あけましておめでとうございます!

みなさん、あけましておめでとうございます！


ふゆやすみはどうでしたか？たのしかったですか、いそがしかったですか？どこへいきましたか？

にほんごのクラスまたもはじめますね。。。私はたくさん字をわすれました　;___________;||

ですから、ふくしゅう (review) をしています = p

みなさんはなにをしていますか？



えをわかりません。でも。。。looks very fitting for the start of a new semester ^^"

日本のテーブルのしゅうかん (Japanese Table Manners)

みんなさん、

これはおもしろいですね！Thought you guys might be interested in this ... no, I don't have a life ^^"

• Never place chopsticks stuck vertically into a bowl of food, as this is the traditional presentation form for an offering to one's ancestors.
• One should wait for the host or hostess to tell you to eat three times before eating.
• Accepted practice in helping oneself to a communal dish such as a salad, is to reverse the chopsticks. However this is regarded in an all male, or casual situation, as too formal and additionally, a female habit.
• Women should cup their other hand beneath their serving when using chopsticks when conveying food from dish/bowl to mouth. Men should not do this.
• In communal dining or drinking, the youngest person present should pour alcohol for the other members of the party, serving the most senior person first. The server should not pour their own drink, rather they should place the bottle of sake, beer, wine or spirits, back on the table or bar, and wait to be served by a senior. The receiver of the drink should hold up their glass/cup whilst the drink is being poured.
• One should always clean one's hands (but not face) before dining with the hot steamed towel provided.
• Japanese soup is eaten holding the bowl to one's mouth, never with a spoon. The exceptions to this are o-zoni, the traditional soup served on New Year's Day; soups with noodles are served in larger bowls, such as ramen, are acceptable to eat using chopsticks, although the soup itself is still consumed from bowl to mouth.
• If something might drip onto the table while being transferred in the chopsticks, use the bowl of rice in your other hand to catch the liquid. It is important to not allow this liquid to remain, and so the discolored portion of the rice must be eaten. Rice (in a bowl) should remain white if it was served as such.
• It is usually polite to finish all sections of a meal served at around the same time. It is suggested that one should take a bite from one container, and then take a bite of rice. One should then take a bite from another container, have another bite of rice, and so forth.
• It is perfectly acceptable, and rather encouraged to make a slurping noise when eating hot noodles such as udon, ramen or soba. This is standard behavior in Japan, and Japanese maintain that inhaling air when eating hot noodles improves the flavor. One should not, however make any noise when eating soup.
• When taking a break from eating during a meal, one should place one's chopsticks on the chopstick rest (hashi-oki) provided. A hashi-oki is usually a ceramic rectangle about four centimeters long, or in some restaurants, a halved wine cork is provided.
• It is acceptable to cradle one's rice bowl in one hand when eating.
• One should not gesture using chopsticks.
• Never pass food from one pair of chopsticks to another. This technique is used only in Japanese Buddhist funerary rites when transferring cremated bones into an urn.
• When pouring wine or beer, the hand holding the bottle should pour forward, not backward (over the back of the hand) which is considered an insult.
• In traditional restaurants, one needs to sit in seiza, on less formal occasions sitting is also done in tailors style (Indian style) or with 2 legs together on 1 side (females-only)
• There is no tipping in Japanese restaurants.

Sushi (esp. in a restaurant)

• It is acceptable to eat sushi with one's fingers, rather than chopsticks, if the dining situation is relatively casual (this also applies to dining out at a kaitenzushi restaurant).
• When possible, sushi pieces and sections of cut rolls should be eaten in a single bite, or held in the hand until finished; setting half a piece back down on the plate is considered rude.
• Nigiri sushi (fish on rice) and maki (rolls) may be eaten with the hands; sashimi (pieces of raw fish) should be eaten with chopsticks.
• When eating nigirizushi, pick up the piece with your index finger on top and your thumb and middle finger on the sides. Dip the fish side (neta)--not the rice side into the shoyu.
• If you like wasabi, add a small amount to your shoyu. Mixing large amounts of wasabi into your shoyu is considered rude, and an insult to the skills of the chef. If the chef believes the piece needs ridiculous amounts of wasabi, he will add it for you.
• Rubbing your chopsticks (ohashi) together is extremely rude, as it suggests that you believe the restaurant uses low quality chopsticks.
• The middle level in a sushi bar (the shelf where the sushi chef, or itamae, sets your food) is considered an interface between you and the chef. It's bad form to remove the geta (the wooden tray the chef sets the sushi on) from this level. Take the sushi, but not the tray.

