone, remotely-Asian person--standing around. I kinda approached him slowly, noticing he was waiting for someone, and just asked if he was Mita-san, expecting him to respond in English.
WHOA RIGHT OFF THE BAT WITH THE JAPANESE AND THE "Dokoka e ikimashou ka?" AND THANK GOD I KNEW WHAT THAT MEANT CAUSE IF I HAD BEEN EVEN THE SLIGHTEST BIT *MORE* NERVOUS I WOULD'VE JUST FAINTED THERE FROM FRIGHT.
Anyway, it took us a while to find some place to sit and talk, cause apparently Rudder Tower is naptime central, and there was almost nowhere we wouldn't disturb someone. Finally got situated, and started talking. At first he mostly wanted to chat about basic things, how George-sensei, the 201 teacher whose class I'm auditing, had said I could really benefit from this and reccommended me, how he wasn't my teacher, so it was perfectly fine to call him 'Takashi,' and all that (OMG TAKASHI EEEEEE).
He asked what my major was (and was all cute an "Oooh!" when I said Biomedical Science), and then said he was a Masters' student in the Economics department. Fun bits of convo about where West Campus was, lots of Engrish (!!!) that was too adorable, and then he asked how long I'd been studying Japanese.
And it took me a moment to think, because I couldn't really remember >_> So I just said 4 years, and since he knew I was a junior, he assumed I'd started in high school. Insert almost anime-style "O_O" face when I said I'd never really had a class, and that he was the first Japanese person I'd ever spoken to
except the random 'arigatou gozaimashita!' to the old lady at A-fest. He couldn't fathom someone learning the language without actually going to class or at least immersing themselves in the culture, so I sheepishly said I'd gotten all my learning through anime, manga, and music.
He loved it, though, and then wanted to know all about what music I listened to (ADORABLE. He knew Ayumi Hamasaki when I said I listened to a lot of her stuff, and called her "Ayu" XDDDD). I struggled to come up with another, and just said, "Do as Infinity," a fave group of mine, and then we talked for the next five minutes about how weird English names are that bands and TV shows pick up, ("Mr. Children" cracked him up--"
Kodomotachi-san da!
Kodomotachi-san!"), and then I dug around for one more, and even though I hardly EVER listen to him, I thought it might be nice to add a male, so I just said "Gackt."
This led to him babbling about how PRETTY Gackt was. PRETTY. THIS KILLS ME. AWESOME.
ETA: I TOTALLY JUST REMEMBERED HE CALLED GACKT "QUEER." LIKE, HE SAID THE WORD, IN ENGLISH. ACE.A bit of randomness when he asked what my favorite kanji was, and I just said the first one that came to my mind--mizu--and he drew it for me <3333 and then asked if I liked any others, so I decided to be cute and said koori, since it's just a single stroke different (水 vs 氷) XDDDD He found it amusing, and this led to us chatting for the next ten minutes about what kind of water we drink and why, how nasty Texas water tastes, how good Japanese water tastes, so much crack.
Also had a fun chat about my summer--he couldn't picture owls in the desert, so it took me a while to be able to explain that there were a lot of orchards, and that the owls lived in nest boxes on the orchards. From there he asked if I wanted to go and study in Japan, which--cha! OF COURSE. If there are owls at least >_>
OH YEAH. He didn't know how to pronounce 'owl,' so much love. So I said it in Japanese ('fukurou'), and he tried to think of the English word (Takashi is an actual Japanese Masters student here, not just born here with Japanese parents), and when i said 'owl,' he realized he'd been saying it to rhyme with 'bowl.' Stupid English language. So I had to explain it, "Owl...eto...ah, itami no 'Oww!'" which he finally got XD
We wound up talking for 45 minutes, and it was such fun. I gradually stopped being so nervous after a while, and at the end after I thanked him for the conversation, he consulted me about handshakes. Apparently he'd read in an American culture book that a man must wait for a woman to approach him with a handshake, and never extend his hand first XDDD I told him it didn't matter to me at all, and he was quite relieved.
CAN I SAY IT AGAIN? ADORABLE.
