I'm working through the corrections to the previous entry, which means looking up the meanings of the various words and phrases that y'all have provided. While looking up Kiyo-san's suggestions for "finally", I came across the sample sentence below. I can hardly wait until I will finally be able to use it.

「息子もやっと一人前になった。」which the dictionary translates to "Our son has become independent at last."

日本語のクラスはきのうテストの後できょうかしょの「chapter 1] 「は｜が] さいごに始はした。
日本語のクラスはきのうテストの後できょうかしょの第一章やっと始まりました。

学期（がっき）のちゅうとでです。
さいしょにひらがなとかたかなを学びました。

今漢字を勉強します。
今から漢字の勉強を始めます。

そしてクラスメートがこうふんしたです。
そしてクラスメートがわくわくしています。

私はたくさん漢字の本があります。

でもむすこの本がいちばん大好きです。

彼は亀川小学校の五年生のときは本をもらいました。
彼は亀川小学校の五年生のときに本をもらいました。

本の名前は「漢字の森の散歩」（さんぽ）です。

じきに日本語のクラスメートは漢字の森でみちにまよった。
じきに日本語のクラスメートは漢字の森でみちにまようでしょう。

Generally Speaking

Yesterday, after our test, my Japanese class finally began Chapter 1 in our textbooks. We are halfway through the semester. Before we could "begin," we (first) had to learn hiragana and katakana.

Many of the students are excited because now we are starting to study kanji.

I have many books on kanji, but my favorite is one given to my son when he was in the fifth grade at Kamegawa Shougakkou. It's called "A Walk in the Kanji Forest".

I find it amusing to think that soon my whole class will be wandering lost in the kanji forest.

New Vocabulary

• chapter:
• semester: 学期　がっき　
• halfway through:「中途で（ちゅうとで）｜半分だけ（はんぶんだけ）｜不十分に（ふじゅうぶんに）」
• excited: こうふんした
• soon:「じきに｜まもなく」
• lose one's way: 迷う（まよう）

質問とコメント

1. I've decided to stop trying to use conjunctions and complicated sentence patterns I haven't studied yet and write the Japanese portion in the simple sentence patterns that we are studying in class. Who knows...I will probably become impatient with this strategy and change the format again next week. (In fact, I could hardly resist the temptation in this entry.)

2. I'm also putting each sentence on a separate line, so that I can enter the corrections in a format that should be easier to read.

3. Although the computer makes it easy to enter kanji, I only use kanji I already know. It's very interesting when y'all comment back in kanji, but most helpful when you put the reading in hiragana. This helps me look the word up in the dictionary.

4. Because I'm just learning Japanese, it takes me a couple of hours to put together these few sentences. Sometimes, I just want to communicate and not look up every other word. But then, you'd get entries like "Today, movie see. Very interesting. Restaurant go. Food good." (Maybe that's how it sounds to you anyway.)

5. In Texas, you sometimes hear the saying "I'm fixin' to" instead of "I'm going to". So, I might have translated "we're starting to study kanji" with

私の弟はラスベガスのご出身です。
私の弟はラスベガス住んでいます。
先週の金曜日にアーステインへ来ました。
金曜日の夜にメキシコ料理のレストランでばんごはんを食べました。
しょくじの後でおんがくかいを一緒に行きました。
土曜日に買い物へ行きました。
本とCDを買いました。
日曜日にとしょかんへ行きました。
月曜日にテキサス大学へ行きました。
弟さんはテキサス大学生でした。
月曜日の昼ごはんは日本りょうりを食べました。
後で日本の映画「千と千尋のかみかくし」をみました。
火曜日に弟さんラスベガスへかえりました。

Generally Speaking

My youngest brother is from Las Vegas. Last Friday, he came to Austin for a visit. Friday evening we all went out for dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Afterward, we went to a concert. On Saturday, we went shopping. We bought books and CDs. On Sunday, we went to the library. On Monday, we went to the University of Texas. My brother used to be a student at UT. For lunch on Monday, we had Japanese food. Then we went to see the Japanese movie "Spirited Away". On Tuesday, my brother returned to Las Vegas.

質問とコメント

1. I've decided to write each sentence on a separate line to make it easier to insert corrections.

2. Japanese class is moving along. I got into a small rut after the first big test. It's difficult to maintain the same level of interest all the time. Sometimes it seems we are going so slowly. But I know that my weakness is to gloss over the surface rather than truly learn things, so I must study harder until my recognition and responses are automatic.

