Why do I post articles here although I have already had my Japanese blog, too?
I had studied English in the senior high school (all Japanese students must do it), and excelled in that small school of a local town, then I entered the university of foreign language having an big ambition that I would like to become an interpreter or work at a trading company.
At the very beginning of the new life as a uneversity student, I found that many peers were much better than me. They were not only fluent English speakers but also intelligent on interenational economy and politics. I was completely deflated and chose the easier way. I evaded from struggling for my dream, and had spent lazy but worked so-so not to fail for all my univ. life.
After graduating, I was in the office work using “only” Japanese language, and six years later I met my husband and got married. I have been a stay at home Mom after my son was born in 2000 and got a daugter in 2004. Taking care of them have been so hard for me that I couldn’t have enough time to think about what I really want to do, or to be.
I knew that first of all I should certainly be a good wife and mother, but at the same time I have been looking for something that make me “me”.
Now, Tatsu, my son was 8 years old and Momo, my daugter is 4. So, I can have a little time to think about myself. Thus, English has come back to me! I don’t mean to try to be an interpreter or some from now, but I want to devote myserlf into what I had given up before.
In this 20 years, the world has totally changed by the progress of internet, so I can know the real and daily lives of all over the world only by turning on my PC. The few wonderful bolgs that I read inspire me so much. I found many ordinary moms over seas doing and worrying as same as Japanese. I can identify with what they say.
So, Reading and Writing such blogs would probably be very good training and help me improve not only my English but also my life.
That is why I started writing this poor English blog.
Thank you for reading!
Hello there!
You have a wonderful blog going here. I, on the other hand, find Nihongo very interesting.
Akemashite omedetou gozaimasu!
Hi, Tesha
Thank you for stopping by!
I remember that I found your avator on the catchan’s blog before!
Feel free to comment often from now on !
これからも遊びに来て下さいね
Hi Naoko!
Thanks for your kind comment on my blog. I’ll be making the corrections you suggested soon. I am always looking to improve my Japanese, so your honest help is wonderful. I am posting on this page (and not the About page) because I have 2 suggestions for you. I use the internet for studying Japanese just like you use it to study English. I thought you might want to know about 2 excellent language learning social sites. (Both are free, and I don’t work for either of them or anything. I just use them.)
1 – iKnow.co.jp is a great flashcard site. It helps a lot with building vocabulary. I’m studying 日本語能力試験１級 grammar and vocabulary on it. The native speaker readings are awesome. And it’s fun. You should add me as a friend if you try it.
2 – Lang-8.com is a place to practice writing. You write something in your target language, and then a native speaker will correct it for you. It’s usually very fast! Add me as a friend on this site too, if you join.
宜しくお願いします。
Hi Deas,
I’m glad to know that you don’t feel offended my nitpicky corrections!
Thank you for your suggestions. I have seen iKnow.co.jp once, and saved it as my bookmarks, but I forgot about it!
Thank you for reminding me. I’ll try it later, and check your another suggestion Lang-8.com.
1級!! すごいですね～
My husband is an Japanese instructor and teaches business people working at some foreign-financed companies in Japan. I have met and talked with some his sutudents that passed 一級. They are almost 日本人! You must be like them.
I’ll try to have 英検準一級, but,,,, I can’t memorize such a many new long complicated Englsh words!!!!
お互い頑張りましょうね！！
Hi Naoko,
I had shared the same experience with you ten years ago. I live in HK. Post more interesting blog in future. I will visit your blog regularly. Your English is good. As you said, “Reading and Writing such blogs would probably be very good training and help me improve not only my English but also my life”
Hi Christina,
I’m happy to have your kind comment.
>I had shared the same experience with you ten years ago.
Oh, you had? Are you mom now?
Feel free to leave your comment and I’m looking forwared to talking together again
First, let me say my real name is Tim. I would feel bad if I hid my ‘gaijin’ status from you since I’m using my cell phone and hence, have no avatar. Secondarily, let me state a hint that make the juggernaut that is the english language a little less cumbersome; English, like nihongo, is a language heavy with borrowed words. While originally a germanic language due to influence from the invasion of the normans in 900-1200 A.D. the language became robust with the old french words still used today. 40% of english comes from french. This is the reason why our meats don’t match our animals. (cows = beef, pigs = pork, etc.). My point is this. If you learn a little german, french, or latin (The mother language of french.) it will help you very, very much.
Another note of importance is the use of articles (a, an, and the). “An” is used before a noun or the adjective that modifies it if it SOUNDS like it begins with a vowel (a, e, i, o, and u). The sound is the important part, such as in; “an apple”, “an elevator”, “an ice cream cone”, “an ostrich”, or “an umbrella.” But, also in “an hour”, since “hour” is pronounced without the “h”.
