I would so kill for a Japanese textbook like this.
I usually try not to write about stuff other people have covered, because it kind of feels like ripping them off. Generic stuff like “Engrish” is okay, since it’s a common enough thing. But posting about specific books or games (especially when I’ve seen great writeups on friends’ sites) is something I don’t do.
But sometimes you’ve just got to make an exception.
I first heard of Moetan when Steve wrote about it a long time ago. I’d never found a copy of the book, though I really wanted one. I supposed if I’d gone and looked for one, I’d have found it easily enough, I just never went out of my way to hunt up a copy.
But we always find what we’re not looking for.
This past weekend, I found in in the gray-market games shop in Akiba. (Side note: I refer to the shop as “the” because it’s the only one I’ve seen openly selling bootleg-enabling game stuff. Along with iPod shuffle knockoffs, should one also be looking for those.)
This is, hands down, the funniest language text ever.
Hell, the first word it teaches is “lunatic” and the sample sentence is “They say lunatic people are making the English word book.”
Damned right they are.
Here are a few other words, chosen by randomly opening the book:
Gather – Every time the seven balls are gathered, he comes alive.
Justice – Power is justice. I am justice.
Own – I’m sure that I will own human shaped computers in ten years!
Satisfy – They say he is not satisfied with this few sisters.
Lately – Lately in Yoshinoya many orders of beef bowl are ordered with more onions.Now, I get that this is absolutely useless for studying a foreign language, but it’s one hell of a funny read. Even if I wouldn’t learn much from it, it’d still be entertaining.
Heck, it might actually get me to study more. ^.^
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