La la la... Hmmm hmmm hmmm...

Hi! I was trying really hard today not to blog because I have done it every single day since I started and really, my life is not at the height of excitement at the moment. I can't believe I spend 8 hours a day doing absolutely nothing when I've got loads to do for my EFL course and Japanese, which isn't boring cos I REALLY want to do that. :-( Only 17.25 days left of employment (I've taken out weekends). Needless to say, I am very much looking forward to the end... (yawn) All the work I had to do today was finished in no more than 15 mins. But thank the Lord that it's not the most boring job in the world. Phew! (Neil Folwell had a job sorting nails and screws!)

So, I guess I should do clothes... You might notice a not so coincidental similarity to English...

pansuto [pan-soo-toe]: tights, stocking, panty hose (oo-er!)
sukāta [soo-kaa-ta]: skirt
sētā [sae-taa]: sweater
sūtsu [soot-su]: suit
wanpiisu [wa-nuh-pee-suh]: dress (or a one-piece)
shatsu [shat-suh]: shirt (t-shirt is either t-shatsu or simply t-shirt)

Well, any more and you'll be bored out your brain, and I won't inflict that on you having had it inflicted on me for the last two months. Yeesh!

Koromo

Since I really didn't have anything to say today, but also have nothing to do at work, I thought I'd spend some time teaching you how to name clothes. Surprisingly, though we covered several items of clothing, we didn't actually learn what the word for clothes was. So, once again I came across a few words that not only meant clothes like 'emon', 'fuku' (foo-koo), and 'ifuku' (ee-foo-koo). (In both these cases, the 'u' is not silent.)

emon: drapery, dress, clothes
fuku: crawl, to blow, to emit, to wipe, clothes.
ifuku: awe, child of a different mother, clothes, awe into submission.
koromo: clothes

Lovely, so now you know how to say several things in Japanese, but you won't be able to name individual items of clothing. Ah well...

Don't walk before you can crawl...

Whoops! I was trying to be too clever with my website, but when I was doing my Japanese writing practise, I found out there was no such thing as 'fi' in Japanese... The closest is 'fu' and so Steph is 'sutefu', pronounced "sutef" as the 'u' is silent. But then, in Japan you get called by your second name, so I guess I'll be called 'pieru-san'...

Anyway... The moral of the story is, don't assume you're cleverer than you are when learning a language like Japanese.

Word for today is: 'hito', which means person.

Gurama

Ooooooooh! Two posts in one day. I must be very bored indeed...

Actually, I need your help. I need to do a pre-course task for my teaching course and one of them is to talk about negative associations with grammar. Those who know me will know that I'm a bit of a freak and I love grammar. Yes. I do. I think it's the easiest thing in the world, so you can see why I can't do this task at all... So, if you could help me by posting what you think of grammar - no swearing please! - that would be great. Thanks!

Yuki

On trying to find a Japanese word for snow, I came across a couple of words that mean more than just snow - I guess depending on the context they are used in. The first word is 'kousetsu', which primarily means 'sexual intercourse'. Hmmm... Interesting... Will try not to use that word EVER, as Japanese culture has a big focus on politeness and "face", I'd rather avoid being impolite and lose face myself, cos it can't be restored once you lose it... EEK!

Anyway... The next word is 'tenka'. This word has several different meanings inluding snow, such as 'second marriage', 'ignition', 'descent from heaven' and also 'fire caused by lightning'!! 'Yuki', however, though it can also mean 'going', primarily means snow, so I chose that. Lovely!

So, back to Yuki: Isn't it lovely? I passed Queen's Park - as in the actual park! - this morning on the way to work and it was sooooo beautiful!! The view I saw was snow falling on a semi frozen pond, surrounded by swans and other white swim-flying birds that aren't sea-gulls, with some bare and evergreen trees all around it. Isn't God so good? It just made me so happy to start the day with such simple and yet amazing beauty. :-)

I was going to leave you with a Japanese word for today, but you've already had 3, so that might just be too much for your poor wee brains!

Hugo Edward Lafferty Petersen

Yes, it does spell HELP...

Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to introduce you to my honorary little bro, Hugo and my honorary sister, Lydia. (In case you didn't know, the Petersens unofficially adopted me about a year ago.) Anyway, little Hugo is only 8 days old and is tiny!! Today was the first time I saw him and incidentally, if he'd been awake, I would have been the first brown person he ever saw, but hey, he decided to sleep making several different facial expressions, tried to sit up - which is pretty impossible at 8 days - and impersonated a bee instead. I stress, this was all while he was sleeping. It was highly amusing. (giggles)

In case you're wondering, I do have the Petersen's permission to put a pic of him and Lydia on my blog...

And on a completely different note...

I had another Japanese lesson last night where we learned how to ask "how much is this?" (kore wa ikura desu ka) - along with prices (too complicated for this website) - and colours. I just want to tell you about the colour pink in Japanese: there are two ways of saying it - pinku and moro iro (moro = peach and iro = colour). However, if you are ever in Japan and feel the need to discuss the colour pink, don't try and sound more Japanese by using the more traditional option because it is now commonly used as a synonym for porn. Ahem...

The very beginning...

Hello! I was going to wait till I was on my way to Japan to create my blog, but then I had far too much free time at work, so the temptation was too great... Ah well. In case you're wondering, "sutefi chiisai ooinaru seken" literally means "little steph big world", but I don't know if I've placed the words in the correct order according to Japanese grammar, since I haven't learned it yet. So if you are a Japanese grammar expert and I'm seriously grammatically incorrect, I feel your pain cos I suffer from nervous twitches when people use grammar incorrectly in English - and sometimes German too...

So, luvlies, what is this site for? Is it because I want to be like all my other cool blogging friends? Well, not quite. I really, really want to travel and post as many pics as I can of all the beauty of the Far East once I get there. Though, I am going to Paris and Clermont-Ferrand in January, so I might post some of that too... Hmmm... And I do have some old, grainy mobile pics of Hungary, so maybe that too. Of course, this will be once I figure out how to do all that cool stuff...

And so with a little Henry sigh (hmmmmmmmmmmmmm...) I must say goodbye before I get into trouble.

:-)