Long time no see!

Actually, most people don't use the phrase "long time no see" much. It's too old and too cliche. I usually use the phrase "It's been awhile", or ask "How have you been?" I don't think "long time no see" in English is as common as 「お久しぶり」is in Japanese.

Gobblet

We played a game called "Gobblet" this week. The word "gobble" means "to eat quickly and with great appetite". Coincidentally, it also means "the sound a turkey makes". Here are some more words that mean "to eat with great gusto":

gobble
devour
inhale
wolf down
pig out on

Here are a few words to mean "to eat lightly and/or politely":

dine on
nibble
nosh on
relish
snack on

Native American food

People around the world know Thanksgiving as an American holiday - but please don't forget the Native Americans who were 1/2 of the people at the first Thanksgiving! If it hadn't been for Native American farmers, none of us would have potatoes, chocolate, tomatoes, corn, sweet potatoes, peanuts, and many other things. I'm thankful they grew all those plants and shared them with the world!

Cornucopia

Have you ever seen one of these? This is called a cornucopia. It's also called a Horn of Plenty. It's a symbol of abundant food and of the harvest. Around Thanksgiving, you can see these almost everywhere in the US.

According to Greek legend, the original cornucopia was the horn of a magic goat. The cornucopia has a long history in European and American culture!

Boo!

In English, "boo!" is the sound you make to scare someone. "Yikes!", the word on our mirror, is a word to show surprise. I think it's funny that "boo" in Japan usually means "car" or "fart". "Meh" in Japanese is what a sheep says. In English, it means "I don't care" or "I'm not impressed". Sometimes even the simplest sounds can be interesting to study in another language!

Halloween

Halloween is coming soon! Are you going to dress up? I was a cowboy last year. A few years before that I was a ninja. When I was a little boy, I was a bat and a knight. I've never been a ghost, and I've never been a vampire. Maybe I'll try one of those this time.

The Funniest Conversation 1

Sometimes students say pretty funny things in class. It's important to practice grammar, and so sometimes you might say something in English that you would never say in Japanese. That's part of learning a new language. Still, some of the things you say are worth writing down because they're so funny - like this one!

(from a Junior High schooler class)

Student 1: Have you ever eaten food?

Me: Yes, I have.

Student 1: Why?

Michael Jackson

He certainly is musically talented - but gosh! Look at how much his appearance has changed! He used to be a lot darker, and he used to look more manly. Now, he looks very pale and feminine. How did this happen?

Bugs!

Compared to Fujinomiya, there aren't many bugs in Orange County, California. I think it's because it's so dry there, and there are too many houses. I know there are cicadas, centipedes, and many other small critters in the US - but I've never seen them near my house.

There are some dangerous spiders, though. One of them is called the Black Widow. Here's a picture:



These are very dangerous - don't touch them! We also have something called a Velvet Ant:



Be careful around these things, if you see them!

Listening

I recommended to many of you to try CDs and DVDs to improve your listening ability. Children's books on CD are very helpful, especially for learning some common vocabulary and idioms that you probably didn't learn in high school. We have some here that you can borrow, or you can order some over the Internet.

As for DVDs, TV shows such as dramas or sitcoms are good for learning common social vocabulary. I don't recommend action shows or shows for teenagers because the vocabulary is too specialized.

Good luck!

I've Been Working!

You use "I've been ..." to talk about things you started before, and have continued until now. It's a good piece of grammar to use when I ask you, "Anything new?" or "How have you been?"

Lately, I've been using the electric fan a lot. I was surprised to hear that people say you shouldn't use a fan at night. I wonder why? I've been using the fan every night, and I'm fine. What have you been doing to cool down this summer?

Lightning!

There was some lightning last night! Did any of you see it? It was off in the hills near Shizuoka, I think. I didn't hear any thunder, though. I guess it was too far away.

Summer Vacation!

Summer vacation is about to start! In answer to your questions, I'm not planning to go back to California next week. The reasons are that tickets are too expensive, the fuel surcharge is too expensive, and also that I only have a week. When I go to California I like to take at least 2 weeks so I can truly relax.

It's Hot!

