七夕 Tanabata!

Tanabata is a Japanese star festival taking place on the seventh day of the seventh month each year.

七夕は、「星の祭り」の別名、毎年の七月の七日に起こる祭りです。

Tanabata originates from the Chinese Qixi festival and is based upon the story of two deities, Orihime and Hikoboshi.

七夕は織姫と彦星と呼んだ神について中国物語にふまえた「チーシー」祭りから来ます。

According to the story, the two lovers were separated by the Milky Way. 

物語によると、あの二人の愛好家は銀河系で別れされた。

For one day each year, a flock of magpies create a bridge so that the lovers can meet.

毎年一日間、一群のカササギは来て、愛好家が合うために大きい橋を作ります。

Japanese people believe that if it rains on Tanabata, the magpies will not come.

七月の七日に雨が降ると、日本人はカササギが来る事が出来ないを信じられます。

Therefore the lovers must wait yet another year before they can meet.

それに、愛好家は、合う事が出来るために、一年間を待たなければ行けません。

People celebrate Tanabata by writing a wish on a piece of paper and attaching them to bamboo. 

七夕の日に、人は希望を紙に書いて、この紙を竹の枝につなぎます。

The bamboo branches are then placed in the river and later burned.

その後で、この竹の枝は川に流させて、焦げた。

-----------

REF:

Tanabata on Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanabata

Tanabata on Japan-Guide: http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2283.html

山本寛斎

昨日、日本のファションデザイナーの山本寛斎について知りました。

Yesterday, I found out about the Japanese fashion designer Kansai Yamamoto.

彼は、1970と1980にファション世界にとても人気な有力者になりました。

In the 70s and 80s, he became a very influential leader of the fashion world.

TokyoDandyのブログの記事で山本のデザインを若干見つけました。I found several of his designs posted on Tokyo Dandy.

あのデザイン、どう考えますか？

What do you think of those designs?

この記事に写真を足したかったけど、出来ませんでした。I wanted to put an image in this blog post, but it wouldn't allow me.

語彙の暗記

As I mentioned a few posts ago, because I felt like I wasn't getting anywhere with my Japanese, I decided to focus on Japanese vocabulary building rather than focussing on learning new grammar structures. I had thought this little strategy would help me out in all other areas of learning Japanese - listening, reading etc - however recently I have found it so hard to remember the vocabulary I am studying.

To do this, I made some flash cards and some vocabulary lists of words that I found interesting or applicable to myself and to today's world. For a few days, I felt inspired to study, but gradually I lost my enthusiasm and could no longer concentrate.

I did manage to absorbe one or two words - like 蛇口 and キモい and 怠け者, but the frustration of not advancing as fast as I want has been getting me down a lot. I have also become a little nervous about moving to Japan for a year and I think the fear of losing my normal, stable life here has caused me to deny my up and coming journey into the unknown. This denial has in turn caused me to avoid studying Japanese and given me an interest in other languages that I have been meaning to revise.

I remember the last time I was going to Japan, I spent a good month before my trip revising everything I could from my old Japanese textbooks to prepare myself. Once again, in the months leading up to my trip to Thailand, I focussed on learning as much Thai as I could. Those were quite short trips, and for this up-and-coming trip to Japan, I will be there for an entire year! It must be the fear of losing my current lifestyle that is preventing me from studying Japanese.

Deva has been shouting in my ear, telling me that I should just stop studying all together. After all, soon enough I'll be in Japan and will be practicing my Japanese every day! Despite Deva and his evil attempts to hinder my learning, I must force myself to study. Every word I gain will mean I will understand one more word when I'm either reading, listening or having to express myself in Japanese.

After an entire week of procrastination and filling my study time with gardening and cleaning the house, I will sit down tonight and study, study, study! I can do it! 

If you are experiencing the same troubles with your Japanese learning, please feel free to contact me and share your woes - and your advice if you have conquered this difficult stage of learning a foreign language. A friend of mine recently explained to me he felt he was completely stuck and couldn't make any more progress. Consequently he decided to stop studying and put his energy into practicing watercolour. I don't want this to happen to me! Let's all try hard and study as best we can!

