Ah! Wasureta!

January 26th, 2007 by heather

すみません! I forgot to come back here and mention that when I started taking classes with my one-on-one tutor in Japan, I didn’t really need to use my blog as much. It’s here as a resource in case anyone had linked to it or asked questions about the things posted here…

Looking back, having the blog gave me great motivation when I was flailing around not knowing where to even start learning Japanese. But I suppose once I started classes and moved to Japan, I became pretty busy.

I see now there are loads and loads of new learning Japanese blogs online now :) Glad someone has picked up the torch. :)

The Mixxer language exchange- Japanese to English

June 20th, 2006 by heather

Practice with native speakers is probably the one most important component of language learning… but it’s really hard when you aren’t in the target country. That’s why a tool like the Mixxer is so great. To use it, you add The Mixxer’s contact information into your Skype acccount. Then other Mixxer subscribers can approach you and offer a language exchange.

Todd Bryant at Dickinson College developed this software, and recently wrote to say that The Mixxer has “a very large number of Japanese speakers looking for native English for a language exchange in our college language exchange database, www.language-exchanges.org
.  If you could send some native English speakers looking to practice Japanese our way, it could help balance things out a bit.”

crafting in japanese

March 14th, 2006 by heather

i fully believe in learning by doing. i was always one of those kids who would get frustrated when someone would be showing me something, i wanted to grab a hold, and say, ‘let me do it!’ and i think learning while doing is important for language learning. that is the idea behind the japanese recipes at j! j!

but i’m keen on learning japanese terms for crafting, and i think there’s alot of other people who might find this helpful. in the crafting community, japanese crafts books are really popular. see ‘crafting japanese’ to see the community grown up around them. even if people don’t read japanese. did i mention these books are popular? the styles, the projects, and the books’ photographs are leading a new direction in crafting. so i’m in a great position (in japan) to learn japanese and craft and the same time, and hopefully share some of what i learn. (not that you need japanese to use these books, since the instructions are so well done!)

i was going to write it in my craft blog, but it’s going to be mainly japanese related, i think, so it belongs here.
one thing i have to say first is that i go through the book with language exchange partners and they don’t even know some of the words i’m coming across, so it’s a bit esoteric!

Notes

人形 - にんぎょう- ningyou (person-shape) = Doll

作りたい /  つくりたい / tsukuritai / (i) want to make

この人形を作りたいです. / このにんきようをつくりたいです. / I would like to make this doll.

My shopping list of Materials - 材料 / ざいりょう / zairyou = Materials

1. 布 / ぬの / nuno / fabric 55 x 40cm

綿 / めん men = cotton

無地 /  むじ / muji = plain

白 / しろ / shiro

綿無地の白
めんむじ の しろ
men muji no shiro = plain white fabric

2. 化繊 / かせんめん/ kasenmen / Stuffing, 50g

this is funny, it’s a hard kanji, my partner could not write it without looking it up. she said a more common word is パンヤ , which sounds to me like pan-ya or bakery. i think craft books use かせんめん, but in the shop i would say パンヤ。

3. 毛糸 / けいと / keito / Wool yarn, 15g/strong>


4. 刺繍糸 / ししゅういと / shishyuuito / Thread

茶色 / ちゃいろ / cha-iro / brown
赤 / あか / aka / red

Next, I need buy these things down at the shop.

After this, I’m planning on posting some of the instructions as I do them.

western cooking japanese cooking

March 4th, 2006 by heather

i have been writing japanese recipes over at Japanese! Japanese! … so far i have posted:
- gyoza
- handrolls

ronan is going to show how to make miso next… ;) if anyone reading this would like to learn how to make some kind japanese food, and learn the vocab for it, please leave a comment here! anything i should add to my list?

these aren’t ‘real’ recipes, they are pictures of processes, and ingredients with essential vocabulary you needs; verbs and nouns, adjectives, yeah, you know, vocabulary. and meanwhile, ronan and i are learning how to cook japanese food. i’m opting for easy options, and keeping it simple.

i have a japanese language exchange partner who is also going to do some cooking exchange with me and some friends. so i’ll teach her 洋食 (ようしょく) and she’ll teach me 和食 (わしょく)

wa わ is used for japanese, and よう is used for western. you put either before: しょく (this is the japanese reading for 食 , meaning food i think).

cross-dressing animals

February 14th, 2006 by heather

I have to share this little bit of cultural information. Basically, animals dressing as other animals- is very popular as a theme in Japan. I’m sort of just giving myself over to the cute. I can’t help it.

