My prereaders and I caught a lot of bugs with this, but I don't think we
caught them all.  C&C greatly appreciated, ESPECIALLY from those who know
Japanese and can help check it out.

Oh, My Goddess and Ranma 1/2\Edutainment:  Language Lessons
by David A. Tatum

Disclaimer:  Ranma 1/2 obviously does not belong to me, but to its creator,
Rumiko Takahashi (and to the producers of the anime...).  Oh, My Goddess!
(by whatever name) belongs to Kousuke Fujishima (and, again, the producers
of the anime).  All other characters (unless in cameos or unless otherwise
noted- I may toss in another series or two before the end) belong to me
(and I don't have anyone producing anime for them, so they belong to me
alone).  All characters except for my own are used without permission, for
the purposes of fun and, in this unique case, education.  Additional
sources used, which are listed below.

Author's Notes (LONG, but IMPORTANT):

Some of this may sound like an advertisement for a particular language
program, but I assure you it isn't.  People learn things in a variety of
ways, and the method I keep mentioning here is merely one that suits my
style.

A while back, I was in a Barnes and Noble Bookstore with a friend as they
were getting something they'd ordered.  I got bored and started browsing,
and something caught my eye.  Impulsively, I bought Simon and Schuster's
Pimsleur's Totally Audio Japanese Language Program, a four tape (each tape
with 2 half-hour lessons) very beginning survival course, of sorts.  I
studied the first couple of lessons and loved it- for the first time, I was
actually following what was going on in this sort of study (if you were to
look at my high school grades, you would notice that the courses I had the
most trouble with were foreign language ones) and was rather quickly
learning the language (well, sort of).  It was NOT a course in the written
language, and that could have helped a lot, but I really liked the method
employed.  I basically had to listen to each lesson two or three times, and
I was ready to move on.  As I thought about it more, I wondered what I
would do with this language I was learning.  Sure, I could use it to listen
to raw anime, but it would be years before I could do that, and I wasn't
learning how to read it at all so I would have problems there.  Still, I
wanted to do SOMETHING with it while I was still learning, to keep my
interest in it up if for no other reason.  Then the idea hit me- what
better way to understand the language better than to try and teach it,
myself?  And to teach it in a fun way, too- like, say, putting a language
course into a fanfic?  And thus, the idea for this fic was born.

Of course, an eight lesson survival course is not enough for a fanfic like
this- I've ordered the 'Comprehensive Pimsleur Japanese Language Program,'
which is really the thirty tape, sixty lesson continuation of the course I
already have, but that hasn't arrived yet (and probably won't for a month
or two- they didn't have any in stock, but expected to have some in a
couple of months).  I still decided to frame my lessons around it- despite
it being designed for audio only learning and this is a written format- but
since it may be a while before I can start using the later lessons, I
purchased some other things to help me with this fanfic, and will continue
to add to them as I go along (probably a good idea anyway).  If you want
additional help with these lessons, you may wish to purchase these... 
Currently, in addition to the Pimsleur Program, I have the following
sources (some serious, some not so serious but maybe a little useful- at
least plotwise.  The order given is the order of when they were purchased,
not of relevance):

JTB's Illustrated Book Series- Japan in Your Pocket:  Illustrated Japanese
Characters (in case I find a way to learn AND teach the written language
with my available sources)

More Making Out in Japanese, by Todd and Erika Geers (probably not going to
be useful for a while, since the story's going to be kinda slow to start
with)

Random House's Living Language: Japanese Complete Course, Compact Disc
Edition, Basic to intermediate level. (I don't exactly like the methods
used in the Living Language program, but as a supplemental source it might
work out.  At least the Coursebook and the Japanese Dictionary can be
helpful)

13 Secrets for Speaking Fluent Japanese, by Giles Murray (includes some
manga- one original, custom-made manga, and six pages of Osamu Tezuka's
Blackjack series.  I'm thinking Chapter 13, 'How to Exploit Japanese Comics
as a Learning Resource,' might be very interesting, but since I only bought
it last week and haven't had time to read it up to that point yet...)

