Sunday, November 15, 2009 

Burton's method

Sir Richard Francis Burton was a lot of things. He was an explorer, writer, soldier, orientalist, ethnologist, poet, hypnotist, fencer and diplomat. Most importantly, he was a translator and linguist who spoke 29 languages of European, Asian, and African varieties.


Victory Manual (somewhat) recently discussed the method that Burton used in learning languages. I think it's an excellent method and recommend that those interested in picking up any language at least glance over it.

Labels:

Thursday, November 12, 2009 

勉強より囲碁

たった今、湘南ビーチラジオをインターネットで聞きながらマクロ経済の宿題をやり終わったところだ。よく集中できなかったけど。経済の授業は最初はOKだったけれど、今となってはつまらなくなったし、勉強をするそばからいろいろ忘れてしまうから、勉強する気にはなりにくいんだな。

今学期の後、一ヶ月か・・・

宿題の一休みで久しぶりにNHKの『囲碁時間』の対局をYouTubeで見てて、とてもなつかしくなった。毎週の日曜日、見ていたものだから。それに、囲碁ライバルの李と囲碁の対局もしてたんだね。たまにソフトでやるけど、やっぱり下手になってる・・・。

Labels:

Tuesday, November 10, 2009 

Read The Kanji

I'm conducting my kanji studies from a list of kanji and definitions from a set derived from a book called Read The Kanji (RTK) by someone named Heisig. I've never really liked the way RTK works, though, because it uses one-word definitions for each kanji. To be fair, RTK is tailored for beginners and it does this, I believe, to make them easier to remember, to not complicate things. As I study, I generally check the definitions of the new kanji that I came across in Koujien (広辞苑), 大辞泉 at Yahoo!, or WWWJDIC, which usually clears this up pretty well.

For some kanji, the single-word-definition approach pretty much works fine, but for others, it's severely lacking. The one that I just came across, and that inspired this post that I really shouldn't be taking the time to write, is 裁 = tailor. Well, yeah, it does have that meaning too, but I feel pretty confident that it's more often used (or at least used about as often) with the meaning of judging, such as at a trial (e.g., 裁く, 裁定). (See 大辞泉) In a case like this, I believe that both meanings should be made clear to the learner.

This, again, is why I like to try to use tools intended for Japanese people, using English tools as auxiliary too. They don't skimp on the definitions at all and you don't rely—or at least rely less—on translations.

Note: I am not referring to the great website Read The Kanji, which I wholeheartedly recommend. It's a totally separate tool for sharpening your kanji skills and I'm not using it nearly enough. (Shoot ... I logged in and just barely got the first one, 騒音, right. The meaning was obvious but the reading almost—almost—escaped me.)

Update: I've noticed that the words that Read the Kanji use might be the same as the first term in WWWJDIC's kanji dictionary. That's odd. Now I'm not sure if this means that WWWJDIC's dictionary is partly inspired by RTK, or if perhaps this list is not from RTK. Whatever the case, the one-word approach remains insufficient.

Labels:

Saturday, November 07, 2009 

おひとりさま

At a friend's recommendation, I'm watching the pilot episode of the currently-airing drama おひとりさま (o-hitori-sama). I'm only a few minutes in, but I have to say that it seems that that stop-motion style of opening is just all the rage these days.

【ジョンの英語のヒントのコーナー】 All the rageというのは「非常に流行ってる」の砕けた言い方ですよ。

Labels: ,

Wednesday, November 04, 2009 

忙しい日々


今、経理の授業中だ。経理の仕事をしようと
決める人の気持ちが僕は全くわからない。

僕は最近、仕事やら試験の勉強やらで
かなり切羽詰っている。
仕事は、何百万ドルの契約を
まとめようとしている上司の手伝いを
しているので、特に今週が忙しい。
でも、力を合わせてまとめられたら
とてもいいボーナスをゲットする。

じゃ、これからはマクロ経済の授業だ。

Labels: ,

Tuesday, November 03, 2009 

Dir en Grey in Houston

Apparently, Dir en Grey performed in Houston last night. That might have been an interesting outing. Not sure I'd want to join the type of crowd likely to be such an event, but had I known about this, perhaps I'd have checked it out. Apparently groups named Shonen Knife and MELT-BANANA will be in Houston later this month. Houston sure is popular with Japanese bands this month. When are Toshinobu Kubota, MISIA, or Kohmi Hirose coming out this way? Or how about some 歌謡曲 singers? Yeah, likely.

