Minority Names

When you live in a place like California, you meet a lot of people with non-English names. Most of these are Spanish, but there are many Chinese, Vietnamese, Indian, and other Asian names as well. Because English doesn't have anything like katakana, there's no way to tell immediately that a name is "foreign". I didn't really know why some of my friends were Santos and some were Iyengar until I was in junior high school, when I first learned about racism and discrimination.

Looking back, I can see some trends among the names of the minority groups the kids in my classes came from.

Korean kids often had Biblical names, like Eunice, Grace, John or Paul.

Indian kids usually had Indian names, like Vijay, Raaj, Preeti, or Purnima.

All the Chinese kids I knew had very English-sounding names they used in school, which were sometimes the names on their birth certificates, sometimes the closest English equivalent to their original Chinese name, and sometimes totally different. For example, a kid whose legal name was "Yenxia" might be called "Angie" (which sounds similar), or might be called "Rose" (which sounds totally different). No one, however, was called "Yenxia" at school. I guess they thought their classmates couldn't pronounce the original Chinese.

The Japanese kids all had English-sounding first names and Japanese middle names, like Robert Taro Taniguchi or Michelle Aiko Kitamura.

The Vietnamese kids usually had Vietnamese names, which unfortunately sound a bit strange to the other kids sometimes.

Of course, all the kids were American citizens too.

Accents

This woman on youtube is much better at doing accents than I am... check it out!

Stanford vs. Harvard

I thought it was interesting that Barack Obama and Yukio Hatoyama both went to such prestigious universities in the US. I wonder if they felt any old rivalries? Traditionally, Harvard is a rival of Yale rather than Stanford - although all top-tier universities probably have some level of rivalry with each other. My university didn't really have rivalries, except maybe at the medical school. That's what happens when you go to a school without many good sports teams!

Tokyo

I went to Tokyo over the weekend to see a doctor. Don't worry, it's nothing serious! In fact, you'll realize why right away the next time you see me.

Anyway, I had a bit of free time, so I decided to wander around. I walked around Ginza, Kamiyacho, Roppongi, and Ebisu. Ginza is certainly the most expensive place of the four! I found a nice music store with guitars, but I couldn't afford any of them. That's Ginza for you!

Halloween

Are you going to any parties tonight? I'm not... because I'm working at the school today.

Halloween has gotten more and more popular in Japan over the last few years. Even I've noticed this! In the 5 years since I first arrived, I've seen more and more decorations and costumes for sale each October. Still, like Christmas, everything seems much more kid-focused here. In the US, adults have halloween parties too, and the TV is full of scary movies for most of October, movies that kids can't watch. I used to hate watching TV around this time of year, because there would always be something scary on. Of course, kids get to go trick-or-treating, so they get something out of it too.

Countable Coffee

You probably learned in high school, and from me as well, that drinks and other liquids are usually uncountable. Well, this isn't always true. The liquid itself is uncountable, but people still sometimes refer to that liquid in one of its most common containers as, for example, "a water". So:

"2 cokes" could mean 2 bottles of coke, 2 cans of coke, or maybe 2 glasses of coke at a restaurant.

"a coffee" could mean either one type of coffee, like "mocha is a popular coffee", or an order of coffee, or even a single serving of coffee in a jar or can.

Try to keep track when the drinks in the following paragraph are being referred to as (countable) servings or types, or (uncountable) liquids.

I went to my favorite bar the other day to get a beer, which I often do on Fridays after work. There's a beer there called Spaten that I really like. At this bar, as opposed to other bars, they really do give you a proper pint of beer when you ask for one. Some of the customers order cocktails instead of beer, too. I prefer beer.

The American Media on Japan

For some reason, the mass media in the US really likes reporting on the bizarre facets of Japanese society. You won't find many serious articles on, for example, Hatoyama's proposal to make all expressways free; but you will find articles on such curiosities as maid cafes, white people serving as fake priests in weddings, and pornography marketed toward the elderly. Why is this? I think the American public still has difficulty considering Japan a "normal" country. The coverage of Japan tends to focus on the exotic, erotic, and eccentric. After living here for a fairly long time, I find this kind of coverage condescending. But what can we do about it?

