English and Japanese.

Good morning. It's April now. April marks the 8-month... mark ... of my stay in Japan. After 8 months, my language skills have improved to the point where I can speak perfectly mediocre Japanese and can read and write at a grade 1 level. A corresponding development is that my English proficiency has also declined such that I can say with confidence that my Japanese is almost as good as my English. To prove this, I will re-write the above paragraph in Japanese.

おはようございます。ゆうびんきょくは　どこですか。

This is an example of how a few simple characters can express a lot of stuff.

RE: declining English skills, a short little anecdote will help illustrate this phenomenon. About a month ago, Marko, Louise and Emily (fellow aliens teaching English) came over to stay at my place for a night just to chill in Kudamatsu with me and Brett. We were on our way to rent a movie but Marko wanted to first stop in at an electronics store on the way to check out a computer. He said, and I am quoting, "Will you guys - I forget the proper word for it - be nice to me and come look at this computer with me?"

The word he was looking for was "indulge".

Please bear in mind that Marko is an Englishman. Moreover, a graduate of the hallowed halls of OXFORD UNIVERSITY, with a major in history. After a year and a half in Japan, this is what his English has deteriorated to: "Be nice to me".
------------------------
OK the original reason for this post was to list some English words that have been adopted into the non-English-speaking Japanese vocabulary. Why? Because I think it's innerestin.

Some of these words are just really random...like why adopt THIS word or THAT word? Some examples:

- VIVID
- RELAX (often combined with "time"; i.e. "relax time")
- SAFE (used KIND of in the same context as baseball; e.g. "Hey Ken, you don't have to collate that mountain of paper after all!" "ohhh! safe!". Can be used to express relief in certain contexts)
- CHALLENGE (verb form; i.e. to challenge.)
- TENSION - this is a strange one. I've heard it used most often in the context of "gathering energy" or "pumping one's self up" for something. I'm still not entirely certain of it's meaning but it doesn't really have the same meaning as I'm used to.
- HARD - i.e. "hard schedule"; difficult, hassle.
- REASONABLE - i.e. reasonable price; affordable.
- MOOD-MAKER - seriously. This is someone who is the sparkplug, the catalyst of a group of people; ususally in the context of a team sport.
- NO GUFF - not really, but it'd be sweet.

There are lots more but I can't think of any write now. I mean right now. Wow, I didn't even mean to do that.