TEACHING MOMENT – THE BAR, NARITA

“as the sun sets over cheap Korean monster-movie scenery”

Having just concluded an IM chat with MAF who, as usual, cracked me up all over the place, I’m having a glass of some lovely wine. ( I place this lovely moment in the present tense, because that’s where I live). As I sit there pumping out semi-spam emails asking people to complete my Korean blogger survey, some old Japanese guy, with pretty good English, approaches me. He’s in his 60’s probably, maybe 70’s, and comes up and asks if I speak English. I’m still new at this trophy white guy game and not yet bitter, so I say yes.

He asks if I can give him some interpretation of English literature. This of course, is right down my alley, and since I still have half a glass of wine, I say yes. Unfortunately the work of “literature” he’s reading is from the goddamned “house on the prairie” series.

OAF would dig this, but if you’re trying to teach someone English, I question the approach. This shit is over a century old, and was intentionally anachronistic when it was first written. Old dude’s questions are all about phrases like, “down Arkansas way,” which don’t seem to be phrases that would be used much with Japanese visitors, or come up much in what I might characterize as “real” literature. Still, we work through two pages of questions, and the guy is pretty sharp.

The final question is on the phrase “before the kernel lit on the floor” and the old guy doesn’t have a psychotic fit (as I would have done) when he learns that this meaning of ‘lit’ is not only never used in any spoken English I’ve ever heard, but also has nothing to do with fire or written works. And, to be fair, it makes me think about the usage. It’s “lit” used as a verb to be, I think…

I lit out… (sort of like “go”, I guess)
It lit on the floor… (meaning “hit” or “was”, I think)

But no, I realize, these are just contractions of “alit?” So really just a version of “went” and not the verb to be?

I dunno, I don’t have any resources, including a dictionary, here in the land of the Rising Sun…

Something to look up when I get back home.

For no reason at all this makes me think about a similarly unusual use of “like”

There’s a pain in my heart
And it hurts
It’s like to tear me apart
And what’s worse
I knew it right from the heart and I know
That’s just no way to go.

All this thought just makes me want another beer.

For the moment, I’m eating onion rings (truly horrible – they seem to be fried in some kind of sweet oil) in the hotel bar, and waiting for my hamburger (arrived as I type.. side dishes fries and brocolli?). There’s doubles badminton on the TV (this is supposed to be a sports bar) and a buzzing in my head.

I’ll be happy to get back to the 2nd homeland….