Just found this lovely song called あの紙ヒコーキくもり空わって by 19 (十九)! It really helps to be able to read the translation and the Japanese at the same time. I think this will be another good song for compiling a vocabulary list! Have a listen first!
裏切る うらぎる to betray 慣れる なれる to get used to 呟く つぶやく to murmur, mutter 顔上げて かおあげて "chin up!" 無い ない WHAT?? How did it take me this long to know it had a kanji! 思わず おもわず unintentionally, involuntarily 押す おす to push （押して） それぞれ each, every, either 虹 にじ rainbow Ah listening again, it is such a lovely song. I bet a lot of people feel nostalgic when they listen to it. If you're reading and know this song, how does it make you feel? :)
Last night I stayed up late picking out new words to add to my vocabulary list for the month. I thought I'd use my trusty iPhone app kotoba (which I highly recommend!), to look at all the level 3 JLPT kanji in hope of finding some useful words that will also familiarise me with the kanji at the same time. I came across some useful words actually! I like the 各 - prefix especially! :) 羊毛 ようもう wool 羊肉 ようにく lamb, mutton (meat) 伝説 でんせつ tradition, legend, folklore 伝統 でんとう tradition, convention 争う あらそう to compete, to contest, to quarrel 各 - かく - each - / every - 当時 とうじ at that time, in those days 全体 ぜんたい whole, entirely, whatever (is the matter) 皿洗い機 さらあらいき dish-washing machine 皮革 ひかく leather, hide 皮肉 ひにく cynicism, sarcasm, irony, satire 王女 おうじょ princess 王国 おうこく kingdom, monarchy 王子 おうじ prince 氏名 しめい full name, identity 修士課程 しゅうしかてい master's course 丁度、恰度 ちょうど just, right, exactly 産業 さんぎょう industry 進歩 しんぽ progress, development 進化 しんか evolution, progress 真理 しんり truth 特別 とくべつ special 特に とくに particularly, especially 募集 ぼしゅう recruiting, taking applications 作品 さくひん work (a book, film etc) 結ぶ むすぶ to tie, bind, link 全国 ぜんごく country-wide, nation-wide, whole country 被災者 ひさいしゃ victim (of disaster) 対震災 だいしんさい big earthquake 絵画 かいが picture, painting I might try and write something later this week using the words in the list. Please correct my mistakes. If you find any in my list, please correct me here too! 今日はインタビューをあって、その前に中華料理店レストランで買った豚まんを食べました！とっても美味しかって、今はそれを再び食べたいんですね！日本料理のレストランはないのは残念ですよ！シドニーに行く次回は日本料理のレストランへ行って、たこ焼きを買った方が良いですね。いなり寿司も買うでしょう。 皆さんの一番好きな日本料理は何ですか？このビデオをYouTubeで見つけて、ちょっと怖いですね。豚のゼラチン状ナックルは美味しいですか？ それは美味しい見えなくて、とにかく僕は或る日食べて見ます！僕は変な食べ物を通常に食べてみますが、時々ちょっと怖すぎて、ですから食べられません。臓物は僕にとても変だと思いますがたくさん人はその食べ物が大好きです。「なぜ好きですか」と聞くはしたいんです。鶏ハートと腎臓とブラックプッヂングを食べる事があって、本当に好きじゃなかった。臓物の味か感触が好きですか？
Someone took the little video clip I had found for it when I wrote this and unfortunately I can't find a replacement so this little video will have to do. The trees are beautiful, aren't they!
自転車を漕ぎ続けた to continue pedalling / to peddle on*
上り坂 uphill
駆け上げる to run up (駆ける-to run)
追い越せる to let overtake (追い越す- to overtake）
情熱 passions, enthusiasm
逃す to miss
伸ばす to stretch (to reach out your hand: 手を伸ばす）
ちっぽけな tiny, puny, measly 悩んでいる to be troubled, to worry
咲き誇る桜 cherry trees in full bloom
花びら petal
負ける to lose, be defeated
そう yes (on its own: ie. そう、笑って)
そっと softly, easily (on its own: ie. そっと、笑って）
丘 hill
息を切らす to gasp for air
見下ろす to look down
見上がる to look up
屋根 roof
溢れる to overflow
零す to spill
目の前に in front of one's eyes
広がる to spread, unfold
景色 view, scenery, landscape
落ち込む to feel down, to feel sad
*I don't think I've come across this before, or if I have, I've never noticed it! Japanese speakers out there, if I change the verb like 'V-ます+続ける', will that change every verb to "to continue" doing that action? ie. 食べ続ける to continue to eat 寝続ける to continue sleeping 読み続ける to continue reading After making this vocab list, it helps me so much when I look back at the song lyrics! It helps to see how the sentences are put together and also helps to focus on the grammar used in the lyrics, for example I came across several grammatical patterns that I had not come across for ages and had almost forgotten! I will now try and study the list and re-listen to the song afterwards! :)
If there are any errors, please tell me! I'm unsure about how I've written and translated 見下ろす and 見上げる.