A Bad Movie But a Great Play

I saw a movie last week- Romeo+Juliet, which is a modernization of the classic Shakespeare play. I didn't care much for the style or the acting, but it reminded me of how great Shakespeare's writing was. Take, for example, this scene where Romeo asks the apothecary (which is like a pharmacist) for some poison:

Apothecary
Such mortal drugs I have; but Mantua's law
Is death to any he that utters them.

ROMEO
Art thou so bare and full of wretchedness,
And fear'st to die? famine is in thy cheeks,
Need and oppression starveth in thine eyes,
Contempt and beggary hangs upon thy back;
The world is not thy friend nor the world's law;
The world affords no law to make thee rich;
Then be not poor, but break it, and take this.

Apothecary
My poverty, but not my will, consents.

ROMEO
I pay thy poverty, and not thy will.

You might need to look some of the words up, as I did when I read this in 8th grade - but it's worth the effort!

Nice hair!

The US media is all abuzz this week with the antics of one Kanye West, a very successful rapper and producer. According to the news, during a young country star's acceptance speech for an award she received, Kanye jumped on stage, took the mic, and said that he thought Beyonce actually deserved it. Now Beyonce had a very good year, so many people agree with him, but still think he was wrong to jump on stage during another person's acceptance speech. Check out youtube and see for yourself.

Regardless of this controversy, I must say though that Kanye West has a very cool haircut.

Ripoff Movies

If you browse the DVDs for rent at the local GEO or Tsutaya, you'll notice that many movies have similar names. A lot of the time, this is because a smaller movie studio is trying to absorb a little bit of the popularity of a very big-name movie from bigger studio. For example, if a movie called "Blade" is currently a big hit in theaters, a smaller movie company might make a fast and cheap movie, call it "Blades" and release it directly to DVD. Sometimes DVD renters are genuinely confused by this and a movie that they didn't intend to, and sometimes they rent the cheaper, smaller-budget movie on purpose just hoping that it's like the popular one. It seems to be especially common in the "horror" section - the other day, I saw at least 3 different movies from a series called "Jigsaw", in an obvious ripoff of the "Saw" movies. Try not to be fooled when you go looking for movies to rent!

Election!

It looks like the Democratic Party of Japan (usually abbreviated DPJ) won by a landslide over the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). I don't know what will happen as a result of this, but I am sure that this is a big change for Japanese politics.

I'm also glad that the campaign sound trucks will no longer be driving up and down the bypass outside our window. Regardless of who won, that is a good thing.

My Curry Recipe

Many of you know that my favorite food is curry. When I make it at home, this usually what I use:

1/2 a tube of ginger
4-6 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon of cumin seed
1 onion, chopped
1 teaspoon of each: turmeric, coriander, chili powder, and garam masala
1 can of whole tomatoes
1/2 can of coconut milk
1 can of lentils
olive oil
salt

Fry the onion, ginger, garlic and cumin seed in oil until the onions get soft and a bit clear. Then add the turmeric, coriander, chili powder and garam masala and stir to mix it all up. Next, add the can of tomatoes and break up the whole tomatoes into pieces. Add the coconut milk and the lentils (without the juice from the can) and let it boil down until it's thicker than a milkshake. Taste it and add more spices and salt until it's the way you like it.

Optionally, I often use additional spices like cardamon or fennel seed if I have them. Also, you can use cow's milk instead of coconut milk if you don't want it to taste sweet. I usually use more chili powder too, but that's because I like my curry to be spicy.

If you can't find canned lentils, try dried lentils from one of the Brazilian stores in Fuji or Numazu. They're cheaper and they cook pretty quickly.

Slow Food

I read a book recently about good eating habits. The author had quite a few tips on how to eat healthily, but this one is my favorite: "Don't eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food".