You often see stuffed toys (ぬいぐるみ) with head-coverings that make them look like other animals.

I’m sure there are shinto origins to this!

Now the edumacational portion of my post:

“かえるくま ”

かえる = frog
くま = bear

かぶる to wear

And I have to share this link, a talented person had made BUNNY EARS for a cat to look like a bunny. “バニーちゃん” (Bunny-chan, or Lil’ Bunny).

going 4 it

February 7th, 2006 by heather

ok, cheesy title… but i decided after talking to my teacher last week that i’m going to aim for the JLPT level 4 (read:easiest!) test this december.

basic kanji book level 1and i got myself the very cool Basic Kanji Book Vol 1. she said that would be more than enough kanji for level 4.

anyway, if i decide to take the test or not, it doesn’t matter. my teacher feels that having a clear goal will make it easier to plan the work, and it will also let me check myself against milestones. and i tend to agree.

so it’s all good there. now i have to actually ’study’!

japanese craft terms

January 23rd, 2006 by heather

makewrite.com has a great list of japanese craft terms, and shows how to use the terms for searching amazon.co.jp with a new booksearch tool.

funny thing is, most japanese people don’t know these terms. one evening, i was crocheting a small bear, and a woman asked what i was doing. i told her あみぐるみ (amigurumi). she corrected me and said it was ぬいぐるみ (nuigurumi). i tried to explain that i heard あみ was from 編む (amu) to knit. but she had never heard of it (and she was pretty sure she was right!) alas…

of course it’s the same in english i suppose too! not many people know alot about crafts.

this table is quite handy!

Japanese Craft Terms from Makewrite.com
Kanji Hiragana/Katakana Romaji English
雑貨 ざっか zakka general merchandise
刺し子 さしこ sashiko quilting/sashiko
織物 おりもの orimono fabric/textile
人形 にんぎょう ningyo doll
小芥子 こけし kokeshi kokeshi doll
縫いぐるみ ぬいぐるみ nuigurumi stuffed doll or toy
財布 さいふ saifu wallet
手細工 てざいく tezaiku handicraft/homemade
手作り てづくり tedukuri hand-crafted/homemade
いと ito thread or yarn
- ホームメイド or ホームメード homumeido homemade
- バッグ baggu bag
- ソックス sokkusu socks
- トートバッグ totobaggu tote bag
- ファブリック faburikku fabric
- カットクロス katto kurosu cut cloth

learning should be fun

January 19th, 2006 by heather

the other evening, i was struggling with my homework. i haven`t been in school in so long, i`m not used to it. i`m not used to have to actually practice practice practice. it’s not that it’s hard, practice is agonizingly boring. it’s painfully boring, it’s phenomenologically, massively, excruciatingly boring. boring-boring-boring. ok. i`ll stop now!

i’m given black and white sheets with drawings on them. how should i ‘engage’ with them? they are out of context, and make no sense. i can say the words, and write the sentences, but the meaning is not sticking.

and at home one evening, i was being vocal about this fact. ronan was being very nice. he came over to the table and looked and made suggestions about how to approach the work. he also helped out with some of the vocabulary that i could not find in my dictionary. but still i kept on moaning about how BORING the work was. he said that learning isn’t always fun, and learning is hard work!

i totally disagree! i argued that learning is fun, and should be fun. yes, it should also be difficult and challenging, which can be frustrating, but in the end it is wholly satisfying, and should be one of the most fun things we can do. it should not ever be boring.

the mind-numbing dullness of `homework` was making me feel like i was never ever going to learn japanese, and i said that i was going to quit while i was ahead, and forget about ever learning japanese. and that i could have a perfectly fine time living in a country and not speaking the language. and HEY i used to teach english to spanish-speaking people who had lived in the US for 7 yrs and didn’t know a single word, and they managed just fine!