(Courtesy of Wikipedia)

また、あした =)

二十年ごのわたし (Composition 3)

二十ねんごのわたしはおっととカナダのバンクーバーにいます。バンクーバーはとてもきれいなまちですから、すてきなところではたらきます。バンクーバーはたくさんはながありますから、わたしはいけばなをしたいです。（ちょっとロマンチックです）。わたしはちいさいうちがあります。へやはちょっとせまいですが、かわいいです。ハートフルなうちです。わたしはさっかですから、毎日ストーリーをかきます。えいごでしょうせつをかきたいです。どうして日本語でしょうせつをかきませんか。日本語がすこしだけわかりますから。かぞくはホリデイにわたしのうちへきます。ははやあになどきます。そして、ホリデイはいつもたのしいです。ひまなじにわたしはえをかきます。ひょっとするとひとりでおんがくをききます。ときどきおっととおいしいりょうりをします。それからいっしょにこうえんをさんぽします。わたしたちはおかねがあまりありません。でもゆかいなかっぷるです。

かたかな Analysis

As I have shown in the examples from my かたかな Analysis Draft, as a cursory rule, かたかな is used in three situations: loan words, onomatopoeic words, or emphasized words.  Moreover, I noted how this general rule fails to encompass many exceptions.  There are words that cannot definitely be categorized under any of these three broad categories, but are still written in かたかな; there are even words that don't fall into any of these categories, but are still written in かたかな.


Several of my classmates have pointed out interesting facts about かたかな that I did not notice when I wrote my draft.  For example, ペンさん noticed the aesthetic difference between ひらがな and かたかな, and hypothesized ( I think, very smartly) that, because of かたかな sharper edges, it is more suitable for print.


The comments from 四年生のがくせい I found particularly helpful.  ケイトさんとフリオさん explained that かたかな is often used to make something seem more modern or cool.  ジイさん shared her experience Japan, where she says that more than 50% of the words on a prescription are written in かたかな, even when they have corresponding かんじ.  As ジイさん explains, this is probably to make these prescriptions fool-proof; this way, people who are not very educated will still understand the prescriptions.  アナさん further added to ジイさん's comment by noting that even educated politicians have trouble reading かんじ at times.  This shows us that かたかな is not just used as a stand-in for かんじ for less educated people - educated people benefit from this as well.


Finally, both ジイさん  and アナさん raise interesting questions Japanese writing systems in general.  ジイさん talks about how sometimes a かんじ word would be written ひらがな, because it is hard to read otherwise; ジイさん also agreed with ケイトさんとフリオさん that sometimes a word is written in かたかな just to make it seem cooler.  ジイさん gives a very good example for this: "綺麗" is difficult to read, so may be written simply in ひらがな as "きれい." To make this cool, one can write this as "キレイ."  Meanwhile, アナさん remarked that this use of  ひらがな to write かんじ is much more common than the use of かたかな to write かんじ.


Once again, I have to conclude that there seems to be no sure way to account for all the uses of かたかな.  Nevertheless, I found the comments to my earlier post very helpful to helping me better understand the use of かたかな.  I hope you find them helpful too!

おんなの人とねこのストーリー

おんなの人がいます。

おんなの人のなまえはミシェールさんです。

ミシェールさんはとてもきれいです。でも、ミシェールさんはいつも一人です。

一人で朝ご飯を食べます。一人で昼ご飯を食べます。一人で晩ご飯をたべます。

一人でおはなみをします。一人でしゅくだいをします。一人でしゃしんをとります。

一人でびょういんへ行きます。一人でりょうこうをします。一人でかえります。

ある日、ミシェールさんはしろいとくろいねこにいっぴきあいます。しろいとくろいねこはミシェールさんのドアのまえにいます。

このねこはすこししずかですが、とてもカワイイです。このねこはミシェールさんとかえります。

ミシェールさんはねこをききますから、ねこのなまえは"ニャーニャー"です。ミシェールさんはこのねこがすきです。

そして、毎朝ニャーニャーとたまごをたべます。毎日ニャーニャーと昼ご飯を食べます。毎晩ニャーニャーとステーキとバニラアイスクリームをたべます。

いしょにおはなみをします。いしょにしゅくだいをしますが、ニャーニャーは日本語がぜんぜんわかりまえん　（ニャーニャーえだけをかきます）。いしょにたくさんしゃしんをとります。

いしょにびょういんへ行きますが、ニャーニャーはびょういんがちょっとキライです。いしょにベニスへいきますが、ニャーニャーはみずがぜんぜんすきじゃありません。そして、みずはあまりありませんから、いしょにラスベガスへいきます。それから、いしょにかえります。

ミシェールさんはげんきですね！ニャーニャーもげんきですよ = )

