イースター Happy Easter!

今日はイースターです。アメリカでイースターは大切な日ですね。今日教会(きょうかい)に来た人はとても多かったです。教会の一番後ろとバルコニーにも人がいました。だから、サビースが忙しくて長かったです。そして、みんなはとてもきれいに着て来ました。春の色と花パータンのドレスとアクセサリーがたくさん見えました。

日本にイースターがありますか。フランスでもイースターがとても大切です。イースターの日は日曜日ですけど、イースターの月曜日もあります。フランスで、その日は休みです。子供の時、私はイースターが一番好きでした。両親は家でチョコレートのたまごやうさぎ(rabbit)やめんどり(hen)をかくして(hide)私と兄と弟はそのチョコレートを探しました。そして、もちろん、探したチョコレートを食べました。

子供の時、チョコレートを食べるのが一番好きでしたけど、今は一緒に探すのが一番したいです。アメリカでもそんなことをするかな〜　買い物をした時チョコレートのたまごをみったんですから、多分しますね。でも、アメリカのチョコレートはやっぱりおいしくなさそうです。=P

P.E. End of Phase 1

大変です〜忘れました　(￣ロ￣|||)

P.E. Phase 1: Reflections

Evaluating my P.E. related activities: 

1. Go to Japanese language table regularly: I've realized that I'm not really free on Monday and Tuesday nights – I've only made it to one Japanese table thus far...
2. Speak to a friend only in Japanese for at least twenty minutes once a week: Key word "only"... I've talked to friends in Japanese more and more throughout the semester though, so this is not a total failure. It's just hard not to switch to Korean, which is much more comfortable for me, and the language we're used to speaking to each other. A major achievement though: last time we spoke, I naturally went into Japanese half-way through the conversation several time. Had to switch back every time there was something I couldn't say though.
3. Take the P.E. exercises seriously and do more than the minimum exercises: This has gone quite well so far.
4. Do some singing shadowing: That was mostly for fun... and it was fun. May or may not try it again.

Evaluating my P.E. goals:

1. To get used to speaking Japanese: I guess this is going well. I want to keep improving my speaking, though.
2. To be able to speak more naturally (without foreign-sounding pauses, using Japanese placeholders): Yep, going well. I'm definitely using a lot of Japanese placeholders nowadays. Next step, use less placeholders in general?
3. To improve my intonation: I guess there was improvement there. The problem is, I really can't tell unless I'm listening to myself, and even then, my mistakes are usually linked to word intonation – so my problem is mostly that I need to learn the correct intonation of words when I learn them and practice saying them a lot.

P.E. Phase 2:

Goal:

To become more comfortable with a broader range of vocabulary in terms of intonation and use in regular conversation. This is really the only concrete goal I have right now (or in broader terms: become more fluent).

Setting Activities:

1. Watch at least one episode of Japanese anime/drama a week. I might start going to anime club again, or just watch drama in my room. This is to get used to hearing new words in context and trying to learn the intonation of new words.

2. Speaking with friends in Japanese whenever possible – even when it's just random sentences in Japanese in the middle of an English conversation. I should be good at that, I used to do that with English all the time.

3. When learning new vocabulary words, practice saying them out loud, and practice saying them in a sentence.

みなさんおやすみ〜　Have some emoji:

(http://kaomojiya.com)

└((´э｀))┘

(o･д･)尸~~おやすみ～♪

（◡ฺ ω◡ฺ）

カタカナ文芸作品

遊んでる子の明るさはキンポウゲ。
あそ　　　　　   こ          あか　　　　　　　(buttercup)


夏の夜ラーメン食べるコンビニで。
                よる


母の声、アップルパイの香り出す。
                こえ　　　　　　　　　　　　　         かお　　だ


冬の中、寮のヒータは壊れてる。
ふゆ　　　　　りょう　　　　　　　　   こわ


コンビニのメモリー

　蒸し暑い夏の夜
　コンビニの前
　ピンクのプラスティックチェア
　みどりの光源

　静かな夏の夜
　コンビニの前
　友達と一緒の幸せ
　無言のニコニコする

　紫の夏の夜
　コンビニの前
　ソフトクリームの甘さ
　グイグイ飲む ビール

　蒸し暑い夏の夜
　寒くなっても
　静かな夏の夜
　煩くなっても
　紫の夏の夜
　暗くなっても
　コンビニの前
　友達と一緒
　一生
　居たい



文芸作品：ぶんげいさくひん (literary work)
蒸し暑い：むしあつい
夜：よる
前：まえ
光源：こうげん (light source, light)
静かな：しずかな
幸せ：しあわせ (joy)
無言：むごん (wordless)
ニコニコ：sound of smiling/laughing
紫：むらさき (purple)
ソフトクリーム：soft serve ice cream
甘さ：あまさ (sweetness)
グイグイ：sound of drinking in gulps
煩い：うるさい
暗い：くらい
居る：いる (to be, to exist)

谷川俊太郎 (Tanikawa Shuntaro)

日本人の友達に“詩がすきなの”と聞いた時、友達はこう答えました：

“好きだよ～

谷川俊太郎　っていうひとがいちばん好き！”

“え？だれ？”

“たにかわ　しゅんたろう！ここ：http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuntarō_Tanikawa”

“おーよんでみまーす！”

（以上はぜんぶスカイプのチャットでした。本当の話しをちょっと変えましたけど。）

それで、谷川俊太郎の詩を探しました。その人はゆうめいで、いい詩をたくさん書きました！kizuna311でも、その人の詩があります。「ちちのうた」という詩です。そして、私は一番好きな詩が「生きているという事」という詩でした。

「生きてるという事」

（ここ英語があります：http://beholders.org/mind/poetryandshortstories/229-being-alive.html）

終わらない冬！(Why is it still winter?)