きょうもいいお天気です。だから自転車にのりました。

オースティン市の中に川があります。コロラド川です。オースティン市の名前は「タウン　レーク」（町の湖）です。回りにきれいな公園があります。あそこに自転車にのります。

自宅はとてもべんりです。公園はろく丁北です。下町も近いです。

Generally Speaking

Today is another beautiful day. So I went for a bike ride.

A river runs through the middle of Austin. It is the Colorado River. (The section) in Austin is called "Town Lake". There is a beautiful park around Town Lake. That's where I ride my bicycle.

My house is very conveniently located. The lake is only six blocks north. Downtown is also close by (near).

質問とコメント

1. I bet there's a special idiom for "to ride a bike"--I'll look it up in a minute. (A minute later...) Okay. JQS said that it is "norimasu". I wonder if the particle is "ni, de, or o". I remember from a Japanese television commercial hearing "kuruma ni notte". Is it the same for bicycles?

2. The Colorado River that runs through Austin is not the same one in Colorado (that one flows west through the Grand Canyon and forms Lake Mead). However, the explorers who discovered it thought it was and marked it on the map incorrectly. The Colorado River in Texas flows east to the Gulf of Mexico.

3. In the 1930s, dams were built along the Colorado River to form a series of five (I think) lakes. These are called the Highland Lakes. Town Lake is one of these.

4. A hundred years ago or so, before many bridges were built across the Colorado River, the area I live in was in the country. Now it is part of downtown. The tall building in the photo is just a block from my house. Unfortunately, there are so many tall buildings that I no longer have a view of the lake or of the capitol building (of Texas).

5. The large terraced field in the photo is called "Auditorium Shores" because outdoor concerts are often held there. The round building on the left is the old Palmer Auditorium which is about to be converted to a new Performing Arts Center. The building on the right, with a tent-shaped roof, is the new Palmer Auditorium, which just opened last summer.

いいお天気ですよ。オースティン市のお天気はオーシテン市に本当にいいです。

写真は先週の日曜日の天気を予報 です。ひどい雨です。

みなさんは「悪い天気ですか」とおもっています。そうですね。日本人と英国人は雨が好きじゃありません。けれどもテキサス州人がかんしゃの気持ちをあります。毎日毎日で雨がふるない。６週間雨がふるない。ぞの上にあついですよ。草が茶色なります。花がにしわがよる。

天気を予報がちがいました。オーシテンオースティン市の周りには大雨がふりました。オーシテンオースティン市に小雨がふりました。いまでもすずしいです。いまは19度です。先週は34度でした。きもちがいい。私は秋がいちばん大好き。

Generally Speaking

Nice weather we're having, isn't it? No, really. Here in Austin the weather is great.

This picture is of last Sunday's weather forecast. It shows heavy rain.

Now y'all (that's Texas-ben for "you all" or "all of you") might be thinking, "Isn't this bad weather?" Well, most people would think so. The Japanese and the English don't really like rain. But Texans feel a deep thankfulness for a good rain. Day after day, we've had no rain. For six weeks, nary a drop has fallen. On top of that, it's been hot. The grass has turned brown. The flowers have shriveled.

(As usual) the weather forecast was wrong. Heavy rain fell all around Austin, but we received only about an inch of rain. Since then though, it has been cool. Currently it's 67F degrees. Last week it was 94F. It feels so good! Fall is my very favorite season.

New Vocabulary

• 天気予報（てんきよほう）weather forecast (noun)
• ６週間（ろくしゅうかん）a six-week period
• 厳しい (きびしい）harsh or severe (weather); strict (rules)

質問とコメント

1. Our textbook doesn't talk about the weather for another 200 pages. When we get to that section, I'll have to come back to this entry and rewrite it.

2. Whenever I talk to my mother-in-law (in Manchester, UK) she brags about the sunshine and complains about the rain. In contrast, I always brag about the rain and complain about the sunshine.

3. Don't ask me why the US still doesn't use the metric system! I know a few key temperature conversions, though. My favorite temperature is 24C, which is 76F (if it's cloudy). A summer day in Austin can reach a 40C or higher, which is 100F. In an average summer, we have 11 100F or higher days. Last summer we had 40 days of 100F heat! (And it's not a dry heat. It's humid here.) We have very mild winters, though. Nothing like Hokkaido!

4. I don't really understand the katakana spelling of Austin, that is "オースティン". I think it should start with "ア". The first syllable sounds like "a" in "aha" not like the "おお" in "大分".

