Thunderbird2 0 Posted September 18, 2005 Share Posted September 18, 2005 Can someone shed some light on what 'chimpira' is? Link to post Share on other sites
gamera 0 Posted September 18, 2005 Share Posted September 18, 2005 Hum.... hard to explain. Maybe "hooligan" is a close tanslation for it. But not sure. Link to post Share on other sites
2pints-mate 0 Posted September 20, 2005 Share Posted September 20, 2005 gamera-san, do you have kids at all? Link to post Share on other sites
fjef 0 Posted September 21, 2005 Share Posted September 21, 2005 We lived across the street from a Shimioshikai (one of the top Yakuza groups) kingpin for several years in Tokyo - I wish I had taken some video then but I chickened out... Anyway - chimpera are yakuza wannabes - they have the look and the talk but are not official members of the club. They often work for real yakuza and pay dues (or get their girlfriends to) or perform other duties hoping to be promoted to real yakuza status. Then there are chimpera wannabes... Link to post Share on other sites
klingon 10 Posted September 22, 2005 Share Posted September 22, 2005 Chimpera wannabees. That made me laugh, I know a few as well. Link to post Share on other sites
Yuki's Passion 1 Posted September 22, 2005 Share Posted September 22, 2005 Actually Chimpira are Yakuza - just the low level ranks and usually do all the dirty work. Real Yakuza dont go around stabbing people or bringing attention to themselves...Theyre actually really intelligent... Link to post Share on other sites
woywoy 0 Posted September 22, 2005 Share Posted September 22, 2005 You hang out with a few yakuza do you then Yama? Link to post Share on other sites
Yuki's Passion 1 Posted September 23, 2005 Share Posted September 23, 2005 check your pm npm Link to post Share on other sites
torihada 2 Posted September 26, 2005 Share Posted September 26, 2005 My daughter (6) has just started attending a Japanese school every Saturday am here in London. My wife had already schooled her in hiragana, she's now starting her first kanji. My son (4) attends a Jap nursery every sat am. My daughter's studying is a lot of work for my wife. Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji practice every day (or it's supposed to be). My wife spoke Japanese to them from day one, but they have been looked after by childminders so have been immersed in English from the start. I speak as much of my crappy nihongo as I can; simple conversations with the kids, but they always answered back in English and never wanted to speak Japanese. That is until my daughter started Japanese school, and hey presto she was eager to speak Japanese. I think this is because she is suddenly in an environment where it's normal to speak Japanese. So I am very determined for my kids to speak and learn Japanese. I was never good at languages and have been breaking my back at night classes attempting to learn Japanese. So I think that if they become fluent in Japanese it will not only help them with their careers it'll allow them to connect with their mother's culture. If they reject everything Japanese I'll be very sad, but I don't want them to be in the situation where they are tourists in their grandparent’s homes because they can't communicate. (Also I will have two translators at my beck and call ) Link to post Share on other sites
GRPT 0 Posted October 6, 2005 Share Posted October 6, 2005 I only joined the forum today so my reply is a little out of date, but here goes anyway ... The book that "me jane" could have been referring to in the first post of this thread is "Raising a child to be bilingual & bicultural" or "Bairingaru - baikarucharu kosodate-hou" in Japanese, written by Steven Verrier (published July 25, 2003) in association with the Hiragana Times. ISBN4-946492-28-3. English on the left page, Japanese on the right. In true Hiragana Times style, all the Japanese has the "furigana" readings of the kanji. Steven's wife Motoko translated the Japanese version. Steven was born in the US - American father and French mother - but grew up with little knowledge of or exposure to his French heritage. This prompted him to make sure his children would be fully exposed to both his and his wife's languages and cultures. It is a very interesting read, although I would not say that I necessarily agree with absolutely everything. And Steven points out that his intention is not to tell others what to do, but merely describe their philosophies - what they did and what worked for them - that's all. I just happened to come across this book when I popped into the Bonjinsha book shop in Hanzomon a few months back (Bonjinsha is a famous publisher of Japanese language texts). My wife is Japanese and we are expecting our first child in the next few weeks, so the "bilingual/bicultural child" topic is also of great interest to me. I know there are also other forums out there that deal with this topic and have extensive ongoing discussions - please contact me off list if you are interested. Link to post Share on other sites
me jane 0 Posted October 6, 2005 Author Share Posted October 6, 2005 Hi GRPT and welcome! Thanks for the book info. The one that I saw was in 1998 but I didn't pay much attention at the time. I will certainly check out the Verrier one. Congratulations on the baby! Link to post Share on other sites
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