まだ冬だね…春が来ないかな〜

雪のちは

きっと晴れだろ

寒いけど

今日カタカナプロジェクトの話しを聞いて、日本語のはいくとかせんりゅうとか、書きたいと思いました。でもやっぱり、むずかしいですね。



冬＝ふゆ
思う＝おもう

カタカナの分析: REVISED（今回はホンキ）

Introductory Japanese language textbooks usually go into very little detail about the usage of katakana in modern Japanese. They tend to describe only one or a few of the possible uses of katakana, usually ranked in the following order of emphasis/priority:
- loanwords, i.e. words borrowed from another language, and transliterated in Japanese, whether it is from English, French or Chinese. (Chinese words that have been part of the Japanese vocabulary for a long time, and that have a distinct Japanese pronunciation, are not considered loanwords.) コーヒー (coffee) would be the most common example of this.
- names, especially names of foreign origin.
- onomatopoeia, i.e. words that simulate or represent through sound a particular sound, action, or even feeling. For example, ドキドキ (dokidoki) is an onomatopoeia for a heart beat.
- emphasis, i.e. using katakana to bring attention to the word, possibly because katakana is written in cleaner, squarer strokes, which are easier to read.

This last usage is only mentioned in one of the textbook definitions we looked at. It general, Japanese textbooks only focus on the use of katakana as loanwords and for foreign names – words that are only written in katakana – and do not go into detail about the many subtleties of katakana usage in other contexts. I think this is done in order to avoid confusing students when they are starting out with the language. By separating the two kana alphabets, hiragana and katakana, into two non-overlapping systems, one for Japanese words and the other for foreign words, they can teach both alphabets within a short period of time, and students may find it easier to differentiate the two kana alphabets in their minds, without getting confused about when to use which kana alphabet.

But let's look at how katakana is used in modern Japanese society. In reality, although the most frequent use of katakana is probably still for loanwords, of which there are many in Japanese, katakana is also often used for the less emphasized purposes of onomatopoeia, emphasis, and scientific formalization. Its use for names is also wider than simply for names of foreign origin: brand names also tend to be written in katakana, such as Suzuki (スズキ) for example. Why is katakana used in these ways?

What are the characteristics of katakana? Historically, katakana was used by men while hiragana was used mainly by women. (The division male/female is linked to formal/informal, and outside/inside. Formal documents, for example, were all written in kanji with katakana.) Maybe for this reason, katakana is still associated with rough, harsh, loud sounds, at least in comparison to hiragana. This may also be due to the form of the kana themselves: katakana are angular and straight-forward, hiragana are full of curves. Katakana, like hiragana, are easier to read for children (and Japanese learners) than kanji.

Since it is so commonly mentioned and taught, we tend not to ask why loanwords are written in katakana. One of my classmate has theorized that this is linked to the fact that katakana are associated with harsher sounds, and therefore are more suited to foreign sounds which are often unnatural to the Japanese speaker. I personally believe there must have been a conscious decision to apply this standard to all loanwords, and that it was probably due to historical factors surrounding the entry of foreign words into Japan. In particular, I believe that the first foreign words were mainly scientific words and appeared in formal publications, hence the use of katakana.

Katakana can be used to emphasize a word, because it looks different from hiragana. In Japanese, there are no spaces between words, so it is difficult to skim through a text with only hiragana, because there is no way to parse between particles (non-specific information) and nouns/verbs/adjectives/adverbs (elements carrying specific information). One way to indicate that a word is a word (as opposed to a particle) is by writing it in kanji. However, for words that do not have kanji, that have kanji that are not well-known, or that are too complicated (too many strokes), katakana accomplishes the same purpose of differentiating particle and word. Moreover, katakana looks neater and clearer than hiragana, due to the straight strokes, sharp angles and more empty space, so it successfully attracts attention.

In the example below, which comes from instructions on a bottle of salad dressing (ごま, イカリbrand) the katakana reads "ビンはワレモノです”. ビン means bottle, and it can also be written in kanji 瓶 or in hiragana. ワレモノmeans fragile object, and it can also be written in kanji 破れ物 or hiragana. The message ("This bottle is fragile") is obviously important, and since this is the only part of the instructions written in katakana, we can assume the katakana was used to bring attention to this sentence. In this situation, I'm not sure whether katakana was be used instead of kanji because the kanji for these words are not well-known (this would be the one sentence that you would want children to understand), or because they are too complicated and would be hard to read in such a small font (the bottle was relatively small), or simply because katakana would be more eye-catching, and therefore more successful at emphasis.

Here are two other examples of interesting use of katakana, which both come from the manga GINTAMA 銀魂. The first is an example of onomatopoeia, ザッ (zah). This function of katakana is not uncommon. What I found interesting there was the typography – in this case, the onomatopoeia was drawn in, and it is part of the image rather than the dialogue. The way it is drawn somewhat reflects the impression it is supposed to give – here, the bold strokes add to the confrontational and daring situation of the 'hero' prepared to fight alone against a group of men.

In this second example, only a part of the word is written in katakana (the ending), and it is not written in a grammatically correct way. The katakana here describes a sound – the drawling of the character's voice – just like it does in onomatopoeia. The fact that it switches halfway through the word is the most interesting there and it shows the versatility of hiragana and katakana. The use of katakana also matches with the speech style, because it is a very masculine and somewhat rough speech pattern, and adds a visual factor to the "toughness" of the character.

私の家族〜

一人で五回ぐらいレコードしました…ビデオブログはなんかはずかしいです。^////^