よの中に話しますが好きじゃありません。いつも不安なります。日本語で英語でなんでもない。話して言をわすります。

今日日本語のクラスのさいしょのオーラルテストがありました。とっても易しかったです。先生の話すが分かりましたでも私は話しましたがたいへんですよ。じゃ。たぶんわるいくなかったですね。これかれんしゅうをしっていますとおもうけど。

Generally Speaking

I don't like speaking in public. I always get nervous. English, Japanese--it doesn't matter. I stumble over the words when I'm speaking.

Today, in my Japanese class, we had our first oral test. It was very easy. I could understand my teacher, but when I had to speak, it was a disaster. Okay, maybe it wasn't that bad. However, I obviously need to practice more.

As Kiyo noted in the previous entry, I'm having some problems with translating "some" into Japanese. In English, "some" is a very commonly used word to mean an unspecified number of the whole. It can be used on both nouns that are counted (some students, some apples) and nouns that are not counted (Would you like some coffee?) Some is more than none (not one) , but less than all. Some is probably more than a few (少し）, but less than many （たくさん）. However, that's not a given because some is an ambiguous answer to the question "how many".

My favorite quick reference, Martin's Pocket Dictionary, wasn't much help.This dictionary is only good for learning a word, not for understanding its usage or learning idomatic expressions.

Takahashi's, which I only use as a fast method for looking up the kanji of a word, provides sample sentences. You'd think this would help, but some of the samples are just plain wrong. For instance, "Give me some novel." This should be "Give me some novels." Nouns that you can count must be plural if preceded by "some". The sample closest to what I was trying to say uses いくらかの.

Still that's not exactly right. I'm trying to say, "There are (various) notebooks on the desk. Some (of them) are blue. Some are red. Some are big. Some are small."

In my original post, I was also indicating that despite some differences, that all the houses had one thing in common; they were expensive. "Some were big. Some were small. All were expensive." This was a simple, more alliterative, way of saying, "Regardless of size, all the houses were expensive." (This last example sentence sounds like I'm writing a report, not writing casually to friends.)

Well. I'm going to have to do some more research on "some"--and find some more examples.

週末は夫とふたりでAIAホムホームツアーへいきました。楽しかったですよ。たくさん美しい家を見ました。いろいろな建築様式の家がありました。家のどれかは大きかったです。どれかは小さかったです。全部は高かったです。

後でDIYへ行きました。もちろんほんとにわたしたちのうち自宅をなおしましょう。

Generally Speaking

Over the weekend my husband and I went on the AIA Home Tour. It was lots of fun. We saw many beautiful houses in various styles. Some were big. Some were small. All were expensive.

Afterward, we went to The Home Depot (a do-it-yourself store). We really need to fix up our house.

質問とコメント

1. I haven't studied the past tense of adjectives, yet. Japanese is so easy when it comes to verbs (no number, and no gender). But the concept of conjugating adjectives is a little difficult--especially with different rules for ~na and ~ii type adjectives.

2. There was really much more I'd like to say about the Home Tour, but I don't have the words yet. It is an annual event in Austin and we have gone every year for the last 6 years. We always get many ideas for home improvements.

3. I think it's fun to pretend that I live in some of these expensive homes. On the other hand, my husband just gets angry at the "conspicuous consumption". Does anyone really need a $3,000,000 home with a swimming pool on the roof and a waterfall in the bathroom?

4. Kiyo. Maybe I got the "my husband and I" right this time. After you explained it to me, I read this note in "Reading Japanese".

After our discussion, this passage suddenly stood out. I'm sure I had read this before, but it didn't really sink in until I tried to write the story and you helped me. Thanks!

New Vocabulary

建築家（けんちくか）, architect. I should have recognized the first kanji from 建物（たてもの）, building.

建築様式（けんちくようしき）, architectural style (or form).

自宅　（じたく）, my (our) house. I already knew this word, but had forgotten it. This is one of those instances where literal translation fails. Japanese often creates different compounds to distinguish between mine and yours. English nouns don't change in that context.