ARTICLES PART 2: “A” is used whenever “an” is not. “A” and “An” are generic articles. “The” is a specifying article used before a noun to show uniqueness or singularity (meaning it’s either special or alone). “The” is also interchangble with “a” or “an” if the adjective before the noun it modifies is another possessive noun (possessives in english are the nouns that end with ‘s or s’), like “the dog’s paw” or “the kiss’ softness.” Further, the should always be used before Capitalized Nouns in titles. (Such as ‘Why the English Blog?’.) But, this is not a strict rule so, ‘Why an English Blog?’ is also proper english. P.S. The reason I capitalized “Blog” in both is because “English” was the adjective of “Blog”. (You are telling us it is in english and since both are always stressed, except in possessive adjectival proper nouns like, “the McDonald’s food”, you must capitalize both. Hence, “english blog” and “English Blog” are both correct but “English blog” and “english Blog” are both incorrect.
Hi Mugami,
Nice to meet you! Thanks for visiting, and giving me useful advices. I think it’s a good idea to learn the original languages of English. I know Spanish a little, and it helps me memorize words because some of Spanish words are so similar with English. However, the Spanish grammar, especially the rule of verbs, are much more complicated to me.
Unfortunately, I don’t have enough time to learn other languages now. But I’ll remember your tips!!
>P.S. The reason I capitalized “Blog” in both is because “English” was the adjective of “Blog”. (You are telling us it is in english and since both are always stressed,
I see. I take that you say you can’t stress only adjective words, right? If I want to stress “english blog”, I must capitalize both of them? I hope I could understand your explanation properly. If I couldn’t, please teach me again!!
Oh, and I want to ask you but do you use Japanese? Are you a linguistic specialist? Just curious!
I would be remiss if I did not tell you, Naoko, that despite your humbleness, you have a very good grasp of English. Truthfully, most americans don’t speak a second language at all. And despite my impeccable english, I only know a little french, about 400 latin words, and enough nihongo to get by in casual conversation. So, no more of this ‘kokuja arimasen’, okay? Your english is fine. By the way, I am a monster when it comes to learning most anything so, I would feel bad if I talked down to you by using smaller words. You should know that English is the largest language, in so far as the number of words (around 600,000) and most americans know less than 75,000 words. So, the words I wrote that you might not know, look them up, and they will become the words you do know. Devour Them. Become The Monster. Revel In It.
>Devour Them
Thank you so much! I love that word!! ‘Devour’ is my new word, but I need that spirit! Yes! I’ll devour!!
A specialist!?! Oh, no, no. But, I thankfully except the compliment. I am what one would call a failed genius. I have an obsessive compulsive addiction to knowledge and the inability to cope with the confines of society. Think of the smartest person you have ever met. Most likely, he or she works some dead end job as some worker bee and is barely able to afford to pay their bills. This is called “The Genius Complex”. But I digress, back to your other questions. Yes, you understood exactly what I was saying about stressing adjectives and nouns. Perfectly. And that little tidbit is something a good chunk of native english speakers still screw up.
You also asked me if I ‘used japanese.’ Used is a little vague. If you meant can type in it from my phone, the answer’s no. If you meant can I speak or understand it the answer’s ‘sukoshi’. I understand only about every third word and I only know about maybe 50 kanji and the hirigana. I haven’t got around to the katakana yet.
If I were not a Japanese, I never choose Japanese as a second or third language! I guess you need so much time to get kanji. How are you learning it? by books? movies?
If you want to consider me anything, think of me as wordsmith, a writer. I plan on going back to school next year to major in Writing and minoring in Psychology. So it seems I may be I sort of sempai for you, if you wish. Or would sensei be more appropriate here? I will gladly answer any question you would like to throw at me to the best of my ability. Further, it need not only be about English. I know quite a bit about most every type of science, except horticulture. I suck at gardening. My favored interests lie in evolution, ancient cultures, religion, martial arts, and space. I teach Aikido when I get the chance and I’m building a yumi (your culture’s kyodo bow) but it is coming along very slowly. Bamboo of a suitable size and quality is hard to find in Pennsylvania. No one sells it and the wild bamboo is scarce. North America only has three species of your loveable little grass. None of them come close to Moso Bamboo.
You reminds me the popular Japanese manga ‘Darling wa Gaikokujin’. The Darling is the main character in this comic, and he is a GEEK of language!! If you have a chance, you got to read it! It’s so funny and interesting, and very useful to learn the gap between Japanese and English. Tony Laszlo is the Darling.
That wasn’t a nice way of calling me an otaku was it? I like some animes like Deathnote and Kimi ga Nozomu Eien. But, I am not a geek if that’s what you were getting at.
