今日の朝は私の息子がチカゴへ出来ました。

日曜日に日本語のテスト「JLPT」をとります。

後で友だちを会います。

来週の金曜日に帰ります。

私はご心配なくと思うけど。

でも母親です。

Generally Speaking

This morning my son left for Chicago. Sunday he's taking the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test). Afterwards he'll stay with a friend from high school and do a little sightseeing. He'll return next Friday. I tell myself that I shouldn't be worried. But, I'm his mother.

質問とコメント

これは私たちのいまです。

アメリカに小さいまです。

でもだんろはおおきいです。

いろいろな日本のもとがろだなの上にあります。

だんろの左に私のいすがあります。

私はあのいすに座る時に書いています。

時々夫は私の向かいに座る。

彼はコンピューターの前によく座る。

写真の右でつくえがあります。

あれはどこ日本語を勉強します。

Generally Speaking

This is our living room. It is rather small for an American living room. However, one nice feature (perhaps the only nice feature) is that it has a big fireplace. On the fireplace mantle are various things from Japan. To the left of the fireplace is my chair. This is where I sit to write my blog. Sometimes my husband sits across from me. Usually, though, he sits in front of his computer (which is behind the desk, but not in the picture). In the picture, to the far right, you can see the edge of my other desk. This is the desk I work at when I'm not using my laptop. That's where I study Japanese.

今日は冬の天気です。

今学校へ来ました。

暇があります。

でもなにもすることをほしくない。

今晩は多分たきびをします。

たきぎをもっています。

Generally Speaking

Today is a wintry day. I just returned from school. I have some free time, but I don't feel like doing anything. Maybe tonight we'll build a fire (in the fireplace). I should bring in some firewood.

質問とコメント

1. You could say "A Winter's Day" or "A Wintry Day". "A Winter's Day" sounds like a description of a day in winter. It could be hot or cold, snowing or not. But it takes place in (during) winter. "A Wintry Day" implies that the weather is cold and bleak. It could take place in fall or spring, but the type of weather is like that in winter. (Hmmm...now I'm wondering if "A Winter's Day" is supposed to have an apostrophe. English punctuation can be so confusing!)

2. I have absolutely know idea how to say "I don't feel like doing anything" so I just made it up. We haven't studied complex sentences yet or learned how to say I want to do X, or I don't want to do Y. Maybe we'll learn that next year.

Not all American houses have fireplaces, especially not here in the South. This one has a very large fireplace in the living room. It is not very efficient for heating the house. But it provides a warm, cozy feeling. If I build a fire tonight, should I take a picture of it?

日本語のクラスマートは先月に日本のクラブを始めました。

今日は大学の国際のまつりです。

日本のクラブは「bake sale]します。

わたしは日本の旅行記のパンフレットをもってます。

今晩日本の映画[The Ring]を計画します。

Generally Speaking

Last month, a girl in my Japanese class started a Japanese Club. Today, our school is holding an "International Fair". (To raise money), the Japanese Club is holding a bake sale. I'm bringing a lot of travel brochures about Japan. Tonight, we are showing the Japanese movie "The Ring".

質問とコメント

1. When I was an English teacher in Japan, I used to bring in maps, photos, travel brochures, videos, and books about the US, especially Texas, to show my Japanese students. So it feels very strange to be "introducing" American students to Japan.

2. Many of these younger students impressions of Japan come from anime, J-pop, video games, and manga. They are interested in a very different Japan than I am interested in.

3. One of the girls in my class lived for a month in Hita-machi. This is a small town in Ooita-ken which is famous for its pottery. She was studying pottery making there. Isn't it strange that the two people in my class that have lived in Japan, both went to Ooita-ken? Well maybe not so strange...Ooita-shi is Austin's sister city.%3楡第p>

Where can a man buy a cap for his knee
or the key to a lock of his hair?
Can his eyes be called an academy
because there are pupils there?

Is the crown of your head where jewels are found?
Who travels the bridge of your nose?
If you want to shingle the roof of your mouth,
would you use the nails on your toes?

Can you beat on the drum of your ear?
Can the calf in your leg eat the corn off your toe?
Then why not grow corn on the ear?

Can the crook in your elbow be sent to jail?
If so, just what did he do?
How can you sharpen your shoulder blades?
I'll be darned if I know, do you?

今日は息子と二人で映画館へいきました「ハリー・ポッター」を見ました。

二人は面白かったと思いました。

本が大好き。

毎度イギリスからアメリカまでひこきに本を読みました。

Generally Speaking

Today, my son and I went to see the new Harry Potter movie. We both enjoyed it a lot. I really like the books. Every time I fly from England to the US I read them on the plane.

金曜日ですか。そうですか。

「光陰矢のごとし。」

庭に石を持ち上げました。

あしたは砂で新しい庭の小道を作る。

今疲れています。

春で

New Vocabulary

Generally Speaking

Is it Friday already? Wow. Time flies. I've been in the garden all week, carrying rocks from the front yard to the back yard. Tomorrow we're making a new path out of sand (actually decomposed granite). I'm already tired.

