Funny that this particular blog just comes in just as classes are abruptly turning into lessons of a more conversational tone. While this is in no way unwelcome(in fact I prefer to know more nihongo that can be used at a random izakaya with total strangers), it is more than a little jarring. Well with this in mind, I really do dig how we're taking the overformalized speech and making it more relatable to the atypical nipponjin today. (please let this be more relatable, please let this be more relatable)
To better explain the "desu" of my namesake, it is best to perhaps remember the days of early nihongo lessons in which american students would tend to be called up for their latest grammar drills. The student would step up, remember and recite their line........
Get it right....
Only to forget that in many formal nihongo sentences to follow their object with....(and cohorts and myself just silently straining, in hoped of psychically implanting the expression into the students' minds) DEEEEESU!!!
It became something of a running gag with our sensei, as we kept seeing him, exhasperatedly reminding students the importance of the neglected particle.( we sometimes would envision a lone podium with a dying,straining hand protruding up from behind with the final gurgle of "....です" everytime this would happen) Poor, poor です..Don't worry... even after we evolve beyond mere formal pleasantries, we still love you.
(Hell...I still say we should make です！ T-Shirts.)
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