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About The print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1977-1989 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 4, 1987)
OPINION November 4, 1987 P«9® 3 On the lighter side by Stephani Veff Opinion/Copy Editor Memorizing a new address - again! What a relief! This past weekend I did something that most people only do a few times in their lives -1 moved. This is by no means the third or even the fourth time I’ve moved in the nearly 20 years that I’ve been alive. In actuality I’ve moved a total of 17 times! Needless to say my family and I are very ex perienced when it comes to transferring everything we own from one location to another. Many people have asked me why my family moves so often. As a matter of fact, I’ve often asked myself that very same question. I mean, it’s not as though my father is in the military or has some other job that requires frequent moving - we just seem to be looking for something and can’t quite find it. When you say that you’ve moved 17 times, the question of how many different states you’ve lived in comes up. Well, I was born in Monterey, California and lived in the Monterey Bay area almost all of the first 16 years of my life. There were only two occasions on which my family ventured beyond the bay area: When I was three, we lived in the Yosemite National Park for a few months and when I was nine, we moved to a small town near Concord, New Hampshire for a short time. During these 16 years I found it easier to say that I was from Monterey whenever the question came up, even though I never actually liv ed in the town of Monterey itself. In the three years that I’ve liv ed in Oregon, I’ve moved four times. Each move gave me the chance to get to know a dif ferent part of the Portland Metro area: Aloha, Northeast Portland, Oregon City, and now Milwaukie. This has really given me the chance to see how the people in each area differ from each other and it has helped me to get to know the state of Oregon much better than if I had just remained in one area. There are many disadvan tages to moving - no matter how many times you do it you still don’t like it. Some of these disadvantages are: leaving friends and family behind (especially in long-distance moves), changing schools and/or jobs, and getting used to a new house, neighborhood, and town. These, of course, don’t include the usual hassles that go along with moving. Things that I consider hassles are: packing and unpacking belongings, memorizing a new address and phone number (this gets a bit confusing after awhile), and waiting for the mail to realize it has a new ad dress to go to! Don’t get me wrong, I’ve moved enough to realize that there are also some advantages to moving. I don’t worry much when I misplace something anymore because I know that in a year or so we’ll move and I’ll find it as I’m packing. Other ad vantages to moving are: meeting new people and making new friends, learning how people in different areas live, and getting to live in different surroun dings. I don’t exactly get excited about moving, but I have to say that nearly every move has turned out for the best. I have especially been thankful for moving to Oregon. I may have been born and raised in California, but I’m an Oregonian at heart. I truly feel at home here in the Northwest and I hope to stay in this area for a long- time. I wonder, do you native Oregonians realize how good you’ve got it here? Confusion leads to ‘good’ mistakes Having written about a kind, of “heavy” subject last week, I am going to write about Japanese for this time. I am a second year Japanese student and I absolutely love the language. Japanese (being my fifth language to speak) is a fun, challenging, exciting, but most of all frustrating language. First of all, I had to learn all the little signs for sounds. It is called Hiragana and Katakana, and it is very confusing sometimes. But once you remember these symbols, it isn’t all that bad. The major confusion starts with the Kanji. That is a symbol language, for which each word has a different symbol. Those words can be read two different ways too, the Chinese and the Japanese way. It basically is a whole new alphabet. Therefore, I have great respect for any Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese >or anybody else who has to go through the hassle of learning a totally new alphabet. I mean, it is already hard enough to adjust to a totally new culture, learn a new - language, remember the vocabulary, etc. For us, the alphabet seems to be something very logical. Most of us don’t have many problems to learn a western language, just because the alphabet is the same. But as I said before, lear ning an Aziatic language is kind of frustrating, probably just like a western language would be frustrating for an Asian. The Japanese language (back to studying Japanese) is also confusing because of the many relationals. There are just too many, I think. It gets to a point where you think you know the right answer, but appears to be wrong after all, because the wrong relational is being used. These are the moments like “Why am I doing this?,” “What’s the use of trying to understand this?” But, oh well, it’s a fun language, so why not. What I like about taking the course is that I never seem to make bad mistakes. Every time centimeters 10 23 72.46 -24.45 55.93 24 72.95 16.83 68.80 I 26 54.91 -38.91 | 30.77 Colors by Munsell Color Services Lab I do something wrong, my teacher will be saying, “that’s a good mistake!” That makes me feel a little better. Seriously, what would you rather want to make, a bad mistake, or a good mistake? I know the answer, a good mistake of course, because it doesn’t make, you feel that stupid. Even though the answer is wrong, one little part is right, so that means you still have some command of the language. Anyway, I have to admit that learning Japanese sometimes puts a big dent in my pride. I never had any problems to learn a new language whatsoever. But now I really have to work hard to even understand it. It’s worth the effort though. It is a very good language to know because of business. But also to get a feeling of how frustrated Asians must be, trying to learn the American customs and language without knowing the alphabet. Banana-buffs get help from limerick This is the first column of many, I hope. It will offer bits of humor in the form of jokes, fun ny anecdotes, zany poetry, puns, limericks, and as many other vehicles in which laughter can be delivered each week in the limited space provided. Which is all to the good. Humorous gags, one liners and such should be quickly read to savor the flavor of the succulent tidbits we shall serve up to tickle your funny-bone, tweak your risibility-zone, and make you feel that life is really a bowl of cherries instead of a lousy pile of pits. When you have read the col umn each week, save it. It may become a collector’s item. And that’s a good suggestion: because humor is timeless. Old saws, jokes, and pithy remarks can be reused and recycled to fit new times and situations. Who knows, when you are my age, you may be the George Bums of the future, selling Oldsmobiles with a gaggle of glorious gals hanging on your every smoke ring. If the bats in your belfry flut And your comprendez-vous rope is cut If no-one’s at home at the top of your dome Your head’s not head, it’s a nut. The limerick is lots of fun. Here’s one I wrote for the United Fruit Company when they were telling banana-buffs not to eat them until brown spots showed they were ripe. A man named Brown in Havana Had a young daughter named Anna She squeeza-da-fruit All over his suit Now Brown is flecked with banana. Try your hand at this fun form. Later on we will see about a contest. A free ticket to “The Laugh Clinic” Seminar, Feb. 13, 1988, all day Saturday, with celebrity presenters. It will be a gas. Editor’s note: Joseph Patrick Lee is the Founder and the Chairman of the Laugh Clinic. If you have any questions or suggestions, please contact Lee at 809 Madison Street, Oregon City 97045. The phone number is (503) 657-9699. PERFORM ADEATH DEFYING ACT. Use a condom. If you're not careful. All )S might kill you. It's a disease with no cure and no survivors. But there is a small consolation. A condom. It could save your life. If anything, it could help you sleepa lot easier. All >Si> a killer. I’niteetyourM-ll. Call J-’íi-AlUSuiPonlaÍKlnr l-NM>-7’7-An»..>uîs>de.-f h.nland