先週はちょっと暑すぎました。一月中は雨がなかった。晴れできれいだけど、すずしい日がほしいです。今晩昨晩は秋がなりました。今日は涼しくてくもりです。

秋の気持ちは何味だと思いますか。私はりんごです。秋にアップル・パイや、ホット・アップル・サイダーや、アップルソースを食べることが好きです。

テキサスは暑すぎるですから、りんごを植えません。ピーカンの木を植えます。だからって私は秋にりんごがほしいです。日本人は？栗だと思います。みなさん、何と思いますか。

Generally Speaking

Last week it was a bit too hot. (94F degrees!) We haven't had any rain all month. Blue skies are beautiful, but I long for cooler days. Last night, fall arrived. Today is cloudy and cool.

What foods, what flavors, make you think of fall? For me, it's apples (and cinnamon). In the fall, I want to eat apple pie and applesauce and drink hot apple cider.

Apples don't grow in Texas because it is too hot. Pecan trees grow instead. So here in the south, pecan pie and pecan pralines are fall foods. Even though I'm a southerner, I still associate apples with fall. What foods do Japanese people associate with fall? I think it might be chestnuts. What do you think?

息子は昨日ピザをほしがっていました。れいぞうこに開けてみました。「ピザはどこですか。」

「ごめん。もう食べてしまいました。」

Generally Speaking

Yesterday my son wanted [the rest of the leftover] pizza. He looked in the refrigerator and said, "Hey. Where's the pizza?" "Oops. I already finished it."

Vて + しまう

Japanese contains quite a few compound verbs that express ideas much more concisely than in English. For example, by itself しまう means "to finish, to do something completely". Combine it with the te-form of a verb and you can express the idea that something has been done, irrevocably and regretably done. That's it. Finished. Gone. Or as small children say when they flush your wallet down the toilet, "Uh-oh. All gone."

• Sorry, folks. Elvis has left the building.
  ...出てしまいました。
• The first bowl of porridge was too hot. The next one was too cold. The the last one was just right and Goldenlocks ate it all up.
  ... 食べてしまいました。
• I missed the bus. (The bus is gone already.)
  ... 行ってしまいました。
• Damn! I completely forgot.
  ... わすれてしまいました。

According to our textbook, 〜しまう puts the focus on the object, on the state of the thing that's been finished. What's been done is done and cannot be undone. This can be translated into English very awkwardly (or comically) as "I regret to inform you that the pizza has been eaten. There is no more." Or more naturally. "Sorry. I ate it." or "Yep. It's all gone."

This extremely thin volume is a gem of a book, containing one of the most important revelations I've yet read about Japanese verb conjugation. Japanese Verbs and Essentials of Grammar identifies three components of each verb form: the stem, which never changes; the 5 bases, plus ta-form and te-form; and various endings which express the verb tense. For example, here are some bases and endings for kaku.

This is only a small example of the endings explained in the book. So far, we've learned only a few of these forms in class. We spent the first semester learning the 〜masu forms and the second semester learning ku and kanai. Then this semester, the new possible endings have been raining down on us furiously.

The problem is that our textbook is so focused on a conversational approach to Japanese that it does not do a good job of explaining the fundamentals of grammar that would make it easier to build a firm foundation, the foundation required to rapidly learn new grammatical forms. Every new grammar point is learned in isolation, disconnected from what's been learned before.

I first read this book about a year ago and it was the inspiration for the layout of my verb flashcards (stems with yellow backgrounds, bases in blue, endings in black). Now that we've actually covered all the bases, and are just learning new endings, I'm really, really thankful that I learned verbs this way. If you are struggling with Japanese verb conjugation, do yourself a big favor and pick up this book.