質問とコメント

1. I found the "time flies" quote in the excellent reference Japanese and English Idiomatic Equivalents ed. Charles Corwin. It's in a thesaurus format, so you can pick a concept, like "time" and find words and expressions related to the concept.

2. AJM borrowed a pickup truck from a coworker and tomorrow we will get a cubic yard (which is about the same as a cubic meter) of decomposed granite sand. It's a little rougher than sand, but much finer than gravel. This we will put on the front walk which used to be a flagstone path and in the new courtyard garden. Yes. We are full of projects, but none of them ever seem to get finished.

Thanks to Eri for clarification on how to say "mowing the lawn" in Japanese. Another way of saying this in English is "cutting the grass". I think the phrase used depends on how serious a gardener one is. For instance, my father-in-law definitely "mows the lawn". He is English and has true English lawn to mow. He even manages to make those fancy mown stripes in his lawn.

On the other hand, I have a rather ratty American lawn, full of weeds and bare patches. So I'm just "cutting the grass".

I knew the Japanese word for grass was 草（くさ）. But I wanted to give the impression of an American suburban lawn which Martin's Pocket Dictionary includes as a synonym for grass しばふ. Takahashi's Pocket Dictionary concurs and gives the kanji 芝生.

Martin's does define mow as かります, but I missed it and Takahashi's does not. So I gave up on mow the lawn and tried for cut the grass.

If I had followed up on かる in Shogakukan's Bright Japanese-English Dictionary, I would have found it meant "cut, trim, clip, shear (sheep), mow, and reap. Ah, here is the sample sentence I was looking for...
[彼は日曜日に芝を刈った。」

I would then edit it to say...
私は土曜日に芝生を刈りました。

Now I notice that in the sample sentence しばふ isn't shown as 芝生, but as 芝. Why? I don't know. So I look しばふ up in the same dictionary and it shows 芝生.

Yes. I'm confused.

今日はオーシテンにあたたかいですよ。28C度でした。

毎週の土曜日は夫とふたりで食料品を買います。

私は芝生（しばふ）を切りました。
私は芝生（しばふ）を刈りました。

晩御飯の後でDVD「Lord of the Rings」を見ました。

今彼はほんを読みます。
今彼はほんを読んでいます。

私は書きます。
私は書いてます。

みなさんは週末は何をしていましたか。

Generally Speaking

Austin today was unusually warm. It was 83F degrees. Every Saturday, morning my husband and I go grocery shopping. Then I mowed the lawn (cut the grass). This evening, after dinner, we watched "The Lord of the Rings" on DVD. Now he is (lying on the couch) reading a book and I'm writing (on my blog).

What did you do this weekend?

先週のしゅうまつはオーシテン市に雪をありました。

雪が降りませんでした。

雪が貨物（かもつ）自動車ではいたつされりました。

１００トン。

オーシテン市の雪のまつりです。

新聞

Generally Speaking

Last weekend we had snow in Austin. No. It didn't snow. (no snow fell). The snow was delivered by truck. 100 tons! This is the Austin Snow Festival.

かきが好きです。

こどものときにおきなわで住みました。

そのときにかきをはじめ食べました。

テキサスにかきの木を植えります。

去年は木が効果のありました。

いまかきをいただいています。

おいしいですね。

Generally Speaking

I love persimmons. The first time I ate one was when I was a child living in Okinawa. (In 1991, when I returned from Japan after teaching English there) I planted a Japanese persimmon tree here in Texas. Last year it bore its first fruit. From now on I can eat all the persimmons I want. They're delicious, aren't they?

質問とコメント

1. I wasn't able to express very much of the story I wanted to tell in this post. I was fascinated by persimmons as a child in Okinawa. But in the US, they are expensive and difficult to find. When I went to Japan in 1989, I couldn't eat enough of them. I was always happy when another teacher brought in a bag of persimmons to share at the office from their tree at home. I was fascinated by the strings of persimmons hanging from the balconies to dry.

2. When I returned to Texas and bought this house, the first tree I planted was a Japanese persimmon Diospyros kaki 'Eureka'. It is supposed to fruit well in Texas (one of the few trees that does since the climate is too warm for apples and pears and cherries). Persimmon trees are rather slow to bear fruit. But now that this one is bearing, I look forward to eating persimmons for a long time to come.

3. There is a Texas persimmon, Diospyros texana, but it has a very small bitter fruit that is edible only to birds. I've planted one of those, too. The tree does not look anything like a Japanese persimmon, but it has an attractive peeling bark.

２週間に雨がふりました。

きのうはおとといも晴れでした。きれいな秋の日。

今週はハローウィンです。

あちこちにうちをかざります。魔女（まじょ）幽霊（ゆうれい）。お化け。

おばけのかざりはてるてるぼうずが同じような。

このりゆで天気がよかったとおもうけど。

Generally Speaking

The last couple of weeks has been gray and rainy. However, yesterday and the day before, the skies were clear and deep blue--two perfect autumn days.

This week some people decorated their yards for Halloween. Witches. Phantoms. Ghosts. Ghosts made of white cloth, hanging from trees by a rope around their necks, looking exactly like teruteru-bouzu. Maybe that's why the weather cleared up.

質問とコメント