On Fri, 11 Jun 1999, Miller, Bert wrote:

Also, <begin soapbox>, Japanese and Chinese people can't reliably tell each
other apart until they open their mouths.  There is no difference in 
"slopes and lines around the eyes and nose" consistent enough to use as a
distinguishing feature. <end soapbox>

	Weeeeeelll....
	I'd say that the Han, Korean, and Japanese bloodlines are
physically distinguishable. I can tell with a good amount of accuracy what
nationality an East Asian is after a few moments of looking at the person.
Particularly in identifying Japanese males, as they tend to have rather
more facial hair than us Han or the Koreans. Other than that...well, it's
a little hard to explain how we know; it's sort of instinctual, perhaps.
Mebbe it's in our genes. :) Now, many Caucasians that I know have great
difficulty telling us apart (it's a running joke among many of my friends
of both races that we Asians look all alike to white folk--not just in
terms of ethnicity but individually n.n).
	More to the point on the fic--I'd say that Lost Lurker's covered
most of what problems I would have picked up on the Japanese lessons. I
must say, this is one heck of an undertaking, and quite a commendable
effort so far. But don't take this as a replacement for an actual college
level or language school class, remember; reading all of this just isn't
the same as speaking it with someone who is fluent, nor does it teach you
much about the writing, especially for a language which uses a different
syllabary along with pictograms. And, of course, nothing beats learning a
language like actually going to the place where it's the main language. :)
	Storywise...well, nothing's happened yet, really, so I can't say
much there. I'll be waiting for when it starts to move for real. Keep it
up. n.n

Andrew Huang...Nerdboy@KawaiiMUCK, Hisame00 on AIM
http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~alhuang/
Harvard Anime Society, President
"Mweh. Heh. Heh."