For example, my great-grandmother probably wouldn't think a Soyjoy bar were food at first glance. It doesn't really look like food, does it? On the other hand, she would easily recognize natto as food, even if she'd never eaten it before. It looks like food. I think the point is to keep your foods simple, and to use whole, natural ingredients.

I like this rule, but it makes going to the convenience store feel pretty pointless!

Summer Vacation

Our summer vacation starts on the 13th, and continues until next Monday. Our first post-vacation class is on the 18th. Please make a note of it - and enjoy your time off!

Bicycle

Do you know why a bicycle is called a bicycle and a unicycle is called a unicycle? It's because "uni" means "one" and "bi" means "two". Also, the "tri" from triangle means "three", and "quad" from "quadrilateral" means "four".

How many more words do you know with "uni", "bi", or "tri" in them?

Here are a few...

uniform, unique, binary, bisexual, tricycle, trivia

What do you call a vehicle with three wheels?

Monthly Newsletter

Starting this month, the OC monthly newsletter includes a collection of funny and/or interesting quotes from students, taken from class. You never know what you're going to have the opportunity to hear when you arm kids with a new grammar point and some new vocabulary. This month we talked about jobs and careers with our elementary and preschool classes - kids have some enlightening things to say about their occupational dreams for the future! Check it out!

E-Kanji

Many of you know that I study Japanese sometimes in my spare time. My first year in Japan, I studied at least an hour every night - but lately I haven't been studying as much. I have been reading a few interesting things, though. One is a sports magazine from the 1980s I bought used. It's titled "The Truth about Rikidozan", and it has a big article on his life.

The other is a book about the histories and etymologies of various kanji, the Chinese ideographs which are supposed to make learning Japanese so difficult. I actually enjoy them more than many other parts of Japanese, though. For example, the character 妾 originally symbolized a woman with a tattoo needle. According to the book, in ancient China, a person who committed a crime had to get a tattoo, and a woman who had such a tattoo would probably become a servant. A lot of kanji are related to religion and war - two things that are rather taboo in modern Japan. To me, that just makes them even more interesting!

Michael Jackson

People like to talk about how Michael Jackson "transcended race". This is one thing he symbolized to Americans that was perhaps even more important than his music or dance moves - that he wasn't clearly a member of "the black community" or "the white community". He was pretty much a community of one.

I was trying to think of people who bridge different groups the same way in Japan - but I don't really know any. I know there are a few Korean-Japanese or Chinese-Japanese entertainers and baseball players, but they usually choose one group to affiliate with instead of standing alone. Sadaharu Oh, for example, probably doesn't like to be called "a Taiwanese baseball star" or "an international star athlete".

Maybe the younger generation has some people who are "between" groups. I wonder what Becky or Yu Darvish would say if you asked them to identify their ethnicities?

Back to School

We're back from a week off. Nice to see you all again!

Why did we take a week off? Well, remember that we have 47 classes per year. There are 52 weeks in a year, leaving 5 weeks of no classes. Now, that doesn't necessarily mean 5 straight weeks off. It just means 5 each of Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Often, holidays fall on normal workdays for us, and we have to take those days off, and subtract them from the total number of classes for that day per year. If a national holiday falls on a day we always have off, Sunday or Monday, we have to take a day off some other time to get the total number of classes down to 47. This year, a lot of holidays fell on our days off, so we had to take another week in summer to bring the total number of classes for each day of the week to 47. That's how it works!

We have to figure this out every year around June so we can hand out the new yearly schedules before August. And why do we start our calendar in August? Because that's the first month the school opened!

No Pain, No Gain

Sometimes people ask me what I recommend as the most efficient way of studying English. I have to say, there certainly are some techniques that are effective and some that are not - but there are no quick or simple study methods that actually work. Usually, when someone asks me how he or she can study using as little time as possible, I just say, "if your goal is to avoid spending time studying, you will not improve. Spend time studying, regardless of method, and you will see improvement." There are probably thousands of books telling people that one specific method is the best of all, but to me, they miss a major point - HOW you study is far less important than THAT you study.