緊張と駅弁

There is exactly one month to go before I leave for Japan.

僕が日本へ行くまで、ちょうど一ヶ月があります。

I have become very nervous and concerned that I will miss my partner and my puppy too much.

僕のパートナーと子犬をなしで、僕が寂しいになることは、最近は、とても緊張と心配になります。

On the other hand, I am also very excited about going to Japan.

反面は、僕が日本へ行くのは、とても楽しみにしています。

Just then, I thought about ekiben!

折から、駅弁の事について考えていました。

If you don't know what ekiben are, they are take away lunch boxes that you can buy on the train or in the train stations in Japan.

「駅弁」のことは知らないの場合に、駅弁は駅と電車で買える持ち帰り弁当箱です。

When I was in Japan last, I absolutely loved buying an ekiben lunch.

日本に行ったの最後の時間、駅弁を買うのは実に好きでした。

On another note, I have not studied much Japanese recently.

とにかく、最近は日本語をあんまり勉強していません。

Because I am a little afraid, I am kind of avoiding the reality that I'm going to Japan by not studying Japanese.

僕は少し怖いですから、日本語を勉強しないことで、日本へ行く現実をさけていると思います。

It is good that I'm writing my blog!

僕のブログで日記を書くことはいいですね！

久しぶり！

皆さん！（もしPRISMは読んでいるなら、ほっといて！）

久しぶりだね！最近とても忙しかったから、日記を書く時間がなかった。最近日本の旅行の準備をしていて、レストランで働いていて、友達と短編映画を作っている。すっごく忙しいね！日本語の勉強時間もなかった。それ、明らかだね。残念だね。

最近、日本の文化について何も見つけなくて、読まなかった。先週、少し演歌を聞いているよ。演歌が好き！：）YouTubeでとても面白い日本についてビデオを見つけた。例えば、このビデオ：

古い世界と古い生活方を見せるから、この映画のタイプがとても好きだ。Facebookにこのビデオのリンクをアップロードして、ビデオを見た時日本の友達が彼の過去を懐かしく思った。

End of the World: 世界の終わり

I didn't know much about the Toy's Factory record label, and just discovered a nice list of bands to look up! One of them is "End of the World" or nihongo-de 世界の終わり (sekai no owari). Here's a video clip for their song RPG. (If you happen to be afraid of Clowns, best not watch this. I find nice-looking clowns scary, so I thought in case there were others out there who feared them like I do, I should let people know!)

This song comes from their new single, entitled RPG and released in 2013. I thought I'd have a look at some of their earlier stuff and found a nice song entitled "幻の命" (maboroshi no inochi), which apparently made them quite popular. Here it is for your enjoyment! :)

Well, of the clips I have seen, and the songs I have listened to, I quite like their sound and their feeling. If they got rid of that clown, all would be ok! :)

I was going to leave it there, but I just discovered a band called "湘南の風" (Shounan no kaze). Their song 純恋歌 (junrenka) is nice. : ) 

ちびまる子ちゃん

先週、ちびまる子ちゃんの映画をダウンロードした！これから可愛くて、とても好きだ。子供の映画ってたいてい好きじゃないけど、日本の文化にもっとよく知っていたい、映画とアニメの有名なキャラに含めて。

この映画の日本語が分かりやすくて、聴取練習をするために、とても助けると思ってる。「ちびまる子ちゃん」の映画はたくさんだとWikipediaで見たばかりだ。僕がダウンロードした映画の名前は知らないので、皆に言えない。明日映画の名前を見つけ出すね。

おやすみ！

Listening to natural Japanese conversations...

I just watched an interview on Youtube with Kyary Pamyu Pamyu and couldn't understand much at all. I know I need more listening practice when it comes to Japanese, but I think my biggest problem is determining what the little sounds are which seem to tag on to the end of words and phrases in conversational Japanese.

Words like ええとね, なんか or the ____と、_____か、____って all really confuse me. I get the gist of one part of the sentence, but then one of these words puts me off and distracts me that I miss the phrase which follows it.