he snapped at me: “stop being so NEGATIVE!” … and of course, oddly enough telling someone that kind of thing when they’re being negative does not reverse the attitude as he probably hoped it would. we’ve made up since!

but it’s true, i needed to snap out of it. anyway, i figured i’d paid for the class, and i was going to finish it, even if it destroys my interest in learning japanese completely.

i’m quite fatalistic.

how to make dull learning tasks more fun: put them in context

alas, i had been devising ways to make my homework more interesting. by putting the tasks IN CONTEXT! not a radical idea, really, but it helps so much.

one week i got a sheet my teacher gave me had a map of different kinds of buildings, and i was to practice the locations of the buildings and a park in relation to each other. so, instead, i took an A4 map of downtown Oita, and looked for the kinds of places, like the こばん (police box) and found out where it was in relation to the 駅、(えき) (train station).

another sheet showed the floors of a department store, and information about what is on which floor. so it was alot of vocabulary, and the words for floor, elevator and escalator. so, i went to a REAL department store, and visited each of 6 floors. this was not an unpleasant task of course ;) and i noted what was on each floor, and i went home and drew my own map. i also noted the words they used for the various departments, and types of things, and wrote these down.

by putting the tasks in authentic context, it makes it much more interesting, engaging and fun! and that is the way it should be. it’s not that i lack motivation, i lack attention span!!

when i showed my teacher the things i had been doing, she was very interested and pleased. she asked me where i got that small map of Oita. (it’s pretty cool since it has english and kana/kanji, and it quite clear and simple).

from now on, i will start taking more responsibility for making my learning more fun. and i will get that homework DONE.

my sensei!

January 7th, 2006 by heather

i have found a teacher!

this is very exciting, since i have been self-teaching for a while, and not sure if all the pieces are fitting in, and not sure what i know and don’t know. i got a trial lesson yesterday, for about 1.5 hours.

i think she was pretty much establishing what i knew and didn’t know. she had sheets with simple illustrations on them, and as she pointed, i spoke.

first, we went through basic greetings. おはよう、おやすみなさい, etc. then we looked at a sheet of common objects you see in the ‘japanese for boring people’ book. like newspaper, and pen and stuff. then we did locations like on top, under, beside, etc. this took then entire time! it was fun, and she was very encouraging and patient. she also spoke in japanese entirely, which was excellent.

when she was demonstrating concepts, she didn’t explain them in english, she just repeated demonstrations and made comparisons. for example in demonstrating dochira. it was great, because the lightbulb goes off, and you haven’t translated, you just understand.

i was pleasantly surprised that i knew more than i thought i did. ah, and then i got HOMEWORK! :) it may seem strange, but i’m excited about it. when i heard about the teacher i was told she was very tough, and didn’t budge. i said that’s exactly what i wanted, i want my butt kicked. so i’m looking forward to that.

for my homework, i have a sheet with little objects and people in various locations, and i have to write sentences. i might try to get some kanji in there.

amigurumi crocheted stuffed animals

January 5th, 2006 by heather

i’m loving japan. today’s reason is because of the preponderance of incredibly lovely crafts here. and they have a special word for making little animals out of balls of wool:

あみぐるみが大好きです。
あみぐるみがだいすきです
amigurumi ga dai suki desu

i really like crocheted stuffed animals.

amigurumi = crocheted stuffed animals, usually made in the round!
dai = BIG
suki desu = liking

there is even an amigurumi association in japan.

monkey amigurumi

i have made this monkey, here- sitting on ronan’s lap. he named him モリ(Mori). ronan says he is impressed with my monkey. i am proud of my monkey too. though it did not come out like my drawings, which were based on photos from my trip to monkey mountain in oita. it started becoming more cartoony. a bit like curious george. he doesn’t look like japanese amigurumi either.

monkey sketches for amigurumi

in the US, there is a growing popularity of japanese crafts, and you can find out loads about amirugumi online. and look at all the lovely amigurumi stuff.

and you can even join the crowd and amigurumi-along with people online.