I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to insult you. You can use ‘otaku’ for someone who pursues something not only anime but also movie, music, and almost every thing. But it’s the way of using of Japanese ‘otaku’ , so if I offended you I’m sorry.
I got rosetta stone for the speaking part. It’s a really superbly excellent program. But it has so many levels to it (like fifty some) it makes hard to manage. The hardest part is I already know a good chunk so I tried jumping around and the stuff a didn’t know was tough as hell. By the way I hate your 10,000s place marker. That screws me up. The kanji, I have I curriculum dictionary plus the general use ones all in one reference manual. For the writing I have two books. I watch some anime and japanese movies. By the way one missed call was tolerable, the second one didn’t make any sense and the american remake I didn’t even bother to see. My favorites are Bright Future and one of my top ten favorite movies of all time is Last Life in the Universe. But that maybe a thai film. And Reincarnation was horrible! I watch stuff repeatedly with the subtitles then when I’m busy with something else I’ll take them off and do what I gotta do. The sounds seep in word by word and sooner or later their meaning as well.
>By the way I hate your 10,000s place marker. That screws me up.
What is that?
Well, I do own close to 500 movies and 12 gigs of music. But otaku to me, gives me the image of dudes from the 80s in black spandex bodysuits and that is not cool. It was like big hair in america. Then, it was like, ‘you rock!’ Now, it’s like, ‘What the hell were you thinking?’ The word ‘buff’ is what americans use. I’m not so sure if that’s just us or the whole language culture. Oh, the marker thing. like in English you would say two hundred and fifty thousand and in Nihongo you would say twenty-five ten thousands. Unless I’ve been reading it wrong this entire time.
?!? And, no. You didn’t offend me. It was more a ponderence. (Like a, ‘hmm. . . was that a polite insult like the ones the japanese culture so well known for?’) I would understand to a degree. I have a propensity for coming out of left field. I really just know ALOT of useless crap and I would really love to answer any question I could.
> the marker thing
Ah!! now I know! The way of counting number! Yeah, I hate it, too!! The Japanese way is strange!!
OK. I will use ‘Buff’ to call someone who have profound knowledge about something! Thanks!
Good, so I wasn’t reading it wrong then. Thank god. Ya had me scared there for a minute.
Could I ask you some more nihongo questions? It’s just a few.
Sure! Go ahead.
Thanks a bunch! My first one is: Which more less polite ‘Boku’ or ‘Ore’? Mysecond is actually a translation of a title: “Kimi ga Nozomu Eien”. I know the exact translation, but I don’t quite know how to appropriate it into english given the tense. Perhaps I’m just over analyzing it, looking for a smooth transition.
The most polite word that is used by a man to call himself is ‘watashi( or watakushi ). the second one is ‘boku’. These two can be used at any circumstances, but ‘ore’ is used among the friends or families. At the business scene, you should use ‘watashi( or watakushi ).
‘Kimi ga Nozomu Eien’
Mmmm, it sounds present tense, I think. So, ‘The eternity that you want’, like that?
It depends on the contents of the story. If she was dead already, you may be possible to say ‘This is the eternity that you wanted’, somethimes.
About how you said, ‘if you weren’t japanese you wouldn’t've learned the language.’ Yeah the whole kanji and kana are a pain but, you only have like two irregular verbs and even those I wouldn’t really consider that irregular. Plus, your tenses are easy. Oh, and the whole politeness levels suck bad too. But, despite all of it, I still think it’s easier than spanish or french with their multitude of tense endings and stupid gender for every noun. You know spanish has 26 tenses and french is just as bad. Guess how many English has. Two. Technically. The rest are simply adding some words like ‘will’, ‘would’, and ‘have’. 26 tenses! Come on, really. Is that needed? I hated learning french and I sucked at it. I learned german as a kid and forgot all but a handful of words. Latin, I know a little, but it’s a dead language. And like all electronics, games, and good martial arts come out of japan. It almost makes me consider it a necessity! Much like english to the rest of the world.
I also really dislike when a language changes a word completely instead of just borrowing it. Nihongo is very respectful when it comes to that, as much so or even more so than english. Here’s one that really pisses me off. The french government officially renamed Email to La corrospondence electronique. It didn’t sound french enough for them. We invented email! How arrogantly snobby! I think we should rename escargots “slimy snails” in protest!
The cutest japanese borrowing I’ve ever heard: cake. It makes me smile everytime I hear it. 
It makes a 70 year old man sound like a 3 year old. It’s absolutely adorable!
Hello! Its refreshing to read an english blog written by a Japanese. I always want to learn more about what goes on in the minds of Japanese people but my Japanese is very basic so your blog is perfect for what I am looking for. I look forward to reading your articles!