There are many synonyms for "hot" in English, especially when talking about the weather. Here are a few to try out:

-It's a scorcher!
-It's sweltering!
-It's boiling hot!
-It's sizzling!
-It's hotter than a hen in a wool blanket!

These all sound uncomfortably hot. In the winter, you'd usually use "snug", "toasty", or just "warm" to show a comfortable level of warmth.

Verbs from nouns 2

The joke we used in class 2 weeks ago, "Yo mama's so skinny she hula hoops with a bracelet", surprised some students. Many of you were surprised that "hula hoop" is a verb. Yes, it is, and it's also a noun. Many common tools or objects can be used as verbs. The verb is usually the action you do with that tool. For example:

A hammer -> "He used a hammer to hammer in a nail."
A keyboard -> "You use a keyboard to key in data."
A nail -> "The chair is nailed to the floor. You can't move it."
A pencil -> "She pencilled a new appointment into her schedule."

Some objects' names can be used as verbs whose meanings aren't totally obvious.

A card -> "The bartender carded me, so I had to show my ID."
A shelf -> "After deciding that it was too expensive, we shelved the plan."
A book -> "The tickets are booked for the 29th. We depart at 3:30 pm."
A screw -> "I missed my job interview! I'm screwed!" (this one is quite vulgar)

Bass!

I got a used electric bass. I play it almost every day.

Did you know there are 2 ways to play bass? One is with your hands, and the other is with a pick. I already use a pick to play guitar, so I'm trying to play bass with my fingers. It's hard, but also very fun.

I watched some great bassists on youtube.com and listened to some bass players on CD - Geddy Lee is especially inspiring!

An Old Hobby

When I was younger, I used to paint metal miniatures. I used these in a role-playing game you play on top of a ping-pong table, in a big battle. It looked like this. I spent hours painting those little things - and maybe 1/10 that amount of time actually playing. Still, the most fun part was imagining what I would use them for while I painted them.

30 Days

One of my favorite TV shows is called 30 Days. It stars the creator of the movie Super Size Me, who is the narrator. The show follows people who try to live someone else's life for 30 days. Usually their new lives are very different from their old ones; for example in one episode a conservative Christian has to live for 30 days as a Muslim. Sometimes people get used to their new lives, and sometimes they end up a bit bitter. It's always interesting to watch, though.

New Guitar

There's a new guitar in the classroom - have you noticed?

I like to joke that my old guitar just lost weight, but actually I took it home. It's a relief not to have to have that big thing hanging on the wall anymore.

Finals week!

Right now all across the US, young people from elementary school to college are preparing for and taking their final exams. Finals exams, or "finals", are the last tests of the school year. For the next 3 months, almost all of them will have no school.

When I was in high school, I spent one summer doing an internship at a small internet cafe. That was pretty interesting. In college, I usually worked or played with my band. It may seem like a big waste of time, but to me it was an important chance to develop my own interests and grow as an individual.

TV!

We got a TV to use in class! What will we watch this week? Come and find out!

Incidentally, did you know that the "tele" in "television" means "far" or "remote"? Look at these other words that use the same prefix:

tele+phone (far-sound)
tele+scope (far-see)
tele+commute (far-commute)
tele+marketing (far-marketing)

Very very very interesting!

I often hear students saying "very very very good" or "very very delicious" when they're trying to show strong feelings about something. Usually, native English speakers use another word for that kind of case. Often, these strong words are called "ungradeable adjectives", since you don't use "very" with them. They're strong enough, even without "very". Here are a few:

very very very good -> great, awesome, spectacular

very very very good (tasting) -> delicious, delectable, mouth-watering

very very very funny-> hilarious, gut-busting

very very very interesting-> intriguing, enthralling, spellbinding

very very very exciting-> exhilirating, jaw-dropping, thrilling

Verbs from Nouns

One confusing but useful aspect of English grammar is its flexibility. A noun can sometimes be a verb, and a verb can easily change into an adjective and adverb. Take the word "interest", for example.

It can be a noun: "I have no interest in your ideas."
It can be a verb: "Your plans don't interest me."
Adding -ing can make it an adjective: "His movies are very interesting."
And adding -ly to the adjective makes an adverb: "Interestingly, he's a great director
although his acting is just mediocre."

