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Gakuranman.com huh?

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Who the on earth is the Gakuranman?! What the heck is it? A ‘Gakuran’ is a Japanese schoolboy blazer and the ‘man’ is me (in the weakest sense of the word, I assure you). When I put the Gakuran on, I become the invincible teaching persona that is – the Gakuranman! Kinda like a superhero, only with the calibre of Captain Planet or Inspector Gadget. I’m fighting bad Japanese grammar and poor pronunciation, people! Learn more here: Learn Japanese with the Gakuranman.

In all seriousness though, I’m working as a CIR (Co-ordinator of International Relations) on the JET Programme in Japan. The job involves copious amount of translation, a little interpretation, seminars and lots of random inter-me-cultural things. I read Philosophy and Japanese at university in the United Kingdom, but I’m forever a student, always striving forward with a thirst for knowledge. I started this website purely out of the yearning to write about things that interest me and my penchant for playing with words.

And? Why should I read your blog?

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Indeed. Against the millions of others, likely with daily updates and fecund content bursting with imagination, I feel I can hardy compete. But…hey! Wait! I hadn’t finished! I was going to say, in spite of that, if you happen to have an interest in Japan, a propensity for learning Japanese or can share in my quirky love for bioluminescence, then by all means please give my journal a second thought!

The majority of posts will be related to Japan and Japanese-language learning however, but there is also likely to be a smattering of posts related to web design, the outdoors, freaky-strange animals, and hopefully a little amateur photography thrown in here and there!

What happened to ‘Knowing Nothing’?

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My journal was originally titled ‘Knowing Nothing’ after the famous aphorism by the Greek philosopher Socrates:

“As for me, all that I know is that I know nothing”

It is intended to be a humbling expression of one’s own ignorance about the world, but is perhaps slightly tongue-in-cheek in today’s society. The reason I changed the title was because I felt it conveyed an ambiguous message to readers about the content of this journal – Japan is the main focus, not Philosophy.

What the heck is that circle at the top?

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Glad you asked! The (blue) ring at the top of the page pretending to be a sun is actually a jellyfish! It’s based on a photograph taken from more or less underneath the jellyfish displaying its bioluminescence at some unfathomable depth in the ocean. My favicon (the icon next to http://gakuranman.com) also shows this picture.

Hey! Tell me more about your website.

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It’s best viewed at 1280×768 and above! That said, you can view the core content right down to 1024×768, but the design won’t look quite as good. I’m currently on the 6th version of the site. I wrote about the site design here: Website – v6

That kanji/vocab box is so cool! How’d you do it?

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It’s all thanks to Srini’s Wordpress Laboratory and the ‘Quotes Collection’ plugin. I documented all my pains to get it working right here.

I can’t read Japanese!

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You could learn! But for those of you who can’t read japanese, I’ve made flag buttons at the top of the page that allow you to move between the Japanese and English versions of this website. Each website has unique content and unfortunately I will not be translating posts from either language, except perhaps on special occasions.

Can I use the pictures on your website?

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A tricky question. Many of the pictures and images I use are stuff I find through Google Image Search and are subject to the copyright of the original owner. I try to give links to my sources wherever possible. Most photographs on this site are taken by me. In fact, anything that I have made or photographed myself should be watermarked. The website design and banners are also my own creation, so I request that you ask me before using any picture, image or photograph elsewhere. It is also good netiquette to link back to my website for any images you borrow and make absolutely sure that you upload them onto your own servers – *absolutely no hotlinking*! Finally, *all* photographs, pictures and images on this website are strictly for non-commercial use only, unless permission is received from the respective owner. *Phew*

If you have any doubt about using something on my website, please feel free to contact me. I’ll be happy to help and it’ll avoid a lot of headaches later on ^_^.

Tell me about the ads on this site.

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As I write on my advertisements page, I only endorse advertisements that I deem to be responsible. I try to keep things transparent and honest on this website, so you can be assured that anything I’m promoting is relevant and probably useful to you. When reviewing products or services, I will always give my honest opinion and state whether or not I have been paid to write the review.

Okay, so where can I contact you?

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Right here!

And if I feel like subscribing?

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Thank you ^_^ Click here to subscribe to my Feed

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