Inspired by Kurt's Showing Good Manners as a Pet Owner

２００３年４月２７日

質問とコメント

1. The choice of the word poop for a public sign is interesting. The most neutral word is feces, which is the scientific term, and like most scientific words rooted in Latin. But it would sound bureaucratic. The city government is using a very informal, conversational tone, to "speak to the people", without resorting to rude language. When I hear the word poop, I think of my Mom trying to potty-train my younger brothers and sisters. Baby-talk forms are poo-poo and doo-doo. The rude equivalents are shit and crap, although they are such general expletives that they've almost lost their original meaning. Dung and manure are farming/gardening terms. Although they can refer to any animal excrement, I generally think of dung as the products of grass-eaters and manure as any animal product used to fertilize the earth.

昨日はとても蒸し暑くになった。

空前高温は３６度だ。

庭を見ることがから二人友だちは来た。

けれども全部花は萎むことがになった。

Generally Speaking

Yesterday, the weather turned suddenly hot and humid. Austin had a record-breaking high temperature of 96F degrees. (The previous record for this day had been 92F degrees.) Two friends came over to see the garden, (which had been in full bloom). But all the flowers had wilted.

Generally I'm suspicious of any book whose title intimates a quick and easy alternative to studying a language, but Japanese the Easy Way is an exception. For one thing, it doesn't actually say that Japanese is easy. Just that some methods for learning it are easier than others.

This book's aim is to provide supplemental material. It targets two groups of learners: students of beginning Japanese who need extra practice and an alternative explanations to those offered in their textbooks, and people who have studied Japanese previously and need a review. I think it hits the target on both counts.

Japanese the Easy Way has a stronger emphasis on grammar than business Japanese books like Japanese for Busy People. But the explanations are very simple and straightforward with clear examples and helpful notes. The author's, Karen Sandness's tone is very casual; it's as if she's sitting right there, a friendly and knowledgeable tutor. I get the feeling she's used to teaching Japanese to American high school students. She includes sections called "Watch Out!" with commonly made mistakes. Each chapter ends with a summary and review exercises (the answers are in the back of the book).

The book is written primarily in romaji. However, for vocabulary both the kanji and the kana are given. Personally, I prefer to see Japanese written in standard Japanese script, but the romanization in this book is in keeping with the intended purpose as supplemental material.

Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)
Recommended for: Beginner and Intermediate Students

Filed under the "'Americans can't speak English, either' Department".

M: "Well, it's a dog eat dog world."
The Boy S. (12): "Yeah. It's a doggy dog world. What does that mean anyway?"
M: "Not 'doggy dog'...'dog eat dog'. It means the strong inherit the earth; the weak are culled. Gotta be the top dog, the alpha male. It's a jungle out there. Survival of the fittest. It's every man for himself. There is no mercy. Might makes right."
The Boy S.: "Oh. Well, everyone says 'doggy dog'."

I blame this guy.

Is there an equivalent expression in Japanese?

四月は天気がとてもいいだよ。

晴れでよわくて涼しい風が吹く。

いま花咲くことはすごい。

今週夫の息子君はコネチカットから来る。

コネチカットの学校の春休みだ。

夫も仕事は休みだ。

春のお掃除することで時間はいいですけど、おっとはおもわない。

Generally Speaking

In April, the weather couldn't be better. The skies are clear and a gentle, refreshing breeze blows up from the Gulf of Mexico. Now all the flowers are in full bloom.

This week AJM's son has come down from Connecticut. His school in Connecticut is on spring break. AJM has taken a week's vacation from work. I think it's a perfect week for spring cleaning, but AJM isn't too happy about the idea.

質問とコメント

1. AJM's son is 12 and lives in Connecticut with his Mom. Connecticut school's are on a completely different schedule than Texas ones. In Austin, we had our spring break almost a month ago. In addition to national holidays, AJM gets several weeks of personal vacation time that he can take whenever he wants. He's taking one week now, and two weeks this summer when we go to visit his family in England.

2. Here in the South, when a wife makes a list of things for her husband to do around the house, it's called a "'Honey-Do' List". That's because she says, "Honey, will you do this. Honey, will you do that." How would that translate into Japanese? "あなた、して下さい" Is there a typical expression that Japanese wives use to nag get their husbands to do home maintenance?