You already know the words "hand", "stomach", "eye", and "skin" - but do you know what they mean as verbs? Try looking them up!

Warm

It's finally warming up! It was a bit warm last month, and then we had a bit of rain. Now it's starting to feel a bit more like summer.

Like "cold", the word "warm" has many uses. Behold!

He's a very warmhearted person. (He's very kind)
I left the hot soup sitting out too long, and now it's just lukewarm. (It's not hot anymore)
At first she didn't like her boss, but she warmed to him after awhile. (She started to like him more)

Try using a few in your diaries!

Trail Mix

Trail mix is one product I definitely miss when I leave the US. If you don't know what trail mix is, it's a snack food made of dried fruit, nuts, and sometimes seeds or small pieces of candy. It's usually pretty good for you, and it tastes very good. I guess it's like granola, but you eat it with your hands. You can buy it at any gas station in the US. Try it if you have the chance!

We're off!

Enjoy your time off, and we'll try to enjoy ours! See you when the shine wears off this Golden Week!

Accent-leveling

Today, someone from Kyushu and someone from Hokkaido can speak to each other with relative ease, as they've both likely mastered the Standard Japanese dialect as well as their own local one. Likewise, a factory worker from Scotland and one from South Africa have probably seen at least some of the same TV shows and movies - and hence are probably capable of communicating in some approximation of a shared English. Modern media has done a lot to facilitate communication between people who, though they may nominally speak the same language, grew up with very different "versions" of it.

One difference between the former and latter examples above though is that there is a "standard" dialect of Japanese in which business and government communication is made, everywhere in Japan. People may say なにしよっと or なにしとん to their families and friends, but when they meet each other they know to use なにしている. There are several standard dialects of English, at least one per country in which it is spoken. Therefore a Welsh woman and a New Yorker grew up not just speaking differently to their peers, but recognizing a different set of standards for formal communication as well. There's no one "Standard English" that applies to English speakers worldwide.

However, teenagers in England listen to American hip-hop, and an Australian wildlife TV show can be a huge hit in the US. We may recognize different standards of this language we call English, but thanks to the global media, we're at least familiar enough with each others' differences that we can still communicate successfully.

Dinner

I'm a big fan of Indian curry. Unfortunately, it takes a long time to make. I found some instant Indian curry for sale in Gotemba last weekend, but it's very expensive! It's worth the price, but just barely.

Vacation

Golden Week is coming soon! What are you going to do?

In the US, there's not "Golden Week", of course. There are other holidays in the US to make up for that, though. Plus, it's standard to get 2 weeks of paid vacation per year.

I heard that in France, they get 5 weeks off per year. What could you do in 5 weeks? If I had 5 weeks off, maybe I'd go on a cruise, or go on a road trip across Canada. I might get bored, though!

Placebo

Since I talk a lot at work to a lot of people, I sometimes take throat lozenges to help my voice and supplements to fight colds. I don't know if these things actually work, though. Maybe they just make me feel better because I feel like I'm doing something for my health. I almost never get sick, so I must be doing something right.

My Aunts

I have 2 aunts who used to smoke for many years. They have both quit, but they still suffer from the negative health effects of that habit. I'm sure smoking feels good, but it's very unhealthy. There's a common saying - "I'd give my right arm to be able to do that!" If you smoke too much, you might have to give your right lung!

Time flies

There's an old saying - "time flies when you're having fun". For me, a better phrase might be "time flies when you have an interesting job." When I worked in front of a computer for 8 hours a day, a week felt like a very long time. Now that I am very busy teaching English to a lot of interesting people, even a month feels short.

When does time fly for you?

Mao Asada

Good grief, that was a painful-looking fall. It almost looked like she was going bowling... with herself.

Anyway, the rest of her program was beautiful to watch - it's really good to see a professional athlete who doesn't get worn down or stressed out over the occasional mistake!

Warmth

There are many ways to make nouns out of adjectives in English. For example:

This is a boring movie. The boringness of it makes me tired.