The same is true of exercise - don't waste all your time looking for the single best and most efficient method, just work at it and you'll see results.

I Ain't Heard That!

People often use the word "ain't" in conversation. This is not Standard English, but you might want to know it anyway - just in case. It's like saying "そうじゃねえ” instead of "そうじゃない" in Japanese. If you watch American TV or movies, you probably hear it a lot. Here are some examples:

I'm not 25! = I ain't 25!

He isn't a friend of mine! = He ain't no friend of mine!

She hasn't been there before. = She ain't never been there before.

Did you notice something strange? "Ain't" can be used with "no" or "never" as a double negative. So the sentences "he got nothing" and "he ain't got nothing" mean the same thing. So if you want to say something like "俺は悪くねえ" in English, you might want to try "I ain't done nothing!"

Shizuoka Airport!

Hmm... should I fly to Seoul or Shanghai? It's so hard to decide, and I've never been to either of them.

Many of our students have been to Seoul, but most of them just talk about the food. I'm not very interested in Korean food, though I like kimchee. I might go to China, then. Shanghai looks interesting. I wish this airport had flights to Europe!

Spelling Bee

According to the news, the final word of the most recent national spelling bee was "laodicean". That's a tough word! I don't think I've ever heard it before. It turns out that it refers to an ancient Greek woman named "Laodice". That's often true for very old and obscure words in English - they refer to some very old Greek or Roman person or place. The same is true for the words "odyssey", "august" (the adjective), and even the very common word, "Saturday"!

Magical Mystery Tour

What's your favorite Beatles album? Many people say Magical Mystery Tour was their best, but I always enjoyed their earlier, "pop" albums the most.

My dad was lucky enough to actually see a Beatles concert back in the 1960s! Even if you didn't have that chance, you can still catch the Rolling Stones or Deep Purple on tour. Hurry up though, those guys have got to be all in their 70s by now.

Relax, Chill, Unwind

It feels good to unwind after a long day of work. What do you do to unwind?

I usually read or play guitar to unwind. Lately I've been reading a lot of science books. Science can be difficult to understand, but it definitely takes my mind off of work. It's very relaxing.

Do you know what this is? It's the ancestor of modern whales! Interesting eh? This is what I've been reading about.

Golden Week

How was your week? Did you have fun? Did you go anywhere special?

I went to Mt. Minobu and saw a very nice temple called Kuon-ji. Have you been there? It's a very lovely place, surrounded by greenery and full of ancient-looking buildings. When I did a little bit of research, I discovered that it's one of the most important places in Nichiren Buddhism. I didn't know that! It sure was pretty though, whatever religious meaning it has.

Find Your Blind Spot!

We all have a blind spot in our eyes. To see yours, try this:

1. Cover your right eye.

2. Move your head to about 30-50 cm from your computer monitor.

3. Read the alphabet here, and pay attention to the big black dot.



See? It disappeared!

Vegetarianism

To add to what I wrote in last month's newsletter, here are some of the things I eat instead of meat:

-Pasta
-Indian curry
-Kimchee
-Chili
-Tacos and burritos
-Vegetable hot pot ("nabe")
-Miscellaneous stir-fried vegetables and tofu

They're not always healthy. The naan that comes with Indian curry is usually very high-calorie, and I probably use too much salt on most of the food I cook. Still, I hope this answers your questions on exactly how I survive without eating meat.

WBC

Congratulations to Team Japan! They gave it their all, and came through in the end. I'm sure the Korean team was disappointed, especially after such a close game, but they did very well in the tournament anyway. I don't think anyone has anything to be ashamed of.

Many people think I must be disappointed that Team USA was eliminated in the semifinals, but actually, I didn't really mind. When it comes to sports, I usually just like to watch well-played games. I don't root for one side to win, just for an interesting match. I do wish that the best players from the Major Leagues would participate in the WBC, though. Unfortunately, most of their fans don't watch the WBC, and not much money is at stake, so I suppose they're just not interested. It's too bad, because I'm sure many more Americans would watch the WBC if Alex Rodriguez were involved.