I know this will come eventually after lots of listening practice, but my heavens it is SO FRUSTRATING right now. I have decided to look up more Japanese TV interviews because even though they are hard to understand, they're so bright and fun to watch. Little by little I will hopefully get over this listening rut. 

Here's the video I was watching. The interview is at the end. By the way, Mayuyu is so cute.... 

I listened to the interview (and the song ^^ ) a few times to try and decode it. Hopefully along with my intense vocab workout this month, listening will get easier!

リラックマのビデオ

YouTubeで日本の有名なアニメと日本大衆文化のキャラを探していて、このビデオを見つけた！とてもかわいいだと思った。僕は子供とき、同じ事を持ってたかっただろうね！：P

僕が同じようなビデオも作っただろう！　：P

Notes on Yakuza

So, I've been interested in the yakuza a little recently after watching My Boss My Hero, so I decided to learn a bit more about it all. 

The following are some notes I have made from wikipedia*. I wrote them for my own use, but thought others might like to read a mini-summary (if it makes sense to you...)

* I have put "from wikipedia" in bold as I have no idea whatsoever if it is ok to take notes from wiki which are and are not in my own words and then put them on my blog. I am in no way stating that I wrote the following or am trying to pass it off as my own. Well, it's probably in such "note" form that it doesn't make sense to anyone else... but yeah, as I don't really know if it's ok to do this, I thought I'd clarify myself a bit. Did I say the following words are notes I have made from wikipedia?

---------

Yakuza

General:
- aka gokudou (or bouryokudan by police / media, or ninkyou dantai by yakuza themselves).
- members of transnational & international crime syndicates
- strict codes of conduct / organised nature

Divisions:
- tekiya (one of lowest social groups in Edo / ilicit and stolen goods / later formed own organisations, took over some commerce and admin roles in society, then allowed members to be peddlers or guards at festivals etc. / peddlers paid rent for their positions / Edo govt. formally recognised the tekiya organisations and gave the leaders permission to carry nagawakizashi (previously only noblemen and samurai could have swords on their person).
- bakuto (gambling / the lowest social class as gambling was illegal / opened small gambling houses in abandoned temples etc / the gambling houses ran loan shark businesses / bakuto looked down upon / negative aspects of yakuza originate from the bakuto - even the word yakuza refers to a losing hand in oicho-kabu blackjack.

Structure and other stuff:
- due to economic sitch in mid-period, yakuza groups were made up of delinquants / yakuza initiation ceremonies still incorporate tekiya & bakuto rituals, today's yakuza groups still may identify with one group in particular / kyushu island has been largest source of yakuza members / 60% of yakuza decendants of bakumin (a feudal outcast class) 

- obayan/kobun hierarchy / sakazumi ie. sharing of sake cup / during WWII yakuza organisations declined to focus on war efforts / yakuza members cut family ties to show loyalty to oyabun / women yakuza called nee-san / those that receive sakazumi become part of immediate family and are ranked little or big brother / kobun can offer sakazumi to underlings to form own affiliated subsidiary organisation. / yakuza full body tattoos (when playing oicho-kabu, yakuza may remove shirt to display tattoo).

Rituals:
- yubitsume (cutting of the finger as form of apology or penance / transgressor cuts tip off left little finger and gives to boss / transgressor's superior can spare him and take blame / yubitsume has origins in the holding of katana as it would weaken the grip of the sword and force the transgressor to rely more on his gang / prosthetic little fingers used to hide this from others.

Largest Groups: 
1) yamaguchi-gumi - began 1915 / 55,000 members / 850 clans / make up 50% of all yakuza
2) sumiyoshi-kai - 20,000 members / 277 clans / federation
3) inagawa-kai - 15,000 members / 313 clans

Today:
- yakuza groups have helped during disasters - such as Kobe earthquake. 
- many syndicates ban drug trafficking.
- yakuza has ties with realty and the banking market.

Ref:
Yakuza @ Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakuza
Oicho-Kabu @ Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oicho-Kabu

Tonights Vocab List!

Hopefully with this list, I'll improve my vocab. Useful words? What do you think!

Download the PDF!