P.S.  The ねこ in the しゃしん is actually a ゆうめいな Youtube personality.  His name is まる.  Definitely check him out - he's とてもかわいいです ^^"

Composition 2

山田さん、おげんきですか。


山田さんの家族はどうですか。いま日本はあついですか、さむですか。


わたしはケリーです。はたちです。カナダからきましたが、いまうちはニューヨークです。あにといもうとがいます。あにはやさしいひとです。そしていもうとはきれいなひとです。


わたしはすこししずかです。おんがくがすきです。ジャズとミュージカルがすきです。たべものはとてもおいしいですから、たべものがすきです。わたしは日本りょうりがあまりとくいじゃありませんが、日本りょうりがすです。えが好きですが、わたしはとてもいそがしいです。じかんがありません。ときどきびじゅつかんへ行きます。びじゅつかんはたのしいところです。


コロンビアだいがくはわたしのだいがくです。わたしは三ねんせいですが、日本ごの一ねんせいです。日本ごのクラスのともだちはしんせつですから、日本ごのクラスはおもしろいです。コロンビアもおもしろいです。キャンパスはちいさいですが、にぎやかです。がくせいのせいかつはいそがしいですが、たのしいです。コロンビアはいいだいがくですが、たかいです。


いまニューヨークはとてもさむいです。


わたしはろく月よっか日本へ行きます。


これからおせわになります。どうぞよろしくおねがいします。　じゃまた！


１１月９日　　ケリー

かたかな Analysis Draft

Below are the かたかな examples that I found:

Sign that says "McDonald hamburger" in かたかな 

In this sign, かたかな is used to write the loan words, "McDonalds" and "hamburger."

A menu that has "Dessert" and its list of desserts written in かたかな

Again, the かたかな words used here represent loan words.

A ドラえもん comic strip that uses かたかな for sound effects

The かたかな words here are " ごくり ," which represents a gulping sound; and " ポイ ," which represents the sound of someone carelessly throwing something.  These かたかな  words are onomatopoeic.

A children's book with かたかな in its title

This is the cover of an アンパンマン storybook.  アンパンマン is a ゆうめい anime hero in children's stories.  His name comprises three parts: "あん," which means "red bean paste"; "パン," the Portuguese loaned word for "bread"; and finally "マン," the English loaned word for "man".  Basically... he's a man whose head is made of bread with red bean paste inside    (アンパンマンをたべます!  Hehe, jk =P).  Even though "あん" is a regular Japanese word that's usually written in ひらがな, it's probably written in かたかな here because the rest of アンパンマン's name is in かたかな, and this keeps things consistent.  This also makes アンパンマン seem more like a superhero, since other famous heroes names' are usually written in かたかな (i.e スーパーマン = superman).  "マーチ" is the loan word equivalent of "March," but I suspect the "マーチ" here is actually the ひらがな "まち," as in, "town."  If so, this would be a regular Japanese word written in かたかな for emphasis.

A ドラえもん scene with the words "rubber ball" in かたかな

This is super かわいいです！ドラえもん has hands which look like rubber balls, and his ともだち, のび太さん, always takes advantage of this when the two play "rock, paper, scissors".  Because of ドラえもん's rubber-ball hands, he invariably seems to put up "rock".  そうして  のび太さん always puts up "paper" - we know who wins XD.  ドラえもん frantically tries to explain that "rock, paper, scissors" just isn't a cool game for someone with rubber-ball hands.  In this case, "rubber ball" is written in  かたかな for emphasis.

 From these examples, I learned that かたかな is generally used to write loan words, onomatopoeic words, or emphasized words.  Nevertheless, each textbook explains かたかな usage differently.  This is probably because loan words, onomatopoeic words, and emphasized words can appear in myriads of situations.  

For instance, a loan word may appear in a sign, on a book cover, or as a brand name.  Onomatopoeic words can express naturally occurring sounds (eg, moo, meow, tick tock, etc.) or a manner (eg. squiggly).  Moreover, all sorts of words can be emphasized.  Because かたかな is used to cover so many different type of words, it would seem cursory for a textbook to simply divide its usage into "loan words, onomatopoeic words, and emphasized words."

An example where these three categories alone would not suffice is with many Japanese company names.  These are generally written in かたかな, but may not consist of loan words or onomatopoeic words.  Of course, we can say that a company wants to emphasize its name... but how can we know for sure that this かたかな usage is an emphasis?  As far as I can tell, we can't.  As a result, textbooks try to account for these subtleties to the best of their writers' abilities, and the end product is varying explanations of かたかな usage.

Fascinating, no?  Now if only I can figure out the fool-proof way of figuring all this out... ^^"