5 posts tagged “japanese”
Early mid April and the snow is falling outside... if it was rain you would call it drizzle but for snow I'm not sure what to call it.
It is Saturday morning and I have completed my first week back at school. And let me just say at the top of this entry if any of my readers are considering learning Japanese, the school I attend is NOT the place to do it. My list of complaints and grievances with this place are many, not least of which is overcrowded classes... my class currently has 22 students attending a level or 2 above me has 25??? Not to mention the ridiculously tight schedule and uncompromising way of learning a language.
As a language teacher myself I have some idea what works and what doesn't. This school does not work. And it is not just me, other students are pissed off too, but no one seems to say anything... I don't know why. I had a 3 hour meeting with the boss a couple of months ago.. and nothing was achieved... (well actually for the briefest moment it was.. but things go back to normal). I could continue my rant but I really don't want to.. (at least in this forum). My last word here for the moment is that some of the teachers are wonderful... but for the commencement of the new academic year I have lost my favourite.
The snow has gotten heavier....
I am about to start using the family and friends feature here to keep some of my entries private. If you are part of my family and friends and would like to read beyond the public, please join vox and join my neighbourhood, I can then authorise you to read beyond the public pages.
I just struck gold. Pure Gold!!!!
well ok it is software... and it is good... very very very good!!
I heard about it on the last episode of the Maccast and it is called iFlash.
I downloaded the demo and 10 minutes later I went back and paid the guy.
Basically it is just flash card software for your computer. But it is done right.
Cards can be multisided, coloured, tagged with images and audio input. It really is a wonderful application.
I have created the katakana database (all the katakana from みんなの日本語), and I'm now working on other vocab.
I wish I had found this app earlier.. I have so much data to enter... at least I'm learning on the way.
Putting in the verb conjugations is going to be a bitch, and I'm trying to work out the best way to do the Kanji. Each individual kanji with on and kun readings on the back? Whole words?
If you have any ideas on how to set up the kanji I would be interested to hear them
If you are learning something and need flash cards and use a Mac then I can't recommend this app enough.
this is just a recommendation I have no financial or vested interest in it.
・オーストラリアではバーベキューのとき、お酒「ビールやワイン」を持って来るようにしてください。
・サラダだけを食べないようにしてください。
・ブーレの中に小便をしないようにしてください。
(^-^)/
What's the weirdest thing you've ever eaten?
Submitted by Megan.
Without question it was 3-4 years ago I went to a Japanese seafood restaurant where I knew the waitress.
She served me up some very delicious dishes... but one of them was a whole fish... with instructions that I had to eat the eyeball.
I was repulsed by the very idea, but all the waitresses gathered around and dared me to... it was my challenge. So with 4 young attractive Japanese girls egging you on... what's a man going to do...
he is going to eat the bloody eyeball!
However the bigger challenge was picking this slippary sucker up with the chopsticks. My chopstick skills are good... but picking up this bloody eyeball was a bitch... and so I struggled to much of the amusement of the girls to get this eyeball on the sticks to my mouth.
Finally I succeeded. And I ate the slimey gooey eyeball. The "pop" was a bit unexpected, but the taste.. well it tasted like the sauce. So ultimately the event was in the idea of eating it... not the eating itself.
Smooth jazz plays filling the small restaurant with late night New Orleans ambiance.
Haroya is a small Japanese traditional style meal restaurant. With big rich dark wooden seats and tables, a rather large counter, it has a very old world style about it... but without old world discomfort.
The ambiance may be New Orleans but the place most certainly is not. The four waitresses busy themselves serving the handful of customers home made like meals. Which are delicious. They are presented immaculately with each part of the meal having its own plate or bowl.
Tonight I order the Mackeral Set (it sounds better in Japanese - さば定食 saba teisyoku). I will have to be honest and admit to not knowing everything that I'm eating. Rice and the mackerel, some tofu, miso soup and a small assortment of some vegetables that I'm not fully familiar with, there is also a small bowl of seaweed.
I make small conversation with the waitress behind the counter, whose name if I recall is Mami. My Japanese is limited so we are stuck to discussing where I'm from the weather in Australia and the oncoming winter in Sapporo. (As I write this the various weather websites I visit report tempratures ranging from -2° to 4°, what ever it is... one thing is for sure... it is cold outside).
As the meal is finished a steaming hot glass of tea is served but the guy sitting next to me orders some coffee, the smell of freshly ground coffee overwhelms me and I order a cup too. It is at this time I feel as though I should retreat to the back of the restaurant with some friends, some cigerettes (which is weird because I don't smoke), a bottle of port and more coffee and engage with each other in some philosopical conversation on the meaning of whatever...
But for now, I will have to settle for
Oh that is depressing... it is not until I turn it into English I realise how limited my Japanese is... and then I think about what I said... and how grammatically broken it is..."It's cold outside"
"yes it is, last week it was hot in Sydney, my friend said it was 40° at his home"
"really... that is hot!
"yes it is!"
Time to do some homework.