3. So what's on AJM's honey-do list? The windowscreens need to be washed and put back on the windows so we can open them to this lovely weather. (When I got home from school, AJM had enlisted the Boy S.'s help in washing the screens with the power-washer. The power washer is great because doesn't require soap. It cleans with water pressure. The garden bench needs repainting so that we can sit in the rose garden and enjoy the flowers. Work needs to continue on painting the house trim. And now that the bookshelves are more or less finished, we need to rearrange all the books. And finally, the most terrible job of all--clean out the garage.

4. I realize that this is AJM's week off, but I've been rewiring the garage. I installed a new outside light and replaced all the fixtures and switches and wiring in the garage (This house is almost 60 years old and the wiring is scary). For the first time in many years, we actually can run our power tools without extension cords. And we have light. Electricity is a miracle! That's why I want to the garage cleaned out. It's really difficult to find a space to work on projects.

As Ken Loo points out, sometimes straightforward, grammatically correct language sounds odd because people pepper their speech with idiomatic expressions and proverbs. Although, common in everyday speech such expressions are rarely covered in language textbooks. So they are confusing to language students because the sum of their parts doesn't equal their whole. Their literal meaning doesn't make sense in translation. When I say it's "raining cats and dogs" animals are not falling out of the sky. It's "just an expression"...as the saying goes.

Even Monkeys Fall from Trees is a nice introduction to Japanese proverbs. It contains a hundred proverbs written in kanji, romaji, and English translation. The back of the book associates each proverb with an English equivalent. For example, せんどう多くして船山に登る。（せんどうおおくしてふねやまにのぼる）。Too many boatmen will bring a boat up a mountain. The English equivalent: Too many cooks spoil the broth.

My personal favorite, which my son used to say to me when I drank too much sake is: First the man takes a drink. Then the drink takes a drink. Then the drink takes the man. So true!

AJM's favorite is the Japanese equivalent of "There's no use closing the barn door after the horse is gone." "屁をひって尻つぼめ." (There's no use in scrunching your buttocks after you've farted.) Is this really a Japanese saying, or is this book pulling my leg?

An even better book is 101 Japanese Idioms. The presentation is more useful because it provides context for when the saying is appropriate. Then it give a sample dialog, showing the expression in conversation. The dialog is printed three times: in standard Japanese, in romanized Japanese, and in translation.

My favorite saying from this book is "猫の手も借りたい" "willing to accept the helping hand of a cat"...that is, so desperately in need that even help from a cat (useless beasts that they are) would be welcome. In other words, "I'm swamped!"

Kiyo has also been sharing Japanese proverbs with us lately. Reading them has been a nice break from my studying for final exams. It's fun when everyone tries to come up with an equivalent from their own languages.

Bluebonnets near Llano Texas

花見は日本が有名なんです。

テキサス州も有名ですよ。

けれどもテキサス州はさくら花がない。

ブルーボネットがある。

テキサス人はドライブツアーをする。

写真するのがしゅみが好き。

特に子供はブルーボネットの中に写真する。

More Bluebonnet Photos courtesy of Scott Teven.

Bluebonnet Trail

Generally Speaking

Japan is world famous for its flower viewing parties. You might be surprised to know that Texas is also famous for flower viewing. However, Texas doesn't have cherry blossoms. It's famous for it's bluebonnets. And Texans don't have parties under the trees to enjoy the blossoms; we drive down the highways and backroads. Taking photographs of the bluebonnets is a popular activity, especially photographs of children sitting in the middle of the bluebonnets.

質問とコメント

1. The bluebonnet is the state flower of Texas. Texans love their bluebonnets and you'll see pictures of them on postcards, license plates, refrigerator magnets, dishtowels, T-shirts, shot glasses...well anything that you can put a picture on.

2. Lady Bird Johnson, the wife of former president Lyndon Baines Johnson, was instrumental in getting the Texas highway department to plant wildflower seeds during highway construction and maintenance. She founded the National Wildflower Center which is headquarted here in Austin.

Update

日本語でリンクのテキサスの野の花。