Our Visas say we’re English teachers but we’re not; not really. He’s an engineer. She’s a photographer. Him over there? He’s having a little adventure before he starts med school. Yet we’re parsing the sentences. We’re highlighting the difference between “l” and “r.” We’re wearing the suits, cracking the textbooks, bribing children into behaving by […]
Japanese
Your 105-Word Mini Japanese Culture Lesson
The Japanese use thousands of Chinese characters called kanji in their writing. Kanji are used to denote nouns, adjectives, and even verb stems. They range from the ultra simple character for one (—) to characters that have so many strokes they look like smudges on the page. Proper stroke order is essential to achieve the correct balance when […]
Your 183-Word Mini Japanese Culture Lesson
Britain isn’t the only nation to enjoy flavors of the month; Japanese chain restaurants, too, are extremely fond of offering “limited time only” menu selections in honor of the new month or the new season. Colorful posters bearing the images of the offering will be splashed across the restaurant’s windows from the first of the […]
Your 97-Word Mini Japanese Culture Lesson
A small assortment of random Japanese onomatopoeias, for you: The dog says: wanwan The cat says: nyaonyao The baby chick says: piyopiyo The rooster says: kokekokko The gleaming, sparkling object says: pikapika The knock on the door says: tonton The door bell says: pinpon! The crunchy snack says: sakusaku The empty stomach says: pekopeko The […]
To the Side
Miho always comes to class ready to get her sass on. Today she arrived slightly late and extra sassy, her ramped up feistiness announced first by her sideways dimpled smirk and then by her fierce side ponytail. The three other girls were also late to class, so only Miho, Aya and myself were in the […]
Your 30-Word Mini Japanese Culture Lesson
In the Japanese version of Disney’s “The Little Mermaid”, the lyrics for “Under the Sea” include “Subarashii* … unda da shi ….” and Ursula refers to Prince Eric as “Hansamu Man.” *fantastic!
Your 65-Word Mini Japanese Culture Lesson
In many Western countries, when a person wants to signify themselves they point to their chest. In some cases, they point to their face, with their index finger held several inches away. The Japanese version of this self-signification? Touching their nose with their index finger. This is why every time I quiz my students on […]
Honey
A conversation between myself and a neighborhood man this drizzly afternoon, as we rode our bicycles past the honey store on the corner of my block and he saw me whispering to the blue-eyed cat that sat in the store window, surrounded by colorful jars of golden honey with hand-printed labels: Him: Are you looking […]
Support
It’s JLPT season again and the 500 yen application forms are being sold at bookstores across Japan. Sean kindly brought home two this week – one for him and one for me. He sent his off the other day but mine is still on the table; unopened, untouched. When I passed the Level 4 exam […]
From Heart
To you from me – the babelfish translation of the Japanese “Information” e-mail I just received from the hair salon I patronize: Always, it came and the store thank you heat more and more became harsh, but how you probably will pass? Truly the selfishness, August you make 4 and 5 days suspending business. Furthermore, […]