今オーステン市の庭にひがんばなが咲いている。この花は日本からきました。彼岸花の意味は "flower that blooms at the (fall) equinox"　です。英語で "red spider lily," or "hurricane lily." ラテン語で "Lycoris radiata." なにもどんな言語でもきれいな花ですね。

おずやすじろさんの映画の名前はひがんばなです。見ません。アメリカのビデオストアにありません。Kurtーさん見ましたか。おもしろかったですか。

Generally Speaking

In my garden in Austin, the red spider lilies are blooming. This flower is native to Japan. In Japanese, it is called "higanbana" which translates roughly to "the flower that blooms during the (fall) equinox". In English it is called the "red spider lily," or the "hurricane lily". (The latter name because it blooms following the rains brought by Gulf Coast hurricanes in August and September). It's Latin (botanical) name is "Lycoris radiata". It's a beautiful flower in any language.

Yasujiro Ozu made a movie called "Higanbana". I haven't seen it because it's not available in American video stores (at least not in Austin). Kurt said he might watch it this weekend. Kurt, did you? Was it interesting?

質問とコメント

1. Thanks to Robert Brady who reported the higanbana blooming on Pure Land Mountain. He's the person who explained the Japanese name to me.

2. Eri brings up a point that I questioned when I wrote the original post. I was lazy and didn't research it on my own. When I lived in Japan, in my self-introduction I always said, 「アメリカからきました。」 I never thought much that it could be translated to mean both, I (specifically) came from America (a specific event in the past) and I come from (am from) America. I think that only the second example (I come from) has the same meaning as "I am an American".

For the same reason, in English it sounds a little odd to say that a flower "came from Japan" because I'm not talking about a specific flower or a specific event. Lycoris radiata comes from Japan; that is, it is from Japan and is native to Japan.

3. Thanks, Eri, for clearing up the problem I was having with "any". You are exactly right. I meant "any" in the sense of "whichever".

Here is the list of terms for any in "Takahashi's Pocket Romanized English-Japanese Dictionary". any (adjective) 1. ikura-ka. 2. nani-ka. 3. dono...demo. 4. nani-mo. (pronoun) 1. ikura-ka. 2. dore-ka. 3. dore-mo. (adverb) 1. ikura-ka. 2. sukoshi-wa. Wow!

先週日本語のクラスに「〜時」と　「〜曜日」のことばを勉強しました。

７じに起きます。あさごはんを食べませんでもコーヒーだけを飲みます。月曜日と水曜日の８じに学校へいきます。夫の車に乗ります。８時４０分から10持55分まで日本語のクラスがあります。１１時半バスでうちへ帰ります。むすこいっしょにひるごはんを食べます。ごごにいろいろなごとをします。日本語を勉強をします。せんたくをします。買い物に行きます。

夫は月曜日と水曜日と金曜日の午後６時ごろうちへ帰ります。火曜日と木曜日うんどしますだから７時ごろ帰ります。土曜日と日曜日はやすみです。

むすこはビデオーケードゲームセンターにしごといます。水曜日と木曜日のごごの９時から仕事へ行きます。午前の５時にうちへ帰ります。それからねますでも私は起きます。土曜日と日曜日午後３時から午後10時まで仕事います。火曜日と金曜日はやすみです。むずかしいですね。

Generally Speaking

In Japanese class last week, we studied the words and expressions for telling time and for the days of the week.

On weekdays, my husband and I get up at 7:00. We don't eat breakfast, only drink coffee. At 8 o'clock on Mondays and Wednesdays, he drops me off at school on his way to work. My Japanese class is from 8:40 to 10:55. At 11:30, I take the bus home. I have lunch with my son. In the afternoon, I do various things: study Japanese, do the laundry (and other housework), go shopping, etc.

On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, my husband gets home from work around 6 in the evening. But he works out on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so on those days he doesn't get home until 7 or so. He doesn't work on Saturdays or Sundays.

My son works at a video arcade. On Wednesday and Thursdays, he works from 9 at night until 4 in the morning. He doesn't get home until 5 in the morning. Usually he's going to bed when I'm getting up. On Saturdays and Sundays he works from 3 in the afternoon to 10 at night. He has Tuesday and Friday off. This schedule is driving me crazy!

質問とコメント

1. I'm still unsure how to start out saying "my husband and I".

2. My dictionary gives the following words for "usually": futsu, taite, itsumo, heizei, fudan. Itsumo is usually translated as always, every time. The word I'm looking for means "most of the time" "typically", but not every time.

先先週近所に新しい日本料理でレストラン [opened for business]. 名前はミモサです. 先週の金曜日の晩に夫一緒にレストランへいきました食事をしました．しずかなレストランです。その上にちょっとたかいですよ. だから おすしをたべませんでした。おさけをのみませんでした.