みなさん！今朝、たくさん雨が降っています。ですから家の奥に泊まって、日本語を勉強します。一時午後ところを朝のコーヒーを飲んだり、TaeKimのブログを読んだりします。 I just realised I don't know how to say "although" in Japanese and according to my dictionary, 「ところを」is one of the ways to say it in relation to time or in relation to a certain condition. I also don't really know how to say "to decide to do something", and this is one phrase that I always find myself using. Apparently 事にする is the way of saying it, but I always feel it isn't expressing what I want to say haha. So for my above sentence, does「ですから家の奥に泊まって、日本語を勉強事にします」make sense if I want to say "so, I decided to stay home and study Japanese"? As you've seen, I've been posting a lot of Japanese songs, and I'm quite sick of listening to them and not understanding everything! Back at uni, my friends would take the song lyrics and study them so they knew what the song was about, as well as how those ideas were expressed in lyric form. For ages I have been meaning to do this too but have never gotten around to it, so I've decided 「事にする」(haha), to try and study the song lyrics to Utada Hikaru's Goodbye Loneliness. I also want to read more spoken Japanese, because when I listen to people speak there are a lot of words - little words that I don't understand. (Go AWAY Deva, you're trying to fight me again!) Well, a friend of mine just posted this video on youtube, and I thought I might share it with you! I love it! :D
For the last hour, I've been watching video after video from Cooking with Dog's youtube channel! I think it's my new favourite channel. It is presented so nicely, and the food looks so delicious! I'm so hungry right now after watching all those beautiful recipes being cooked! Enjoy!
みなさん！こんにちは！ Today, I thought I'd have a little chat about Japanese food... and to begin, I will start with 納豆 (nattō).
So, the other day, I thought it would be a good idea to revisit 納豆 and give it a 6th try. Well, I admit I have actually only eaten it twice before - once was only a spoonful from some that a friend was eating for lunch, and once when I thought I might buy some and try it properly at home. That was about 5 years ago and I haven't had any 納豆 since. My first taste of 納豆 was unpleasant. I did not like the smell, flavour nor the texture. The second time, when I thought I might be able to eat a whole bowl of it at home, I pretty much had the same opinion and gave the rest to my mum who liked it immensely and ate it all without a problem. Well, my dear readers (one day......), last week I went to my favourite supermarket and bought a 4 pack of 納豆 - 納豆しそ海苔* to be exact. About an hour ago, I returned from an interview and seeing as it was lunchtime, I thought I may as well have 納豆 for lunch! I made some rice, prepared the nattō with the dressing provided (which on its own, tasted quite good), and scooped the nattō onto my rice with a big splash of soy sauce. I sat down and unfortunately was very quickly reminded of how much I disliked the smell, flavour and texture. In fact, just before I wrote that sentence, I had to run to the kitchen for a drink to get the flavour out of my mouth. I kind of want to like it, but I'm going to have to classify myself as a non-eater. I did however make a good effort to finish the bowl. There's about a quarter left and I definitely ate much more than I did the last two times. If I ever feel I can give it another go, I will venture back into the fridge and prepare another of the 3 remaining packs. Who knows, the more I try it, the less nasty it may seem! (I'm trying this with Li Hing Mui but it isn't going well). So, to more positive subjects, my favourite Japanese foods are たこ焼き (takoyaki = octopus dumplings/balls), well actually I pretty much love everything else except for うなぎ (unagi = eel) and for some reason お好み焼き (Japanese-style pancake) has never been a big favourite. When I went to Japan, I ate カレーライス (curry rice), for the first time ever and my heavens, it was delicious! If only I had some now... *I'm not quite sure what しそ海苔 (shisonori) is. If anyone can enlighten me, please do! So far, I've found sites calling it Perilla, and on the packet the nattō is sitting on a leaf with the same shape as the one pictured on wikipedia. It says it is supposed to have a mint/fennel/apple-like flavour. As I said, it tasted good on its own! :P Here's another video by the ウルフルズ! It's related to takoyaki and okonomiyaki! Enjoy!
Hi all! I was writing something in Japanese the other day about something I felt really strongly about. I noticed that my sentences in Japanese seemed to make sense and somehow I felt able to express my opinion with the words I knew. Compared to writing on Lang8 about everyday topics like gardening, drinking coffee, having lunch etc, I felt much more able to express myself. When I write about everyday topics, the use of language seems much more disjointed and vague. I should practice writing more Japanese about topics I feel strongly about! Take that, Deva!!
Here is my weeks vocabulary list! Some good words there, if I do say so myself! この言葉は出来るだけに覚える。(I'll learn the words as best I can?)
合法化する（ごうほうかする）- to legalise
伝統的な（でんとうてきな）- traditional, conventional
伝統（でんとう）- tradition
首相（しゅしょう）- Prime Minister
政府（せいじ）- government
政府（せいふ）- politics
社会（しゃかい）- society
文化（ぶんか）- culture
毛布（もうふ）- blanket
認める（みとめる）- to recognise, to appreciate
暫く（しばらく）- a little while, short while, moment, instant
呪文（じゅもん）- spell, charm, incantation, magic word
費用（ひよう）- cost, expense
急いで（いそいで）- hurriedly
急ぐ（いそぐ）- to hurry, to rush, to hasten, to make something happen sooner
用意（ようい）- preparation
そんなに - so much so, like that
お八つ（おやつ）- afternoon snack
ちゃんと - perfectly, properly, exactly
出来るだけ早く（できるだけはやく）- as soon as possible
出来るだけ（できるだけ）- as much as one can, as much as possible, if at all possible
其の儘（そのまま）- without change, as it is Ok, here's some Teriyaki Boyz for you to listen to. I'm not into hiphop, but it was cool to hear.