That's okay—I got to see Hyde in while in Nara with Mikawa Ossan back in 2006. Yeah. (Wow. I remember when my life was interesting enough that I could write posts that long about what I did that day.) By the way, Mikawa Ossan is alive and well and back in the U.S. Sure do miss hanging out with him. Those, truly, were the days, I'll tell ya what.

Labels:

 

カラオケ!そして、Houstonで回転寿司?!


先週の日曜日は(ちょっと)久しぶりのカラオケ。
今回一緒に歌ってくれたのは、BlueSkyさんと
最近、日本から来た日本人の大学院生さん。
お二人ともカラオケ好きだけど、
特に彼女は非常に大好きだそうだ。
ならば仲良くなりそう!〈笑〉

カラオケは相変わらず楽しかったよ!
お二人の歌声がすごくきれいで、歌唱力に関して
僕はまったく歯が立たないけどね。
だから、いい勉強になった!
(実は、僕はいつも歌う曲は自分の声に合わない気が・・・)
また今度、ついてもらって行きたいと思っている。
最近は全然やらないから、腕がみがきたい。

カラオケの後、Choo Choo Moving Sushi Barという
回転寿司屋で、僕のアメリカの友達と一緒に食事した。
(まさかヒューストンに回転寿司屋があるなんて全然、知らなかったよ。
日本語の授業のクラスメートから教えてもらったら、ショック。)

回転寿司といえば僕はやっぱり岡崎の河童寿司を連想するんだけど、
比べればChoo Chooのほうはインテリアがきれいだね。
(ごめん、写真なしで。)

食事の後、レストランのナプキンで折り紙もしてもらった。



すごいツルだね。ナプキンでできるなんて思わなかった・・・。
(その時、「二羽の庭」というくだらないダジャレを言ったのは、反省してます。)
が、この僕には、折り紙ができないと思ってるなら大間違いだよ。


ニモが見つかりましたよ。
(へたくそ・・・)

Labels: ,

Wednesday, October 28, 2009 

Jammin' on the way home

An unexpected side effect of being able to listen to my iPod Classic in my car is that I'm listening to music a bit less outside of the car. That's partly because listening in my car is really enjoyable. My sound system isn't fantastic but it's quite good, I think. I don't even mind traffic jams anymore! :-p

Anyway, my ride home today was quite enjoyable thanks to the songs that popped up on shuffle. For no real reason, here's what I listened to on the way home:

かわいいひと by ウルフルズ
ラーメン大好き小池さんの唄 by シャ乱Q
"I Found You" by Samantha James ft Celso Fonseca
"All Night Long (All Night)" by Lionel Richie
"In Step" by Girl Talk

I linked to the videos (what the heck, シャ乱Q?), but these are all no less three times as good in my car, I assure you. It's a vehicular world of soothing aural inundation the likes of which you have never experienced!

So, I'm in the midst of some serious studying right now and will be for the next week. It's clutch time!

これから一週間、たいへんな経理の勉強に専念しなくちゃ!

Labels: ,

Sunday, October 25, 2009 

能楽の紹介ビデオ

YAMASAでお世話になったある先生は、
日本の能に興味津々です。
(大学時代からやっていると言っている。)
昨日、あの先生から「能と狂言をみてみよう
というビデオを紹介してもらった。
どうやら僕にわかりにくい内容のようだけど、
いちど見てみたいと思っている。
(先生がやっている演能が一番みたいなぁ!)

Labels:

Wednesday, October 21, 2009 

KINGYO

KINGYOという、この新しい映画が面白そうだと思います。



チャンスがあったら見たいなぁ。こういうのが好きなんで。

Labels: ,

Welcome! 自己紹介!

The name's Jonathan. I studied Japanese at The Yamasa Institute in Okazaki, Aichi in Japan for two years until March 2008, when I returned to Houston, Texas in the USA. This blog is written in English and in Japanese, essentially according to my mood. I am also infatuated with typos and strive to incorporate them in all of my work.

はじめまして。米国人のジョンです。 2006年4月上旬、初めてアメリカを出国し、愛知県の岡崎市のYAMASA言語文化研究所で日本語を2年間勉強した。 2008年3月下旬、米国のテキサス州のヒューストン市に帰国。現在、再びの日本生活を思案して日本語習得を続けながら仕事と大学の両立で多忙中。 よろしくお願いします。

the写真machine (theSHASHINmachine)

Friend's Blogs

日本語 Resources

Elddonnemar's Art

Self Portrait
free counters
Since July 1, 2009
Thanks for ご愛読!