夫はやきそばをたべました。[when] みそしるを[came/was brought out/was placed in front of him] 夫彼は私に 「スプンがどこですか。」「あれ！　スプンが...」と言った。

私はわらいました。 「いいえ。スプンがないよ．おちゃわんで吸います。」

私はうなぎが大好きです．うなどんをたべました。

食事の後でウェイトレスはわたしのあき空っぼのお皿を見ました。「おはしで上手な。」と言った。ウェイトレスは日本人ですからおもうけど。

Generally Speaking

The week before last a new Japanese restaurant opened in our neighborhood. Last Friday night, my husband and I went there for dinner. It was pretty empty. The prices were a little high, so we didn't order sushi or sake.

My husband had the yakisoba. When the miso soup was brought out, he said he'd let it cool off while he was waiting for a spoon.

I laughed. "You aren't getting a spoon. You have to drink it out of the bowl."

One of my favorite Japanese foods is broiled eel, so I ordered unagi domburi. (There was enough eel for two people!)

After we finished our meal, the waitress looked at my empty plate and said, "You use chopsticks very well." (I laughed to myself). I bet she's Japanese.

質問とコメント

This story requires a much higher level of Japanese than I possess, but I wanted to try telling it. (It seemed simple when I started it, but then became more and more complex.) I'll go back later and fill in the vocabulary as I learn it. The most frustrating aspect of being a beginner is the inability to connect phrases. I want to be able to show the relationship between two events, especially causation.

1. The dictionaries distinguish between "my wife" and "your wife", but not between "my husband" and "your husband". Is there a difference. Do I have to prefix 夫 with 私の or is it understood that I'm talking about my husband (and not yours)? If I'm talking about my husband, do I use ~san? Or only if I'm talking about your husband? (Why do Japanese books assume that everyone going to Japan/studying Japanese is a businessman?

2. In English it is natural to begin a story like this by saying "my husband and I" and then continuing, "And then we..." But "私と私の夫" sounded clumsy in Japanese.

3. There are very few Japanese in Austin and very few Japanese restaurants. Many of them are staffed by Chinese students. I never make an assumption that someone who looks Japanese is from Japan; he or she could just as easily be a second or third-generation American. Our young waitress, however, had a charming hesitant quality that seemed very Japanese. When made the remark about the chopsticks, though, a remark so commonly made to foreigners in Japan, I felt certain she was Japanese. It's not something I would ask a stranger, though.

New Vocabulary

• dakara = therefore
• kinjo = neighborhood
• empty = aki?
• laugh = waraimasu

初めまして。スティーブンズメリッサです。46才です。いまテキサス州のオーシテン市住んでいます。ACC の学生です。日本語を勉強します。どうぞよろしくおねがいします.

Literal Translation

How do you do. I'm Melissa Stevens. I'm forty-six years old. Currently, I live in Austin, Texas. I'm a student at ACC (Austin Community College). I'm studying Japanese. It's a pleasure to meet you.

質問とコメント

1. When I lived in Japan, I was surprised that newspaper and television reports always included a person's age. This is less common in America where age is not usually mentioned unless it is relevant to the story (such as an accident victim or a crime suspect). Until recently, it was considered bad manners to ask a woman her age. Perhaps it still is. It's not a question I would normally ask someone unless she brought the subject up first. I have definitely reached the age where I don't like to volunteer my age, especially when I'm just meeting someone!

2. The concept of self-introduction is extremely foreign to the average American and many of us feel uncomfortable thinking up one. (We don't have a set pattern. We shrug our shoulders and say, "So whaddya wanna know?") Some of our discomfort may stem from the fact that most Americans don't like to be pegged down (pigeon-holed, classified). The myth here is that everyone is supposed to be treated equally; so you don't start out naming your affiliations. In contrast, Japanese reflects the concept that in every relationship there is a hierarchy; you can't even begin a conversation with someone until you know where they fit in the scheme of things.

3. Because my dad was in the Air Force and we moved every couple of years when I was a child, I don't really feel that I am "from" anywhere; I don't have a hometown. My parents and all but one of my brothers and sisters (I have seven) and their children all live in Las Vegas. I only lived in Las Vegas for four years as a teenager and I hated it. So, I would never say I was from Las Vegas. Texans tend to be rather exclusive (some would say arrogant). I can't really say that I'm from Texas either because I wasn't born here (or put, as some people do, a bumper sticker on my car proclaiming "Native Texan.")