This week we've learned two ways to express intention (also known as "volition"): 1. verb stem + (よ | お | こ | そ | も | と | ろ) + う + とおもいます。2. Verb (plain) + つもりです。

• 食べるー＞食べようと思います
  ー＞食べるつもりです
• 買うー＞買おうと思いますー＞買うつもりです
• 書くー＞書こうと思いますー＞書くつもりです
• 話すー＞話そうと思いますー＞話すつもりです
• 飲むー＞飲もうと思いますー＞飲むつもりです
• 帰るー＞帰ろうと思いますー＞帰るつもりです

In English, one's will is the force of mind or spirit (willpower) that enables us to follow through on our intentions. "I'm thinking about doing it." (Leaning towards action but still undecided.) "I will do it!" (Committed to taking action.)

In casual conversation, you will also hear "I'm going to do it!" or "I'm gonna do it!

来週の水曜日にしけんですから私は今週よく勉強するつもりです。

We've been learning so many new verb tenses, that it's hard to keep track of the ones we learned last semester. Almost a year ago, I created flashcards which I use to practice conjugating. I've had a lot of trouble printing them out, so I hadn't published them here. I find that they look okay on a Mac in either Mozilla or Safari. But they don't display well in IE for the Mac. I think they are okay in IE for a PC--but I don't have any way to test it because Windows has been banished from our house.

The flashcards are in two files: 1-step conjugation and 5-step conjugation. (I haven't gotten around to the two irregular verbs yet.) The flashcards are arranged by sound--by the syllable before the verb change. Trust me...this makes sense if you're practicing saying them out loud. There is also an index, courtesy of my son who is also my study partner.

Most of these verbs are from our first-year Japanese textbook. But a lot of them are also from kanji I looked up when I was writing this blog or reading other people's sites. There is really no rhyme nor reason to what's included and what's not.

私は先々週日本語のクラスで２５漢字を勉強しました。読めました。書けました。学ぶと思いました。

今日しゅくだいをして、全部が忘れました。

勉強するのは運動するのと同じだと思います。毎日勉強しないことはあたまが弱いになります。毎日運動しないことはからだ弱いになります。

私はときどき不勉強すぎます。

What I'm Trying to Say

A couple of weeks ago, I studied the 25 new kanji for my Japanese class. I could read them. I could write them. I thought I had learned them. Then today, I was doing my homework and I couldn't remember any of them.

I think studying is like working out. If you don't study every day, your brain goes soft. (You get weak in the head.) If you don't exercise every day, your body goes soft.

Sometimes I'm too lazy to do either. (And so my brain and body are getting flabby.)

〜すぎる

This week we studied appending the verb すぎる as a suffix to adjectives and verbs to express "too much X". We tend to "talk large" down here in Texas, so being able to say that something is "too this" or "too that" is just great.

For 〜i adjectives, drop the "i" and add some conjugation of sugiru. たとえば (for example)

• small: 小さい　ちいさい
  ー＞　ちいさすぎる: too small
• hot: 暑い　あつい　ー＞　あつすぎる too hot
• long: 長い　ながい　ー＞　ながすぎる too long

For 〜na adjectives, drop the "na" and add some conjugation of sugiru. For verbs, replace 〜masu with 〜sugiru.

I notice that ちょっと(a bit) and ね (isn't it?) are used in most of the sample sentences to make the opinions sound less strident. A few months ago, Mieko noticed the same thing and wondered if we could say in English, "It's a little big." "It's a little too big." "It's a bit much." "It's a bit too much." And yes, we can. What I like about Japanese is that you can say 「ちょっと。。。」 ("It's a bit..." ) and the listener fills in the blank. I'm sure this will come in handy on those days when I forget how to conjugate 〜すぎる.

Let's Practice!

テキサス州の夏は暑すぎると思います。イギリスに住みたいですけど冬は寒すぎる。イギリス人夫はテキサス州に住むのがイギリスに住むのより好きです。イギリスで雨が降りすぎると言います。

I think the summers in Texas are just too hot. I'd like to live in England, but the winters there are too cold. My husband, the Brit, likes living in Texas better than living in England. He says it rains too much in England.