I Lost My Voice!

Students who came on Thursday and Friday definitely noticed... I lost my voice!

I had a cold over the weekend, and I've been coughing and sneezing during the week. Thursday morning, my voice was rough and scratchy. By the evening classes, I could barely talk at all!

The next morning, my voice was still very rough and unclear, but at least I could do something besides whisper. I'll probably be OK by next week.

Finally Warming Up!

It's about time!

After an especially cold week, we're finally having some slightly warmer weather here. Hopefully it won't snow anymore this year!

Many of you have been sick lately. I hope the warm weather brings you better health!

February

February is almost over!

Did you know that in old Roman calendars, there were no January or February? That's right! March used to be the first month of the year. That's why "October" has the same "oct" as "octopus" and "octagon". "Oct" means 8. So happy new year again!

The Japan Times

I have a letter in the English-language newspaper The Japan Times this week! Go and read it if you want:

Look on the 2nd page.

The original article is linked from there. If you want to, feel free to write your own letter to the editors!

Wikipedia

I often use Wikipedia as a reference when reading or studying. It can be fun to read articles in both English and Japanese on the same subject. Often, you can learn new vocabulary just by comparing the text of the two articles. Unfortunately, sometimes the articles say very different things - but this can be interesting too! I recommend reading the English-language articles on subjects you know very well in Japanese. You might be surprised at what is written!

3 Syllables or 4?

One reason (of many reasons) I don't like katakana as a way of transcribing English is that it adds syllables to words. For example, take the word "word". It's one syllable in English, but 3 in katakana. "Peace" and "needs" are the same.

Basically, a syllable in English can have 3 parts - an onset, a nucleus, and a coda.

A one-syllable word like "splat" breaks down like this:

SPL A T
onset nucleus coda

The nucleus is almost always a vowel. All syllables have a nucleus - but not all syllables have an onset or coda. The word "a" has only a nucleus.

The onset and coda consist of consonants - in the above case, "spl" and "t". Some combinations are allowed, and some are not. You'll never see a word in English spelled "lpsitc", but "splict" would be OK.

Of course, if you use katakana, all those parts become one syllable each. This makes correct pronunciation much harder to learn.

Parking Spots

O.C. English's parking spots are now 14, 15, and 16. Please remember not to park in 17.


As of this week, O.C. English's parking spaces have changed from 15, 16, and 17 to 14, 15, and 16. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you.

Exonyms

Do you know what an exonym is? It's a word you use for certain people, that they don't use for themselves. For example, in English the country the Olympics are from is called "Greece". However, people in Greece don't use that word - they call their country "Ellada" or "Hellas". We call them that, but they don't call themselves that. "Japan" is another example - most people here call their country "Nihon", not "Japan".

It's interesting to find out the stories of why we started using these words. Have you ever wondered why "Japan" in English is different from "Nihon" in Japanese? How about why England is called "Igirisu" in Japanese? Why do both English and Japanese call one country "Spain" when they call themselves "España"? Language can sure be a mystery sometimes.

A Mild Cold

I had a mild cold this weekend. I wasn't stuck in bed, but I had to sneeze or blow my nose once every few minutes. It wasn't fun, but I've had worse colds before.

I tried something new to ease my symptoms: Ginger, garlic, orange peel and red pepper tea. It smelled terrible, but I think it made me feel a bit better. Plus, I got to use some of the huge bag of garlic I bought at Costco last year.

Who knew?

I had always believed that badminton was a very minor sport in the US - practiced mostly by high school kids not popular enough to be on the tennis team. Thus, I wasn't expecting to find any good places to play on my short vacation back in California. Oh, how little did I know!



This gigantic facility has more courts than I could count, and is staffed by the ex-coach of the Thai national badminton team, among other very big-name people. A sign out front said that this facility is where the US Olympic team trained, too. Who knew a badminton club this size would be just a short drive from my house?

We're back!

We have returned! Prepare yourselves for another fun year with OC English!

California was great. Here's a sample of what you can see there: