Every little thing in my ordinary life 53

A volunteer interpreter in summer
I just attended a farewell party and a preparation for an exchange program as an interpreter. The former is the one for Bhutanese high school students and the latter is the one for Japanese elementary school students. I’ll post articles later in which I write about them in detail.

Which place do you want?
My friend just asked me to take a trip for the Philippines. Other friend also offered me a short stay in England. I have something to do in Hokkaido. Hmmm, which place do you want to go?

The shop around the corner just opened
I already have such a page in Japanese, though, I decided to have another one in English. The name of the site is The Shop Around the Corner. You have a good taste if you have ever heard of this name before. It is named after the bookstore in the movie: You’ve Got Mail. I hope I will post many articles in the page. Now I just uploaded only one article, though.

I must upgrade my computer so that I play this game
Please take a look at the two footages.

Tomb Raider, you might know the name as the titles of the movies. Angelina Jolie acted in the movies as Lara Croft. Actually, Tomb Raider is a popular series of games, and the movies were created from the games.

I would like you to watch this footage.

Zombie game again!

Hmmm, as I said, my computer is already outdated. I think I should buy a new one or upgrade my computer in order to play these games.

Raw fish? No, sashimis of jellyfish and horse

Have you ever tasted sashimis(raw fish) before? Now that you can see the word ‘sashimi’ in English dictionaries. My Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary says ‘sashimi’ is a Japanese dish consisting of slices of raw fish, served with sauce. The geographic location surrounded by the ocean enables us to develop our seafood cultures. Hmm, you’ve already tried sashimis. Okay, how about this, then? Sashimi of jellyfish.

I met this strange dish by chance when I dropped by a tavern with my friend. The words ‘sashimi of jellyfish’ on the menu just drew my attention. Here, it is.

Actually, it’s difficult to describe the taste of this dish. I would like you to imagine and enjoy the texture rather than the taste. Let me search for an adequate expression about the texture from my limited vocabulary. How does it sound: crunchy?

Only a few kinds of jellyfish are used as sashimis: bizen jellyfish and echizen jellyfish. As I said, you can’t expect the taste too much from this cuisine; however, it is said that this cuisine is hearty as a Chinese medicine.

In contrast, I would like you to enjoy the taste rather than the texture: sashimis of horse. We call it basashi.

There is an anecdote regarding basashi. It is believed that samurai warriors fighting at Korean Peninsula in 1592-1598 were forced to eat horses due to the lack of food. After the war, the samurai warriors brought the custom back to Japan and spread it from Kumamoto prefecture: the hometown of the high-ranked samurai warrior at the war, Kiyomasa Kato.

The taste of basashi is different on parts of horse. You can enjoy basashi with soy sauce, sliced leeks, etc.

Knowing subjects, the secret to polish our English

We, Japanese who have been learning English, often forget to add a letter ‘s'(or -es) to verbs when the subjects are third-person singulars.

I just had a dream one day in which I was thinking why we often forget to add them and how we reduce such a mistake. I thought in my dream that we have to pay attention to subjects of English sentences more than those of Japanese sentences.

As you know, you often omit subjects when you speak/write Japanese. Additionally, we don’t care the number of the subjects that you refer to while speaking/writing Japanese;It doesn’t matter whether or not the subject is singular. I guess such a characteristic of Japanese doesn’t give us a chance to develop our sense that cares about verbs.

I used to play FPS games with my friends, and my friends used to report an enemy/enemies through Skype like this, ‘teki hakken! when we were under clan wars. It might have literally mean, ‘I got enemy!(no articles)’, but you didn’t at least know how many enemies the friend had encountered. If the friend had encounters multiple enemies, we would have helped him. If not so, we would not have needed to do it. We had to make sure how many enemies he got after his words. It gave our enemies enough time to attack us. The leader of our clan often suggested that we reported the specific number of the enemies clearly.