Adding "ness" works often, but not always. For the weather, we turn adjectives into nouns like this:

It's hot. The heat is melting me.
It's warm today. This warmth is quite comfortable.
There's a cool breeze outside today. The coolness of it is very refreshing.
It's too cold. I hate the cold.

Spring is starting soon - so let's all enjoy the newfound warmth!

Delicious=おいしい?

Most of the time, when you see English speakers eating, they don't say "delicious". They usually say "good". "Delicious" means "tastes very good". It's a very strong word, so you don't use it as much as "good".

Birthdays

We have the most student birthdays in January and February, and the least in April and May. I wonder why?

Let me see the menu...

Many students make this mistake, so I thought I should write about it on the OC blog.

In Japanese, 「メニュー」 means one dish or one food item, or the sheet of paper where they are written.

In English, "menu" is just the sheet of paper with the foods written on it, or sometimes the variety of foods you can order.

Therefore, "I made a new menu" means you have many new items written on a new sheet of paper.

"I learned a new recipe" is pretty close to 「新しいメニューを習いました。」

Hummus, again

This is a Middle Eastern dip I like very much. Try it!

You need:

2 cans garbanzo beans OR white beans (you can buy these at the Seria across the street!)

4 cloves of garlic

2 tablespoons of sesame paste (練り胡麻 works fine)

2 to 4 tablepoons of olive oil

1 or 2 teaspoon of cumin

1 or 2 tablespoons of lemon juice


To make hummus:

1. Fry the garlic in the olive oil until it's soft and a little bit brown.

2. Put the beans (without the liquid in the can), the sesame paste, the cumin, the lemon juice, and the garlic with the oil into a blender. Blend it until it's smooth.

3. Add salt until it tastes good.

4. Serve it cold, with paprika on top. I usually eat it with naan or in a sandwich, but many people like to eat it with chips!

Valentine's Day

It was Valentine's Day yesterday. We got some candy from our students, which makes us very happy. I believe we might gain weight this month.

I read somewhere that Valentine's Day in the US was started by a card company. Who started Valentine's Day in Japan? I assume it was a chocolate company, since Japanese women always give chocolate. I also wonder about White Day. There's no White Day in the US, since men and women all give each other presents on Valentine's Day. I guess we don't need White Day. Maybe someday Japanese people will stop celebrating White Day too... but I bet the candy companies won't like that!

TV Shows

American TV shows are popular here. People often ask me which TV shows I watch. In fact, this is one of the most common questions I get. I only watch a little bit of TV, but here are my favorite shows:

1. The Simpsons - it's incredibly funny and memorable.
2. The Sopranos - the characters are very interesting.
3. Lost - the characters have interesting personal stories.
4. House - I watched this in California this winter. It's addictive!
5. Futurama - The humor is quite strange but I love it.

Word of the Day

My brother sent us a gift! He sent us a 365-day calendar, with one great vocabulary word per page. Some of the words are ones I actually use a lot, like "parlance" (a particular or specialist way of speaking), while some are ones I've never heard of, like "rupicolous" (living or thriving among rocks), but I enjoy all of them anyway. Maybe I should get one in Japanese to help me study!

These are the lyrics to one of my favorite songs:

Once I rose above the noise and confusion,
Just to get a glimpse beyond this illusion.
I was soaring ever higher
But I flew too high.
Though my eyes could see I still was a blind man,
Though my mind could think I still was a mad man;
I hear the voices when I'm dreaming,
I can hear them say:

Carry on my wayward son,
There'll be peace when you are done.
Lay your weary head to rest.
Don't you cry no more.

The song has Christian themes. I am not a Christian, but I enjoy this song anyway.

Where did you go?

As you all know, I went to California over winter vacation. It was warm and sunny almost every day. I didn't go anywhere special - rather I stayed in Orange County almost all the time. It was rainy the last two days, but it still wasn't cold. I really liked the weather.

I bought a new guitar through ebay.com. I won the auction January 3rd, and the guitar arrived at my house January 8th. Unfortunately, I left for Japan January 7th! I still haven't played it. My mom said it looks nice, though.

I'm back!

The hardest things to get used to again about Japan are: 1) the cold, and 2) the Japanese-language keyboard on this computer. I'll get used to both though, eventually.