SHORTCUT PAGE

Here's a little list of entries that might interest you. Hope you like them! 

• チョコチョコ

• ENGLISH UPDATES

• JAPANESE LEARNING RESOURCES

• A J-FILM REVIEW: Survive Style +5

• JPOP

• J-DRAMA REVIEW

• MY QUESTIONS PAGE

Chicken Karaage Recipe!

Ok, so I love Japanese curry rice and karaage (Japanese fried chicken). It's out there now and I can't take it back! Why am I concerned about saying this to everyone? Cos I overheard a lady saying that Japanese curry rice (カレーライス) is usually only a kid's meal! (Please tell me this isn't true. It does sound quite silly... so I'll just pretend I never heard her). 

Anyway, I have been making curry rice with karaage for dinners for the last few months (not every night unfortunately). Oh my heavens, I love it so much. 

However, the problem I have been having is with the karaage (and I kinda wish I could make the curry spicier). When I have been cooking the karaage, it never stays crispy and the batter usually disintegrated while I fry it.

That was until I found cooking with dog's video for making it properly! In case you are all desperate to make karaage at home, here is the video below!

Oh, I love those guys so much. It is by far my favourite cooking show around! (Sorry Nigella, but "cook" and Francis have something you dont...) Oh, and now I'm hungry...

So, I followed their recipe the other night and IT WORKED! I had the most luscious, crispy karaage! If anyone wants to make Japanese food at home (and some other recipes too), cooking with dog make the recipes seem so simple and do-able at home. I will be making mochi ice cream for my friends in a few weeks and I can't wait!

かわいい書体

書体のサイト！

GAHH! あの雑誌、持ってたいよ！

みな！そのおすすめのブログを読んでいるね。この雑誌レビューを見つけたよ！日本ファッション雑誌をいつまでも欲しかったよ！この「Street Jack」の雑誌はその持ってたい雑誌だよ！日本にいるときに、買おう！XD　嬉しい！

やれやれ！今夜、日本語彙を勉強していたと言ったね。

AWESOME BLOG for learners of Japanese!

すごい！I just discovered an awesome blog called チョコチョコ written to encourage other Japanese language learners out there to gang together and study as hard as they can! 

The blogger originally started the blog to write about his journey learning Japanese, but after he realised there were lots of people out there learning just like he was, he began writing to help others learn more effectively. 

Screenshot of the チョコチョコ site.

On his blog you will find study tips, book reviews of Japanese (and Korean) textbooks, kanji study tips, posts about Japanese culture, as well as some other learning resources and grammar notes. You may also be lucky enough to discover a new creature called a チョコチョコ (which may in fact be the encouraging, friendly form of Deva). I am eager to find out exactly what they are and how they can help me learn Japanese!

The main reason why I am mentioning this blog is in fact because of the reading resources offered on the "Great Library" page! I know this may seem simple, but I am going to start reading from the very first story. I need to practice my reading so bad...

In the Great Library, you can select your level of Japanese and then you are presented with some stories  for you to read. I am really impressed, and hope one day to be able to read the stories from the advanced level. (OMG, 漢字がたくさん！）

Well, I'm gonna go and have an even closer look at that blog! 

Happy studying, guys!

今晩の映画

(For the English version, go down)

昨日は、トフグのサイトの日本映画のおすすめを読んだ後で、「SurviveStyle+5」をネットで探す事にした。今晩、パンプキンスープを食べながら、映画を見た。昨日少しスニークプレビューをして、映画の色がとてもつよいので、良い映画だろうと思ったね！　あ、映画はすっごく良かった！

「SurviveStyle+5」は関口現に監督した。それはとても面白くて、すばらしい映画だ。物語は奇妙で、でもとてもおかしい。ミザンセーヌは色がたくさん！　次のビデオを見てください。

ところで、すみませんね。今晩、僕の日本語はちょっと。。。


単語を勉強してみて、でも疲れてるので、本当に出来ない。：（　

I won't translate all of what I wrote above, but I will say that I recommend this film to all those who love colour, love quirky stories, and love Japanese films!

I was wandering around on the internet and stumbled across a blog entry on Tofugu called the "Top 10 Strange Japanese Films You Need TO Watch". I couldn't resist having a look and there, under No.7 was Survive Style +5.

This film, directed by Sekiguchi Gen and starring Asano Tadanobu, Hashimoto Reika and Vinnie Jones, tells five different, distantly entwined stories, each with its own quirks and touching message.

The editing is sharp and does well to enhance the comic feel of certain scenes, and the mise-en-scène is choc-a-block with vivid colours and textures. The scene above is what got me in in the first place. I was blown away by the colour!

I didn't like the hitman's character so much. I thought his scenes were a little awkward and didn't quite work. Apart from his character, I loved all the other characters so much. They were all very well developed and I felt for each and every one of them. Especially one in particular, but I must not mention it in case you go and watch it! You'll know which one I mean. (ポっ、ポっ、ポっ）

Well, I really recommend you see this film. It is on par with タんポポ (Tampopo), and I will be re-watching it very soon!  Oh hell, here's a clip from Tampopo. (I have watched this film numerous times and never ever get bored with it!

A BIG THANK YOU!

Hello all, 

Before I continue blogging, I would like to send a special thank you to Katney & Mishka for helping me fix up my blog. I am so happy it is all back to normal now. 

☆ENGLISH UPDATE☆

This week I decided to take a different approach in regards to the way I study Japanese. 


I was reading a few blogs about study techniques, and one of the blogs asked me to question what is hindering my studies. I came to the conclusion that my lack of vocabulary is my biggest issue and it is really interfering with my Japanese language study. In fact, I am a little upset I didn't come to this realisation much earlier. I had thought about my lack of vocabulary and tried to build it up a little, but I didn't realise how serious an issue it really was, and therefore I tended to move on to other areas of study.


So, how exactly does a lack of vocabulary hinder ones learning? Well, a lack of vocabulary means:

• when you are trying to write, you have to look up lots of words,
• when you are trying to read, you have to look up lots of words,
• when you are trying to speak, you stumble and can't express yourself,
• and when you are listening, you are absolutely LOST. (oh, and depressed...)

You get the picture. 

Well, I kinda knew this ages ago, but you tend to forget the seriousness of having a weak vocabulary. It has now clicked just how important it is, and also how vital it is in order to actually be able to practice listening, reading, writing and speaking. To practice these, you need to know as many words as possible, because otherwise you feel like you don't know anything, and then the whole process of study becomes incredibly boring, daunting and depressing. (Hey, Deva! You mightn't be around for much longer! Muoahahaha!)

All the times I felt depressed about study was really due to my lack of vocabulary. All the times I opened my reading practice book, tried to read a passage and then closed it in frustration was ALL because I didn't have enough vocabulary to keep me going. 

Now, of course, for those who are learning Japanese out there, I'm not saying that you should stop focussing on reading, writing, listening or speaking practice. Not at all! After all, it is through this that you learn new vocabulary and set into concrete the words you have studied that you happen to come across while practicing your reading etc. By practicing your reading, writing and listening, you are seeing the words you have studied in use and in their correct environment (ie. with a certain verb combination etc).

So, what I plan to focus on is expanding my vocabulary as much as I can, so that when I do try and read or listen to Japanese, I don't get so overwhelmed by the words I don't know. By doing this, perhaps the 4 or 5 words of the sentence that I don't understand will turn into a 2 or 3. That could mean a big difference from having no idea whatsoever about the meaning of the sentence, to having an idea of the context and being able to fill in the blanks! 

Ah I feel much better now, so on that note, I will leave and study vocab! 皆、がんばってね！

To vlog or not to vlog, that is the question!

I've recently been wondering if I should start up my own vlog. Like, everybody's doing it, hello?? The trouble is, I have several concerns regarding vlogging. It was hard enough starting up this blog last year!

So, here are my concerns:

1) I don't want people I know (of the flesh and bones kind) to see me on Youtube.


I would HATE it if my friends found out I was vlogging. I would feel embarrassed - no matter how unsuccessful or successful it was. I am quite private about my interests in some respects and to think they could be watching me would put me off completely and I wouldn't feel so free. I don't know if that makes sense, but this little "koalaleo" cyber profile I have created here is a much more confident version of myself. If people know I blogged or vlogged, I would become paranoid about what they would be thinking. Dahh... damn world. I did think about vlogging in costume. I could do that! It wouldn't be so nice in summer, but it might attract a lot of viewers! 

2) I don't know what I would vlog about.

I really can't think of what I would actually say. I could vlog exactly the same way that I blog on this site (I sometimes wonder if it's too unspecific to be interesting).



3) I don't think I am ready to try speaking Japanese on camera.

I could do as Mikaera and others have been doing, but I really think my Japanese needs more work. I can just imagine trying to talk about something and then having an hour of footage to edit with an end result that only goes for like 2 minutes. I do wonder if it would do my Japanese some good. Perhaps chatting away on camera might fight off my nerves about speaking foreign languages in front of others. I might gain some confidence! 


Well, there you have it. What is your opinion! Should Ryou vlog or not? :)

新しい好きな曲を見つけた

サカナクションが好きで、今日は新しいサカナクションの曲を見つけた！この曲の名前は「ミュージック」と呼んだと思てて、絶対知らないんだ。どうぞビデオを見てね。：）

皆さんはサカナクションを好きだったら、「夜の踊り子」も見つけてみてね。：）昔日と今日のミックスのはすっごく好きだ。このミックスは、日本の現代美術によくあるよ。僕はこのテーマがとても面白いと思う。日本の現代美術のアーチストはよく昔日を現在の芸術品に組み込んでみると思う。日本人のため、昔日は特別だそうだと思う。昔日の接続を維持することは現在にとても大切な事だ。

僕のブログを読んでいる日本人は、この考えどう考えるの？どうぞコメントを書いて、レスポンスしてね。

☆ENGLISH UPDATE☆

In order to practice my katakana, I decided to look up some Japanese fast food websites. Naturally all of the menus were chockablock with katakana words! If you need some practice, I strongly recommend checking some out, and I'll post some Japanese fast food websites at the bottom of this post. 

My reason for this post is to do with Japanese sound symbolism / onomatopoeia words. Several of the menu items had a sound word in either its title or description, and I suddenly realised I simply must study some before I (if I... fingers crossed) go to Japan this year.

Thinking about it, I only know sound words related to food - and even then, they don't seem to appear in the dictionary or on any of the lists I have found.

- コロコロ (which one of my friends taught me when I ordered takoyaki for the first time in my life, and WHAT a day that was. A day that changed my life and my after-uni / after-cityday snack for the next 8 years!)

- しゃぶしゃぶ (the sound of the meat being swished around and cooked in the hot pot).

So, as I said a second ago I have found a list of words and I have also found a whole side of Japanese linguistics that I hadn't really come across before. (Thank you wikipedia). I have just discovered the following:


Giseigo 擬声語 / Giongo 擬音語 - words mimicking sounds made by living things (giseigo), and words mimicking sounds made by non-living things (giongo). 

Gitaigo 擬態語 - words mimicking non-auditory senses.

Gijougo 議場後 - words describing physical or psychological states. 


On the fast food sites, I came across フワフワ for to express 'light / fluffy'. I also found さくさ, meaning 'crispy / crunchy'. After looking them up, I realised the value of knowing these words, whereas before I had disregarded them somewhat. 

If anyone has any advice on a good way of studying sound words, please let me know! XD

Ok, here's a list of fast food sites for those wanting to practice their katakana. 

1) ロッテリア (Lotteria)
2) ビアードパパ (Beard Papa)
3) ここフランス (CocoFrans)
4) モスバーガー (MosBurger)

晩ご飯

この日記を僕の友達に捧げる。僕は、この友達をもう合えないで、とても残念だよ。

今晩カレーチキンを作るつもりだ。このレシピは普通なカレーチキンじゃないけど、レユニオンから来たレシピだ。：）

作る前に、友達とコーヒーに飲みにいく。外はいい天気だから、嬉しい。レシピを作ったとき、写真を取るよ！：）

僕の作ったカレーチキン。

家で作り隊の場合、これはレユニオンからカレーチキンのレシピだ：

（フランス語が出来るなら、ここでクリックしてください）

材料　（４−６人分）

鶏肉　　　　１.５キロ
油　　　　　大さじ３
ニンニク　　２片
タマネギ　　２個
生姜　　　　少し
タイム　　　１枝
ウコン　　　２つまみ
トマト　　　３個
塩　　　　　あなたの好みに


作り方

鶏肉を切って、黄金色になるまで熱い油に焼く。その鍋にタマネギと生姜とニンニクを足す。その後、タイムとウコンとみじん切りのトマトを足す。塩もあなたの好みに足す。水を２カップを足して、それに１５−２０分煮る。ご飯と盛る。いただきます！

作ったレシピのサイトから写真

このレシピは「Cuisine Réunionaise」から来ます。この皿が好きだったら、もっと美味しいレシピのために、そのサイトを行ってくださいね！

英語の弁当/English Bento Box: 新卒一括採用 (job hunting in Japan)

英語の弁当/English Bento Box: 新卒一括採用 (job hunting in Japan): I've often pondered the fact that the day after high school graduation occurs, the graduates all dye and style their hair in the funkies...

可愛いビデオ

この可愛いビデオを見つけたばかりだ。：）その食べ物はアニメの食べ物にとって、すっごく美味しそうだな！

それも分かりやすい日本語だね！

マイボスマイヒーロー

マイボスマイヒーローを見て終わったばかりだ。涙！　涙！　涙！最後のエピソードの中にずっと泣いてる。：）涼は、悲しいとか幸せな映画とビデオを見ながら、普通にしくしく泣いて、しかしこの番組は泣かなそうだと思ってた。でも僕、間違ったよね！

皆さんがこの番組を見なかったの場合、それを見てね！昔は友達がこの番組をおすすめした。それを遂に見たのは、嬉しい！：）ストーリーは面白くて、キャラ（登場人物？）は愛くるしいだ。僕の一番好きなキャラは「桜なんとか」だ。：）あ、「カズ」も好きだ！：）

このドラマの後で、「桜蘭高校ホスト部」を見るよ！大学生のとき、「桜蘭高校ホスト部」の漫画を少し読んだけど、漫画を読むのはあまり好きじゃないんだ。（ごめんね！）

僕の週

皆さん、久しぶりだね！ごめんけど、最近時間がなかった。Lang-8をする事もしなかった！すごっく良くないね！

とにかく、今週のニューズについて書くよ。仕事に関して、レストランはとても空だので、仕事はなかった！お金のために良くない。来週は涼は少し貧乏になるだろう！僕の興味のために、働きないのはとてもいいだ！勉強時間はたくさんあるだろう！

あ！僕の故郷には、友達とDIY虹をした。横断歩道を虹の色に彩った！シドニーは世界の中に同性愛者の首都だから、ゲイ・アンド・レズビアン・マルディ・グラのために通りの主たるの横断歩道は虹色で彩った。横断歩道を彩るためはたくさんお金がかかりた。二週間に虹を消すために、市議会はもっとお金を使った。シドニー人は市議会をなぜ虹を消したと聞いた。当たり前に、雨は虹を消そう。消すのことは$30,000（３，０４０，０００Ｙ）をかかりた！市議会は「虹の横断歩道は危ない」だと言いた。

そのあとで、市議会にお返事をするために、たくさん人は、通りにチョークで虹を彩った！：）他の国も虹を通りにチョークで彩った。

・DIY虹の横断歩道についてもっと読みたい場合、クリックしてください！ 
・FacebookでDIY虹のページもあるよ！


他のニィーズに関して、僕の新しい語彙リストはとても面白いだ！社会事業の語彙のリストだので、とっても習いたい！この日記にもそのリストから語彙を使ったよ。「同性愛者！」すごいだね１僕の語彙のリストの中に：嫌悪犯罪、人種差別、恐怖、平和主義。リストは悲しい単語しかないよ！：P

まあ、真夜中だので、ベッドに行けばいいね！読んだのはありがとう！

☆ENGLISH UPDATE☆

I just found these two really cool blogs - one by a girl who did an exchange program to Germany and Japan another vlog about Korean culture etc. 

