![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spacealien_vampMost Japanese quiz shows are a real trip. For one thing, the contestants aren't usually regular people, they're almost always celebrities. These celebrities compete for cash prizes by answering questions about the most bizarre topics.
In a two-hour special quiz show I watched yesterday, there was a pool of about 30 celebrities from which a panel of 10 was randomly selected. They each had to answer a question in a Final Jeopardy-type setup. 10,000 people had been surveyed with the same question; the celebrities had to have a higher percentage correct than the average population to "clear" that question. So if 48% of the population got it right, then at least 5 of the celebrities on the panel had to answer correctly. If they cleared 5 questions, they won 500,000 yen.
The questions in this particular show were all about language. For example, the contestants would be shown a written character and asked to write its pronunciation. In other cases, they would hear two similar figures of speech and be asked to choose which was correct. It was fascinating to see the percentage for each question...some of them had very low percentages, even though I thought they were quite easy, whereas some with almost perfect scores completely stumped me.
Example: What is the pronunciation of 強か?
Only one out of the ten contestants got this one correct, but I knew it right off the bat: shitataka. (It's used in one of my favorite Meitantei Conan opening theme songs, "Mysterious Eyes.")
Example: What is the pronunciation of 月極?
The percentage correct for this one was 90+% for the general population. I didn't have a clue. I guessed gekkyoku or, failing that, getsugoku. It turned out to be tsukigime. (Darn those kanji compounds that sneakily use the kun reading!)
I did quite well on the questions about pronunciation and okurigana, but I totally wiped out on the figures of speech section.
Aside from that, I spent most of the weekend doing laundry and fiddling with web page layout. Today I had a Loveless marathon and watched the tape that's been sitting on my living room floor since the series ended.
Then I went out and bought the magazine with the first chapter of the manga version of the Yasashii Ryuu no Koroshikata (How to Kill a Nice Dragon) novel series. Ahhhh... This series is SO GOOD.
Dragon King LOVE.
Now, I just need to work on cleaning...
In a two-hour special quiz show I watched yesterday, there was a pool of about 30 celebrities from which a panel of 10 was randomly selected. They each had to answer a question in a Final Jeopardy-type setup. 10,000 people had been surveyed with the same question; the celebrities had to have a higher percentage correct than the average population to "clear" that question. So if 48% of the population got it right, then at least 5 of the celebrities on the panel had to answer correctly. If they cleared 5 questions, they won 500,000 yen.
The questions in this particular show were all about language. For example, the contestants would be shown a written character and asked to write its pronunciation. In other cases, they would hear two similar figures of speech and be asked to choose which was correct. It was fascinating to see the percentage for each question...some of them had very low percentages, even though I thought they were quite easy, whereas some with almost perfect scores completely stumped me.
Example: What is the pronunciation of 強か?
Only one out of the ten contestants got this one correct, but I knew it right off the bat: shitataka. (It's used in one of my favorite Meitantei Conan opening theme songs, "Mysterious Eyes.")
Example: What is the pronunciation of 月極?
The percentage correct for this one was 90+% for the general population. I didn't have a clue. I guessed gekkyoku or, failing that, getsugoku. It turned out to be tsukigime. (Darn those kanji compounds that sneakily use the kun reading!)
I did quite well on the questions about pronunciation and okurigana, but I totally wiped out on the figures of speech section.
Aside from that, I spent most of the weekend doing laundry and fiddling with web page layout. Today I had a Loveless marathon and watched the tape that's been sitting on my living room floor since the series ended.
Then I went out and bought the magazine with the first chapter of the manga version of the Yasashii Ryuu no Koroshikata (How to Kill a Nice Dragon) novel series. Ahhhh... This series is SO GOOD.
Dragon King LOVE.
Now, I just need to work on cleaning...
