Weekly Plot Help - Week of November 10th

[alison-sky.livejournal.com]

Got a problem in your NaNo? Who doesn't?! But we've got a way to help!

Post here with your plot problems, and all through the week members of the community will scan through and see if they can help.

AKA - The best way to procrastinate is to help others!

So post your problem. Then take a moment to look at everyone else's and see if you can help them.

People helping people. That's what makes this community great :)

So have at it!

Comments

Re: Seattle and Los Angeles Help, Especially Japanese and Hispanics

[my-cream-tea.livejournal.com]

OK, sorry but this is my experience of London as opposed to LA. But still, big city, very ethnically diverse...

My brother is married to a Japanese woman and lives in Japan. He had to work a little hard to gain the respect of her Father, but I think that's just a son-in-law thing as opposed to him being a foreigner.

I think with my sister-in-law some of the things she found difficult about living abroad for a long time was expressing affection. Her family also had a tendency to 'drift' and not discuss things openly. Also, she was extremely shy and sometimes my slightly extroverted family were a little intimidating (in a very nice way).

This isn't meant to be a conclusion on Japanese culture but just my own experience. I hope it helps :)

Re: Seattle and Los Angeles Help, Especially Japanese and Hispanics

[runa27.livejournal.com]

Actually, it kind of does help a little, in a way. I mean, granted, with an LA-area Mexican/Japanese marriage, there might be other issues entirely added to the mix (part of why I'm asking around before writing the character!), but I'm studying Japanese right now under a teacher who's lived and taught in Japan before**... and what you've described makes perfect sense to me. :)

**I am actually pretty lucky in that, because I don't have to worry too much about writing any of the Japanese-including dialogue for my multilingual Californian transplant, since I can double-check it with her if I'm not sure on something. Which is fantastic, because the character is actually kind of a brat who likes to curse or insult in foreign languages - often with a cheery, deceptively pleasant smile - so that people don't know what she's really saying. XD Which is a lot more fun if I can actually write the dialogue like that in the actual languages (she speaks some Spanish as well, but other than having studied it a lot here and there throughout grade school and part of college, that's not nearly so hard to find resources for in Florida, for obvious reasons :P).

Re: Seattle and Los Angeles Help, Especially Japanese and Hispanics

[my-cream-tea.livejournal.com]

Doesn't surprise me. I knew an Japanese/Irish girl who despite living in England for her entire life spoke amazingly fluent Japanese. I can't envisage a lot of similarities (off the top of my head) between Mexico/Japan, though, which I guess makes it interesting.

I think my brother also said that older Japanese people tend to be a little more intolerant, but that could be said of a lot of countries. Anyway, the story sounds interesting, I hope to read it soon.

Re: Seattle and Los Angeles Help, Especially Japanese and Hispanics

[runa27.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I thought it would be interesting myself. :) Especially since right now in the US, there's a bit of tension (often almost unspoken) between Hispanic immigrants (especially from Mexico) and, well, people who didn't have to immigrate. I've heard it's even more uncomfortable at times in Cali, because they're much closer to Mexico to the point where they had to have Spanish-speaking schools in some areas... but that's just what I've "heard", which is why I'm doing a little research before I write her. ;) But yeah, my vision of her parents right now is that her mom was drawn to her dad partly because of the contrast between their cultures intrigued her a little.

"I think my brother also said that older Japanese people tend to be a little more intolerant, but that could be said of a lot of countries."

I've heard that as well; my Japanese teacher even mentioned that she knew a girl in one of the villages where she used to teach that was born with naturally reddish hair (weird but not impossible in the Japanese population), but when she got married, she was forced to dye it jet-black to please her mother-in-law who didn't want her looking like a "big city hussy"! I've heard it so much in fact, that it's to the point where I'm tempted to make the maternal grandparents really fussy and really not fond of their son in law (and hence constantly, coldly, ridiculously polite), but constantly showering the (reluctant) granddaughter with gifts and stuff just to get on her father's nerves, much to her and her mother's frustration.

"Anyway, the story sounds interesting, I hope to read it soon."

Aaah, thank you *^_^*