Firstly the one about korean culture is called Sweet and Tasty. It is really well done and all by one person taking on different comical characters. My favourite is the aegyo girl and 'Taekwondo'. It talks about various aspects of Korean culture, as well as giving a few lessons on the Korean language and about particular words often mentioned in the Kpop scene. If you haven't heard of them yet, you should check out Simon & Martina from Eat Your Kimchi. They also vlog about Korean culture and Kpop, and I absolutely love their stuff.

The second blog I found yesterday is by Vy and called I think in comics. I was particularly interested in the one from Vy's travels in Germany and Japan. I am not so into comics and manga, but found Vy's comics very entertaining and fun to read. My, it must have taken her so much time to draw all those up!

Finally, I had a proper look at tofugu - a Japanese language and culture blog in English. If you're interested in learning Japanese, I had a brief look at their language course intro and it looked really good. One thing that really got me interested was their kanji learning strategy which involves learning kanji from the radicals rather than learning kanji the way most textbooks deliver them which is comparable to the way Japanese students learn kanji at schools. It also encourages the student to focus not so much on being able to write the kanji, but rather being able to recognise them. When I was learning at university, I spent hours and hours writing and re-writing kanji in order to memorise them. I was able to memorise the beginner and intermediate kanji lists, but it only took one year for me to forget about 50% of what I had learned. All that time re-writing them could have been put to better use. ACTUALLY, come to think of it, I DID need to know how to write it as we had dictation tests! Ergh, so if you aren't studying Japanese at university, perhaps try focusing on recognising the kanji rather than being able to write them. After all, everyone uses Japanese text input. The time you save can be put towards flashcards! So, if you are in need of a japanese learning resource, try textfugu. 

Oh, and in case you want to study hiragana and katakana, here is a good resource I found from the textfugu site: realkana.

My heavens, that makes two english updates in two days! How awful. I must write in Japanese next time!

☆ENGLISH UPDATE☆

Well, it has been about a week or two since I've posted anything on the blog. Deva has really been on my mind and I haven't been to inspired to study. In case you are new to this and don't know who Deva is, you should click on his name. Perhaps Deva visits you from time to time as well! 

I have been doing some study, however. I was watching My Boss My Hero and came across some words that I thought were quite useful so I wrote them down. A moment later, my mind was coming up with tonnes of useful words that I could add to the list. So, I have this wonderful list of words that I have been trying to learn. It isn't too lengthy a list, but I think I might be able to learn them quite easily as they are words that I find really interesting. (My heavens, Deva is making me doubt my sentences in English... no wonder I get down about studying Japanese!)

So, I've almost finished my bag of marshmallows (WHITE ones only), and feel slightly ill. Why do I do this to myself......

Anyway, I will study my list, and with help from Anki! I have had Anki on my computer for a while but haven't got on with it so well. I find the interface a little bland and uninspiring. Nevertheless, I will try to use Anki with my list. 

Ohhh I feel ill. Note to self: try NOT to eat 125g of marshmallows in the space of 10 minutes. 


I don't really know what else to say. I'll report back when I've learnt the list of words. I might even try to use them in a post! 

Speaking of posts, I have disappointed myself. I had planned a few months ago to research something from Japanese culture and then write about it here. Unfortunately I haven't been focused enough, nor had enough time, so I might come back to that project in a month or so. :) 

語彙問題

今晩のマイボスマイヒロのエピソードを見ながら、新しくて便利な言葉を習った。その実、今晩のエピソードは僕に新しい勉強方法を教えた。その方法で一番便利と良く使う言葉のリスとを作って、勉強します。 最近は小さい語彙があるので、日記を書く事と、日本語で話してみることは難しい。だから、あきらめる。面白くて便利な言葉のリストを作れば、その問題は全然再発しない。

デバは僕の側にもういない！

日本語の勉強を一生懸命頑張るよ！