Unicode Test

[Xepher]

I'm posting this to test/demonstrate unicode support here. Some people are having problems with MySQL+PHP+etc... when using other languages. Below is a copy of a japanese essay I had to write years ago in college. I have no idea what it says anymore, so... just ignore it even if you CAN read japanese. As long as it looks like kana, and not random binary, we're good.

私が日本語を勉強する理由。

私はなぜ日本語を勉強するの分からない。多分日本語が違うから。違う事が好きです。大学を始めました時に私はアニメが好きでいました。アニメを見すぎたよ。ではまでインターネットでこれ場所を「獣コミュニティ・FANG」を見つける。獣人は英語で「フっリ」と言います。いつもフっリが好きでいます。獣人は変ですでもぼくも変でしょう。違う事と新しい事が好きだので日本語を習たい。日本語が上手がほしいだでも私が不真面目です。ぼくが寝すぎると思います。日本語が好きだので私が真面目になりたい。去年ほとんど勉強をしない。今年私は宿題をしますよ。今年は違うですよ。違うはいいですね。

[otrstf]

Google Translate _thinks_ you originally meant to say _this_, but it's usually wrong


I have reason to study Japanese.

I do not know why the Japanese study. Is probably different from the Japanese. I like different things. I started college when I was in like cartoons. Tayo Sugi watching cartoons. This is where the Internet to a "beast FANG community" to find. Veterinary people in English, "Li FU-oh" says. Li always liked FU-oh. But it is strange beast I also strange. It is new and different things like that, so Japanese習たい. Japanese is good but I HOSHIIDA unserious. I was sleeping too. Japanese like to because I want to be serious. Most study last year. I have homework to you this year. This year is different. I was wrong.

[griever]

Google translate cracks me up.  But "beast FANG community" should be our slogan.

[Xepher]

I honestly don't remember what I wrote, and my japanese is so poor now I can't even try translating it back. I know it was basically about what I had been doing lately, and how I'd found "Kemono" sites on the internet, which is more or less japanese for "Furry." Also how I'd spent too much time sleeping and not enough time studying lately. I think the "Li FU-oh" bits google spit out are actually the "Fuu-ri" attempt I made and spelling "furry" using japanese phonetics.  Something like that anyway. Man... I really should've taken something besides moonspeak for my foreign language requirement. 4 semesters of good grades, and I can't even read stuff I wrote myself.

Griever: Kemono Community FANG was the name of a japanese website for "kemono no hito" (beast people... aka "furries") that I found way back when. I wonder if it's still around. *googles* Hey, it is! Good luck navigating if you don't speak Nihongo though. http://www.fang.or.jp/

[otrstf]

I returned home from three weeks in Sendai, my 4th annual partnership visit with the JSDF. My vast Japanese skills now allow me to order beer and ask for the english menu!  Fortunately, we have translators for the workday stuff. Or there is always Google (which both sides can laugh at.)  We took great pleasure passing messages from english > chinese > korean > japanese and back. Better than encryption!

I'm always amazed how much you can accomplish with pointing, bowing and smiling.  It has been explained to me that 'yes, all Japanese have to take english in high school, but few learn much, and most forget immediately after graduation.' Still, most people I spoke with were able to follow basic english, or at least agree politely

[Xepher]

Yeah, I spent 9 days there on a trip back in college. I enjoyed it a lot, and we managed to get around quite a bit (yay high speed rail!), but none of us managed very good japanese, even though we were all in the class for it. I found out that japanese people, on the whole, will seem to be politely agreeing, even if they have no idea what you're saying. Thankfully, as you said, you can do most everything with pointing and gestures. It was especially helpful that all the restaurants have models of their food in the windows that are quite easy to point at. I used to be able to order a beer or ask where the bathroom is at least, but even that has slipped from my skills these days. As I live just outside of San Antonio for a few years, I've actually learned more spanish from osmosis than I ever knew of japanese. Heck, I've never even had german or been somewhere that it's spoken, but I have better luck spreckenzing the deutche than hanshimasuing the nihongo. It's amazing what a common alphabet can do. :-)