Wicked Japanese for the Business Traveler, By Howard Tomb  (probably the
least useful of them all, but it might be fun to use for Ranma and Akane's
fights- for example, there's a section on 'Avoiding Ambulatory Food' that
might be, er, amusing)

Also, not as a language source but as an idea source, I also got
(essentially for free) a copy of Dave Barry Does Japan (by Dave Barry, of
course), which in the front cover has the following quote- "At a point
where it appeared that tensions between Japan and the United States could
get no worse, Random House decided to dispatch Dave Barry to Tokyo.  The
resulting report is the most successful diplomatic stroke since George Bush
lost his cookies in the Japanese prime minister's lap."

Hopefully, these sources will let me write something both fun and
educational- which is why I'm labeling this fanfic 'Edutainment.'  At the
very least, it'll have some of your favorite characters from Ranma and Oh,
My Goddess! in it, so enjoy...

By the way, this will be a continuing story, though I might not continue it
past the second 'book.' (the current titles I've decided on for these books
are Japanese 100: Survival Course, which will cover the first eight lessons
and probably be the shortest of them all, and Japanese 101, which will
cover all of the Pimsleur Comprehensive Course that is not part of the
course I own already).  I may, however, move past it- time will see.  (as
an additional note, the use of multiple sources may result in some
redundant lessons- er, well, extra drill is a good thing usually, so I
don't think that'll be too much of a problem.  If it annoys you, though,
just let me know).  It will also be (well, at least read a bit something
like) a Self-Insertion fic- sorry, but that's one of the drawbacks of
writing edutainment- it generally has poor-quality characters.  Hopefully,
he won't be too boring....

Methods:
Well, obviously the lessons will be patterned after a couple of learning
methods...  There WILL be Japanese spoken outside of the lessons- but don't
worry, if our hero doesn't understand, you're not supposed to, either. 
When it IS spoken as part of a lesson, however, I will do my best to
(limited by the lack of diacritical marks) write how to pronounce it next
to it...  Note that, at times, the lessons will be taken word-for-word from
the source.  Since I'm not able to do footnotes with this word processor
set-up and I'd lose track of the endnotes before I got to typing them up,
I'll just warn you now that occasionally the lessons themselves are
word-for-word out of the real lessons I have.  I DO want to try and make it
more original, but when I'm working on a 'list of vocabulary words,' I
think it's best to stick with the lists the professionals came up with (in
the order they put them, too) because I don't want to repeat myself or miss
things...  the vocab lists are usually taken from the Living Language
Japanese course book.  The rest of what I use I will TRY to be original,
but since I AM giving you what was in the particular lesson and (pretty
much) ONLY what was in the particular lesson, that will occasionally be
difficult.  I may try to go back and do the proper end notes at the end of
each book to show I'm quoting, but we'll see if I can do that.

The basic design of each lesson will be one Pimsleur course lesson plus one
item from one of the other sources I have (which may not be vocabulary or
grammar or anything like that, but instead be a discussion of how to learn
more efficiently or how to pronounce certain things, or short cuts you can
use, or how to use mnemonics to help you remember certain things, and that
sort of thing...).  I currently have 60 Pimsleur lessons (either on hand or
to be delivered soon).  To go with them, I have fourty Living Lesson
lessons, 13 methods of learning from the 13 Secrets for Speaking Fluent
Japanese, and... well, I'm pretty sure between the other sources I have I
can come up with seven other 'supplemental' things, so we'll see what
happens.  If I decide to continue this past that point... well, there's
apparently -3- levels of the comprehensive course (each with 60 lessons)
and I've only ordered one of them, and I'm always on the lookout for more
sources...

Chronological notes:  Er, for Oh, My Goddess, it's set some time shortly
after the 'Terrible Master Urd' arc of the manga, but even if you just saw
the anime you should be able to understand what's going on in the story... 
For Ranma, well... I don't think it's THAT important, yet, and so haven't
decided.  Since the only Ranma character we're likely to meet in the first
chapter or two is Akane, it shouldn't matter too much.

On with the story...
-------------------------


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