Omitting subjects when you speak/write Japanese is also to help us make awkward sentences in English. I don’t know why, but almost conversations in Japanese go well without any problems, except when the speakers/writers are fighting with each other. Maybe, Japanese don’t want to show who(or what) has responsibilities for the actions which are indicated in the sentences. We sometimes become confused when we don’t know who is the subject or who is taking the action during conversations. Let me show an example. I don’t know if I will be able to demonstrate a Japanese conversation in English properly.

A: Hey, you have to hear this. My mother just bought computer.(We don’t need to make sure if the mother bought one computer.)
B: Wow, that’s great.
A: — is not good at computing. (B has to guess the subject is A’s mother.)
B: But — will learn it soon, right?(A has to perceive A’s mother is the subject.)
A: Yeah, but — think — should help her.(B has to guess the subjects are A.)

Hmm, I don’t think it’s a good sample. Anyway, you have to pay attention to subjects while speaking/writing in English; you have to bear in mind who the subjects are or what the subjects are. You will be able to polish your sentences with such an idea like holistic medicines.

Every little thing in my ordinary life 52

Been a long time
Hello, readers. It’s been a long time. I hope you still remember me, visit this blog for a change, and read this post. I didn’t feel like writing any articles here because something annoying happened, especially in my private matters. I’m still busy, though, I just wanted to say I’m fine to you.

A personal note
You might have been dissapointed in me not joining in one activity that you recommend: the one about English writing. I’m not in the mood. That’s all. There’s no other reasons. Don’t make the topic complicated. It’s not the one regarding ‘respect’ or so.

game game game
I’ve been saying I’m busy. My old friend, however, asked me to join the clan he belongs, which is a group of players of an online game. I was so glad to see him online again, but his words ‘I want you to join in our clan’ made me wonder. I haven’t been onlinye and played the game for two years. It means that I have already become a noob(someone might say I’ve been a noob since I started playing the game. I saw someone leaving their comments saying ‘weak’ on my YouTube channel lol).

Yes. I was right. I was surprised at my damn play. I didn’t know what was going on my mates fighting in different spots(I used to be at least able to make sure what was happening to my mates and know what I had to do at the time). I totally forgot where I had to throw grenades(I used to be able to aim enemies in the distance with grenades who planting a bomb). Most snipers on the game shot me in the head(Except great snipers, I was able to manage such snipers with my AK. I was good at tap shooting.)

Oh, god.

By the way, I’ve been thinking that I record my play of games and upload it with my voice(in English) on Facebook(not YouTube). My computer needs updating, though.

Useless to translate from Japanese into English
Some English learners in Japan say they need to learn English writing by translating what they are trying to say from Japanese into English quickly. I don’t think so. You might not be able to throw away Japanese senses from your English as long as you think in Japanese while speaking/writing in English. I just had a funny dream relating to the topic. Let me show you it. Hmm, maybe I should have written it in another article.

Someone said to me in my dream after she finished taking a bath, ‘yoi ohuro deshita.’ Yoi ohuro deshita literally means ‘it was a good(luxury, great, nice, etc.-shaped) bathtub.’ She didn’t mean to say like that. She was supposed to say, ‘I felt relaxed taking a bath. I had a comfortable time there.’ In my dream, however, she said to me in English, ‘it was a good bath.’ Did the appearance of the bathtub in my dream attract her so much? I was laughing at what she was saying in my dream.

By the way, sometimes Japanese say when they take a bath before others do, ‘saki ni ohuro itadakimasu.’ It literally means, ‘I’ll obtain the bath first.’ The phrase itadakimasu might remind you of the one when you start eating. It can be used when you take a bath before someone else does, especially for the elderly.

saki ni ohuro itadakimasu and yoi ohuro deshita, I think you should remember them and use them effectively when you visit someone in Japan.

Wait a minute, was I the one who had the dream. I was the one who produced such a funny English in my dream, not her. lol