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。

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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!