I am trying to write a blog about Fukuoka (http://hellofukuoka.wordpress.com). Maybe I should write it in Nihongo to practice! haha.
HI Naoko!
I am sooo excited to have found your blog!
I can’t imagine what it might be like to live on an island! must be exciting but maybe isolating at times? I live too close to the city and my husband and I dream of living in a far away place…mountains maybe… country living…..making pies and cheese and raising bees and sheep for wool…mmm
My 4 year old daughter and I love EVERYTHING JAPANESE! our 2 best friends are japanese and have introduces us to many things about your culture…food is our favorite topic. So is Hayao Miyazake! My daughter loooveees his films!
someday we would love to visit japan….especially sayama hills…maybe see totoro my daughter says!
I am a fiber artist and my daugher and I craft and do art and bake… I keep a blog at
http://www.happybirdycake.blogspot.com
we would love for you to visit! we share projects to do with kids!
i hope you like it!
I really look forward to keep reading your blog and making some of your recipes! especially the strawberry mochi you have there!
warm regards, birdycake
Hi,
Nice to meet you!
>I can’t imagine what it might be like to live on an island!
Haha, technically, all the Japanese live on an island, because Japan is composed of 10 or 20(I don’t know how many!) islands. My city is on the main island that is 2 hours ride from Osaka, the second biggest city in Japan. So, I’m not so isolated. For example, my son goes to the elementary school that has 1000 students. It’s natural of you not to be able to imagine the life of islands nations!! I can’t imagine the countries exist next to each other without sea!!
Did you watch “Ponyo” already? I saw it with my kids last summer. I love Totoro much better.
So, I also hope you to come again and talk together!
you wrote: “At the very beginning of the new life as a uneversity student, I found that many peers were further more excellent than me. ”
You should say ” I found that my peers were much better than me”
Thank you for your correcting my English!
Ah! The sentece you wrote is simple and clear!!
Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!
Oh, thank you so much. Please come again!
Dear Naoko san,
I have just discovered your blog though a Google alert for Japanese calligraphy. I love what you wrote about water and am truly most impressed with your English. I admit that I have skimmed quickly because I have many things to do to prepare for a return trip to my spiritual home, my furosato, which is where you live. I decided suddenly that I absolutely must despite the challenges of budget, found a ticket and Oh Joy, I shall soon be in Japan.
After a two year absence, I am coming back to Japan. I am so excited. I shall be in Tokyo to be in a calligraphy exhibition at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum from Feb 20th – 26th and then will travel for three weeks on a JR Rail Pass, then return for two weeks to Gunma where I began studying calligraphy with my wonderful beloved Kobyashi Sensei ten years ago.
At that time I could speak no Japanese, she speaks no English. We communicated from the heart.
It is amazing to me, this world in which we live, that I should be able to connect with you, that I have Japanese friends who have become family, that my wonderful teacher was willing to teach me and now I can honor her by being invited to exhibit some, albeit not wonderful, calligraphy.
I will look forward upon my return to reading more fully your blog. Your children look so incredibly beautiful, you seem so creative and genki, wonderful spirit shines through in you writing.
My Very Best to you!
Rona
If you wish, if you will please send to me a direct e-mail address for you rather than through the comment section, I would be happy to make some small corrections on your English when I have time. I did teach English for a year at an English conversation school, it was my way to get to Japan and find a calligraphy teacher. I should add that it was my dream from the time I was in college and studying art to go to Japan but did “other” things first. When my younger “child”, daughter Samantha, now 35, finished college, I went/came to Japan to fulfill my dream. I have returned six times since then and am returning again soon.
Hi Rona,
Wow…You have 35 year old daughter! you’re still so energetic and pursuing your dream. I admire you so much. Moms have to be enough strong to balance daily chores with dreams, don’t they?
You have tried it as an mom and an artist. So amazing. I can’t even make sumi in such a noisy room with kids and full of toys…
Anyway, I love the momemt to make sumi /’sumi o suru’ than to practice writing.
Someday, I would like to go back to calligraphy!
I love your calligraphy ‘なま麦なまごめ生卵’ So graceful strokes!
You’re coming to Japan soon! wonderful!
I hope you have a nice exhibition and trip!
Thank you for stopping by and leaving a kind offer.
When i have a quetion, I’ll contact you directly! Thanks!!
Hey, I found your blog while searching on Google your post looks very interesting for me. I will add a backlink and bookmark your site. Keep up the good work!
Hey very nice blog!!….I’m an instant fan, I have bookmarked you and I’ll be checking back on a regular….See ya
Writing in one’s second or third language relaly helps. When I started blogging, my English wasn’t that great. Drafting posts took a long time and it was almost a chore. Five years later, it’s a whole different story!
So hang in there, it gets better and easier!