Not much to talk about today!
It:s christmas eve, so many people aren:t out I imagine.
However, a massive thank you to the guest who gave me the wooden box/shelf thing!
And thanks to Yoko as always for helping with translation.
What is the difference between these 2 sentences?
Where is she from?
Where does she come from?
They have the same meaning in English, but different grammar.
Merry Christmas to everyone, and I hope to see you all in the New Year!
Hello again everyone,
It's the last Saturday of the year for English Cafe Wa! I hope you have had a great time visiting us and reading the blog.
Last week we talked about Black Friday, but today we talked about when, how, and to who Americans give these presents. Without a doubt, Christmas must be the most expensive holiday of the year for Americans. We exchange gifts with our family of course, but also with close friends and sometimes coworkers. This means we have to buy so many presents each time. Additionaly, the cost of Christmas dinner, a Christmas tree, and other Christmas decorations can be very pricey! I usually feel stressed about finding the best present for each person, wrapping the present, and if I have enough money to pay for everything. Even though it's stressful before Christmas, I really enjoy the time I can spend with family and friends.
The guests taught me a lot about Christmas and New Years in Japan. I didn't know that here we ring the bell at the shrine 108 times. What should do you do if you forget which number you are counting? Start again? Anyway, it's my first time to have New Years in Japan so I think I might go to a shrine or temple and experience it!
Here are some of the words and phrases that came up today:
ticket scalpers: These are people who stand outside of a concert or sports game and when the tickets are sold out, they try to sell some tickets at a higher price. It's against the law in most places in America.
scarf: In English, we call the long piece of cloth that goes around your neck a "scarf". In Japanese, there is a difference between "sukafu" and "mafuraa", but in English they are both called "scarf".
same old-same old: This is a colloquial saying which means something like "everything is as it usually is" or, "nothing has changed", "nothing interesting happened".
Ex: "Hey Aaron, what's up? How is your soccer team doing these days?"
"You know, same old-same old."
Thanks for reading, and it's my last blog post for this year, so Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
I had fun talking with everyone today. I got to find out what everyone was doing for Christmas and New Years. I have discovered many new foods and types of celebrations that people do for New Years, and also how celebrations differ from Australia.
At one stage, we had an interesting conversation about counting systems in Japan. Because it is something I struggle with, I was happy to learn many different counting systems. Even some guests learned some that they did not know before from another guest. It felt good knowing we were learning together!
I talked about Australia a lot with customers as we exchanged ideas on customs. I even learned some things about Australia from the guests which I did not know before. Mostly, we talked about the beaches and how they differ, the dangers and the Great Barrier Reef. Talking about Australia lead to discussion on airlines and which are our favourites, and travelling times between countries.
Overall, I think it was fun and we had many conversations. I learned a lot about the guests and I feel like everyone is very friendly. It is good!
Today、we talked about eating unhealthy food over the upcoming holidays. The students mentioned liking potato chips, cake, cookies, and also Japanese-style sweets such as manju and tae-yaki. (With anko paste).
Other topics were travel and travel shows. One students has been to thirty-six countries! She is very knowledgeable about foreign customs and living abroad, as she lived in Taiwan for about three months.
What I learned was hthe custom of sending black postcards ("kuro hagaki"?) in the case of a family member passing on during the year. This custom means that a regular New Year's card shouldn't be sent during the holidays.
Words learned: compliment (saying something nice about someone or something) and the idiom "pick up". It has many different meanings, depending on the object of the sentence.
EX: I picked up Spanish on my trip to Spain. (learned)
I picked up a cold. (I caught a cold).
I picked up my wife at the station. (met)
I picked up a pencil. (took)
I picked up a newspaper. (bought)
There are many more meanings, but these are the basics.
Today I had many different conversations with the customers. When I arrived, we talked about celebrating Christmas and New Years and the differences between Japan and Australia. I found out that Christmas is more like a holiday, while New Years is a much larger spiritual event. I was taught about the special decorations and foods that were special to New Years celebrations and I found it really interesting. The decorations seemed similar to Christmas wreathes. We discussed Boxing Day in Australia and what it means to celebrate this event. I found out through a customers book that not every country celebrates this as I thought previously. It was good to learn of different customs and celebrations.
I also learned of the difficulty involved in getting into high school and university. Compared to my own country, it is quite a different process. There are many exams and the competition is quite fierce. I think it is interesting to see how much time is spent in order to achieve well academically. This topic really interests me.
It was good talking with everyone today.
Good evening! It's getting dark outside so much earlier these days, isn't it? It sometimes feels like I'm staying awake very late, even though I usually go to sleep at a reasonable time. Do you feel the same?
In our freetalk today we discussed about a few topics, including Black Friday. Black Friday is a shopping custom in America (maybe in Canada and Europe too, but I'm not sure) that happens every year on the day after Thanksgiving. On this day shops all over the country, from major department stores to smaller specialty shops, have their best deals of the year. Customers are thinking about trying to finish buying presents to give their family and friends for Christmas, so they try and get good discounts on products during Black Friday (and usually Saturday and Sunday, too!). Many stores even open on Friday morning right at midnight. It can sometimes become a dangerous situation because everyone wants to get a good deal and they might get into arguments or even physical fights! Personally, I don't enjoy Black Friday at all, so I stay home. Even if I can save money, I really don't want to be in a big crowd, pushing and trying so hard to get something. Recently, many online shops like Amazon are doing "Cyber Monday", where you can get a good deal shopping online. I would much rather do shopping on Cyber Monday.
We also talked for a bit about how school has changed in Japan over the years. I learned from our guests that when they were kids, some of them had 60 or more students in their class, and a total of over 3000 students in one grade level at a school! It seems like it would be so difficult for the teachers to remember everyone's name. One guest said he could ditch class easily by moving his desk into the bathroom. That way, when the teacher checks for absent students, they won't see an empty desk. Isn't that clever?
Here are few words and phrases that were learned today:
ditch class: "To ditch" something means to leave it behind, or abandon it. So, to ditch class means the
same as skipping class. You can also ditch work, or ditch your friend at a party, but it's
not very considerate to do so.
intimidating: This adjective describes someone or something that makes you feel uncomfortable,
because you admire them so much or because you are afraid of them. For example, a
famous person can be intimidating. An intimidating person is difficult to talk to because you
are so afraid of what they will think or how they will react to you. Do you know any
intimidating people?
strenuous: Strenuous is an adjective that means something close to "intense", but has a nuance of
being physically difficult. Good examples would be a "strenuous workout" or "strenuous
hike". In a sentence, you can use it like this: "Taking care of young children is a strenuous
such a strenuous job!". I think parents would agree with me!
Tonight we talked about a variety of topics.
They were: New Year's plans and resolutions (decisions), food and snacks, things to do over the holidays and babies, as two of the students are going to have babies next year. It seems most Japanese like to go to shrines or temples on New Year's day (or the day after) and spend time with their relatives and family.
What I learned from the students was something very interesting. It is an application you can use to document your baby's growth. The students said it was free, and all you have to do is to download it from the website. Once you have it downloaded, you can take your picture and the application will put it into a virtual album for you to look at. I didn't know about that at all!
We also discussed baby's names and who decides on which names are used. Some of the names were too difficult for me to pronounce, but it was all very interesting!
As for English focus, some of the expressions mentioned were "looking forward to", "so far" "I like everything and hate nothing".
Ex: I'm looking forward to going to an onsen tomorrow/I'm looking forward to meeting her.
So far--ex: How are you doing so far? So far, so good!
Are you okay so far?
Vocabulary mentioned: snacks, dried squid, rice crackers (sembei) bean paste, puffer fish (fugu), seaweed (konbu).
We talked about love and our experiances,and it was so interesting.
-Actually I learned how Japanese people think about love and what girls feel when they become in relationships.
-We read this article and I learned them the form of articals.
-the difference between (paragraph and sentences)
-I gave them a lot of new words like (interrupt-change-pretend-might-crush-relationship-friendship-yourself-awesome-attracted-bringing-conversation-into.....etc)
It was very amazing day :)
Today we talked a lot about music. Genres, different groups japanese and international and movies and dramas.
Furhtermore we talked about school and living abroud.
I taught them the words dormitory and criteria, and learned a lot about music festivals in Japan.
It was fun and interesting like always.
Today we talked about New Year's plans, online shopping and parties
Words and expressions-- online shopping, identity theft, password, hang (decorations) customary Japanese food, drop in/by, and ornaments.
useful phrases--ex: I hang the ornaments from the tree/on the wall/on the door.
ex: I do my online shopping for my family and have to use a password.
I am worried about identity theft. (someone takes my name and number and uses it to buy goods).
I will drop in on my friends over New Year's= I will visit my friends over New Year's.
What I learned from the students was about 'o-sechi'. It was interesting, as I didn't know wives usually prepared it in advance so that they wouldn't have to cook over New Year's. Very interesting!
